High Sierra Impressions (so far)

Rick Cornish · Post by **Rick Cornish** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:24 pm

I migrated my MBPro to High Sierra a few months ago and haven't noticed anything terrible happening, so the other day, I installed HS on my Mac Pro (where I mainly run DP, Finale, MediaComposer, etc.). I realize a lot of you are way ahead of me on this, but I thought I'd share a few things I noticed in case anyone else has come across these.

Immediate impression:
I use a small (unpowered) USB hub for my keyboard, iLok, FaderPort, and misc. thumb drives. It is now completely dead. It's plugged directly into the back of my Mac Pro. Tried plugging it into different ports, reset the SMC and zapped the PRAM. Zilch. I've seen a few posts on this topic on the web which mostly get into kernel-level discussions which are way beyond my pay grade. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? I would try a different USB hub, but I suspect the same thing will happen.

A "Multi-Output Device" I created to drive my interface and the Mac Pro's headphone output (which, in turn, drives a Dorrough loudness meter) at the same time was also DOA until I opened Audio/MIDI Setup and saw that a greyed-out duplicate of my audio interface was selected. As soon as I deselected that and selected the active one, it worked again.

Other notes:
When I control-click on the icon for a file in column view, no contextual menu appears. I have to click on the file NAME (not the icon) in order to get the contextual menu to pop up. In list view, this works fine (control-click on the file icon reveals the menu). Same thing is happening on my MBPro. I don't have a computer that's on Sierra to try this, but I'm almost sure it used to work. Has anyone else noticed this?

My favorite custom keyboard shortcut for "Print to PDF…" was broken. Deleting he ellipsis from the command fixed that. (I wonder why they changed that?)

I'll share more as I come across them.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:00 pm

Thanks for that report Rick. More than ever before, I dread updating my Mac OS for these very reasons. Things stop working and often the mfg is either gone or never offers a fix (or that you buy the thing again to get the updated fixed version - which lasts for on OS cycle). Grrrr.......

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:16 pm

I've been laying back on Sierra and think I'll stay with my MacPro 5,1. Truthfully, I think for a brief, glorious minute, I had everything working including Unisyn years ago on Mountain Lion and probably should have just locked everything in right then and there and stuck with it. It's ironic how we seem to actually LOSE functionality the newer the hardware and the OS. It's not intended, but hardware we come dependent on is no longer supported and breaks.

I remember once wanting to get the Eucon, and from everything I read these days it's not worth the bother for DP users.

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:45 pm

At the risk of sounding like a broken record. Do a Safe Boot to rebuild your paths. Don’t wonder if you need to—when you deleted the icon and it was rebuilt, that’s one of the symptoms.

I went through a number of USB hubs to find one that played nicely in Sierra. The Amazon Basics was inexpensive and worked. Many others did not. DLink gave me the most grief. I have no idea what the issue is. Updating to High Sierra was painless for me.

Rick Cornish · Post by **Rick Cornish** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:24 pm

Addenda: Booted into safe mode and the hub worked. Have a call with Apple scheduled in the morning to try more.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Rick Cornish · Post by **Rick Cornish** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:26 pm

mikehalloran wrote:At the risk of sounding like a broken record. Do a Safe Boot to rebuild your paths. Don’t wonder if you need to—when you deleted the icon and it was rebuilt, that’s one of the symptoms.

I went through a number of USB hubs to find one that played nicely in Sierra. The Amazon Basics was inexpensive and worked. Many others did not. DLink gave me the most grief. I have no idea what the issue is. Updating to High Sierra was painless for me.

Thanks, Mike. I’m part-way there.

Not sure I understand how to “rebuild paths”... can you elaborate?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Rick Cornish · Post by **Rick Cornish** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:09 am

Update:

It's getting interesting. After 3 calls with Apple this morning, along with a call to Sabrent tech support (the maker of the hub I'm using), I have run disk first aid and re-installed the O/S to no effect. The hub works fine in Safe mode and Recovery mode, but not after a normal boot—in either my user account, or in a new, dummy admin user account I created.

I'm now working with a level 2 tech who is consulting with engineering. More to come.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 10:53 am

As a "Still on Sierra for the Studio Mac" guy, can anyone offer me a compelling reason or reasons I should move to High Sierra for my studio operations?

Potential concerns:

• New EFI... latest (maybe last) Combo 10.13.6 includes microcode update that provides some security against Meltdown/Spectre but which also slows down the computer by maybe 3-4% per Geekbench. Also, I have seen everal reports of bricked Mac Pros from the EFI update.

• Possible GPU compatibility issues (I'm running an AMD RX460 into 4k TV via DP>HDMI Active Adaptor with SwitchResX to get 60Hz @ 4k).

• Unanticipated random broken hardware or software, like Rick is dealing with.

If MOTU re-writes DP's code to offload display updates from CPU to the GPU and requires an updated OS to implement, I could see updating. Otherwise, absent any efficiency gains under High Sierra, my inclination is, like James, to stay on regular ol' Sierra on my Studio Mac Pro.

Please, if I am wrong, tell me why I am wrong. Thanks!

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 3:33 pm

HCMarkus wrote:Otherwise, absent any efficiency gains under High Sierra, my inclination is, like James, to stay on regular ol' Sierra on my Studio Mac Pro.

Please, if I am wrong, tell me why I am wrong. Thanks!

I tell you man, I have a very deep, visceral trepidation about High Sierra. Maybe I wouldn't if I could afford to go out and get a brand new MacPro when the new one is released (assuming I'd want one), but running this 4,1 that's been upgraded to a 5,1 12-core, I'm hesitant. I'm also using an older EVO SSD and a little scared about formatting to the new file system that I cannot easily return from.

