Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER for macOS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-16-2017, 06:16 AM   #1
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default This is a genuinely sad day....

I love Reaper. Workflow, concept, under the hood customizations, I love it all. I know Reaper deeply enough...I work like lightning in it. I've tracked and mixed superb projects with exciting and virtuosic performers. I've introduced Reaper to dozens of musicos, engineers and producers since I started with it around 2004.

In about 2010 I recalibrated my studio around Mac computers. For me, the maintenance of a dependable Windows computer had become a time consuming distraction, and I really liked Mac OS. That my favourite DAW was fully supported on both platforms was a driving motivator. From the beginning, Reaper didn't run quite as well in Mac OS as it did in Windows, but it ran well enough...and it has run well enough up until the last while. Now, it's baseline performance, and by that I mean running free of glitches and hiccups, just isn't cutting it. It's embarrassing me in front of clients. On this same machine (2012 Mac Pro 6 core, 12 thread, 3.33 ghz with 32 gig ram, Sierra) I have licenses for Studio One 3.52 and Logic Pro X 10.3.2 as well as PT 11, Harrison MixBus 4.2 and Tracktion Waveform 8.2. None of those other applications give me the glitchy grief.

I've tried everything. I've combed this forum and others for clues to my mystery. Every time I apply some new magic potion to buffering settings and other under the hood settings, things "seem" to improve but settle back into glitching, skipping playback. It's had a negative impact on tracking sessions, and left me looking amateurish to my clients and side hires. I'm no amateur. I've been at this for decades.

I have Windows 8.1 (with the Start8 skin) bootcamped on this box, and Reaper runs startlingly well there. So well that I kicked around the idea of returning to Windows full time, but I had to dismiss that. Windows has a few achilles heels that would eventually come back to haunt me. I have become a Mac person.... That said, I know Mac OS has slid sideways on some fronts, but my experience with the OS has been so positive that I am loathe to toss in the towel.

There is a deep, systemic problem with how Reaper interacts with Mac OS. I see clues everywhere. Ben at Harrison understands these issues, as they have had to wrestle with it themselves...it has to do with graphics processing threads particularly as it relates to plugins. Depending on how plugins are coded, these issues can range from nearly invisible to real show stoppers...

I'm an application guy, not a computer geek. I want to use my Mac computer. Reaper is not giving me the high level of fundamental performance that I need. I've done my due diligence. I don't want to roll back to an earlier OS version. Sierra delivers a number of reliability improvements over El Capitan that I enjoy. Once High Sierra is fully catered to by the 3rd party hardware and software community, I will want to make that leap too.

I'm taking a hard look at Logic X as my "go to" DAW. In terms of basic, systemic performance, it runs like a horse. There is a learning curve I'm not looking forward to. I know I will immediately run into regrets in terms of features missed in Reaper that I have come to take for granted.

So, before I sign the divorce papers...is there any last ditch thing I can do to save this marriage?
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2017, 07:41 AM   #2
Ollie
Super Moderator (no feelings)
 
Ollie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: On or near a dike
Posts: 9,834
Default

I'm an application guy too. That's why I select the OS according to what runs my application best. Since I use different computers for different purposes (which is often not an option for people, unfortunately), I don't get in touch with the OS in most cases, at least not more than is needed to initially get the application running best.

From there the OS is just what it's supposed to be for me, a layer of software that gives me an icon to run the application, which is all I do with that computer. For that reason (and because I keep certain computers offline, missing OS, driver and whatnot updates) these machines run their application until the cows come home or some hardware breaks <knocks on wood>. They more or less become a "black box".

They always did that through all Windows re-iterations from Win 98 to Win 10, and I never encountered the self-destruction mechanisms other people seem to have suffered through most versions of the OS, and I never had to do any special "maintenance" work (except wiping excess plug-ins or media files).

