Big Sur, and Apple ditching Intel for laptops and iMacs

[nk_e]

Happily recreating my workstation on a refurbed iMac Pro suggested by Mr. Canavan. Doing fresh installs of everything. I bought this machine to replace my MP 5,1. Was targeting a MP 7,1 got spooked by the thought of spending that amount of cash with the coming chip change. Mike helped me see that this would be a good stop gap investment until new Apple Silicon pro-level machines are released and the new software ecosystem settles down.

A couple of observations FWIW:

- Catalina isn’t as onerous as I thought given what I’ve read online. Installing plugins and software is not painful because of new security measures. The number of plugins that are not able to run on the system is not nearly as high as I feared. Turns out most of the ones that don’t install I didn’t use that much (if at all) anyway. (Yes I suffer from plugin bloat. This process is also helping me clean out the house.)

- The difference in raw CPU grunt is mind blowing. I got used to simply not even trying certain plugin combinations or channel set ups or VI combos because I knew it would bring the system to its knees and I’d have to bounce/freeze or render and move on, etc. It feels very freeing to be able to explore past those boundaries. On a practical note, this will translate into actual time savings during the workday as projects that take my 5,1 thirty or more minutes to render should take less than half that time (for example).

There’s more, but I guess what I’m try to say To someone on the fence (not the OP obviously) is, if you Truly need a new Work machine, you need a new machine. Waiting for 2 plus years until Apple puts out a pro level new silicon Mac is 2 plus years of lost productivity and 2 plus years of work around and limitations. Everybody’s business case is different, but for me buying a lower spec’d iMac Pro as a bridge while waiting for the new machines made a bunch of sense. Would be interested to hear what you think Tritonemusic...

Again, thanks to Mike C. for helping me to figure it out.

[mothra]

How about your hardware though?? There was something about Apple ditching extensions so devices that used them wouldn't work directly any more.. The author of Little Snitch sent something about it out last month and said he would be posting a workaround to get the app installed the 'old way' but at the same time the next version would switch to the new Frameworks and be Big Sur compatible out of the box??

I dont NEED to go to Big Sur, especially since Ive only had this Mac mini a little over a month with Catalina, but Im worried about Akai of all people being slow to update their drivers for my MPC. I need that to mount and backup the hard drive (and move sample libraries onto it). Their network MIDI driver is how I sync it with Logic too. Im sure MOTU will be on top of it in no time, we still have a month or so before the general release and they're usually really quick to get drivers updated. Hopefully my 828x is still included.

[bayswater]

I dont NEED to go to Big Sur

I think we can safely say at this point, no one needs to go to Big Sur, at least not the OS. I'll be keeping my Mini at 10.14 until Apple stops issuing security updates, and there is a credible security threat. Even then, I might just take it off line until DP needs something more recent. I didn't see anything in my Catalina test volume worth the update, and Big Sur looks more like part of an effort to integrate iOS and macOS, and get off Intel, than something to improve the stability and efficiency of a current Mac.

I think my 2018 and your 2020 Minis are actually both Mac Mini 8,1? Did you ever try putting Mojave on yours?

[mikehalloran]

Did you ever try putting Mojave on yours?

That's pretty easy.

- Catalina isn’t as onerous as I thought given what I’ve read online.

I really like it but I still have work to do before I upgrade on my iMac Pro.

My wife's 2020 iMac will come with Catalina. of course. I'll have the unenviable task of being her transition team. She likes the older versions of some of her apps and those will no longer work. I bought upgrade licenses last year and hoped to put this off till Christmas break but No...

The Logic Pro 10.5.1 upgrade over Catalina is a disaster for many users. The issue is incompatible plugins—44 in my case. Logic 10.5.0 was fine over OS 10.15.x and Logic 10.5.1 over Mojave likewise. Apple really screwed the pooch on this one and it took two days to get it going on my MBP. The user boards are screaming over this and there's no simple solution—ok, there is sorta' but it can take many hours. Once fixed, it works fine.

[nk_e]

The Logic Pro 10.5.1 upgrade over Catalina is a disaster for many users. The issue is incompatible plugins—44 in my case. Logic 10.5.0 was fine over OS 10.15.x and Logic 10.5.1 over Mojave likewise. Apple really screwed the pooch on this one and it took two days to get it going on my MBP. The user boards are screaming over this and there's no simple solution—ok, there is sorta' but it can take many hours. Once fixed, it works fine.

Hmmm... I have 10.5.1 installed on Catalina. I've been installing a lot of plugins. I launch Logic every couple of days to validate the plugins I've been installing. I have not run into major issues. (I also have not tried opening any old projects or start a new one.) I will have to look into this a bit more...Any particular plugin developers that are having issues?

G

[bayswater]

Logic AU validation rarely works in one pass like DPs. I’ve usually had to run it 3 or 4 times before it catches everything. It common for things that fail on an early pass to show as valid on a subsequent pass.

[mikehalloran]

Logic AU validation rarely works in one pass like DPs. I’ve usually had to run it 3 or 4 times before it catches everything. It common for things that fail on an early pass to show as valid on a subsequent pass.

Uh yea... With 10.5.1 over Catalina, you have to get it to load first. If there are incompatible AUs, good luck with that. Apple took it to Dante's 7th level on that release. I've no doubt they'll rectify the problem but there should have been a hot fix.

[mothra]

I dont NEED to go to Big Sur

I think we can safely say at this point, no one needs to go to Big Sur, at least not the OS. I'll be keeping my Mini at 10.14 until Apple stops issuing security updates, and there is a credible security threat. Even then, I might just take it off line until DP needs something more recent. I didn't see anything in my Catalina test volume worth the update, and Big Sur looks more like part of an effort to integrate iOS and macOS, and get off Intel, than something to improve the stability and efficiency of a current Mac.

I think my 2018 and your 2020 Minis are actually both Mac Mini 8,1? Did you ever try putting Mojave on yours?

Haven't felt the need to go back to Mojave yet. Catalina is alright and everything for the most part works. Some of the crap I use on my iPhone got updated for iOS 13 so I wasn't able to use it with Mojave, now I can use my Notes and stuff again (a lifesaver in the real world and audio world). This is still the install that came out of the box too, I haven't done my own fresh install or anything of it, but haven't felt the need to yet.

[mikehalloran]

Some of the crap I use on my iPhone got updated for iOS 13 so I wasn't able to use it with Mojave, now I can use my Notes and stuff again (a lifesaver in the real world and audio world)

I have absolutely no problems syncing Notes and everything between Mojave on my iMP and iOS 13 on my iPhone and iPad OS. Zip. Zilch. None. Screw the audio world—with my handicap, quality of life would suffer if there was any glitch.

[bayswater]

Haven't felt the need to go back to Mojave yet. Catalina is alright and everything for the most part works.

Great. It's easy to forget the rule about not fixing things that aren't broken.