The iMac is one of the best desktop machines in Apple's history, and can be broadly split into two major groups. To be technical, the thick ones and the thin ones! The thicker, earlier models shipped with built-in DVD drives and often had common graphics card issues. Thankfully, these problems are absent in the later, thinner models.
iMacs are listed below oldest to newest.
GPU failure - A significant number of these machines were shipped with a particularly poor graphics card (the NVidia 8800GS) which had a high failure rate. A failed card can manifest in several ways - incomplete booting, display failure or displaying graphical artefacts. As virtually no other card is compatible with this machine, direct replacement with a working legacy NVidia 8800 GS is not recommended for obvious reasons. A repair is sometimes possible, but given the age of the machine, it's not often economically viable.
GPU failure - A significant number of these machines were shipped with a particularly poor graphics cards which had a high failure rate. A failed card can manifest in several ways - incomplete booting, display failure or displaying graphical artefacts. Many of these machines have dedicated graphics card, so direct like-for-like replacement with compatible legacy cards is not recommended for obvious reasons. A repair is sometimes possible, but given the age of the machine, it's not often economically viable.
LCD failure - This issue is more prevalent in the 27" models, and manifests as either not powering on at all or screen blanking during operation. Screen replacement is possible.
Intermittent power down - This can have several causes, most commonly a faulty power supply and/or a failing logic board. This issue requires inspection, but can often be repaired.
Drive failure - This affects machines that were shipped with either conventional hard drives (HDs) or Fusion drives (FDs). HDs were slow by SSD standards, but FDs, which used a hybrid HD and SSD design could often be even slower. The relatively small SSD portion of an FD is used by Mac OS as a commonly accessed data cache, so degrades very quickly. The best remedy is replacing any existing drive with an SSD. Please contact us with your iMac serial number.
____________________________________________________________
If you're experiencing a problem with your iMac, please contact us at MacKing. We exclusively use genuine Apple parts, and pride ourselves on being cost effective, fast, efficient, and, of course, friendly. If it can be fixed, we'll fix it.
____________________________________________________________
Thinking of buying an iMac from new? Think different.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging. Be kind to your planet and your wallet and choose the tech Fair Trade option - buy refurbished.
]]>A MacBook Air (MBA) is generally a well-designed and reliable machine. They're built with onboard graphics, and have no dedicated GPUs, so as a result the faults listed here are rarer than on it's bigger brother, the MacBook Pro.
MacBook Air (MBA) machines below are listed oldest to newest.
RAM failure - This problem manifests as the machine failing to power on while emitting a repeating 3-tone sound. The RAM is soldered directly onto the logic board in all MacBook Airs, so logic board replacement is often the only fix. This can be costly, but please contact us with your MBA serial number for a quote.
SSD failure - First generation MBAs were designed to use a ZIF-style storage device, (also used in iPods). Symptoms of RAM failure include flashing folder icons or incomplete booting. Replacement parts are still available for some of these models.
CPU failure - The CPU in this model is considerably more susceptible to failure compared to other Macs. These issues typically manifest as complete power failure and would, therefore, necessitate a thorough inspection to confirm the problem. The only fix is a replacement board, which is possible but often economically unviable.
RAM failure - This problem manifests as the machine failing to power on while emitting a repeating 3-tone sound. The RAM is soldered directly onto the logic board in all MacBook Airs, so logic board replacement is often the only fix. This can be costly, but please contact us with your MBA serial number for a quote.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, they are replaceable - contact us with your serial number for a quote.
RAM failure - This problem manifests as the machine failing to power on while emitting a repeating 3-tone sound. The RAM is soldered directly onto the logic board in all MacBook Airs, so logic board replacement is often the only fix. This can be costly, but please contact us with your MBA serial number for a quote.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, they are replaceable - contact us with your serial number for a quote.
Capacitor failure - This is not an uncommon fault and manifests as the machine failing to power on, but needs inspection to confirm this. The logic board is often repairable.
Backlight failure - Unsurprisingly, this fault manifests as nothing displayed on the screen, even if it showed signs of booting up. Older models with the white Apple logo on the lid are easy to diagnose - shine a light through from the back, and you'll see a faint image of what the screen should look like. Often repairable, but model dependent.
Capacitor failure - This is not an uncommon fault, and manifests as the machine failing to power on, but needs inspection to confirm this. The logic board is often repairable.
____________________________________________________________
If you're experiencing a problem with your MBA, please contact us at MacKing. We exclusively use genuine Apple parts, and pride ourselves on being cost effective, fast, efficient, and, of course, friendly. If it can be fixed, we'll fix it.
____________________________________________________________
Thinking of buying a MacBook Air from new? Think different.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging. Be kind to your planet and your wallet and choose the tech Fair Trade option - buy refurbished.
]]>Gertrude Stein once said 'A rose is a rose is a rose.' While that's not strictly true, you can see where she was going with that. In the modern commercial world we're constantly being (over) sold shiny-brand new-all-improved items in a sleek boxes that will surely improve our lives and make us happier, more productive human beings. Right? Wrong. Sure, we're buying a product for a specific use, but we're all magpies, drawn to glittery things and are easily seduced by cosmetic appeal.
I was at my local supermarket yesterday, and ended up with half a dozen 'perfectly imperfect' (their term) Bramley apples in my basket. They were 40% cheaper than the shiny ones, and weren't waxed to seduce my inner magpie. They taste just as good, help both the growers and my bank balance. Close your eyes and you don't miss the wax. A Bramley is indeed a Bramley is a Bramley.
Brand new Apple Macs have always come beautifully presented from the Mac store - that's always been part of their shtick. After you've unboxed and finished gasping with awe and delight though, it's just a computer. If you've chosen well, it'll be fast enough and capable for your needs, ready to give you years of service. Until you simply can't resist another unboxing, that is. Wait! Stop! Hear that gentle sobbing? It's your credit card. Give it some love.
Apple computers are supremely well designed, manufactured and most importantly maintained - that's why we love them. Regular updates ensure smooth running and security for many, many years, which is why avoiding buying new can be a very wise choice. If you're not buying new, your option is 'pre-loved', 'refurbished', or in plain speaking - second-hand.
My friend Greg treats his 2012 MacBook Pro as if it's his child. It looks brand new. Unlike my eldest daughter's MacBook Air, which after a year looked like it had done a few rounds with Mike Tyson. Crucially though, they both still work absolutely fine. Cosmetically very different, but both still do what they were designed for. It's the cosmetic aspect that necessitate resellers to grade machines. No good reseller is going to sell a computer that does not compute.
At MacKing, we're not going to patronise you with ten different grades with euphemistically delicious names. Our stock is all thoroughly tested, cleaned, repaired where necessary and assessed for resale. We don't sell 'broken' machines, so grading is down to cosmetic condition.
We only have three grades. If a machine resembles my friend Greg's spotless one, that's our regular stock. The other two grades are Wonky Apples. That's plain speaking.
Wonky Apples are either cosmetically 'good' or 'cost effective' - but remember that all our machines are in perfect working condition. The money you'll save is based on looks and looks alone.
• Good - this will be a lightly used machine, but there will be light scratches and imperfections on the casing and on metal parts, light signs of keyboard use and reasonably but not significant surface wear on the bottom case. The screen will be in very good condition and will have no visible scratches, imperfections or discolouration. The battery (if applicable) will meet good operating standards and be in 'normal' Condition as defined by Apple. This generally means that it has less than 500 charging cycles.
• Cost effective - There will be scuffs, scratches or dents/chips on the casing and chassis which impact only the visual condition - they'll cause no issues with use. The screen may have visible scratches or signs of wear, but will be fully functional with no chips, cracks or damage. As with 'good' machines, the battery (if applicable) will meet good operating standards and be in 'normal' Condition as defined by Apple. This generally means that it has less than 500 charging cycles.
Yes. Every MacKing Apple computer carries a 12 month warranty. That equals the general warranties for brand new machines. At a fraction of the price. Look past the shiny. An Apple is an Apple is an Apple.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging. Be kind to your planet and your wallet and choose the tech Fair Trade option - buy refurbished.
]]>
Before diving into model specific issues, it's worth mentioning some common issues that affect multiple models:-
• Graphics card failure - A graphics card failure can affect almost any MBP, and is the most prevalent universal fault. It manifests as graphical distortion and/or incomplete/cyclical booting. This is caused by one of the graphics chips, so like-for-like replacement of the logic board is possible but not a guaranteed fix. Bypassing the dedicated GPU is recommended.
• 'Staingate' - This is delamination of the LCD screen panel, where the anti-reflective coating separates from the LCD screen. Depending on the model, Apple may offer a free replacement service. Check on the Apple site for details.
• SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, these are replaceable on older models - on newer models, they're soldered directly to the logic board. Repairable, but it can be more cost effective to use external SSDs via a Thunderbolt port. You can check if yours is an easy fix by entering your serial number on the Apple site.
MacBook Pro (MBP) machines below are listed oldest to newest.
The 2008 15" and 17" MBPs were the last of the silver keyboards models, and had two common issues. Both faults are not cost effective fixes for machines of this age.
Screen frailty: The metal surrounds on the LCDs of these machines often breaks near the hinges, caused by an weaknesses in the LCD assembly design.
Graphics card failures: These models shipped with the Nvidia 8800 graphics cards which had a manufacturing defect, resulting in graphical distortion and incomplete booting. Apple initiated an extended repair program, but this did't completely address the issue.
The 2009 15" and 17" MBPs were the first revision of the Unibody models, and had two common issues -
Screen frailty - Display starts to separate from from the hinge area due to adhesive failure. Repairable, but cost prohibitive.
Failure to power on - The culprit is usually a faulty capacitor on the memory power rail resulting in no power at all when pressing the power button. This is repairable.