My DAW computer is considered a "production machine", that I don't tinker with and don't use for other tasks that may interfere with DAW usage. That doesn't mean I can't run other, complex things on it but that depends mostly on the other applications potential to mess up stuff. For example, I'd run other CP-hungry apps that are non-intrusive (no overwriting of system files, no dotnetwhatnotyounameit API installations...) on the DAW computer, but never a collection of payware ego-shooters, general web usage, office or photo-editing stuff... for the latter 3 I use a Mac BTW. That kept me feeling indifferent to happy about Windows for the past 25 years.

Of course I do that because I also experienced the other side, in particular when I had only one computer and wanted to try out lots of software, bought better hardware, tinkered with tuning, installing tools and do other geeky stuff. Things tend do go haywire then and you do have to run a lot of updates, avoid infections and suffer through bugs and software collisions. That's why I plead for doing all that on an extra computer, and leaving the DAW alone on whatever runs it sufficiently for your needs.
Ollie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2017, 08:43 AM   #3
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Ollie...I appreciate where you are coming from...and that was an excellent apologetic. My workflow in the studio computer combines a lot of different disciplines...graphics, web work, and collaboration. I simply need to be online 24/7. I don't use the wi-fi...always switched off. I'm hard wired that way. Your discrete usage is great...and in that kind of "locked down" environment that you have for the dedicated studio box, the Windows machine is just dandy. For me, Mac is better in my situation, and their system doesn't have the kind of quirks you get with Windows that are authored by shared dll's and the registry. Here's the thing...in my current deeper explorations of Logic X, I discover that it will do, and in time I will learn to fly around in it. And it flies on my system...just flies. I want Reaper to work with the same glitch free fluidity. When Justin and gang get their collective heads around this issue....I'm back in.
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2017, 08:45 AM   #4
citizenkeith
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ohio
Posts: 978
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonehenge View Post
On this same machine (2012 Mac Pro 6 core, 12 thread, 3.33 ghz with 32 gig ram, Sierra) I have licenses for Studio One 3.52 and Logic Pro X 10.3.2 as well as PT 11, Harrison MixBus 4.2 and Tracktion Waveform 8.2. None of those other applications give me the glitchy grief.
Which version of Reaper are you using?

I don't see that you started a dedicated thread to help you solve this problem. Why not bring it specifically to the attention of the developers, so that they can fix it?
citizenkeith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2017, 09:09 AM   #5
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by citizenkeith View Post
Which version of Reaper are you using?

I don't see that you started a dedicated thread to help you solve this problem. Why not bring it specifically to the attention of the developers, so that they can fix it?
You are correct...I didn't. I'm informed enough to go after what would be the obvious....every conceivable adjustment (with some positive results but none being THE fix), trashing preferences and .ini files...and paying attention to other users who have posted similar issues...I don't think there is a need for me to be redundant. I am using 5.62 64 bit.
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2017, 04:22 PM   #6
citizenkeith
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ohio
Posts: 978
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonehenge View Post
I don't think there is a need for me to be redundant.
I would think that the more people who report this issue, the more attention it would get from the devs. As somebody who is anticipating a new Mac purchase next year, I'd love for this to get solved too!
citizenkeith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-18-2017, 01:31 AM   #7
dupont
Human being with feelings
 
dupont's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: France
Posts: 919
Default

I've been a more than 10 years Reaper user and it works fine in my old 2007 imac. It is rock solid and I mainly uses pre-released versions, which are supposed not to be stable !

I have faced some crashes with some plugins, Reveal sound Spire for example, but Reaper crashes less often than Logic X.
Waveform, former Tracktion, is a catastrophy on my imac, crashes every days even with light projects. So I had to give up and decided not to renew my licence this year. I was a first time user since Tracktion 1. Sad because this DAW is good and the developper team is nice too.

So I think this issue is not a matter of DAW or OS but is hardware related, CPU, audio card...and depends on the plugins compatibillity with the DAW.

Note : I think it's time to change my 2007 imac for a 27 " 2017 model but I wonder if it will run Reaper without any glitches.
In my opinion, Apple thinks are overrated and think of going back to Windows.
But I will no more be abble to use Logic !

