new hardware/software/OS play nice together!

[cstocker77]

Hello,

I am currently running PT 10. Operating system is 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) I have been using a Motu 828mkII for a while now, and things have been good. I recently purchased a first generation UA Apollo.

I'm trying to figure out what my new sweet spot is. I would like to figure out what the highest Operating System on Mac I can use to continue to run Pro Tools 11. (i purchased PT 11, it came with PT 10, which I've been using for about 5 years. I never used PT 11, because at the time i was still using my Digi002, and that wouldn't play nice with PT 11)

I'm having trouble using plugins right now, I keep getting H/W Buffer errors. I've used DUC troubleshooting. I've done everything it says to do. I called Waves to make sure I had the most up to date plugins i could have.

my goal is to make PT 10 work better, or upgrade to PT 11. I need to figure out what OS I can upgrade to, to make the computer run a little smoother.

My Waves plugins are supported from OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and beyond. If PT 10 or 11 is supported with Mavericks, I'll try to upgrade to that. But I can't figure it out.

Thanks.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by cstocker77

Hello,

I am currently running PT 10. Operating system is 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) I have been using a Motu 828mkII for a while now, and things have been good. I recently purchased a first generation UA Apollo.

I'm trying to figure out what my new sweet spot is. I would like to figure out what the highest Operating System on Mac I can use to continue to run Pro Tools 11. (i purchased PT 11, it came with PT 10, which I've been using for about 5 years. I never used PT 11, because at the time i was still using my Digi002, and that wouldn't play nice with PT 11)

I'm having trouble using plugins right now, I keep getting H/W Buffer errors. I've used DUC troubleshooting. I've done everything it says to do. I called Waves to make sure I had the most up to date plugins i could have.

my goal is to make PT 10 work better, or upgrade to PT 11. I need to figure out what OS I can upgrade to, to make the computer run a little smoother.

My Waves plugins are supported from OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and beyond. If PT 10 or 11 is supported with Mavericks, I'll try to upgrade to that. But I can't figure it out.

Thanks.

If you look at the compatibility chart for the various versions of PT you'll find that the last OSX Avid considers compatible for PT10 is OSX 10.8.5. It will run just fine on OSX 10.9.5 except that the PT10 uninstaller doesn't work - there are steps listed on Avid's site and elsewheres on how to do that deed.

PT11 will run just fine on OSX 10.9.5. The last (for people not having PT12 and above) of PT11 which was 11.3.1 is considered compatible up to OSX 10.10.3. In my own experience it will also run okay in OSX 10.10.5. The problem with this OSX version is PT10 has major issues that have been detailed here like blank insert menus and such.

Here's the link to the compatibility page: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...tibility-Chart

As usual always have a working backup for your system drive for when things go wrong; that's a good thing to have anyways. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do my backups/clones. And do NOT do an in-situ OSX upgrade (install over the top of an existing OSX installation). I know that's the Apple Way but that process doesn't work right for audio work. Best to install everything from clean.

Don't forget that PT11 uses aax64 format plugins; PT10 was the last to use RTAS. Check that your third party plugins have updates to work in PT11.

[cstocker77]

That's all very good advice. Thank you. It seems like I will give Mavericks a try first, as I'm nervous to not have PT10. (probably no reason to be nervous, besides having to (pay for) upgrades on my few plugins.

But... OK, a couple of questions.
1. Should I uninstall PT 10, if I move up to PT11?
2. How exactly do I do "an in-situ OSX upgrade"?

My only 3rd party plugins are Waves, and UA. Hopefully I do not have to pay for an RTAS to AAX upgrade. I'll call Waves. Their customer service over the phone is pretty good.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by cstocker77

That's all very good advice. Thank you. It seems like I will give Mavericks a try first, as I'm nervous to not have PT10. (probably no reason to be nervous, besides having to (pay for) upgrades on my few plugins.

But... OK, a couple of questions.
1. Should I uninstall PT 10, if I move up to PT11?
2. How exactly do I do "an in-situ OSX upgrade"?

My only 3rd party plugins are Waves, and UA. Hopefully I do not have to pay for an RTAS to AAX upgrade. I'll call Waves. Their customer service over the phone is pretty good.

Answer to question one: if going to Mavericks just leave PT installed. There shouldn't be a problem. A lot of people have both PT versions on their machines in the same boot partition.

Answer to question two: an 'in-situ' OSX upgrade (aka the Apple Way) is to just install the newer OSX right over the top of an existing OSX install. To do a proper OSX upgrade you'll need to boot off an external setup like maybe a thumb drive - there's plenty of instructions on the web on how to create a bootable thumb drive to do an OSX upgrade - Google is your friend for that. There are multiple problems that can crop up like having incompatible plugins in the newer OSX. Another is PT can start to act weird with problems that just don't make sense. For giggles I tried just such an OSX upgrade and I had issues with PT like preferences changing for no good reason, various plugins not having authorizations, etc. Depending on what exact WavesHell you have you may need to pay the WUP tax/fee. Can't speak to the UAD ecosystem.

And again I can't stress this too much: make absolutely sure you have a working backup for at least the system drive.

[cstocker77]

hey- another question. well a couple.

How do i find a version of Mavericks? Should I buy a thumb drive for $20 on ebay? is it available from Apple?

And if I do the clean install, doesn't that erase my apps, and data, and files?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by cstocker77

hey- another question. well a couple.

How do i find a version of Mavericks? Should I buy a thumb drive for $20 on ebay? is it available from Apple?

And if I do the clean install, doesn't that erase my apps, and data, and files?

If you need a full installer of Mavericks take a look at Amazon for a dvd with the installer.

And yes - doing a clean install will wipe out everything. That's the whole point behind doing such an install - you start from a clean slate. Doing things the Apple Way isn't good for audio work. I've tried that for giggles and had issues. As always have a clone (on an external drive) of your working system BEFORE doing anything. When you go to do the clean install you'll need to boot off the external drive.