High Sierra and Peak Pro 7

[Guitar Gaz]

My usual public service broadcast on the update of OSX - the long dead and defunct Peak Pro 7 is still working fine under High Sierra. Just shows you that this piece of software must have been pretty well written to be working all these years after it supposedly died.

[apanacci]

Just about to master a project with Peak in my studio. Great to know, thanks !!!

[mikehalloran]

In About this Mac/Software, does Peak show up as 32 bit or 64?

I’m glad it still works. I bailed after Peak Pro 4 due to the huge upgrade $ for OS 10.5 — but that got me half off on DSP-Q (still 32 bit).

[stubbsonic]

A bit off the topic, but DSP-Quattro has been crashing on me with every use.

[apanacci]

Its only 32 bit

[Guitar Gaz]

In About this Mac/Software, does Peak show up as 32 bit or 64?

It doesn't say but the date of 2011 would seem to indicate it can only be 32 bit.

[bakkumd]

I know this is an old thread, but I'm adding an update - PEAK 7 does work on 10.13.6 with one very important exception. It can't write cache files to the APFS formatted drive... so... before you attempt any DSP processes or bounce any plugins - you MUST designate a Scratch Disc that is HFS (not APFS).

I use a 64gb USB 3.1 flash drive that I reformatted to HFS (Journaled).

Insert your HFS volume and let it mount. Then - from within PEAK 7, go to preferences/scratch discs.

You will see a bunch of "volumes" but none will be selectable. Click "reset" and "Allow Servers". Then uncheck all volumes except your HFS flash drive. Click OK, then Save preferences.

Quit PEAK 7, then restart PEAK 7 - always remembering to mount this scratch disc (The HFS thumb drive) before you start PEAK. I simply leave it attached 24-7.

Now all DSP and plug-in processes seem to work fine. Took a while to figure it out... the error messages were the clue so I thought I would give it a shot.

This has allowed me to continue using PEAK 7 with my WAVES V8 plugins (yes - and the original green iLok) after re-installing the PACE stuff. (that got complex also as I had to disable SIP in order to install the PACE drivers - Apple sandboxing wouldn't allow the install to complete - the legacy PACE installer inserts a couple of items pretty deep into the OS)

Anyway - after all that - PEAK 7 works like before on 10.13.6 on a 2017 iMac Pro.

[mikehalloran]

There have been other reports that it can work if the OS is upgraded but it's been many Mac OS versions since it can be installed.

This information is not found on the site that is still selling licenses. It does let you know that the money is non-refundable.

[bakkumd]

There have been other reports that it can work if the OS is upgraded but it's been many Mac OS versions since it can be installed.

Interesting... I've seen those reports also - and can only offer that PEAK 7 installed OK for me on a fresh iMac Pro. I used the original "BIAS PeakStudioTrial.dmg", followed by the "PeakStudio703update.mpkg".

I then activated the software and it opened right up. Seemed to work the same as back in 10.8 days...

The PACE software associated with Waves V8 plugins was tricky - but that worked after turning off SIP to complete the install.

What I didn't anticipate was PEAK not writing cache/scratch files to AFPS formatted SSD drives. So I tried an HFS+ thumb drive as the Scratch drive and it worked there too.

[mikehalloran]

Interesting... I've seen those reports also - and can only offer that PEAK 7 installed OK for me on a fresh iMac Pro. I used the original "BIAS PeakStudioTrial.dmg", followed by the "PeakStudio703update.mpkg".

Is the trial still available for download?

What I didn't anticipate was PEAK not writing cache/scratch files to AFPS formatted SSD drives.

Really? That is the reason that many 32 bit apps cannot work over APFS including DP 7—it installs and sees the CD but cannot write the Authorization file it needs to see to finish booting. I found similar activity in other apps while testing High Sierra.

Otherwise, if it works, it works, right? It will be interesting to see if it continues to do so going forward. Do keep everyone up to date on that.

[bakkumd]

That is the reason that many 32 bit apps cannot work over APFS including DP 7—it installs and sees the CD but cannot write the Authorization file it needs to see to finish booting. I found similar activity in other apps while testing High Sierra.

That issue could be caused by one of two scenarios...

1. The authorization routine can't write to the new format type.
2. Apple sandboxing is stopping it from writing it, but the error generated is misleading. (I would tend to go with this one)

Note: try this with a full CCC backup of your drive - in the event of something getting unrecoverable!