Last edited by dupont; 11-18-2017 at 01:38 AM.
dupont is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-18-2017, 01:34 AM   #8
EvilDragon
Human being with feelings
 
EvilDragon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Croatia
Posts: 24,790
Default

I'm using W10 for DAW, office, Internet, an occasional game, and occasional Photoshop tweak. Never a single issue (let alone a crash - unless it's a buggy plugin of course, at which point it quickly gets hosted in its own process!), and performance on my i7-6700K is very admirable. :/


You can always dual-boot Windows on Mac. I hear sometimes that even works better than on a "regular" PC machine, since Mac hardware is well paired.
EvilDragon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 07:19 PM   #9
esosotericmetal
Human being with feelings
 
esosotericmetal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 372
Default

@OP: I feel you my friend. I’ve been going through similar things, though not quite as extreme as you from what it sounds like. I tried to get back into using Logic (one of my first DAW’s) and while it definitely has Reaper beat in the GUI performance and usability department, there are still some serious flaws with that program and I still encountered the occasional bug. These were basically all the same reasons I decided to stop using Logic in the first place.

I really do hope the disparity in performance for Reaper on Mac vs. PC gets sorted out soon. I have also toyed with the idea of switching to Windows, but I think that will largely depend on how well my audio interfaces run on them (i’m running Apollo’s over thunderbolt and the performance is superb). If that doesn’t work out I may look into Studio One as well, although I’m not sure I can justify it since my Reaper issues are much more minor compared to yours.

I also own and use Ableton Live (depending on the nature of the project) and it’s possible that the upcoming v10 may have enough improvements to get away with using it exclusively, though I think it will be quite some time before it can supplant Reaper for certain things.
esosotericmetal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-22-2017, 07:47 AM   #10
Vasily
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Ukraine
Posts: 150
Default

hey,

I actually started using Reaper on Windows, but later settled on Macs as well.

The Mac version of Reaper does not seem a first-class citizen (e.g. it does not support the five years old Retina displays yet), but it's been working for me. However, I'm making all new records in Studio One (and the actual reason is nicer Melodyne integration). Studio One is notably heavier than Reaper on my Macs, but some quirks like low-latency monitoring (Logic-alike BTW) make it usable.

If you like Macs and Logic, go for it. This is the only DAW that really is designed for Macs (heck, they don't even have a Windows version).

Personally I didn't like Logic. Even the absence of grid under my audio clips makes me nuts, this has been reported to Apple like ten years ago and they still can't find a time to introduce a grid to DAW. There are other shortcomings as well – i.e. if you upgrade to High Sierra, you may notice that third-party AUs will stop working. But if it feels like Logic is your cup of tea – try working with it.

Regarding the high performance in Logic, however, be warned that it actually sets the buffer size to 1024, except for the recording tracks. I think, Studio One in alike configuration should be performing not too bad as well (they call it low-latency monitoring and it's somewhat more complicated, but I actually use it to increase Studio One's performance, otherwise the new 3.5 is unusable for me).

All software is different. You will miss Reaper features in Logic and vice versa. Choose wisely, as you have a lot of DAWs installed and can decide, what's the best for you.
Vasily is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2017, 08:47 AM   #11
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default Oh man....

There are a number of things to like about Logic...it "feels" so solid... but when you go to look for a function that you take for granted in Reaper and realize it's either not there or buried in the app in some hieroglyphic fashion.... Can we just get to the bottom of Reaper's erratic behaviour on the Mac... (yes, I know some of you will testify that you have no problems, but a lot of us do). My biggest fear is mopping off the drive, doing a fresh install and finding no change...that would be days of reconfiguring I wouldn't get back...besides, everything else on my Mac is working great EXCEPT Reaper....
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2017, 11:03 AM   #12
dupont
Human being with feelings
 
dupont's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: France
Posts: 919
Default

As Evildragon suggested, why not going dualboot with W10 beside OSX ?
I did it and it worked fine.
dupont is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2017, 11:24 AM   #13
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by dupont View Post
As Evildragon suggested, why not going dualboot with W10 beside OSX ?
I did it and it worked fine.
I have done that (with Win 8.1 since Apple didn't supply Bootcamp Driver's for win 10 on a cheese grater tower). It does work very well, but I don't fully trust Mac drive for native read/write I have to add another drive natively formatted in ntfs. It's just another layer of inconvenience but may have to be a stopgap until issues get sorted out on the Mac side
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2017, 11:40 AM   #14
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default OK...some cautious optimism, coupled with anxiety.

