Changing from Windows Laptop to Mac Book

bluetinstar · 03-03-2015, 01:02 PM

Hi all

I am planning on replacing my ageing Samsung Laptop with a new Mac Book Pro running the latest Yosemite OS.

I have been useing Reaper with no issues, on the Windows 7 machine for a while now.

Does anyone know of any major problems (or 'gotchas !') that I may encounter when running Reaper on the Apple Yosemite OS.

Thanks,
Fred

Pinknoise · 03-05-2015, 01:33 AM

Not as snappy as Win7. Bridged plugins have to be floating windows (outside FX windows). Welcome to spinning beach ball party ! :-)

serr · 03-05-2015, 07:28 AM

Haha.
I've only ever compared OSX to Win XP with Reaper. Just to be clear I did none of the hacks/tweaks/rebuilds apparently required to coax it into working (no time or patience to learn all that). I was curious about some of the talk like the above I'd seen on the forum (ie claims of faster response) so I thought I'd see what it did right out of the box. Reaper was so slow that I'd call it 'not working' after being used to running with OSX. (Now obviously something needed to be messed with. Windows looks like a pretty deep well of learning curve with not a lot of results to show for it.)

You planning on installing a failing hard drive in that Mac?

If not, I doubt you'll be seeing much of the spinning ball. (So... someone would rather NOT be alerted to an unexpected hardware lag? Like early warning signs of a hard drive failure?)

Just to be fair, I DO see comments around here from people having issues with 10.9 & 10.10. Not sure if the cause is 3rd party plugin related (which is usually the case) or something else. You can always install an earlier version of OSX if you need it for your specific software collection though.

I do have a comfort level with OSX. But I'm not really tweaking much of anything. Look at the 'OSX setup' post I made. Just basic stuff. I'm not hacking the OS kernel or video drivers just to get the system working. I've only had to mess with optimizing Reaper preferences for using 3rd party plugins and then it was only necessary for a project that was well over 150 tracks and plugins with HD audio.

Pinknoise · 03-05-2015, 10:24 AM

It's not as snappy on my macbook than win7 but it does work very well! There is a spinning beach ball showing now and then between opertation but Reaper is much better and faster than Logic 9 here.

bluetinstar · 03-07-2015, 12:37 PM

Welcome to spinning beach ball party ! :-)

Thanks for the welcome Pinknoise, and thanks for your comments serr !!

Pinknoise ; I actually attended the 'party' for 24 hours but was then forced to leave, before even getting to installing Reaper on my new Mac book pro !!

Unfortunatly things all started to go wrong when I was working through the initial setup of the Yosemite on the machine. Specifically when I reached the 'Fire Vault' initiation section of the set up routine, I failed to select ; ..'switch off Fire Vault selection for now'.. as you are given no reason to think this is anything other than a 'normal' part of the new setup proceedure.

However, when I had finished the setup, it was obvious that all was not well !!

The machine started to encrypt everything (even though there was no data to encrypt on this virgin new machine !), as apparantly this is what 'File Vault' does.

The encryption 'process' then just didn't stop, and I was unable to switch it off (even after 20 hours) in the security settings window !

So I then called Apple support, and after three and a half hours on the phone to a very knowlegable Apple engineer (in Cork,Ireland), and lots of entering and running 'stuff' in the 'terminal screen' under his telephone instructions, we gave up trying to switch this feature off, which by now had slowed the machine to a crawl as it continued to 'encrypt', I don't know what !!,

The engineer then advised me to return the machine to Apple !!
So I packed it back up and sent it back to its' makers !

I don't know where things are going from here, but I'll keep you posted !

Best
Fred

serr · 03-07-2015, 01:09 PM

Yeah, that's exactly what Filevault is. Encryption for your hard drive.

Sounds like you got someone at an Apple store that needs to be fired then! Holy crap! A clean install of 10.10 does NOT have Filevault on by default for one thing. That they told you to send it back instead of just clicking it off?!?!?! Just... wow!

Wow, sorry to hear of such tomfoolery! That's 'geek squad' level screwing up!

Moving forward: Do not encrypt your hard drive for a DAW setup. That's what they should have said. Then told you to click it off. Wow...

bluetinstar · 03-07-2015, 01:41 PM

Serr..

...That they told you to send it back instead of just clicking it off?!?!?! Just... wow!...

It was not possible to turn File Vault off (Click it off)!!

When I went to System Settings/Security window then File Vault option, then unlocked padlock at bottom left, then 'Turn File Vault off', a window would come up that said : 'File Vault is still working - wait until it has finished working before trying to switch it off'... That was the problem... It never 'finished' working, even after 20 hours of 'encrypting', so would never ALLOW me to switch it off !

Fred

serr · 03-07-2015, 04:03 PM

If you just got it and had zero personal data on it, simply wiping the drive and starting over with a clean install would have been the thing to do.

I mean, easy for me to say and all that. I could very well be missing part of the story that suggested hardware issues too. Just really surprised to hear that scenario! Sorry to hear that!

Don Schenk · 03-07-2015, 08:46 PM

Well bluetinstar, while others take time to argue with serr, maybe I can answer your question.

I've been computing since mid 80s, Windows since 1989, and avoided Macs at all cost because I couldn't buy parts to build my own. A little over a year ago my wife was ready for a new laptop and wanted a Mac. "Oh no. a Mac in our house," I thought!

