Apple Notes 105

A couple of issues back we parsed the Mac OS X 10.10 announcement and noted some of Yosemite’s features that looked appealing to DAW users. Having installed Yosemite myself (on a test partition, see below), here is some initial info on where it’s at, and whether it’s wise to hike into Yosemite this early.

DAW SUPPORT

As with any OS update, some software works fine, some doesn’t — though really, it’s too early to say unequivocally that any are completely bug free. Here’s the official word (as of late October):

ProTools: This classic line straight from Avid: “Note that Mac OS X 10.10 ‘Yosemite’ has not been qualified with any version of ProTools.”

Ableton Live: Ableton notes that Live 9.1.5 or higher is compatible with Yosemite, and that there are currently no known issues with Max For Live and 10.10. They have pointed out, though, that some older third-party 32-bit plug-ins used in Live may have issues due to outdated coding frameworks. If you are having graphical issues with some of your older plug-ins, this is a sign of the problem.

Logic Pro: Oddly, I cannot find any official word from Apple that Logic Pro X is compatible with Yosemite, but certainly no word that it isn’t. In my (limited) usage so far, I have not had any problems.

Cubase: Steinberg does not recommend updating to Yosemite just yet as they have had sporadic feedback of issues from users and are yet to fully test compatibility with Cubase.

Make sure to keep an eye out on www.audiotechnology.com.au for updates on Yosemite compatibility as they come.

Even with only patchy support from the top DAW developers, remember that there is probably much more software you rely on for day-to-day production needs: plug-ins, audio drivers, MIDI drivers, control surfaces, etc. My advice — don’t upgrade just yet!

Having said that, there are some nifty features in the new OS, and with installation being fairly straightforward (and free), there’s no harm in installing the OS on a separate partition on your Mac and taking it for a spin.

INSTALLATION TIPS

When I wrote about Mavericks back in Issue 99 (search ‘Mavericks’ at audiotechnology.com.au), I included some tips on getting the best out of a new OS install, most of which still applies. Here’s a re-cap:

• Try it on a separate partition first, so you take baby steps in setting it up. Using Disk Utility, you can resize and create partitions on your internal drive, and I strongly encourage trying any new OS this way first.
• Consider a clean install. It’s more time consuming, but is also a good opportunity to install all your software bit-by-bit, to 100% check, and test, that everything is compatible with the new OS. You’ll also most likely free up some internal hard drive space, which is particularly valuable if you are using smaller SSD drives.
• Don’t upgrade under any time pressure. Things may go wrong and you’ll need time and patience to resolve them.
• Peculiar to the new OS, when I did a clean install it defaulted to turning on File Vault encryption as part of my user account setup, which you are guided through after installation. This has been a problem for DAWs in the past, particularly for ProTools, so at this stage I recommend turning this off when going through the setup process.

iOS & MAC OS XOXO

The most obvious change in Yosemite is significantly updated graphics, which are merging closer and closer to an iOS look. Personally, I like the graphical update and feel it’s mostly aesthetic — not actually changing the way we use the OS significantly on a day-to-day level, yet… But it does make me think, with Apple seemingly wanting to blur the lines between Mac, iPad and iPhone, how much longer will we have a separate operating system for our Macs?

Sooner or later, are we going to have ‘Apple OS’ and effectively run the same software across all our devices like Microsoft is attempting with Windows 10? And where does that leave us with our DAWs? As I’ve mused previously, most DAW developers could harness iOS better in my opinion, and perhaps the developer that does so first will have a head start on future OS updates.

Anyway, apart from the graphical updates perhaps being a sign of what’s to come, the most exciting features for me are iCloud Drive and Airdrop — which I’ve mentioned previously, but now allow for a more ‘open’ file sync across multiple devices (like Dropbox, but built into the OS), seamless emailing of large files (by uploading to iCloud rather than sending as an attachment), and an easy two-way drop between Mac and iOS devices. These seem to work fine so far in my experience.

A FEW MORE TIPS

iCloud Drive requires an update to the files in your iCloud — meaning once done, the files are no longer accessible by any OS prior to Yosemite or iOS 8. Watch out if you are still running older systems.

Notifications (and the new related Extensions) have been significantly enhanced — which in my opinion are an unnecessary distraction while working in the studio. The best thing I’ve done in the last 18 months is turn them off — you can do this by heading to System Preference > Notifications. From there, you can either set a ‘Do Not Disturb’ for certain times during the day, or go through the various items in the Notification Centre and adjust if, or how, they go about annoying you.

A slightly more hidden feature of Yosemite is ‘Rename Items…’ Which is particularly useful for batch renaming files. If you are working with multiple cues, takes, samples or similar, this feature will allow you to append a common string of letters or numbers to a selection of multiple files, append sequential numbers, or help with other bulk-renaming tasks. You can access this by selecting multiple files in Finder, right-clicking and selecting ‘Rename [x] Items…’ from there, you have options to Replace Text, Add Text or Format.

All in all, as third party developers play catch-up, Yosemite is certainly nothing to be wary of. From here, taking the plunge is up to you.