I've continued to dither about with settings, with negligible results...then...

In a fit of desperation, I cloned my OS drive (was on Sierra) and then upgraded the working drive to High Sierra. There was a bit of an improvement, but still nowhere close to ideal...

Then, I ticked on the box in buffer settings labeled "use old v4 worker scheduling". Big improvement. Then I switched back to the default, because I didn't like the increased cpu usage...everything is still good.

I stress tested on a project that gave us some fits on a tracking session a couple of weeks ago. Zero timing glitches down to 32 samples! (the computer was complaining down that low...the hardware driver couldn't hack it, but at my standard buffer settings (128) nary a complaint!

Something righted itself, and I don't know exactly what...that's what gives me fits. But right now, PERFECT.
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2017, 02:32 AM   #15
MacFizz
Human being with feelings
 
MacFizz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Colmar, France
Posts: 401
Default

I know I'm late on this, but I'm going to ad my 2 cents anyway.
A few years ago, I was struggling with my aging macbook pro and chose to go back to windows pc (for various reasons).
At that time, all the problems I had with the macbook and Reaper seemed to be due to aging hardware and OSX getting hungrier in ressources with every updates.
I had tried mostly everything I could think off and I finally moved on to my new PC.
I then chose to recycle my old macbook pro by re-installing a new OSX and installing a clean Reaper. And then verything was running fine.
Until I imported my Reaper settings. That throw me back right were I was.
So, I believe that some options got not OSX friendly somehow...

Just sayin'
MacFizz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2017, 09:44 AM   #16
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MacFizz View Post
I then chose to recycle my old macbook pro by re-installing a new OSX and installing a clean Reaper. And then verything was running fine.
Until I imported my Reaper settings. That throw me back right were I was.
So, I believe that some options got not OSX friendly somehow...

Just sayin'
One of my initial things to do was trash all my reaper settings and letting the app rebuild default ones...again, it SEEMED to help, but then things rapidly deteriorated without me putting back the original settings. I'm going to do another stress test today....I'll report back.
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2017, 11:09 AM   #17
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

Some plugins can really take you for a ride.

Like Izotope RX v6. If you have the broadband noise reduction plugin inserted on a track and have the quality set to 4 (the highest setting), you need to know to open the GUI of this plugin right after you re-launch the project and hit play the first time. If you hit play with that plugin GUI closed (as you normally might), there's some bug and you get errors as though your system is maxed out. You open Activity Monitor and see your machine merely idling. (This bug only comes out with that plugin set to max quality. In the default 1st setting there are no issues.)

Just one specific example of plugin mayhem.

Sometimes buggy plugins do things like crash and leave library files open that kind of thing. Then unless you can spot that and make a specific command line instruction to clean it up, you need to restart your OS. This kind of stuff... It wasn't that you switched to your Windows install. It was simply that you restarted.

So everything isn't perfect yet...
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2017, 11:27 AM   #18
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by serr View Post
Some plugins can really take you for a ride.

Like Izotope RX v6. If you have the broadband noise reduction plugin inserted on a track and have the quality set to 4 (the highest setting), you need to know to open the GUI of this plugin right after you re-launch the project and hit play the first time. If you hit play with that plugin GUI closed (as you normally might), there's some bug and you get errors as though your system is maxed out. You open Activity Monitor and see your machine merely idling. (This bug only comes out with that plugin set to max quality. In the default 1st setting there are no issues.)

Just one specific example of plugin mayhem.

