Anybody running MacOS Ventura?

[Tusker]

Is it safe?

 

 

At the beginning of December, Sweetwater published a very helpful compatibility list, with links to the major software companies. Many companies have updated or tested their products for Ventura. Unfortunately one company which hasn't yet opined is a big one: NI. Understandably they have a big list of software to work through. Anybody running Kontakt or Reaktor on Ventura?

 

What has your experience with Ventura been and what tools are you using with it? Thanks in advance

 

[Stokely]

No, jumped from High Sierra to Monterey after a long project was done, and that had enough pain points.  Granted, the plugins that stopped working were not my best ones so I just removed them.   I figure I'll be standing pat for a long while--if Logic has some new features that I really want that requires a newer OS, that will be the reason I upgrade.  It was the main reason I did the upgrade above.   I'm still on an Intel mac fwiw.

The OS is just a way for me to launch programs, mainly Logic, so I don't care what new features and doodads they add in (well, to a point!).  

[UnderGroundGr]

I am waiting for about 4 to six months before I install the new macOS...

[Adam Burgess]

Yup. Just got a new M2 MacBook Air.

Logic and MainStage working ok… had a few issues with a few plug-ins but in the main, quite happy.

[KuruPrionz]

I always wait for at least version .2.

Gotta give software developers a chance to catch up. 

 

I've frozen my 2014 MacBook Pro at Catalina, the Mac Mini M1 will get Ventura in a few months. While some plugins may never be updated, I'm finding that many of the newer offerings have better sound and more versatility, allowing me to shrink my plugin folders. Still in process on that, new favorites include Eventide Physion 2 and Split EQ. I really don't need much else for mixing. Waveform 12 Pro has an improved set of plugins as well, Tube Desk sounds great in the mastering bus just for one.

 

Slowly but surely, I'm shrinking and loving it. 

[Mighty Motif Max]

Still on Catalina for now on my 2019 Intel i9 MBP - too many projects in the works to risk a big system upgrade and things breaking for now. Plus I have not heard all that great of things about OS 11/12/13 and bugs. With 10.13-10.15 it took until the last .x update before things were stable enough for me, and it seems they didn't even get to that stability point with Big Sur before jumping to Monterey, which is having issues of its own on some of my family's devices. It's bad enough to prematurely release your OS upgrades, but then to not even patch them to the point of being reasonably stable before staging the next big release is a joke.

[Joe Muscara]

I upgraded my 2017 iMac to Ventura "accidentally"* the other day, and everything was fine. I'm really only using Logic & GarageBand along with UA stuff, and UA updated their stuff for Ventura anyway. I'm hardly noticing the difference though the new features can be handy.

 

Rant: One plugin manufacturer I looked at (Izotope) last updated their Ventura compatibility page in October, saying they were working on it. A couple of others didn't even mention Ventura nor even Monterey. I don't know if they think most people don't upgrade, their stuff just works, or they don't care. I really don't get why these companies act surprised when the new macOS ships. I get that betas can be different than what ships, but they make me feel like they didn't even try until the macOS ship date.

 

* My usual process for upgrading macOS is to create a new volume, install the new OS on that, and then install my apps to test them. I have a list in Notes that I copy/paste each year and check off each program as it passes, or if I find the manufacturer's web site and it says they're compatible. This time, I cloned my main Monterey volume to a new volume, only to find it wasn't bootable. Apparently, this is a new thing in macOS having to do with security or something, I don't recall, so the data got cloned but I'd have to install the OS. I thought when I selected "Install Now" in System Preferences, it would download the installer and ask me where I wanted to install Ventura. Nope! It just proceeded to blast over my working Monterey install. I removed that clone volume since I clearly didn't need it and I have clones of my data already for backup.

[GovernorSilver]

I just upgraded from Catalina to Monterey by buying an M1 Pro MBP.  Not a glutton for extra punishment.  😃

 

But some posts on this thread reminded me to check for any sales on Thunderbolt or USB-C external drives, so when I'm finally forced to upgrade to Ventura or other post-Monterey OS, I'll have an external drive set up for booting the OS.