The 2010 15" MBPs can exhibit two rare faults -
Kernel Panic issues - This is often mistakenly attributed to a failed GPU chip, but in most cases is a failure of a capacitor on the logic board. The solution is either replacing the component with a more reliable one, or logic board replacement.
Graphics card failures - If you're seeing graphical screen distortion, it's likely that the GPU has failed. Logic board replacement.
Memory slot failure - A relatively rare problem, this manifests itself with the MBP beeping three times on boot. This is easy to diagnose - take out the RAM cards and try one card of RAM in each socket in turn to find the culprit. If it's a faulty slot, the repair is logic board replacement. Or living with less RAM!
These faults do not apply to the 2012 Retina Model -
Graphics card failure - causes incomplete booting or graphical distortion. Thankfully it's an unusual problem, as it entails a costly logic board replacement. Contact us for details.
Memory slot failure - A relatively rare problem, this manifests itself with the MBP beeping three times on boot. This is easy to diagnose - take out the RAM cards and try one card of RAM in each socket in turn to find the culprit. If it's a faulty slot, the repair is logic board replacement. Or living with less RAM!
These faults apply to all 13" Unibody models from these years -
Drive cable failures - The drive cable connects the HD to the logic board. In these models the routing of the cable runs through several 90° bends, so the copper in the cable can become brittle and crack. This will often look like an HD problem, and can often also cause the drive to fail. Due to the internal design of this machine, cable replacement isn't recommended. Replacing the optical drive with an SSD/HD caddy is the pragmatic solution.
These faults apply to all 15" Unibody models from these years -
Screen damage - These models have a separate glass outer layer, and are particularly prone to screen damage. The glass layer can be replaced separately, or the whole LCD screen can also be replaced if it has failed.
These faults don't apply to the 2012 Unibody Model -
GPU chip failure - This common fault is often mistakenly identified as a GPU issue. Symptoms manifest as either a black screen at boot, or when performing a GPU intensive task. The machine may restart and display a Kernel panic message referring to the (G)MUX chip. This is caused by a manufacturing issue - the IC which provides power to the U8900 GMUX graphics chip develops bad connections to the logic board due to being placed underneath a stress point. Repairable.
'Staingate' - This is delamination of the LCD screen panel, where the anti-reflective coating separates from the LCD screen. Depending on the model, Apple may offer a free replacement service. Check on the Apple site for details.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, these are replaceable on older models - on newer models, they're soldered directly to the logic board. Repairable, but it can be more cost effective to use external SSDs via a Thunderbolt port. You can check if yours is an easy fix by entering your serial number on the Apple site.
'Staingate' - This is delamination of the LCD screen panel, where the anti-reflective coating separates from the LCD screen. Depending on the model, Apple may offer a free replacement service. Check on the Apple site for details.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, these are replaceable on older models - on newer models, they're soldered directly to the logic board. Repairable, but it can be more cost effective to use external SSDs via a Thunderbolt port. You can check if yours is an easy fix by entering your serial number on the Apple site.
Intermittent powering off - A 'silent crash' - intermittent black screen, then power down. This is a CPU issue, but a software fix is worth trying before resorting to a new logic board.
Battery swelling: The batteries in these MBPs were prone to swelling alarmingly! Many machines were covered by an extended warranty from Apple - check their website for eligibility. If not, it's a battery replacement.
'Staingate' - This is delamination of the LCD screen panel, where the anti-reflective coating separates from the LCD screen. Depending on the model, Apple may offer a free replacement service. Check on the Apple site for details.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, these are replaceable on older models - on newer models, they're soldered directly to the logic board. Repairable, but it can be more cost effective to use external SSDs via a Thunderbolt port. You can check if yours is an easy fix by entering your serial number on the Apple site.
Trackpad/ Keyboard not working together - This issue is caused by the failure of the cable between the trackpad and the logic board. It manifests as the trackpad and the keyboard failing, sometimes intermittently. Repairable.
'Staingate' - This is delamination of the LCD screen panel, where the anti-reflective coating separates from the LCD screen. Depending on the model, Apple may offer a free replacement service. Check on the Apple site for details.
SSD failure - SSDs are more reliable (and obviously quicker) than HDs, but they can and do fail. Thankfully, these are replaceable on older models - on newer models, they're soldered directly to the logic board. Repairable, but it can be more cost effective to use external SSDs via a Thunderbolt port. You can check if yours is an easy fix by entering your serial number on the Apple site.
These faults apply to the non-touchbar model. All three of these faults are covered by Apple extended repair schemes - check your serial number on the Apple website.
SSD failures - The SSD drives in these MBPs commonly fail.
Keyboard issues - The original keyboards on these MBPs were problematic, often displaying as random key failures.
Battery failure - The batteries in these machines commonly fail.
Display issues - Commonly known as 'Flexgate' (or the 'stage lights effect'), bright spots appear along the bottom of the LCD panel. Sometimes the LCD backlight fails completely. Repairable.
Keyboard issues: The original keyboards on these MBPs were problematic, often displaying as random key failures. Some models can be repaired.
These faults apply to all MBP Retina models.
Backlight Failure - There isn't one dedicated remedy for this, as repairs are model specific. Unsurprisingly, this fault manifests as nothing displayed on the screen, even if it showed signs of booting up. Older models with the white Apple logo on the lid are easy to diagnose - shine a light through from the back, and you'll see a faint image of what the screen should look like. Often repairable, but model dependent.
____________________________________________________________
If you're experiencing a problem with your MacBook Pro, contact us here at MacKing. We're cost effective, fast, efficient, and (of course) friendly. We only use genuine Apple parts.
____________________________________________________________
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging. Be kind to your planet and your wallet and choose the tech Fair Trade option - buy refurbished.
]]>
My youngest once 'decorated' my laptop. With a sharpie. Bless her, she was only five, and so proud of her work. A friend of mine had a hard drive wiped by a curious toddler.
Similarly, we've seen a laptop with corrosion marks from the droppings of a free flying pet parrot. That's some strong sh•t. And a Mac Pro that was housing an ants nest. OK, nobody expected that one, but you get the point. Treat your Mac with some respect.
__________________________________________________
Beyond that, get a good malware detection programme, always back up, don't bloat your drive with too many useless files (download folder anyone?) and always remember that a Mac is a highly desirable item so don't leave it lying around!
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging. Be kind to your planet and your wallet and choose the tech Fair Trade option - buy refurbished.
]]>
So you want to record your new audiobook/ podcast/ broadcast to the nation. You just get the fastest new Mac that you can afford with a built in microphone and off you pop, right? Wrong.
Producing professional quality spoken word entails quite a bit more than that. Your computer is simply a tape recorder and editor. In the recording industry, a popular truism (and please excuse the crudity) is 'shit in shit out'. Thanks to powerful software tools, that isn't quite as true as it used to be, but still and all you want to capture the best quality audio possible from the outset.
The spoken word market is as congested as anything else, and to compete you'll need to sound at your best - that is, without the ummms and errs, the irritating heavy breathing, echoing rooms, popping 'p's, mouth clicks.....it's a long list, believe me.
There'll be a considerable list of purchases that you'll need to make in order to achieve this, and buying the fastest Mac known to humanity won't be at the top of that list - but a good, reliable computer will lie at the heart of everything that you do.
When buying anything, one appears to have just two choices -
1/ Brand spanking new, box fresh with a guarantee from a (hopefully) trusted source. With an Apple machine, that will inevitably be Apple, so trust is a given.
2/ Secondhand - pre-owned, pre-loved, or any number of dressed up terms to describe 'used'. The problem is one of trust and the relative values attributed to those terms. Who on earth are you buying from? Is it used or abused? Is a complete stranger's definition of 'love' similar to yours? Is you new-old Mac ever going to show up (in one piece)?
As a seasoned eBay warrior, I've bought many things on the used market, and though my experiences are generally good, my disappointment/ not-as-described/ filthy/ not showing up quota lies at around 5% of purchases. I wouldn't want a computer in that 5%.
Let's make a distinction here:- by 'refurbished', I'm recommending established companies that specialise in Macs - not some guy in Wigan advertising on eBay (nothing wrong with Wigan or eBay, but...).
Most importantly, any good refurb company will give you a 12 months no quibble guarantee - that's exactly the same as you get from Apple for a new machine.
Peace. Of. Mind.
Most of us are spending this winter of discontent wandering around the house in more clothes than usual. Many people I know have switched off their energy smart meters and are bracing themselves for eye watering fuel bills, and when we do brace ourselves to go out to the shops we're surrounded by a communal mimed muttering chorus of 'how much??!!'. In short, we're all a bit broke one way or another. I admit that the reality isn't that festive, but speak as I find. To compound things, when we find ourselves crushed between the twin retail battering rams that are Black Friday and Christmas, we're prone to persuade ourselves that a sparkly new bit of kit will....erm...cheer us up. Perhaps a new M2 laden desktop Mac will fly you to the moon (and away from the crushing news cycle). Or perhaps not. Maybe we'll all just have to cheer up and carry on carrying on. Ho ho ho!
Some say that in the current global economic crisis, we simply have to sideline greener options for the time being and pull ourselves out of the mud first. I say precisely the opposite. We all have to rethink how we use all of our resources and leave the single use/disposable mindset where it belongs - in the last century. Squeeze every bit of life out of what we already have before we consign it to the recycling. That includes computers. Bombarded by retail, we all have to differentiate between want and need.
If this all sounds like a rant - well it is. A plea for common sense.
'How can I reduce e-waste when buying a new iMac?' Simples. Don't.
A refurbished iMac may well completely fulfil all of your needs and more. You may even have enough cash left over to pay some of your next Leccy bill.
I haven't finished ranting - lets go back to want and need.