Sometimes buggy plugins do things like crash and leave library files open that kind of thing. Then unless you can spot that and make a specific command line instruction to clean it up, you need to restart your OS. This kind of stuff... It wasn't that you switched to your Windows install. It was simply that you restarted.

So everything isn't perfect yet...
Interesting observations... In my efforts to track down the issue, I would deactivate every plugin in the project...it would "kind of" help, but not the definitive AHA moment I was looking for, until the other day when everything stabilized and is still stable today. I should also note that the time stuttering glitches I was having would randomly impact a number of projects. I would sure like to know what righted the Good Ship Lollipop though...
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-26-2017, 04:39 AM   #19
ivansc
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Default

If you were a windows guy, you would have been far less reluctant to blame the OS!

FWIW I run a Mac Mini i7 quad server from mid 2011 with Logic Pro9 and Reaper on it & am about to try Mixbus 4 on the same machine. I am on Mavericks because Logic Pro9 doesnt like anything past Mavericks, but so far I have had no issues with LP9 or Reaper.

Be funny if it turned out to be Apples "upgrades and improvements" that were the sole cause of your problems.

Me? I haven't 100% trusted any OS since I was forced to give up OS9/OSK back in the eighties!
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
ivansc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-26-2017, 12:54 PM   #20
robgb
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 373
Default

I use Reaper on MacOS without any problems whatsoever.
robgb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-26-2017, 03:01 PM   #21
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ivansc View Post
If you were a windows guy, you would have been far less reluctant to blame the OS!

FWIW I run a Mac Mini i7 quad server from mid 2011 with Logic Pro9 and Reaper on it & am about to try Mixbus 4 on the same machine. I am on Mavericks because Logic Pro9 doesnt like anything past Mavericks, but so far I have had no issues with LP9 or Reaper.

Be funny if it turned out to be Apples "upgrades and improvements" that were the sole cause of your problems.

Me? I haven't 100% trusted any OS since I was forced to give up OS9/OSK back in the eighties!
I know it's tempting to turn this into a fanboy OS like/dislike thread, just don't do it. I can talk about as many BSOD's (Win) as spinning beachballs (Mac). The issue I WAS having (now completely and inexplicably gone) is an example of how complicated this whole thing is, independent of the OS. Fundamentally I like Mac OS better, because it better matches my temperament and sensibilities in terms of owning and running a computer, but coding software that runs real time media with a Mac is probably more difficult due to constraints put on the coders...add to that the difficulty of porting an app that was constructed originally using a Windows API (which Reaper probably was) and you have a herculean task ahead of you. I'm so glad my situation righted itself, because thought of moving forward without Reaper being my central workbench was terrifying. As you were everybody...get back to your respective OS's and make some good music...the world needs it!
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 09:33 AM   #22
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

Here's another one.

I'm noticing that with my 10.10 system I need to cycle power on my Apogee Rosetta 800 after booting into 10.10. If I forget, certain projects will start erroring out. Not every project. Again with the intermittent business.

One of the things we're dealing with in general is evolved computer systems that can have 3 or 4 different ways to work around any roadblocks. A subsystem crash might not ever get noticed unless you also have something else going on that together crosses the line. OSX is even more evolved with this so now you get into situations where you've had some driver crash but the system is working around it and you are none the wiser.

Remember back in Protools days when you had to buy EXACTLY the computer hardware specified or the system wouldn't run at all? Now that things are getting more flexible and capable and so many things are just plug and play we get surprised when something actually gets an error.

Back in Protools days, you'd rehearse the hell out of any and every small thing before even thinking of trying it in front of a customer! (And everyone would understand when it still crashed after all that.) Now you expect more and just try things on the fly in front of everyone.