[RABid]

Running Monterey on my M1 Air. No real issues on my M1 Air that I cannot work around. Just ordered a MacBook Pro which is coming next week. Not sure what it will arrive with. Depends on how long it has been on the shelf at Amazon. Will get to go through all the little issues and fixes again. My attitude has been, if something does not work, something else will. I like NI and have Komplete 13 collectors edition, but no single item in it is critical for my needs.

[Docbop]

I got a Macbook Air M2 and it came with Monterey and did the whole transfer from my iMac and everything worked for a few weeks, so I upgraded my iMac to Monterey too.     I might go to Ventura on the MBA M2 once Keyscape is compatible, but it's not on the compatibility list yet. From when I was back working in post production and some QA testing my Mac Pro was on old versions of OSX for work, but I had other hard drives with newer OSX for testing.

 

From my days working as a SysAdmin for large corporation in production environment you learn to hold off on installing update and upgrades until you can test completely ourselves.   I was working for a major bank and people would be shocked if they knew we still had Windows NT servers and IBM OS2 servers because some of the software used wouldn't run on anything else.  Gotta use what keeps your business or just your home setup running.  

[DJkeys]

On 12/5/2022 at 5:18 AM, Tusker said:

Is it safe?

 

 

At the beginning of December, Sweetwater published a very helpful compatibility list, with links to the major software companies. Many companies have updated or tested their products for Ventura. Unfortunately one company which hasn't yet opined is a big one: NI. Understandably they have a big list of software to work through. Anybody running Kontakt or Reaktor on Ventura?

 

What has your experience with Ventura been and what tools are you using with it? Thanks in advance

 

There is also an interactive version from Pro Tools Expert, hope they keep it updated-

 

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/apple-macos-ventura-audio-compatibility-chart#home/?view_1_search=izotope&view_1_page=1

 

-dj

[mauriziodececco]

On 12/5/2022 at 6:38 PM, Adam Burgess said:

Yup. Just got a new M2 MacBook Air.

Logic and MainStage working ok… had a few issues with a few plug-ins but in the main, quite happy.

 

Do you mind talking about your experience with the M2 MBA and Logic/MainStage: as a lot of other people, i am considering updating either to an high end M2 MBA or a low end Mac Book Pro 14": the M2 MBA look pretty, it is silent, thinner and lighter; and as everybody else, just wondering it is will be enough ... 

 

Maurizio

[Adam Burgess]

4 hours ago, mauriziodececco said:

 

Do you mind talking about your experience with the M2 MBA and Logic/MainStage: as a lot of other people, i am considering updating either to an high end M2 MBA or a low end Mac Book Pro 14": the M2 MBA look pretty, it is silent, thinner and lighter; and as everybody else, just wondering it is will be enough ... 

 

Maurizio

Well, I migrated everything from an M1 Mac mini in about 30 mins. All seemed totally fine at home. Tried a load of synths and audio plug-ins and all good. Did a simple rock gig with built in B3 and Arturia Piano V2 - with pads etc. from Roland ZENOLOGY on the Friday night.

Needed it to work for a performance of Les Miserables the next day (in a hurry… long story) and decided to keep it simple and only used instances of Roland ZENOLOGY and the stock EP/Clav plug ins. Actually, a couple of free Kontakt ones for Dulcimers and stuff which I just didn't have.

Sporadically thru a band call,  I got the error "A plug-in has caused a problem… please quit and restart MainStage". Checked the plug-in manager and most stuff was all ticked ready to go, and validated etc. So just went full hog and removed everything from the Plugins folder apart from the Roland. Forced a re-validation of the folder to make sure. 

Couldn't see anything that made it consistent or timely so just to get me thru the gig, thought that was the best option. Worked great for the shows, thank goodness. But, again - all was fine on my M1 Mac mini and the (now dead) M1 MBA at home.

All security settings etc. are either off or bare minimum on the new M2. In the Terminal… csrutil disable etc… and, also Reduced Security settings on startup same as my other machines. Allow ME to choose what to open, please!

I have a few hours tomorrow, so will add stuff back in slowly, and try and find which plug-in(s) were causing this annoying error. Sometimes a press of the Recover button would work, other times just got the spinning beach ball of embarrassment. Tough when it's not really repeatable.