The usual answer is that your last one has died. All things must pass, and computers are no different. However, Macs do last longer than Windows machines (that's a fact, Donald). They're simply better made, and more crucially better maintained via Apple's software updates. Before you decide that your iMac has expired, go and do a bit of digging on the net - I've fixed many 'dead' Macs over the years that had software conflicts, no HD space, defective memory etc, and have come back from the grave fighting. Around 50% of machines I've worked on have survived and gone on to provide good service.
Assuming that your Mac is a goner though, the next stage is harder.
You need to replace your iMac. Those ads for the brand new 24" iMac are making you reach for your credit card because, yes, they do look lovely. The first banner that currently comes up on the Apple site is 'You've never seen a computer like this before'. See what they did there? The fact that it's super slim and relaxing green won't help with your next spreadsheet, it's appealing to want. Hands up, they are super fast, but do you need super fast? Is, say a 2015 iMac really slow then?
Question everything. Don't make the decision with your eyes or heart). Follow the logic.
]]>The good news is that most of the time, you really don't need an 'Apple Genius' to ban the ball and speed up your MacBook Pro (MBP).
]]>
The problem with computer sluggishness is that it quite often develops slowly over time, so we acclimatise ourselves to the gradual deceleration. Like that frog in gradually heating water, we don't notice until our sleek silvery super-laptop is crawling along with our new constant companion - the dreaded spinning beachball of doom.
The good news is that most of the time, you really don't need an 'Apple Genius' to ban the ball and speed up your MacBook Pro (MBP).
In my experience, 99% of all sluggishness problems stem from four general areas. Let's start by looking at the major causes and address some solutions.
If you never put your clothes away, you'll never find your socks. Yes, my mum used to say that to me, and like a lot of things mum's say - it's true. The first problem is you. Dear Reader, you are spinning the ball.
How much space is on your disk? Go to applications/utilities/disk utility then highlight your HD to find out. I find it good practice to always have HD space displayed at the bottom of windows. To do so, open any window then go to view/show status bar in the MacOS Finder. Your storage status will now be permanently displayed at the bottom of every window.
Once you've found out how much HD space you've got - or more to the point, haven't got - you might want to free some up. Empty the trash. Empty the download folder of anything you no longer need (which will be most of it). Uninstall unused apps, delete old files. If your disk is still heaving, you'll 'need a bigger boat' (i.e. more HD space). Disks for archive/backup are now dirt cheap, so there's reason not to. Someone years ago told me that a disk should always be 20% empty. I stick to that, and it works. Besides, if your data isn't backed up....it doesn't really exist!
When it comes to deleting system files, proceed with caution! It's certainly more than possible, but so is turning that spinning beachball into a black screen. There are plenty of third party utilities out there (such as cleanmymac) which can be helpful for removing what can be bloated, space hungry redundant system files.
Your desktop is not a filing system! Think of the desktop as the hall by your front door. No-one can get into the house if it's piled up with all your filing. Use your 'Documents' folder for that, and your MBP will thank you. While you're at it, remove unnecessary apps from the dock.
Get into the habit of having less apps open. Otherwise your MBP will be trying to have too many simultaneous conversations, and the poor love will get terribly slurry and slow. Simples.
Like...erm...Prime Ministers, some versions of MacOS are better than others. For instance, in my professional world of music production, 'Big Sur' had many nicknames, most of them very rude. Put simply, it sucked big time. You're often likely to be running third party (i.e. non Apple) software inside the OS, and sometimes a troublesome OS can play beachball, rather than ball, with third parties.
Whatever OS you're running, keep it updated. Apple are world class when it comes to bug and security updates, so take full advantage of it. I've had many occasions where an OS update has sped up both third party and native software.
Over the years, I've very occasionally had to take a software baseball bat to my computer in the form of the dreaded 'reinstall MacOS'. As long as you back up, it's not actually that bad beyond migrating your data back in and getting unimaginably bored inputting your passwords again. It doesn't happened that often, but sometimes the OS corrupts and it's the only way back.
Some of these tips really belong under housekeeping, but as they're software related, here they are.
MacOS has a list of 'login items' that launch on powering up and can result in very draggy startup times. In the finder, go to the top left Apple icon then system preferences/users and groups then click on the tab for 'login items'. From the list, disable or delete any unwanted/ unused items. You may well find some 'orphans' in this list - items left by legacy software that's no longer relevant. This can significantly speed up startup times.
'Spotlight' is your Mac's indexing system, and can create problems of its own. Like all of us, it can become confused or simply have too much on its plate. If you've recently updated your OS, or you've migrated your old system onto your new machine, Spotlight can be chuntering away for hours re-indexing, which can slow things up. It can also get stuck in the process, which can slow things, so it's sometimes worth manually restarting the indexing process.
Go to the top left Apple icon in the finder then system preferences/Spotlight. In the window that opens, click the privacy tab then drag your hard disk onto the window. Now remove it again by clicking the '-' symbol at the bottom left of the window. This will restart the indexing process.
If you look in applications/utilities you'll find 'activity monitor'. Running this app can show up particularly hungry CPU apps that may be slowing you down. Go to the 'CPU' tab then double click on any app with high CPU usage. You can then disable them from here to see if that's the culprit.
The SMC controls all the power functions on your Mac, while the NVRAM (PRAM on older machines) retains basic configuration information. It can sometimes be a good idea to reset these, as like all of us, they can get scrambled over time. These two resets have helped me many times.
To reset SMC, shut down your machine and hold the Shift + Control + Option and the power keys for twenty seconds. Older Macs use a different process detailed on the Apple website.
To reset NVRAM, reboot your machine holding the Command + Option + P + R keys until you see the Apple logo appear twice, then release.
Like all of us, computer hardware eventually gets old and doddery. If this happens with the logic board, likely as not you'll be left with a worthless but attractive doorstop. More commonly, though, slowing performance can be an indicator of impending hard disk failure. Without diagnostic software (more about which below), you won't know this for sure until you replace it. However, running an SSD as your system disk really boosts performance all around, so you might want to consider an upgrade.
RAM, likewise, can and does wear out and fail (ditto diagnostic software), but less common than HD failure in my experience. However, it's worth considering upgrading RAM to as much as you can afford to really give you a speed boost.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think that you'll have gathered by now that prevention is the best cure when caring for your Mac. In addition to this, I think that it's well worth the ££ investing in some good all around diagnostic and maintenance software. I don't work for them (honest), but Micromat's excellent TechToolPro is my go to, and has gotten me out of trouble on countless occasions.
Look after your Mac and it'll look after you. Now go tidy your room.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thinking of buying a MacBook Pro from new? Think different.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
]]>
There are a myriad of SVG apps out there, from free and open source through one-time-paid-for to the inevitable additions to your monthly subscription bills. I've limited this list to 5 apps - to be comprehensive, it would have been nearer 55. The apps here are trusted, and they work well - how well they work for you depends, as always, on the nature and frequency of your work.
We're all guilty of rolling our eyes at 'yet another subscription', but subs do have their advantages. If you're organised, they're straightforward to budget for, and if you're not making a lifetime commitment, you can turn them off at any time. Also, they're likely to be supported. Do you really want to come back to your lovely logo project after an OS update and have to wait an age for an app update? We've all been there.
Your choice of which app (and financial outlay) depends on how much and for how long you'll use it.
So on to my top 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pricing - annual prepaid £238.42/ monthly £30.34/ annual paid monthly £19.97
It would be foolish not to begin with the all singing and dancing Adobe Illustrator. It's the industry standard and go-to for graphics professionals, designed for designers, photographers and businesses alike. With Illustrator you can create SVG designs for limitless real world and web applications, as well as combining text with objects for smooth transition between images. It comes with a huge library of royalty free stock and can be easily integrated with other Adobe apps such as After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop and Animate.
It may be the most costly offering here, but if design is your bread and butter, this subscription is a no-brainer.
Pricing - free
Inkscape is open source and completely free - not pretendy free (you know what I mean!).
This is a great SVG package, perfect for the sometime user but also highly capable of producing very professional results (naming no names, I know someone who designed a very well-known fast food logo with it a while back).
All software that is capable of real power entails a steep learning curve, but Inkscape offers a variety of features that can simplify the learning (and creative) process, so ideal for a newbie. It supports all expected SVG features in its macOS version - gradients, textures, transforms, alpha channel, paths, text, markers, clones and grouping. It also benefits from supporting Creative Commons metadata, node editing, layers, complex path operations and more.
Inkscape may not be the flashiest app around - it can be a bit clunky at times (especially in the text tool dept), but it's a lot of app for the asking price of nothing!
Pricing - MacOS £47.99/ iPad £17.99
Something of a (relatively) new kid on the block, Affinity Designer has positioned itself as a serious challenger to Illustrator - at a much cheaper, subscription free price. It's rock solid, optimised for the latest Mac tech and benefits from frequent updates.
In some areas one could argue that it's slightly 'stripped back' compared to Illustrator, but it more than makes up for that with its sheer useability. Since it's release, this app has gained a lot of traction with Pro users as highly featured workhorse.
Silky smooth to use, gimmick free, it's a top class and very well designed SVG app.
Pricing - free
Vectr is a different animal to the offerings so far. All singing and dancing it ain't, but it makes up for that with sheer ease of use. That's not to say that you can't produce very professional results - it has a wide range of functionality beneath its seemingly simple interface, and its cross platform 'live' features are very useful. The 'liveness', however, is exactly what it says - this is an online editor, so no designing for you in a remote cabin in the Himalayas. That said, worth a try, and definitely a great place to start with SVG.
Pricing - free
Vectornator was designed for MacOS/ iOS - something that is very apparent from the app's appearance. You'll immediately be comfortable with the layout, and it really doesn't take very long to get the hang of Vectornator. As is apparent in their logo, much is made of the beautiful 'pen' tool (which on an iPad, would, of course, be your finger). Very expressive and lovely to use, the gesture controls are very well thought out.