You could disable SIP and then try it again. Here is a link for how to do that:
https://www.imore.com/how-turn-system-i ... tion-macos

The instructions require you to use the Terminal app from within "recovery mode". Terminal will not run the command if not booted in recovery mode.

Now - turning off SIP will disable EVERY SINGLE APPLE RESTRICTION as far as "security" is concerned. There will not be any warnings. If you get success in the authorization - reboot into recovery mode and turn SIP back on.

If the reboot stalls after turning on SIP (mine did), be patient - let the progress bar get all the way to the right. If after about 20 minutes it's still stalled, force quit and reboot into recovery mode again. Then - do a disc utility repair disc routine - it might fix or update a file or two - hopefully leaving your new authorization patch alone. When that is done, reboot once more and all should hopefully be good. (the more I read about all of the road blocks, I'm really wondering why mine worked..)

Also - not sure if the trial is posted anywhere - I've had mine for years.

[Guitar Gaz]

Otherwise, if it works, it works, right? It will be interesting to see if it continues to do so going forward. Do keep everyone up to date on that.

I will - although I was not advocating people should buy it still. It was more an observation on how dead software may not be dead despite no support.

[NealGitt]

Late to the High Sierra world, I just upgraded (MacBook Pro 15", Mid-2015, macOS 10.13.6) and being able to continue to use Peak Pro 7 is important to me. This thread gave me the courage… All seems to be more-or-less well, but Peak no longer seems to recognize my hard drive as a viable scratch disk. It's listed as an option on the Preferences pane, but none of the buttons/boxes are operational. I was able to plug in a thumb drive, click on "Allow Servers" and make that thumb drive my scratch disk, so I'm operational. Any suggestions how I can go back to normal and scratch on my hard drive? Thanks! Neal Gittleman

[bakkumd]

Any suggestions how I can go back to normal and scratch on my hard drive? Thanks! Neal Gittleman

I use a 64GB Sandisk 3.0 thumb drive - leave it in my MBP 24/7. It sticks out about ⅜" - similar to a wireless mouse USB receiver.

Does your MBP have an SSD drive? If so - when upgrading to High Sierra, the OS reformats the SSD to APFS. I have found that PEAK 7 doesn't like that for cache/temporary files. The program would play back and do cuts, but no sound processing - would almost always crash or show an error dialog box. That's when I tried a thumb drive.

If you are going to use a thumb drive for a scratch disk, try this:
Make sure the thumb drive is mounted.
In PEAK preferences, under "Scratch Disks", click the "Reset" button first.
You should then see your thumb drive in the choices.
If you don't see it - click "allow servers".
If it shows up - others might also be selected... uncheck everything except your thumb drive.
Then - uncheck "allow servers".
Your thumb drive should stay selected, but the list of disks might change. That's OK.
That's it - click OK, then OK again.
Quit and restart PEAK and try some processing on a file - then try to save a file to your main hard drive.

My MBP has an SSD formatted for APFS and I couldn't get PEAK to write cache files to it - that's when I tried the thumb drive.

Another quirk I have discovered - when saving to an existing file, make sure it is not selected in the Finder. If it is, PEAK will return an error saying the file is busy and can't be saved. PEAK will then save a completely new copy of the file in the same folder. You won't lose any work, but the new file replaces the original file. The original file will not be updated. You can avoid this by navigating to the file's location in the Finder and clicking somewhere else (while PEAK is open). OR - just open your files using the "Open..." menu command from within PEAK.

PEAK 7 works for me - I use it almost daily with a full series of WAVES 8.0 plugins.
(Version 7.03.24813)

Good luck!

[NealGitt]

An interesting—if peculiar—follow-up. No changes at all to my system in the meantime, but a week or so ago I was booting up Peak Pro 7 with a thumb drive that I hadn't yet used as a scratch disk. When I went into Preferences to enable the thumb drive, there was my home hard disk available to be set up as the scratch disk. (Previously it had been grayed out.)

Not sure what happened, but it's been working normally sans thumb drive ever since. The only odd behavior is a series of "Disk Error -43" messages whenever I quit the program. I just hit "continue" repeatedly until the quit process ends and the next time I open up everything is fine and dandy…

I guess it goes with the territory of living out on the long tail of software viability...