I don't mean to be completely dismissive here. There ARE a few GUI related faux pas in Reaper I believe and it would be great to have it jump to another level of impossible perfection. But I honestly think some of the above is the playing field we are on now. A single isolated bug doesn't take the whole computer down and call attention to itself like that anymore. Not for a long time in OSX anyway.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 09:46 AM   #23
Tonehenge
Human being with feelings
 
Tonehenge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Posts: 777
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by serr View Post
Here's another one.
I don't mean to be completely dismissive here. There ARE a few GUI related faux pas in Reaper I believe and it would be great to have it jump to another level of impossible perfection. But I honestly think some of the above is the playing field we are on now. A single isolated bug doesn't take the whole computer down and call attention to itself like that anymore. Not for a long time in OSX anyway.
This is what I find the most unsettling....that a certain combination of how I place my elbow and crook my neck will result in the nonsense I was experiencing. I have a few interfaces hooked up to my rig (Presonus RM32, TC Studio Konnekt 48, Motu Track 16, and internal sound card) and they all experienced the same problem...so I'm ruling out hardware drivers. I'm just hoping that somehow my system just simply stabilized and will stay that way.
__________________
Brown Bag Music is a proud Commercial Reaper Licensee
Tonehenge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 10:01 AM   #24
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

It is a little unsettling!

I'm just trying to consider how much this is something specifically broken vs. a more complex system to manage. (Like how the perception of more bad news is part that you hear more news in general now.)

Take the two examples above. If I cycle power on my Apogee Rosetta 800 after booting into 10.10 and then make sure to open the GUI for any iZotope broadband NR plugin with the quality switch set to position 4 before hitting play, the system performs flawlessly every time and even in front of other people. If I hadn't noticed that pattern - and if using that NR plugin was other than a very special restoration work case - I might be posting to the forum about the sky falling and Reaper "not working".

Again, not to dismiss anything but this example is light weight compared to the day to day with Protools HD back in the day!

Some bad news is real (like Trump getting elected) so I'm still lurking here.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 05:04 PM   #25
ivansc
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Default

@Tonehenge Sorry I didnt make it clear in my earlier post, but although i have that Mac and play about on it from time to time, my production machines are both Windows10 based.
Sorry I unintentionally came over like a fanboi!

FWIW yo do realise Ollie IS one of the 2 devs, so you actually already had their attention there for a moment...

And FWIW I specifically had Logic Pro9 and a mac on an old version of the OS to help out a friend whose computer literacy is so limited it was the only way we could collaborate on an album together.

I will probably end up reselling the Mac once the novelty wears off. Nothing wrong with it apart from yet another unnecessary learning curve.
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
ivansc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 07:42 PM   #26
yep
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,019
Default

I use a Mac Pro tower and a Samsung Windows laptop, both on pretty much a daily basis, and for me, REAPER runs great on both, better than Pro Tools and about the same as Logic, both of which I also use regularly. REAPER consistently gets the lowest stable latency, not just on our primary Antelope converters, but even when using Avid Pro Tools boxes.

I'm sorry that it's not working as well for you, but I'm not sure that REAPER has a flawed mac implementation. Macs are famously supposed to the be all the same, but they're not, really.

Things like DVD drives and video cards can create wonky effects, even if they are OEM. The factory in Indonesia made some "improvement" to the network-card chip, and all of a sudden you have interrupts on the data bus that cause audio problems. This kind of stuff is generally BETTER on mac than on windows or linux, but it's not perfect anywhere. Especially if you have anything aftermarket, like hard drives, network cards, USB cards, optical drives, etc etc.
yep is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2017, 11:58 PM   #27
Arpegia
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Paris-Bruxelles
Posts: 1,266
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonehenge View Post

I'm taking a hard look at Logic X as my "go to" DAW. In terms of basic, systemic performance, it runs like a horse. There is a learning curve I'm not looking forward to. I know I will immediately run into regrets in terms of features missed in Reaper that I have come to take for granted.

So, before I sign the divorce papers...is there any last ditch thing I can do to save this marriage?
I am surprise to read that because I sign divorce papers with Logic 6 month ago to married to Reaper. And i am so happy with it now. I know Logic very well and I did all what I could to get the best performance with heavy Plugins like Acustica.
If I move to Reaper, it's not because I will get better CPU performances for Plugins, but because it's easier to get a large warm sound. Logic sound is punchy but without warm deep and hight smooth.