Vectornator is also lightening fast , multi-platform and designed for collaboration. Well worth checking out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thinking of buying a Mac desktop from new? Think different.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
Why not try our used and refurbished Mac desktops?
]]>When Apple's iPad was first introduced in 2012, it was quite rightly hailed as a wonder of modern science. Lovely as it was, however, it was little more than a superannuated iPhone. Granted, a nice big touchscreen, but surely not a serious replacement for the laptop?
Ten years is a long long time in technology, and the iPad is now a very serious bit of kit, especially since the introduction of the iPad Pro in 2015. Over the years, everything got better, more powerful, and crucially, third party developers were now able to join the ...er...party. Paired with a compatible keyboard, iPad could now almost become a laptop (albeit in two bits), and the introduction of the Apple Pencil created exciting new possibilities in graphics and design.
As a grumpy-old-sod parent of six, I'm really directing this at the older generation - or to put it more accurately, I'm aiming at the people who'll be paying for this. You've done the nappies, the sleepless nights, the schooling, the sandwich making, the dreaded teenage years and now you're packing them off to uni with an expensive computer. So which one, and how expensive?
If your beloved progeny are anything like mine, they'll break things. They'll lose things. They'll splii drinks on them and drop them. So.....don't buy new! Buy refurbished. Learn a bit of basic computer maintenance, because they won't (see my other blogs about this). In short, like your whole parenting experience, expect trouble.
A brand spanking new Apple machine is certainly a glorious thing, but are they really going to need all that power? Are they flying to Mars or doing a degree in psychology? A refurbished Macbook Pro or iPad Pro, carefully chosen, will save you ££.
Rant over.
The first thing to understand is the basic difference between how these two machines work.
iPad Pros work on the iOS platform, whereas MacBook Pros work on MacOS. These two operating systems are distinct (but related) cousins. Both platforms have excellent support and security from Apple, but it still broadly remains the case that many popular apps have increased functionality in their MacOS versions (MS Word and Photoshop to name two). It's worth bearing this in mind, depending on what the intended use is.
An iPad is an elegant and robust device with no moving parts (to break, darling).
In terms of performance, it's becoming a closer and closer call between the two platforms, but generally the MacBook Pro (MBP) still edges it in many areas.
An iPad Pro is significantly lighter and more portable than an MBP, and it's also significantly cheaper. Hurrah!
However....
That lovely iPad touchscreen is more than capable of data input, but for (say) long essay writing, a keyboard is a no-brainer - it'll be much easier, and faster, to use. If the intended area of use is heavily graphics-based, you might also want to consider an Apple Pencil. That will involve more money, more stuff to carry around as well as being more things to lose (or break, darling).
The most obvious difference between these two devices is connectivity and storage. A refurbed MBP will potentially have much greater local storage, and given the two to four ports (depending on model), external storage is both easy and cheap. Not so with an iPad - it's designed to be a physical connectivity minimalist, relying on Bluetooth and cloud use. Having said that, much study work is now be cloud based - again, it depends in the nature of your studies.
Also, MBPs have a dedicated headphone jack - not so with iPads. Both platforms do, however, support the use of Bluetooth audio outs ('Dad, can you buy me some Air pods?').
Consider your storage and external connectivity needs before deciding.
Whilst the cameras on MBPs have improved massively in recent years, the iPad wins hands down in this respect - they're just better (as well as having additional rear cameras). Depending on the model, iPads also have superior displays for the ££.
'....are selfies really an essential module in the course darling?'
This is the most crucial question in your decision. If intended use involves high end processing and/or local storage (music or video, for example), then it really has to be the trad laptop route. Likewise, if your little treasure is a serious gamer, you'll need an MBP.
However, if the intended area is, say, languages or English Lit, then an iPad may be ideal - it can also double as an e-reader. No carrying libraries around.
Remeber, though, as I've said - many apps have better functionality under MacOS, so be sure to check intended use.
The elephant in this room that I haven't mentioned yet is the MacBook Air - something that lies between the MBP and the iPad Pro. Think of it as an iPad Pro with a keyboard. A MacBook Air's display and cameras are slightly inferior to the iPad Pro's (depending on the model), but you get a lot of bang for your buck, and they really are cute little machines.
Most affordable refurbished MacBook Airs will ship with between 128gb and 512gb of SSD storage (although they now ship with up to 2tb), and run on MacOS. Very light, slim and elegant. A bit like me.
Or not.
Getting the most out of an iPad for daily work will involve a learning curve to fully master those multitasking gestures, and perhaps a more familiar laptop experience will be easier in a strange new world. Or perhaps it's just more familiar to an old git like me....
We're all susceptible to marketing;- your kids will tell you that they need to be going on their travels with the very latest M1 chipped machine - they don't. Lovely as these computing wonders are, a good solid refurbished machine is your best way forward.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished MacBook Pro or iPad Pro, we're collectively reducing our carbon footprint and preserving the planet - now and for future generations.
Now that's education.
In 2016, Apple released the first MacBook Pros with a Touch Bar, which replaced the familiar top row of Function keys on the traditional qwerty keyboard with a touch sensitive display. Apple said that this much trumpeted innovation would unleash our creativity - on top of the function keys that it replaced, it would provide adaptive commands for supported apps as well as customisable emojis and quick access to many areas of the OS. All in all, you have to hand it to Apple for taking the plunge, but it proved to be a largely unpopular move - Apple have now ditched the Touch Bar in the latest M1 models and returned to the land of qwerty.
For those of us that are in the market for a refurbished MacBook Pro, the question is - what are the pros and cons of a Touch Bar model? I recently upgraded from my trusty 2015 MBP, as in my job I use so many 3rd party apps that I have to stay (relatively) current. I now have a shiny 2019 MBP with a Touch Bar, and although it takes a bit of getting used to, it works fine for me. I was a little wary, though, as online is full of articles with titles like 'Apple's MacBook Pro Touch Bar is gone. Good riddance!'. Is it really that bad? In my recent experience, the short answer is a qualified 'no'.
The below is a quick look at the good and the bad - it will vary between specific models, so take it as a general overview.
There's no ugliness going on here, it's a beautiful machine, but if I had one criticism it would be that the touch bar is a little....over engineered? Sure, it has its uses - in day to day use, I much prefer the touch bar for adjusting volume and brightness, and it's come in handy when using Logic Pro for pop-up app functions, but overall? I could live without the bar, and that seems to be the consensus of the majority Mac users.
So I guess that Apple do listen then. They've ditched the Touch Bar, gone back to qwerty function keys and returned the beloved Magsafe on the new M1 models. I get that in order to provide us with something as sleek and light as this that there'll inevitably be connectivity compromises - but please don't change the protocol yet again in 10 minutes time!.
So if Apple really are listening.....stop gluing and soldering things in so we can't modify and extend the life our computers and planet Earth!
]]>Many of us had never even heard of Zoom before the Covid 19 pandemic, but it's only taken a brief two years for it to enter the dictionary as a verb. We've all had to learn how to start and conduct video meetings, whether for business or connecting with loved ones (wine Fridays anyone?). We've also all had to learn how to end meetings too - the uncomfortable moments when everything has been said and time is up, or the business meetings where Gary from accounts dives into unnecessary details and the meeting drags on for what seems like hours. How we'll all look back and laugh! Or not.
The Zoom platform took off exponentially in the pandemic, and quickly became the video communication app of choice - mainly due to it's ubiquity and its cross-platform ease of use. It's for this reason that I'm only reviewing 5 alternatives here (there are a good number more).
Ease of use is key. I remember early on in C19 when someone invited me to a meeting on Jabberblog (or something like that). Needless to say, I didn't have it, and much eyerolling ensued. I never made the meeting, as I couldn't get the damn thing to work on my iPad. Does not compute, does not compute.....
Ubiquity and useability are everything - we all know by now that in the world of communication and sharing, we simply can't afford to use anything niche or difficult. It's not just about me, it's about how useable it is for evryone involved.
Zoom is great - an almost fool proof app ('Martha, you're muted!') and it's free. For a 40 minute meeting. And more limited functionality. Truth is, if you want more than 40 minutes and the full shebang that Zoom offers, you'll have to open your wallet. It's understandable, they're not a charity, and Zoom is, after all, aimed squarely at video conferencing and webinar capability - something that larger businesses are happy to pay for. Zoom comes in 4 different packages at time of writing - Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise - each opening up more functionality and/or available licences.
Out of the 5 alternatives offered here, I'll start at the app that is aimed most accurately at the Zoom business user base.
Microsoft Teams
MS Teams appears to me to be Zoom's most direct competitor. Like Zoom, it has 4 versions: Free, Essential, Business Basic and Business Standard. A key point worth noting is that the 'Business' versions include all Microsoft 365 apps - 'Business Basic' gives you web and mobile app versions, and 'Business Standard' gives you the desktop versions with 'premium features'.
As the name suggests, MS Teams is squarely aimed at work teams and collaberation, and the full integration of Office 365 apps gives it a clear edge over Zoom in this respect. It has a 'Together Mode' that makes participants all share the same virtual background, and supports standard chat and voice call features. Its screen and file sharing capabilities makes collaboration seamless.
Zoom scores on a 1,000 participant capacity over Teams' 300 cap, but Teams enables 60 minute meetings in the free version as opposed to Zoom's 40 minutes. The maximum meeting time limit on MS Teams is 24 hours, whereas Zoom offers 30 hours. A 30 hour meeting. Really?
MS Teams and Zoom are pretty neck and neck in their Pro versions, so you pays your money and takes your choice....
FaceTime
Two crucial things to know about FaceTime are a) it's made by Apple and b) it's free. This means that there are no (and probably won't ever be) any in-app purchases, and that it's made for Apple users. Having said that, MacOS Monterey opens up inviting non-Apple users to Facetime meetings on desktop machines, but effectively - it's Apple only.