Call me "chicken" but I can't see anything really compelling to my "day-to-day" to hop on board High Sierra on the particular hardware I'm running. In addition, my audio interfaces are are all "Jurassic" PCI-E. That in itself makes me nervous. There's already a degree of flakiness with that, as I have to launch MOTU's PCI Setup app and tickle the interface for system audio to go out the correct outputs. It's a workaround and I've gotten used to it, but for me running PCI interfaces, I'm always concerned if High Sierra might introduce problems into an architecture that MOTU may not be too hot and bothered to troubleshoot should they arise.

rickorick · Post by **rickorick** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 5:01 pm

I also have a Mac Pro 5,1. couldn't you just get an extra drive and install High Sierra and see
how it works and since you already have Sierra can't one reinstall that on a drive? In my Mac Pro I have 3 of the drives with Mountain Lion on them just in case my main drive goes down
and all my songs are on the other drives that way I can restart with another drive and still open
the songs.

toodamnhip · Post by **toodamnhip** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 5:50 pm

rickorick wrote:I also have a Mac Pro 5,1. couldn't you just get an extra drive and install High Sierra and see
how it works and since you already have Sierra can't one reinstall that on a drive? In my Mac Pro I have 3 of the drives with Mountain Lion on them just in case my main drive goes down
and all my songs are on the other drives that way I can restart with another drive and still open
the songs.

Getting an extra drive and installing high sierra is not an easy task. Our system drives are like cities full of residents. You’d probably have to start out with a drive duplication program, and then update the OS. Int he process, all sorts of issues may arise such as authorizations failing etc. Definitely not an easy task. Do-able, but a true pain in the butt just to test Apples latest nightmare OS.

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:13 pm

Well I don’t want to say it’s a nightmare. I don’t really know. I might be able to get a new SSD, clone my current boot drive onto it, then upgrade to High Sierra on the new drive. My plugs are (intentionally) authorized on iLok whenever possible. My Waves plug authorizations are on a USB stick, so I could conceivably get my system up and running enough to make a fair evaluation.

toodamnhip · Post by **toodamnhip** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:51 pm

James Steele wrote:Well I don’t want to say it’s a nightmare. I don’t really know. I might be able to get a new SSD, clone my current boot drive onto it, then upgrade to High Sierra on the new drive. My plugs are (intentionally) authorized on iLok whenever possible. My Waves plug authorizations are on a USB stick, so I could conceivably get my system up and running enough to make a fair evaluation.

And anyone should go through all this hassle why? So that their desktop comp can act more like an iPhone? Apple, they have some sort of lucky Karma or legend or something. Completely over rated. Yes, a Mac OS is better than a PC. And I have always run Macs. But apple runs musicians through hoops anytime they very well please. They change things and let the rest of the world catch up in a panic. And iphones? The only reason I have the latest iPhone is because my wife loves name brands, and bought me one. I was happy with my iPhone 6 or 7 or whatever it was. Before that, years ago, I had a droid for like 35oo a month. Now I get 450 phone bills. For what? Hype!
Again, what the heck is so special about Stoned Sierra that requires anyone to drop everything and go through hell watching their systems fall apart? In 2 or 3 updates, whatever their newest and greatest file system is about , will finally be ready for prime time. But not now. Things are still a mess and I would advise anyone that unless they have a specific software requirement that makes them need High Sierra, just leave the hype behind and watch out for those retarded “update” buttons the OS tends to throw at you when you try to open Pages etc. The day apple truly has its way, there will be ZERO choice. You will turn your comp on and it will update whether you want it or not “because apple knows best”...ridiculous. Someone tell me something absolutely amazing about High Sierra that would warrant such a hassle?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:27 pm

toodamnhip wrote:Yes, a Mac OS is better than a PC. And I have always run Macs. But apple runs musicians through hoops anytime they very well please. They change things and let the rest of the world catch up in a panic.

Well if your point is that it's wise to stay back from the bleeding edge these days, you'll get no argument from me. That's exactly what I'm doing. On the other hand, sometimes Apple pushes forward with new technology that ends up being beneficial. It sucks when we find out it's relatively "transitional" like FireWire seems to be. You can't give away FireWire audio interfaces on Craigslist these days. But heck, I can't talk... I'm still using PCIe interfaces.

With Mojave around the corner, I don't know what to think. I'll just sit back where I am and watch what happens. From what I have heard, with SSDs becoming so affordable and commonplace, Apple's new filesystem is optimized for SSDs and has some very worthwhile benefits in terms of speed as well as backing up data. As much as it would be nice if we could all call "time out" and have things stand still, we can't... at least not collectively. Some of us are doing so individually... by choice.

My larger concern is what sort of approach Apple will take with the new MacPros. I'm disturbed when I see Apple trying to bring MacOS under the umbrella of a consumer-centric iOS philosophy whereby Mac computers start to feel dumbed down. Once upon a time the computer company also happened to make iPhones. Now it seems, the iPhone company also makes computers.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:38 pm

Appreciate the comments gents. Rickorick, I loved Mountain Lion and would still be there if it were not for my compulsion (well worth it, by the way) to install Modo Bass and run a 4k display.

I was just about ready to take the plunge to High Sierra on a cloned Sierra SSD, but then started worrying about the firmware update and other changes "Stoned" (like that 2DH!) Sierra might make to my Mac that could result in a "Never Really Revert" scenario.

I've been running High Sierra on my laptop for awhile now. No real issues, but, other than allowing me to read the new Apple photo file format, no real advances either. Hence my question, which I will restate here: Can anyone offer me a compelling reason to move to High Sierra in the studio? Cheers!

MOTUnation.com