Mojave vs Catalina

[wdegillio]

Greetings! I'm currently running Mojave on my 2012 Mac Mini. Even though things are running fine, I'm considering updating to Catalina, which is the latest OS my Mini can run. I know that by upgrading I will lose access to any 32-bit apps (which will not be a problem for me), but had anyone noticed any speed advantages after upgrading to Catalina? I have 2 ssd's internally installed - my system drive and a samples drive. Thanks in advance for your input!

[mikehalloran]

Catalina fixed a few issues for me and broke a 32 bit app that I still use.

You are the only one who can answer this for yourself. You do have a Time Machine backup of your System drive, right? If so, you can restore it to a previous state in less than a minute. You have a 24 hour window. When I upgraded to Catalina on my 2012 MBP. it took a few times over a few months before I determined that my apps were ready. That's when I stopped using APFS Snapshots to restore my system back to Mojave.

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[wdegillio]

Thank you, Mike! Great advice here. Looks like I have some homework to do. Have a great holiday weekend!

[bayswater]

Also on Mojave here. I have (had) a test volume to check out later versions of OS X. Catalina was the first one I checked out, and I found nothing there that made it worth updating, and a few minor things that would stop working and would have to be replaced with something newer. Even now, the only reason I can see to update to the latest OSX is to be able to run a new version of Logic, but that's not a priority.

[James Steele]

Also on Mojave here. I have (had) a test volume to check out later versions of OS X. Catalina was the first one I checked out, and I found nothing there that made it worth updating, and a few minor things that would stop working and would have to be replaced with something newer. Even now, the only reason I can see to update to the latest OSX is to be able to run a new version of Logic, but that's not a priority.

One of the reasons to potentially go to Catalina over Mojave is there are reports of some users experiencing GUI slowdowns in Mojave on Intel MacPros running Mojave when using the Movie window. It's been reported to MOTU and they don't really have a fix. Going back down to High Sierra or up to Catalina solves the issue apparently. I don't use the Movie window all that much, so I'm content with staying put on Mojave until I can afford to transition to an M1 Max Mac Studio.

[wdegillio]

One of the reasons to potentially go to Catalina over Mojave is there are reports of some users experiencing GUI slowdowns in Mojave on Intel MacPros running Mojave when using the Movie window. It's been reported to MOTU and they don't really have a fix. Going back down to High Sierra or up to Catalina solves the issue apparently. I don't use the Movie window all that much, so I'm content with staying put on Mojave until I can afford to transition to an M1 Max Mac Studio.

Funny you mention that, James. I was just doing a video project today, and noticed that; it seems to affect Mac Minis as well. Time to experiment.

[James Steele]

One of the reasons to potentially go to Catalina over Mojave is there are reports of some users experiencing GUI slowdowns in Mojave on Intel MacPros running Mojave when using the Movie window. It's been reported to MOTU and they don't really have a fix. Going back down to High Sierra or up to Catalina solves the issue apparently. I don't use the Movie window all that much, so I'm content with staying put on Mojave until I can afford to transition to an M1 Max Mac Studio.

Funny you mention that, James. I was just doing a video project today, and noticed that; it seems to affect Mac Minis as well. Time to experiment.

Yeah... it's an issue from what I understand with Mojave and Intel-based Macs and I don't think it's going to be fixed. You have to either downgrade to High Sierra or move up to Catalina. The latter isn't such a great option for me because I'm still using my PCI Audio Interfaces which will continue to work from what I understand, but the MOTU "helper apps" like PCI Audio Setup and MOTU Channel Names are 32-bit apps and will not run in Catalina so if you want to make any changes to your configuration (like enable/disable outputs, etc.) you have to boot with a Mojave or earlier, change the configuration, then copy the appropriate prefs files over to your Catalina boot volume, and boot into Catalina again.

In reality, I don't really make those sorts of changes very often, so it might not be a big inconvenience, but I will need to take stock of what older apps I have that won't run and decided if I want to do it. 32 Lives will not work in Catalina so any old plugs I have that rely on that (I still have a Focusrite LiquidMix that works with 32 Lives) won't work.

As I said... I may just sit tight until I can get a M1 Max Mac Studio. I have no idea what I'll do with my Cheesegrater then. Honestly, there' not going to be worth much. I might rollback to High Sierra and make it my office machine. I use the Bento database app and High Sierra is pretty much the end of the line for that and honestly it ran better under Sierra.

[wdegillio]

I am saving up for a new Mac, but until then, I need to make videos, so Catalina here I come. Unlike our fellow guitarist Rhett Shull, for me there IS a "Plan B", so I'll take Mike's advice and use Time Machine, just in case. Despite the lagging GUI, I was able to finish my video project, but not without uttering some colorful epithets. Thanks again to you, James, Mike and bayswater for your help.

[James Steele]

I am saving up for a new Mac, but until then, I need to make videos...

When you say "make videos," I assume then what you're doing is post-scoring to video? Composing music in DP to an existing video?

[wdegillio]

I'm actually making guitar performance and instructional videos for my YouTube channel. My process is: I record my guitar, narration, and possibly a backing track from my iPad live into DP, while simultaneously recording the video on my iPhone. I'll play a muted guitar "attack" to serve as a "sync pop", or a handclap if I'm speaking in the video, which also gets picked up by the iPhone internal mike. I then import the video from the iPhone into the DP project, and move my recorded audio tracks to line up with the video, using the sync "pop" on the iPhone audio track. I mix and process the audio tracks as needed, then bounce the project out as a movie. I then do the video editing and adding of titles in iMovie.Yes, it's a convoluted process, but it allows me to get the audio quality I need.