KVR Audio

hangars liquides · Post by **hangars liquides** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:16 pm

Dear all,
I am currently on 10.6.8, and, as many here, I have planned to stay as long as I could with this OS, which apparently is the most reliable for audio. I run it on a MBP pro at 2.66 Ghz i7, with (only) 4 Go of ram.
Now, there is, among others softwares, the NI Reaktor 5.9 issue, which is only compatible with 10.7 and above.
So, which OS would you recommend me guys ? Should I switch to Mavericks or is it a risky business ?
Sorry if this question has already been submitted, but I would really appreciate if you could send me your opinions on the issue. Thx in advance.

earlevel · Post by **earlevel** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:02 pm

I switched from Mountain Lion to Mavericks about four weeks ago. No issues with audio programs. There are a few silly little quirks in the Finder, but nothing serious. No regrets. In fact, I took it as an opportunity to switch my boot disk to a 750 GB SSD, and life is pretty good.

hangars liquides · Post by **hangars liquides** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:09 pm

Thx earlevel. Did you notice if your computer is slower ?

earlevel · Post by **earlevel** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:34 pm

hangars liquides wrote:Thx earlevel. Did you notice if your computer is slower ?

Like I said, I took the opportunity to upgrade to SSD, so my computer is much faster—but I can't tell you how it compares with previous versions. Of the audio professionals that I know that are using Mavericks, I haven't heard one of them complain about it being slower, though.

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:46 pm

Similar situation here, was forced to upgrade for various reasons. The main apps I use that won't work are from Redmatica (Auto Sampler, Kepmap Pro etc.), so I keep a 10.6 partition available for that.

I would avoid 10.7 and go with a later version, I went with 10.9. There is a recent thread about updating to 10.9:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5687339

Some users say avoid, but personally I've experienced very few problems running on 2 different Macs. Performance is similar, at least I've not noticed any slow down.

If you're using a 3rd party SSD you'll want to investigate Trim Enabler, which is for enabling trim on 3rd parry SSD (only official Apple disks support trim natively on 10.8 / 10.9).

Peace,
Andy.

timobrien · Post by **timobrien** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:39 pm

I have had zero problems on 10.7.5 Lion that came on my iMac so I'm keeping it until the reports of Mavericks problems with audio interfaces go away.

discoDSP · Post by **discoDSP** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:55 pm

I'd recommend upgrading RAM to 8 GB if you go beyond 10.6.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:52 pm

I have noticed a lot longer boot times beyond 10.6. I'm on mavericks myself, but am dual booting to an external USB drive with 10.6.8 on it and the 10.6.8 still boots way faster than mavericks. Then again, the USB drive is a 7200 rpm drive while the internal 10.9.2 drive is 5400 rpm. I find Mavericks slightly slower in use, though I prefer the GUI and gesture/feature changes. There's definitely more overhead. I can't speak to audio software yet since my 10.6 I'd still my primary audio setup, but I'm being forced to migrate too (thanks, Native Instruments).

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:52 pm

lions 10.7.5 is a good compromise IMO if you are not running PT11 or Logic X. It will allow you to run latest versions of all plugins and other hosts and is stable.

Between mountain and mavericks, if you are going to go that way, just go all the way and do mavericks and be up to date.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:25 pm

hangars liquides wrote:I am currently on 10.6.8, and, as many here, I have planned to stay as long as I could with this OS, which apparently is the most reliable for audio. I run it on a MBP pro at 2.66 Ghz i7, with (only) 4 Go of ram.
Now, there is, among others softwares, the NI Reaktor 5.9 issue, which is only compatible with 10.7 and above.

I'm staying with 10.6.8. I'm using R5.9, Absynth 5.2, Kontakt 5.3. They broke the installers and Service Center, the software itself works in Snow Leopard. The plugins extracted through 'Pacifist' work perfectly, but not the standalones. There is a thread here concerning the free 'Supercharger' that contains links to something called 'Snowify' which creates 10.6 installers and a 'FixApps' terminal command which fixes the standalones for all of these.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:30 pm

As far as 'some say avoid, but I have no problems', what you want is to find out IF THE THINGS YOU USE have problems with Mavericks. I'm staying put, there is nothing broke I need fixing by updating and I expect updating will break things. I see people say 'it's slow' too often as well.

Which OSX for audio if I leave 10.6.8 ?