FaceTime supports group call to 32 participants, provides end-to-end encryption and is easy as pie to use on any iOS device beyond iOS7 - which, let's face it, is 99.9% of us.
It's an intuitive platform, and as long as you're an Apple user, 32 participants may be more than a lot of us may ever need. FaceTime also provides the ability to use Animoji, Memoji and 'fun' effects if that's your thing. It's not my thing. Bah, humbug.
Good app, though.
Skype
Time was when Skype was one of the few games in town. It's now part of the Microsoft ecosystem, and still an effective and easy to use app.
Skype supports up to 50 participants and offers texting and instant messaging inside meetings. It's also got a handy subtitle feature that transcribes spoken word to text in real time during meetings - excellent for hearing impaired users, and highly entertaining used on people like me from Saaaf London.
Skype allows meeting recording and screen sharing, and is also true to its telecoms roots in offering a standard 'phone' video and audio service with optional subscriptions (useful for international calls).
Google Duo
Like FaceTime, Duo supports up to 32 participants, end-to-end encryption, screen sharing, meeting recording, text and messaging. In many ways, Duo is Google's version of Apple Facetime - very easy to set up and use, and even more of a synch if you're a Google Suite user.
Like FaceTime, it's also properly no strings free.
Many of us are so used to using WhatsApp in group text mode that we sometimes forget that this even has other functions.
WhatsApp (owned by FaceBook) limits you to 8 participants, but it's a free no strings offering. This app was never really designed for business use, but that's not to say that you can't! It functions really well, supports free audio and video calling, file exchange (as long as they're not massive), and is a good secure platform. And ubiquitous - which counts for a lot.
So which one of these will you use? If you're asking me - I use all of them. I have a 'comms' folder on my iPad, so that whatever the platform I'm invited to, I'm ready to go. I have 8 apps in there at last count - but not Jabberblog. It still doesn't work......
]]>Imagine that history were different, and Apple was based not in Cupertino but Basingstoke. Right about now, we'd all be considering upgrading to MacOS Bedford (from MacOS Norwich). As it is, we can all follow Apple's geographical wanderings through the vastness of the USA - welcome to Monterey, Jack!
It seems like I'm just about getting used to Big Sur. Boy, this is one fast journey. So what will this new MacOS mean for your Apple computer?
I'm going to start this quick rundown of the new OS where other reviews end. Compatibility.
I love my Macs, but haven't bought a new one for over a decade. I go the refurbished route, as it's way more cost effective for me, as well as being kinder to a troubled planet. For the past few years, I've operated a 'ten year rule':- i.e. ten years seems to be the 'useful' lifespan of a Mac to me, before it can no longer cope with the last couple of operating systems, at which point third party developers also leave the poor old relic behind. A once cherished friend becomes a doorstop.
You'll be able to run MacOS Monterey on the following machines -
I'm forward planning. My trusty (and highly capable) Mid 2014 MacBook Pro is now stuck forever at Big Sur, so I'm thinking that I've got another year or so before getting some ££ for the old dear before upgrading. Again.
Machine lifespans appear to be shrinking, in main due to Apple's introduction of the new M1 chip.
I won't list all the features here, just the major updates. Take it as read that there are numerous upgrades to everything from the Finder to Siri - lets say enhanced utility capabilities. You can run down those on the Apple site. It's important to note that there are also a bunch of new features limited to M1 Macs. Is the writing on the wall for older machines? Will MacOS Detroit lock us out?
I won't run down the new M1-only features here. Again, the Apple site is your go-to for that - I just thought it important to mention.
Universal Control
This is a major new feature in the Monterey. It allows a single Mac to control multiple Macs and/or iPads, so you can use your mouse, trackpad or keyboard to control all machines. Your cursor will transition from one display to another, and crucially for me, supports drag and drop between machines. That really is a gamechanger. This feature is an automatic feature and requires no setup. Nice.
Airplay for Mac
While we're in the realm of your Mac family having better conversation skills, it's now possible to Airplay to your Mac, allowing content exchange between your Mac and iPhones, iPads and other Macs. So, aside from transferring data, you can also use another machine as an external display or speaker (or Airplay 2 speakers). Airplay to Mac can be wireless or over wired USB-C if latency is an issue for you. However - AirPlay to Mac only works with -
Live Text
Character recognition for photos, baked into the new OS. Lovely. Live Text can recognise both printed and handwritten characters, ready to paste into your app of choice (although I bet it won't 'get' my appalling handwriting).
Live Text supports URLs, addresses, phone numbers and much more. All detection is on-device, so no cloud security issues. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's been waiting for this. Hallelujah.
Translate
Safari's translate feature has now been made system-wide, so you can simply right-click just about anywhere to bring up l'option de traduction (the translate option).
Several languages are currently supported, but this list will no doubt quickly grow. This feature also works with the new Live Text - OCR and translate in one!
Focus
I'm liking the new Focus features very much - it's a kind of upgraded Do Not Disturb mode, allowing you to allow or block depending on what you're working on. We all need focus.
You can customise your focus 'modes' - for example minimising or silencing notifications from selected apps, and your preferences will be synced and mirrored to all your devices. If an incoming message is silenced, the third party will be notified (and reassured that you still love them). It also supports third party (non-Apple) apps. The first one I'll be turning off when I'm working will be WhatsApp. Ping ping ping ping ping........
Notifications also have a new, smarter look and new mute features.
FaceTime and SharePlay
FaceTime has had a major makeover, and has introduced the integrated SharePlay, which allows you to share open apps, music, TV and video content directly inside FaceTime. Game night anyone?
SharePlay also supports Spatial Audio while the new Voice Isolation mode cleans up background audio. The new Wide Sound mode is almost the opposite of Voice Isolation, useful for highlighting all the sound large groups calls. No more stuttery moments where everyone is cutting everyone else off!
Crucially, FaceTime now supports non Apple users by sharing call links, and group calls have been greatly improved with Grid View.
Safari Tab Groups
Nice one, this. With Tab Groups, you can save groups of web pages that you want to keep open but don't want to clog your main menu bar.
Safari can save and even share these tab groups for later visits - a truly useful feature.
Notes - Quick Note
Notes has also had a makeover in Monterey. You can make notes anytime by moving your cursor to the bottom right of the display where the note icon will appear. A great feature for general use, but may need switching off when it's getting in the way of Photoshop editing.
Private - keep out!
Apple is (quite rightly IMHO) obsessed with privacy, and has introduced the new iCloud+ service, which adds many privacy oriented features including iCloud Relay. iCloud Relay encrypts and protects internet activity by routing connections through two discrete internet relays - no-one will be able to use your IP address, browsing preferences or location to profile you. iCloud+ also includes a nifty Hide My Email function - I'm liking this. It generates random email addresses that forward to your mailbox - useful for those online forms/ newsletters etc. No more mailbombing everytime you sign up.
There are privacy protection upgrades to the Mail app, password improvements in System Preferences and much more.
Apple has also announced new child safety features that will be unveiled with software updates in the new year. Long overdue.
Monterey certainly looks to be a very capable OS with all of these new features, but....a word of warning...
I'm a music producer, so rely on a very large number of third party apps for my work. For obvious security reasons, Apple doesn't 'warn' third party developers pre OS release, so right now all of those hardworking boys and girls that develop the software I use are busy rolling up their sleeves and updating their apps so they're compatible with MacOS Monterey. But it takes time,so be sure that you can run everything that you need before pressing the upgrade button.
My usual modus operandi on major OS releases is to update my MacBook Pro long before the MacPro that I rely on for work. I'll only go for it when the MacBook will run everything that I need. As a result, I only went to Big Sur last month. That's just how long it takes for developers to catch up.
So now I'm off to install Monterey on my MacBook Pro.
Except imy MBP is a Mid 2014, so I can't.
Bah, humbug.....
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished MacBook pro, we are collectively reducing our carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations.
To any creative who works with Apple products, the Mac Pro has always been the flagship desktop. The outstanding features of this product line has made it one of the powerful and flexible computers in the entire Apple range.
With its dual-core processors and rectangular case, the original Mac Pro was able to establish its identity back in 2006. Over the last 15 years, the Mac Pro has been transformed generation after generation, maintaining the high quality and performance that Apple is famous for.
Why do professionals in the creative industries use Apple? In audio, video and graphics, they're simply better than their Windows alternatives. Major software companies at the high ends of these professional fields focus their efforts on the Mac, as they know that that's where their user base is. So we're all naturally pulled in that direction. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.
Why is the Apple Mac Pro the weapon of choice over the iMac? Flexibility, power, connectivity and upgradeable options have always made it superior - plus, for someone like me that works in audio, I can get the computer out of the room!
Within each of the three generations of Mac Pro evolution, there have been many successive improvements and upgrades. I won't give you a blow-by-blow account of these here, as it would run to dozens of pages - you can find that elsewhere. This is simply an overview of the three generations.
I know I know, it sounds like Star Trek. To be honest, when I got my first Mac Pro back in 2006, it felt like I was in Star Trek.
Apple Mac Pro 2006
My first Mac Pro, aka 'The Wind Tunnel'. Idiosyncratic fan noise that would often have me reaching for a coat. Powerful bugger, though.
With the release of this first generation in August 2006, these computers were a gamechanger. After its release, Apple abandoned the prefix 'Power' and focussed on using 'pro'. Remember the Power Mac? And the Performa? Am I getting misty eyed? No - I never looked back after my first Mac Pro.
In this first generation, features like non-linear digital editing and high-end video and audio quality were highly trumpeted by Apple. They helped the company in establishing the particular image that we today associate with the Mac Pro. For me, as an audio professional, this was the first truly capable Mac that I owned.