Specs are M2 MBA, 8GB RAM, 512SSD. Using a OWC USB C hub for data/power, Arturia Keylab 88 & 61, XR18 or iConnectivity Audio2+. 

[Motif88]

Yes, no issues here…Logic and plugins are working without any problems.

[Mighty Motif Max]

Since Sonoma is now the new kid on the block, I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any remaining issues with Ventura. I'm considering updating my 2019 i9 MBP for the first time since purchase (other than incremental and security patches of course). It's still on Catalina 10.15.7 and is rock solid. I'm all-in on Cubase and have a lot of third-party instruments, programs, and plugins, and would like to keep as much of it working as possible.

 

In the past with my previous computer I would upgrade to the most recent update of the prior OS version once a new major version was released. However I haven't necessarily been impressed with the post-OSX operating systems. Yet Catalina is getting pretty old and is dropping off the supported OS list for newer software and plugins. So I'm just wondering if there are any remaining issues I should be aware of. Thanks all!

[UnderGroundGr]

I always uptade macOS 4 to 6 months after the newest version released. Never had a problem with compatibility both hardware(Apogee) and software...

[Stokely]

Checking into this now for Logic and plugin compatibility.  My wife has, once again, deigned to bestow her macbook pro on me as she likes her imac better, so daddy's setting up his new pair of shoes.  I'd prefer a Studio for the ports and her M1 laptop has only 16GB of ram, but we'll see how it fares.    I figure I have my Monterey machine (older 2016 MBP) still working fine so I'll go ahead and get the newer one to the latest OS.  The latest Logic update was pretty interesting to me, specifically how easy it looks to be to get Drummer tracks to play other instruments (which you can do now, but it's not ideal).

I've heard various grumblings and complaints about glitches and bugs on the Logic group I belong to, but the user error factor to a lot of those reports is....high...just sayin' 

Got a new external SSD for libraries, copied them all over and tested that the old computer can use them from there-- and I'm hoping that the new computer will be able to just use it and I won't have to re-install Komplete.

It won't be that fun to re-install a bunch of plugins from various companies but some of them have had updates that I haven't gotten so I would have been doing this anyway (like the u-he synths).    All this stuff is one reason I'm sticking with fewer plugin companies moving forward.

[Reezekeys]

25 minutes ago, Stokely said:

her M1 laptop has only 16GB of ram

 

"Only 16GB"... 🙂 

 

Are you photoshopping >500MB RAW files or doing 8K videos in FCP? Unless you're doing full orchestral mockups with multiple instances of Spitfire, I wouldn't worry about having "only" 16GB of ram, especially in the newer Apple machines.

 

BTW the latest version of Logic will run in Ventura, you don't need Sonoma.. it just has to be Ventura 13.5 or later. I'm on 13.4.1, so need to update it which I'll do today.... after a Time Machine backup! I have no reason to go to Sonoma, not yet anyway.

 

IMO, if your previous machine used an Intel processor you're better off just re-downloading & installing, or updating as many of your apps & plugs to Apple Silicon versions as you can. I still have a few Intel-only plugs but they happen to run just fine in Rosetta 2, even inside my DAWs that are running natively in AS.

[Stokely]

Understood.   I do intend to get into (trying) more orchestral stuff, but nothing approaching the huge templates that some people run that require more than 64GB and up (or even a separate server).  I tend to be a buy now, wait 8-10 years to upgrade person and so if I was buying something I'd most likely get 32GB just as a future-proofing measure.

I get some performance issues now on the Intel MBP with my newer Komplete instruments but I think they are more cpu-related.

Definitely not going to try to copy over any plugins or application, though I reckon the downloaded libraries should be ok on the external ssd?  If not, it's not that difficult to have Native Access grab them again.  Maybe from my many years of working with Windows XP, it's always seemed safer to start a new computer off from scratch.

 

[Reezekeys]

When I got my new Air I used Migration Assistant to move my account over from my older MacBook Pro. It let me choose to only copy my user account and not my apps, which is what I did. Apple definitely got this right - it was super easy and only took about five minutes but all my email accounts, web site passwords, banking logins, WIFI passwords,  everything, was on the new machine. Updating & reinstalling my music sw did take some time but it wasn’t too bad, considering I go 7 - 10 years between new computers! Your existing libraries should load in fine, I’d be shocked to hear you had to download them again.