So I bought a Retna MacBook Pro for her, and she said, "Now show me how to use it." I didn't have a clue. So off to YouTube I went. Hmmmm it was easy, It was almost a piece of cake, except for a few small things that didn't make sense - at least not a first - but then they began go make much more sense than Windows.

Some 6 months later I bought an Apollo Quad with Thunderbolt and FireWire. The FW was clunky, and just for grins I plugged it into my wife's Mac via Thunderbolt. Wow. So that's how a computer is supposed to work! I ran to the store and bought a rMBP for myself. That was last June. The SSD in that thing is fast. I have never ever run into the spinning beach ball.

Mine came with 10.9 Mavericks installed, and I haven't yet done the upgrade to 10.10 because until last week, the drivers for the Apollo were flaky with Yosemite. UA released new drivers, and supposedly the Apollo and Thunderbolt work fine with Yosemite.

With Windows 7, I was used to an immediate response when I clicked to open a file, on the Mac it seems to take a tiny fraction of a second more when clicking. The makes Windows feel more spritely than Mac, but processor speed, amount of RAM, and whether you use a HDD or the much faster SSD has such a great effect on speed, you really won't notice a problem - especially if your Samsung is getting a bit long in years.

When you buy a new Mac now, it will come with Yosemite, you won't need to upgrade, and the upgrade shouldn't be a problem. A good thing I found was to invest the couple extra hundred bucks in Apple Care, so you can call them 24/7 to ask any questions you wish. And if there ever is an update you want to do, just call first.

I am typing this on a Win7 HP laptop, I still use Windows for some things, but Reaper in the Mac is wonderful. And besides that, Thunderbolt is becoming the way to go. I expect drivers for it will be in Win10, but with the Mac you are way ahead of the game.

BTW The Retna screen on the 15 inch MackBook Pro is a thing of beauty. I am really missing it on this Windows machine.

:-Don

sonnie · 03-08-2015, 03:04 AM

Don Schenk, this is how (close to) all remember their first experiences with Macs. Me too.
Only downside is the f*ing expensive and not really fast hardware, but for my work perfomance its worth.

Don Schenk · 03-08-2015, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonnie

Don Schenk, this is how (close to) all remember their first experiences with Macs. Me too.
Only downside is the f*ing expensive and not really fast hardware, but for my work perfomance its worth.

Yes, I cringed at the price. However, at the time I started looking, the i5 13in for my wife rMBP was $1499. I noticed on Hewlett Packard's website, HP was offering a 13 inch, ultra display (like Retna) with an i5, the same amount of RAM, the same size SSD for $1434.

I went with the i7, 15 inch rMBP for music.

This HP win7 machine I am typing on at the moment has had the HDD changed twice, the keyboard replaced, and the built-in CD/DVD drive replaced, all in a 3 year period! Fortunately I can work on them, and I did the repairs. Another HP laptop I have, one that is 7 years old, is on its 3rd hard drive, and 2nd WIFI unit.

The Macs seem to be a little (maybe even a lot) better built, and the more I use it, the more I like it.

I did take the advice of Sweetwater's website, and several of serr's posts about optimizing it for audio.

:-Don

sonnie · 03-08-2015, 07:07 AM

They're just computers with a nice OS and a doog chassis. Nothing more. And - as you discovered by yourself - not even more expensive than equal windows laptops.

But many new Macs has missing inputs, just 2x USB, no ethernet, etc... I hate it.

serr · 03-08-2015, 07:30 AM

Even a Mac needs an OS installed successfully to work of course.
-Dr. Obvious

Sorry to hear this was your introduction to a Mac though! They really did screw up in the worst possible way. I also think the filevault feature should have a vary large warning text on the system preference panel when you select it that reads something like "WARNING: FILEVAULT WILL ENCRYPT YOUR HARD DRIVE VOLUME. THIS WILL SEVERELY REDUCE PERFORMANCE ON THE MACHINE! THIS SHOULD ONLY BE USED WHERE HIGH SECURITY CONCERNS FOR SENSITIVE DATA ARE PARAMOUNT AND HIGH PERFORMANCE USE IS NOT REQUIRED.

If you really were just setting it up initially and had no personal data, wiping and reinstalling OS takes 15 minutes or less. The 'genius bar' should have figured that out immediately and had you walking out of the store with your machine quickly. Or been able to direct you over the phone how to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS from the installer disc (on a USB stick now).

Pretty disappointing... I'd ask them for something free to calm me down.

bluetinstar · 03-14-2015, 12:01 PM

Hi all again,
Well I have rejoined the spinning beach ball party (!), and this mail is now coming from the replacement Mac Book Pro that they sent me (yes it is a replacement and not the one I sent back, and in fact a higher spec machine than the first one - i7 QC with 16 Gb Ram and 512Mb Flash HD).
I have a Samsung 1Tb external HD which connects using USB 3 for saving data to.

I have just finished the initial setup and stayed well away from the 'Encryption Safe', and all seems to work well this time !
So the next thing to do is install 64 bit Reaper and start again !
I'll keep you posted !

Best
Fred

whiteaxxxe · 03-14-2015, 01:52 PM

yeah, well, Apple makes some highly interesting products ... dont work so well but look good and are expensive ... hm.