Over the years, revisions and upgrades have increased processing speeds, RAM and logic board improvements as the OS was also evolving forward at a remarkable speed, demanding ever more power and performance. However, all 1st gen models used Intel processors, so when Apple moved away from this processor, the OS and the second generation Mac Pros were coming. Goodbye my old windy friend...
This was a helluva sequel.
Apple Mac Pro 2013
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a trashcan?
The second generation of Mac pros was released in 2013, and its looks were certainly a departure. A polished aluminium cylinder and a vented fan for heat dissipation and....it seemed not a lot else. Where the hell do I slot my hard disks in? No Firewire?
We all moan about Apple's built-in redundancy when it comes to connectivity. It does get very boring when you own 23 peripherals, all with Firewire and you then need to festoon your life with extra cables and adaptors. And now it's USB C. Next week, it'll be Bimblewire 7, so we can all keep throwing away expensive wire and buying new ones. Just saying, Apple!
The main problem with the trashcan is a hardware one. Everything is cemented in, so upgrading is a problem. In fact, this generation went unchanged for three years, so long it broke an Apple record for non-upgrade. For this reason, this model gets a bad rap - in my view unfairly.
Once you get used to housing all your HDs and old pci cards in external enclosures, upgrade your other devices to Bimblewire 7 and thrown a mountain of cables and redundant devices away, it's a fabulous machine. Really fabulous. I currently run my studio on one, and I absolutely swear by it. Rather than swear at it. Usually.
Like Back to The Future, we now scroll forward to the pandemic, populist AI dominated topsy-turvy roaring 20s.
Apple Mac Pro 2019
Released in 2019, this generation of Mac Pro replaced the second gen era and finally consigned the trashcan to....the trash. Towers are back! (Also available in rack form....)
This is one insanely powerful machine, and potentially insanely expensive, starting at £5.5k for your basic model (although to be fair, this is not a basic machine). For a laugh, I just went on the Apple site and specced it to 28 cores, 1.5tb ram and twin graphics cards and reached a breathtaking £55k. Power don't come cheap.
The initial news about the production of the new Mac Pros was dominated by a move to a Chinese manufacturing base, but by the end of 2019, Texas was selected as the state for production. With their production in the United States, this line of computers became the first ones from Apple to be entirely made in the country (although the main reason was the high tax tariff). Seems like computing has come full circle.
This generation of Mac Pros has had glowing reports. It's a design triumph, and Apple have managed to squeeze every last bit of power out of the available resources. As well as every last penny from your wallet. By the looks of the spec, you'll also need your own power station to run it. Still, if you've got deep pockets and are planning a moon landing, this is the fella for you.
It would be hard for me to do what I do on a first gen machine now. As I've said, I run on a second gen at the moment, and can't see myself upgrading anytime soon. The third party software developers that I use and rely on are going to cater for pre M1 chipped machines for the foreseeable future, and I always adopt an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude. A second gen Mac Pro is more than capable for what I do. At the moment.
Besides. I can't face upgrading everything to Bimblewire 7 just yet....
]]>I clearly remember being on a tour bus back in the very early days of the iOS mobile phone era. Our drummer was the only one without a mobile (cue the drummer jokes). Our bass player (yes, the bass player) was showing him the dawning new age of iOS mobile apps and waxing lyrical about an imagined future where we'd all be making albums on the road on iPhones. Drummer Boy looked nonplussed as he gazed at the shiny screen - 'why ever would I use one of them?' he said.
That same drummer is now a renowned producer who, a few years later (on another tour bus), waxed lyrical about the brave new world of iPad music making. I was nonplussed as I gazed at the shiny screen - 'why ever would I use one of them?' I said.
Ho hum.
My first iPad would run out of huff and puff pretty quickly, so I never seriously considered making music on it. I downloaded early iOS synths and tinkered, but never really used it in any of my productions until I was recommended the wonderful Bebot Robotic Synth. I loved (and love) it so much, I still use it today - and it features in this list as a result (I know this is a 'best of 2021', but newer isn't always better!).
Then iPads got better. And better. They became very powerful very quickly, and with the introduction of audiobus technology I was sold; - now I could get audio out and midi in. Gamechanger. I've used Bebot (and others, obviously) on many productions since.
There's something refreshing about iPad synths. They're not (so far) as powerful or versatile as their desktop counterparts, so they're not about to replace them (anymore than virtual instruments are about to replace the real thing). They do, however, encourage you to make and think about music in a different way, and often make use of the touchscreen for an alternative way of manipulating and developing sounds. The best virtual music apps on an iPad have very much become their own instruments.
The following list isn't the best. It's simply my list of favourites, in no particular order.
Moog Animoog
Pricing – £17.99
Moog say -
Animoog, powered by the new Anisotropic Synth Engine (ASE), is Moog Music's first professional polyphonic synthesizer designed exclusively for the iPad. ASE allows you to move dynamically through an X/Y space of unique timbres to create a constantly evolving and expressive soundscape.
Animoog captures the vast sonic vocabulary of Moog synthesizers and applies it to the modern touch surface paradigm, enabling you to quickly sculpt incredibly fluid and dynamic sounds that live, breathe, and evolve as you play them.
No, I don't know what 'Anistropic' is either, but I love this synth. Whatever ASE is, it's great fun and very creative fiddling with that X/Y 'modern touch surface paradigm', whether you're an experienced synth programmer (not me) or diving in for the first time. Very very useable, and gorgeous sounding. Of course it is. It's a Moog.
Moog have three other offerings on the App store - Model D, Filatron and the mighty Model 15. Not free, but not expensive for what you get.
AudioKit Synth One
Pricing - free
Synth One is the most popular free/open source synth available on the App Store for very good reason. It's a hybrid analogue/FM polyphonic offering with a wide range of excellent presets right out of the (virtual) box. Over 300 of them, designed by the likes of Tycho, M83, Kanye West, Rihanna, Neon Trees among many other luminaries.
It's packed with great features - five oscillators (including two DCOs - FM, Sub, and Noise), two LFOs with a good range of routing possibilities, a 4 pole lp filter, high and bandpass filters, polyphonic sequencers, an arpeggiator (of course) and a good range of high quality effects.
Easy to get started with and use, most importantly Synth One also sounds really good. Way too good to be free.
Korg Gadget 2
Pricing – £34.99
They say the best things in life are free. They are frequently wrong.
Korg Gadget may not be £1.99, but you get an awful lot for your not very much money. Not one instrument, but over 40 different 'gadgets' that can be combined and used in ingenious ways. Oh, and a DAW as well. There are the inevitable in-App purchases for yet more gadgets, but to be honest, there's plenty to be getting on with right here.
The interface is really well designed and intuitive, so you'll be up and running in no time. Everything seems to just be where you'd expect it - how many apps can you say that about?
Great sounds, great fun and endless possibilities. Highly recommended.
KV331 Synthmaster One
Pricing – £17.99
Synthmaster One is the iPad version of the multi award winning version for desktop. It's not quite as powerful as the desktop version, but still boasts 16 voice polyphony and over 650 presets. Not too shabby for 18 quid.
This synth is a powerful semi-modular wavetable beast - 3 LFOs, 2 filters, 2 subs, 4 ADSR envelopes, a 16 step sequencer and a comprehensive range of onboard effects. Excellent value for money.
Arturia iProphet
Pricing – £8.99
And now for something completely different. Many virtual synths spend their time persuading us how very analogue they are - sometimes down to virtual coffee stains written into the GUI. Not so with iProphet.
iProphet goes out of its way to sound digital, as it's an emulation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS (vector synthesis), a digital synthesizer morphing between 4 wavetable oscillators with a joystick.
iProphet can load any one of 127 waveforms into its 4 oscillators, then morph between them just like the original. Hours of digital fun.
Arturia are very highly regarded for very good reason - anyone familiar with their excellent V collection for desktop. Costs less than two pints of Old Scruttocks.
Waldorf Nave
Pricing – £17.99
Waldorf say -
The Nave sound engine includes two novel wavetable oscillators with sonic possibilities way beyond the scope of conventional wavetable synthesis. While the spectrum of a sound can be transposed independently of its pitch, the waves can be rendered from perfectly periodic to very noisy and anywhere in between. Especially sounds with an accent on formants can be produced easily, which made us integrate a speech synthesizer for the easy creation of wavetables, enabling Nave to talk and sing.
Well I'm not sure about 'talk and sing', but Nave is a beautiful sounding synth, and different again to everything else on this list. It's so good that Waldorf ported this to a desktop version (rather than the other way around!).
Nave is a wavetable synth, and features the waves from Waldorf's Blofeld, Wave and Microwave products. You can really take advantage of the iPad's touchscreen when editing the waves via 3D rendering. This is what iPads were made for.
Nave comes with over 500 presets from renowned sound designers, including 95 presets from the legendary Richard Devine. He obviouly loves this app, and for very good reason.
You even get a 4 track recorder thrown in.
Bebot - Robot Synth
Pricing – £1.79
As promised, Bebot featuring my little singing friend.
They say -
Bebot is a musical instrument that anyone can play. Instead of a keyboard, it has an easy-to-use touch control system. And it's all built into a friendly animated robot, who performs your music while you play.
Although it looks simple on the outside, inside is a powerful synth engine which lets you create and edit your own sounds and apply effects. The controls are easy to use, making it fun to tinker and experiment with sound. If you just want to get playing, there's also a wide selection of preset sounds.
The touch control system lets you lock in a scale so that you'll never play a wrong note, which makes it easy to play, even on your iPhone. It's polyphonic, which means you can use multiple fingers at once to play chords and harmonies. Plus, you can perform sweeping slides and expressive gestures that would be practically impossible on a regular keyboard.
It's a relief to have a straightforward description, and there's not much to add to it except it's still fabulous and absorbing even after all these years.
A lovely app, worth every penny....and it is pennies.