[cassdad]

FWIW, I’m using Logic Pro on my MacBook Pro running “Sonoma”, OS version 14.1.1 with no problems.

[Mark Schmieder]

I just did the 13.6.1 upgrade and it's the smoothest of any point releases from the past few macOS versions.

 

I looked at Sweetwater's site for Sonoma notes last night, and the cutoff for hardware compatibility is 2018 for non-pro models and 2017 for iMac Pro, so this means Ventura will be my last macOS upgrade ever, as I am hoping to move away from the Apple ecosystem due to its enforced obsolescence and a decreasing budget as I head into retirement sometime in the next few years.

[Docbop]

24 minutes ago, Mark Schmieder said:

I am hoping to move away from the Apple ecosystem due to its enforced obsolescence and a decreasing budget as I head into retirement sometime in the next few years.

 

All my old Macs end up being great Linux computers and continue on working.   There is a Linux port for Apple Silicon so even M-series Macs can keep on truckin'. 

[nursers]

1 hour ago, cassdad said:

FWIW, I’m using Logic Pro on my MacBook Pro running “Sonoma”, OS version 14.1.1 with no problems.

Same - so far so good!

[Mark Schmieder]

4 hours ago, Docbop said:

 

All my old Macs end up being great Linux computers and continue on working.   There is a Linux port for Apple Silicon so even M-series Macs can keep on truckin'. 

 

Good to know. I'll have to look into that next year. My intern just finished weaning himself off of the Apple ecosystem and is thrilled at the improved productivity, stability, and performance. And being young, he's way more patient than I am in my old age, when it comes to wasting precious hours on configuration related stuff.

 

At any raye, this new Ventura update is the best so far on my "ancient" six year old iMac. 🙂

[David Emm]

Logic is half of why I stay in the Applesphere. When I get the inevitable next Mac, I do all of the necessary transfers and configure the system so I can get back to work. I stay aware of the updates, but rarely feel the need for them, because every Mac has been stability personified. I hand-pick occasional new instruments or effects plugs, but I'm so linear, I don't generally feel a burning need for the New. A barrel full of synths and a convo reverb per track if I want it doesn't leave a lot of room for complaint.  

[obxa]

On 11/26/2023 at 1:28 PM, Docbop said:

All my old Macs end up being great Linux computers and continue on working. 

Can you recommend a good distro for Macs?- last time I delved into Linux was with  Mint many moons ago on PC.   Getting ready to replace office and studio macs and considered loading Google OS Flex on them just for basic Web and email. But love the idea of  maybe using them as servers.  Thanks in advance.

 

BTW- I usually stay 1 or 2  OS away. Still running Monterey, but it's also the last OS my mini's can do-.  Unless I do some kind of sideload hack, risky for music stability.

[Docbop]

2 hours ago, obxa said:

Can you recommend a good distro for Macs?- last time I delved into Linux was with  Mint many moons ago on PC.   Getting ready to replace office and studio macs and considered loading Google OS Flex on them just for basic Web and email. But love the idea of  maybe using them as servers.  Thanks in advance.

 

BTW- I usually stay 1 or 2  OS away. Still running Monterey, but it's also the last OS my mini's can do-.  Unless I do some kind of sideload hack, risky for music stability.

I haven't built a Linux computer in quite awhile, my general purpose laptop is a ThinkPad running Xbuntu.  That is because Xfc is my prefered desktop.  My old geeky laptop has Kali Linux on it.    Ubuntu is good for people who don't know a lot about Linux and want a very GUI desktop.  

 

There are current Linux users here on the KC that can give you more current suggestions. Linux is always evolving. 

[D. Gauss]

Still on Yosemite here with wifi/interwebs disabled. Ain't broke, don't fix it.

[analogika]

On 12/7/2022 at 5:20 PM, Adam Burgess said:

All security settings etc. are either off or bare minimum on the new M2. In the Terminal… csrutil disable etc… and, also Reduced Security settings on startup same as my other machines. Allow ME to choose what to open, please!

This makes me queasy.
 

What issues were you seeing that weren’t fixed by simply right-clicking and choosing „Open“?