I am a professional composer and I need a very stable DAW which can support lot of Plugins and lot's of tracks with movie etc... Then, I couldn't stand to have worse performances with Reaper. And I don't have.
I took a long time to find the right settings in Reaper to get the same Logic performances.

The 2 main things I can tell you is :

1- Turn off "Multi-threading" in your Mac. If you don't, you will get scratch and crack very soon with barely 60% CPU usage in Reaper. (Use Xcode for switching off. I you don't know how, let me know)

2- In Reaper Preference - Buffering- Set the Media buffer size to 6000. If not, I get drop and cracks very soon

Those are MY main recommandations to get the same performances than with LOGIC.

Maybe one more advice : About Plugins : Prefer VST version. Some AU have strange behavior.

Finally, I have a very stable DAW with a very transparent sound. Easier to custom compare to LOGIC and more stable (never crash).

I hope it helps...
__________________
MAC user www.arpegiamusic.com www.cyrilorcel.com

Last edited by Arpegia; 11-28-2017 at 12:03 AM.
Arpegia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-05-2017, 10:57 AM   #28
reapercurious
Human being with feelings
 
reapercurious's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,890
Default

i'm a windows user, and I've had long stretches of time, almost eras, where i found it impossible to avoid all natures of stuttering and glitches, but I don't have those problems anymore. not Reaper's fault. this game has always been "voodoo" as even prominent engineers will tell you off the record. if you are good to the audio gods' eyes, then you will be granted passage. no one knows how or why it is this way.

some of the practices I have adopted are to not use plugins which i have determined buggy, and not to use convolution reverb unless it has a zero latency mode enabled. reaper has a good process monitor, and that needs to be looked at from time to time to see what tracks and plugins are consuming the most resources.
reapercurious is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-09-2017, 11:32 AM   #29
db9091
Human being with feelings
 
db9091's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Posts: 117
Default

Mac user (switched from PC around 2011)

I have or have had:
-Ableton Live - Stable, just too weird for me.

-Harrison - Just doesn't work at all. POS IMO. Wish I had my money back. I should try any update they've done since the spring to see if it's stable. But it's not ready for prime time IMO.

-Studio One 3 - Freezes on certain plugins (I have typical ones, Waves, iZotope, Slate, SoundToys, FabFilter) and they tell me to go through each one (AU, VST, VST3) and delete the ones that fail. Uh, I don't have time for that. That would literally take me a friggin' month. Using it was pretty cool. I was impressed by it. IF I could figure out the plugin loading issues, I might try to migrate to it.

-Logic Pro X - this has a CoreAudio running in the background that sometimes just eats up all the CPU on my 2015 i7 16GB 1TB SSD MBP. If anyone has a fix for this runaway Core Audio thread, I'd love to know.

-Pro Tools 10 - Stable. Complex in a way I didn't want to get into. Not "fun"

-Reaper - Stable. Less CPU than Logic Pro X on my Macbook. Fun, but more complex than it used to me. Too complex if you let it. Some Themes make it the best looking DAW on the market. Imperial and the AbbeyRoad (REDD) one are pretty impressive.

-FLStudio - Not really on Mac yet except for limited Beta, incompatible as Beta to eventual V1.0 on Mac. But if they had a good MAC version I would use it to help build song that are more loop based. It was great for that.

-Sony Acid Pro - Great for loop building, but only on PC. Shame. This was superb for building up drum loop audio tracks when I did that.

My biggest issue with Reaper is it not running Melodyne, but that will change soon they say. Only Ableton and PT10 was more stable. No other Daw has been smaller installed, used less CPU, or been easier to learn or more fun to use.

That all said, recording on a computer sucks ass, with the constant upgrades and engineering. When I had the AKAI DPS24, recording was easy, a joy, and always worked (unless a hard drive failed) Then I would port to PC for mixing (more modern plugins) but at least the recording part was in line with the inspiration. It only works with older PC OS's or else I'd still have that unit. Shame.
db9091 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:51 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.