I apologise for all of the instruments I've left out here, but I tried to include seven very different offerings - varying approaches in operation and synthesis. All of the synths included above work well broken out of the iPad - ie, if you usually work on a desktop or laptop, they're midi compliant and you can use your audio confidently with full audiobus support. If you want to use your iPad instruments with your desktop or laptop, make sure that whatever you buy is compliant.
]]>The OS that comes with your MacBook Pro is a wonderful thing - regularly maintained, updated and kept more secure than its Windows counterparts. Add to that the many apps that come with it (and many more are available from third parties), and it's everything that you'll ever need. Or is it?
The world still runs predominantly on the Microsoft OS platform, so it follows that there are many applications that are Windows only - or have increased functionality on Windows - like Office 365, for example. Cheers, Microsoft!
In the world of pro graphics and video, there are hosts of tools that are Windows only, and when it comes to gaming, Windows is - erm - the biggest game in town. You may find yourself needing to collaborate with someone working (or playing) in the Windows environment, so access to the platform would become key.
In a word, yes. Since Apple moved over to Intel processors in 2006, both Apple and Microsoft have essentially spoken the same language, as both use the same x86 instruction set utilised by Intel processors. It was a canny Apple move, as now Windows users could migrate to Macs and bring their software with them using Apple's Boot Camp.
Your MacBook Pro comes pre-installed with Boot Camp, and should you choose to use it, it involves partitioning your hard disk and installing a Windows system on one partition and MacOS on the other. Your machine then becomes a dual boot machine, and you can choose which OS to boot into at start-up.
All good....but you can't use both systems at the same time, so you're excluded from all of your MacOS apps whilst running Windows 10 (and vice versa).
Also - Boot Camp isn't currently a feature of the newest M1 Macs due to the new chip (and therefore different language). I think that we can all be confident, though, that Apple will find a solution to this as it's surely in their interests to do so. Why wouldn't they?
There are, however, alternatives to a dual boot solution:- Virtual Machines (VMs) and emulations.
A virtualisation programs run natively on your MacOS by creating a Virtual Machine that mimics the hardware of a Windows OS (or indeed MacOS or Linux one) that runs inside your MacOS. You can then install an OS of your choice within that virtual machine - or install several virtual machines if you wish, each housing a different system.
So, no dual boot, which means that you can access Mac and Windows apps at the same time. The only downside to the VM route is that because you're effectively running two systems simultaneously, you'll need enough RAM and CPU in your MacBook Pro - and housing another system(s) will use more HD space too. However, I've found that unless you're trying to launch space rockets on both systems, it works pretty well.
It's worth bearing in mind the options open to M1 chipped new Macbooks out there - solutions will be coming, but as of writing this developers (including Apple) are still playing catch up.
Emulators run Windows programs on MacOS without the need to install a Windows 10 OS. Emulation programs tend to be less user-friendly and are designed for those who aren't averse to tinkering under the hood a bit - so if you're feeling adventurous....
On the upside, Emulation programs tend to be cheap - or even free!
I would suggest that if you're aiming to game, Boot Camp may be your best go to. Yes, the dual boot thing is a pain, but as you'll only be running one system at a time, so you'll squeeze the maximum performance out of your computer. If you're just wanting to run a few Windows programmes (like Office 365 for instance), then a VM may be just what you're looking for.
There is a another, 'hybrid', alternative in the shape of Windows 365 that may give you the best of both worlds - but at a price, for now. More below.
The following alternatives below are listed in no particular order!
Apple Boot Camp
https://support.apple.com/boot-camp
Pricing – free!
Boot Camp comes pre-installed on your computer, and entails partitioning your drive to run MacOS on one drive and your choice of OS on the other. Boot Camp 6.1 supports Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, but it's worth checking the compatibility tables here to verify that Windows 10 will run on your MacBook Pro (MBP). You'll also need to download a disk image file (ISO) of your desired Windows OS from the Microsoft website.
Boot Camp is dual boot, meaning that you can choose only one OS on your machine at start-up, and cannot run two simultaneously. It does, however, offer the best performance, as it is able to use the full power of your MBP, including your graphics card - an incentive for gamers or those working in power hungry graphics or video apps.
Parallels 17
Pricing - £69.99 annual sub (Standard Edition)/ £79.99 annual sub (Pro/Business Edition)
Parallels is one of the 'big beast' Virtual machine (VM) programs. It works seamlessly, looks great, is frequently updated and maintained - and is very easy to use. As with all VMs, you'll need to download a disk image file (ISO) of your desired Windows OS from the Microsoft website (or an old MacOS if you wish).
On the downside, it's not free - we're all piling up our virtual subs for virtual things these days, but these folks gotta make a living....
As with all of these products, check on the current state of play re MacBook Pros with M1 chips!
VMWare Fusion 12
Pricing – Free (personal use)/ £124.99 (commercial)/ £166.66 (pro edition)
VMWare fusion 12 is a virtualisation program similar to Parallels.
VMWare has always been the direct competitor to Parallels, directly competing for the #1 spot in the VM market, but of late it has fallen behind Parallels somewhat. Its last major update was in September 2020 - a sign perhaps that the company's priorities lie elsewhere - or perhaps there's an M1 compliant version of Fusion coming?
Without going into technical differences, this product broadly does what Parallels does. Perhaps not as slick, and in my experience a wee bit slower. However, on the upside, it's free for personal use.
As with all of these products, check on the current state of play re MacBook Pros with M1 chips!
Windows 365
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365
Pricing – £31.68 - £67.44 per month
Windows 365 was launched in July 2021, and is pitched to challenge the market dominance of the major VM software houses.
Windows 365 is, in some senses, a form of Virtual Machine, but with a difference. It's 'machine' is stored in the cloud, and processing comes directly from Microsoft's servers. The video image for the Windows PC that you're using is then streamed to your Mac, iPad (iPhone eventually?) or even another PC. A neat idea, as it doesn't tie up your MacBook's resources (as long as your internet connection is fast enough).
Windows 365 pricing suggests that it's aimed at larger business users seeking to 'standardise' a PC for their staff to use. The pricing is certainly prohibitive for the small guy (or gal) at the moment, but it's a new concept, and it would be surprising if a single user rate wasn't introduced in the near future.
Also, due to its nature, no problem for M1 chip owners!
VirtualBox
Pricing – Free (personal/education); £40 per user (Enterprise Edition - minimum 100 users)
This is a virtualisation tool that's really made for corporate applications, but the owners, Oracle, have made this open-source program free for personal use. There are Linux and Windows versions of VirtualBox available, making it one of the most adaptable VM programs, capable of running a wide range of systems - but doesn't work on M1 Macs.
Being open-source, it's nowhere near as slick and easy to use as Parallels or VMWare, and you'll have to be prepared to wade though some hefty jargon and speak some technicalese. You don't get tech support, but there's a useful and lively forum.
And it's free. What do you want? Jam on it?
Wine
Pricing – free
Wine (as well as being a top drink) is an emulation program that allows you to run Windows apps, so doesn't need a Windows system install. As of version 5, it can run on M1 Macs.
Despite being open-source, Wine is extremely well maintained and gets regular updates, but can be very confusing for the newcomer (me). Be prepared to get down and dirty....but.....it's free!
CrossOver 20
Pricing – £32 (£48 with support)
CrossOver is another emulation program, much like Wine, but easier to use - but still fairly complex to begin with, so you'll have to be prepared to pay some learning time in. It runs on M1 Macs, so along with Wine scores above the two big VM beasts mentioned above (currently). It's fairly cheap, and you get a free 14 day trial.
I've tried to keep this non-technical (as I'm non-technical), and it really isn't that hard to get a PC up and running on your MacBook Pro. Please heed my repeated compatibility warnings, though;- check that your Mac can run your eventual choice of weapon.
]]>We’re all now long used to banking, paying bills and shopping online, but the last few years have seen an explosion of apps for managing, consolidating and synchronising our financial information on our iPads, iPhones and desktops. My MacBook Pro is perfectly capable of flying me to the moon, but recently I’ve been using it to budget and manage my finances way more effectively than I’ve been able to before. I’ve switched over to a bank that has no front door (or any doors, for that matter), and it works really well for me. No supercilious bank manager to patronise me, either. A major plus.
Many of the MacOS finance apps available or more than capable of revolutionising your financial life – as well as being able to gather all your various bank accounts, bills, investments, credit cards etc. into one place for review. No more juggling three or four tabs to stop sites from timing out on you. Most importantly of all, every app below has a very thoroughly thought-out security strategy – the top critical consideration when dealing with your money online.
The apps below very often share some common characteristics. Most of them support connections to your banks or financial institutions. This means that you can download statements and reports that can be collated in the app in a logical format. You (obviously) have to log in and clear security to link your accounts within an app, as security is always paramount.
As with many other app types these days, the landing point is the dashboard. I’ve noticed that many personal financial apps favour the very simplistic dashboard look – maybe even just an account balance, so you’ll need to spend a little time familiarising yourself with the app navigation and particular nomenclature before you're ready to dive under the hood.
…or not! As with all apps, decide exactly what you want any of these apps to do for you in advance (and before you part with any money). You may only need a virtual bank, or a place to view all of your account balances simultaneously. In other words, you may not need every whistle and bell.
Personally, I have an accounts package on my MacBook Pro for VAT and tax tracking and reporting duties, and a budgeting app on my iPad. I also have two virtual bank accounts on both machines (and these are, of course, free). I find it easier to split tasks between four apps, as each has its own virtues. The following, therefore, aren’t listed in any particular order of merit.
1. Quicken
Pricing – three versions - $35.99/yr - $46.79/yr - $70.19/yr
A comprehensive package with an excellent suite of finance management tools. It features a desktop/ios version that syncs perfectly with its web-based sibling, so you can work on or refer to your data anywhere. This is a feature heavy and time proved piece of software, so will necessitate more of a learning curve than some others here. It’s also comparatively pricey – but as I said earlier, you pays your money…
This would be my choice for your ‘tax and vat’ package – the reporting is excellent and translates into other platforms, so your bookkeeper (and accountant) will love you for it.
There are three versions available for Mac, and as you’d expect, each price increase enhances the feature set.
Pros –
Cons –
2. Emma
Pricing – free or premium version £59.99
This app has some great features to help you track and budget your spending. The advent of ‘Open Banking’ has allowed apps like this to access all of your accounts and group them in one place. Useful. Do check, however, that if you want an aggregating app such as this that it supports your bank(s).
Tracking your spending and helping you set budgets is Emma’s key feature set – including keeping tabs on all of those pesky subscriptions that litter our lives these days. Who hasn’t realised a year later that they’re still paying for that service they only used once?
As with many other apps, Emma reels you in with the free version in order to persuade you to subscribe to the premium version once you’re comfortable. There is a free lunch, but it’s a starter and a small portion main. Your choice if you want pudding, coffee and petit fours.
Pros –
Cons –
3. Money Dashboard
https://www.moneydashboard.com/
Pricing – free
Money Dashboard is similar to Emma, aggregating your accounts into one place for review and tracking, and has been voted Best Personal Finance App three years running.
Money Dashboard links your accounts to see where you actually are overall, and there’s an excellent budget tracker that analyses what you’ve spent each month and in what categories. You can set budgets on a monthly basis, and the app will alert you if you’re overspending.
The dashboard is excellent – clear and intuitive.
Pros –
Cons –
4. Starling Bank
Pricing – free
Starling is the epitome of a modern bank account. No branches, no aforesaid supercilious bank managers and super flexible. Voted Best British Bank 2021, it’s FSCS protected – and after 2008, we all need that.
Everything within Starling works like a dream. It features instant notifications of every transaction within your account, and sports every feature that you’d want from a bank account (except free money, of course).
Starling offers some budgeting, savings and tracking tools too. My old supercilious bank manager never did that.
Pros –
Cons –
5. Revolut
Pricing – free - £2.99/mo - £6.99/mo - £12.99/mo
Like Starling, Revolut is thoroughly modern banking, and also free in its basic form. The optional paid tiers unlock progressive increased savings interest rates and a host of other benefits that may or may not be useful to you (see https://www.revolut.com/our-pricing-plans for more).
Revolut has built in budgeting tools and instant transaction notifications, fee free cash withdrawals abroad (up to a monthly limit) and incentivised savings features. It also supports a host of cryptocurrencies, making currency dealing whilst on the train a breeze (if you want to go down that particular rabbit hole).
Pros –
Cons –
6. Credit Karma
Pricing – free
Credit Karma aptly calls itself a ’personal finance service’, and is very definitely different to all the other offerings here.
It’s all about your personal credit rating – the score that financial lenders (e.g. a mortgage provider) will look at to decide how credit worthy you are. It’s a very handy number for us all to know.
What affects your credit rating? The most obvious is bad debt – CCJs, bankruptcies, late loan payments. Less obvious is frequently opening and closing accounts (who hasn’t done the Credit Card Shuffle?), and settling credit card payments in full monthly. None of us have perfect financial records, and Credit Karma can help with this. Besides providing you with your current credit score, it can inform of potential credit breaches and provides in-app advice on the best credit, loan and insurance deals around. As it pays for itself via its recommendations, however, in-app ads can get a little taxing (sic).
Pros –
Cons –
7. Plum
Pricing – free - £1/mo - £2.99/mo
Plum is a savings app. It links to your current account and will give you a daily summary of what you have in there. That’s about as far as it goes in terms of analysis and budgeting, but that isn’t the point of Plum.
Plum’s AI engine analyses your account and works out how much you can afford to save, based on the levels that you set. It then transfers those saved amounts into a Plum account, so you can sit back you can watch your money grow.
Pros –
Cons –
Yes, it is a ‘rich man’s world’, but that needn’t stop all of us becoming more proficient at managing our own resources.
]]>No. Simples. There are thousands of products out there, from freeware through donationware to paid for (modestly priced to eyewatering!), not to mention the generous bundles of plug ins that come with your DAW of choice. The options available can be downright bewildering. There is no definitive top 10, so this is merely my top ten go to plug ins. I’m sorry that I’ve left so many favourites out, but who wants to read a Top 100?
I’ve been making music on computers professionally (I like to think) since computers could act as full production suites, and have been through many ‘favourite’ plug ins over the years. My old Performa 6400 was a pocket calculator next to my (current) 2015 trash can Mac Pro.
Back in the day, one had to be very careful with plug in selection (and how many instances used), as the power just wasn’t there, and things could (and would) slowly grind to a halt. These days, plug in developers are more mindful of CPU efficiency. My Mac Pro rarely falls over these days.
My favourites have changed (evolved?) as computers have become more powerful and plug in developers have been able to harness that power to create ever more capable plug ins.
Somebody once said, ‘a good producer can make good music with mediocre plugins and a mediocre producer makes mediocre music with the best plugins.’ Spot on. Don’t expect any of these plug ins to turn pig’s ears into shiny silk purses. The rule is always ‘shit in, shit out’.
There are many, many products out there that are emulations of classic gear – the painstaking modelling of the rarest thing known to humanity etc. Many are really good, but don’t expect them to ‘solve’ everything, to suddenly transform your material. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll call these ‘character’ plug ins. ‘Transparent’ plugs are not necessarily seeking to emulate anything – just to be tools for improvement.
The following ‘top 10’ are products are in no particular order of merit – you can’t compare a reverb to an eq! These are merely ones that just get the job done for what I do.
1. FabFilter Pro-Q3
They say –
‘An equalizer is probably the tool you use most while mixing and mastering, so you need the best of the best. With FabFilter Pro-Q 3, you get the highest possible sound quality, a very extensive feature set, and a gorgeous, innovative interface with unrivalled ease of use.’
Price - £134, or part of a bundle – demo available
I love this eq – it’s my meat and potatoes. Really powerful features, easy to use and very transparent. It sports a great, non-fussy and intuitive GUI, and doesn’t eat CPU. I often use character eqs later in the chain, but this is my first. It’s great for surgery, and using the intelligent solo feature to sweep for what you need is invaluable.
2. Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay
They say –
‘From real old school PCM42-style effects like filtering, flanging, and phasing, to slap-back echo, ping-pong delay, and tempo-sync with modulation, H-Delay delivers the goods, controlled by a super intuitive interface that lets you get right down to business.’
Price - £ variable, as Waves constantly have flash sales. Currently around £25 – demo available
I really like the sound of H-Delay. Again, it has a very simple, intuitive GUI and is easy to use. It does all of the expected delay duties, but I particularly like the modulation (in moderation) and the lo-fi switch.
Waves have a habit of building in an ‘analog’ switch or pot, which usually just adds hiss or hum. Pointless, IMO. Watch out for it if you’re dialling up presets and do yourself a favour – turn it off!
I’d say you should pretty much always use a delay send fx, so ‘character’ will always be there. It’s the nature of the beast.
3. SoundToys Decapitator
They say –
‘Saturation—it’s the essence of what makes analog hardware sound so musical and pleasing to the ears. The sound of tubes, transistors, and circuitry being pushed to the limit has long been the key ingredient in great-sounding analog recordings. Engineers use saturation to beef things up, thin them out, give them edge, add warmth, pull elements out of the mix, and create signature sounds.’
Price - $199 or part of a bundle – demo available
I like this plug in for its subtlety – great at just adding that natz of drive, and the tonal shaping is highly effective too (although it’s perfectly capable of tearing a whole in the fabric of sound if you want). The thump switch can be a useful thing, for beefing up a tired kick drum or adding some meat to a snare, for example.
If you’re looking for something more extreme, try its beautifully evil sister, Devil-Loc Deluxe.
All of the SoundToys plug ins are good – your 30 day demo includes all of them.
4. LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven
They say –
‘Perfect for rapid workflows and lower budgets, Seventh Heaven is the perfect distillation of Seventh Heaven Professional. Made without acoustic compromise and a focus on simplicity, it is the most affordable and easy to use simulation of the Bricasti M7 available.’
Price - $69 – pro version - $299 – no demo
Reverbs always have character, and this one is absolutely lovely – and cheap in the very useable cut down version. If you’ve got deep pockets, the pro version offers more control and options, but this is a great reverb.
While we’re on reverbs, honourable mention must also go to Valhalla products (https://valhalladsp.com/). Excellent, cheap, and some of them are free. We like free.
5. FabFilter Pro-L 2 Limiter
They say –
‘A true peak limiter is an essential tool for every mastering or mixing engineer. Are you looking for a professional, feature-packed limiter that is loud and transparent at the same time, equipped with extensive loudness metering? Then FabFilter Pro-L 2 is your weapon of choice!’
Price - £149, or part of a bundle – demo available
I don’t work for FF, honest. They’re another developer that seem incapable of making bad sounding plug ins. Super easy to use, clear GUI and very transparent. I use this for managing the loudness of my mixes – so I always use it last out on the mix bus (although it can be very effective on a drum bus too). As with all peak limiters, though, watch pushing your mix too far and too often into the red.
Worth every penny.
6. Kazrog True Iron
They say –
‘True Iron accurately emulates 6 classic line transformers, known for their use in many of the biggest names in vintage analog outboard sound processing. These transformers add weight, heft, and girth to your mixes and masters. The plugin features adjustable strength, input impedance, wet/dry ratio, and a special “Crush” control to add fat transformer saturation to tracks and buses. Plus, the CPU usage of the plugin is low enough that you can add it to every track or bus in a mix for added virtual analog warmth across your entire mix.’
Price - $49.99, or part of a bundle – demo available
I sometimes try plug ins on a recommendation or review when I really should be working. Most often, I delete them and just get on with what I should be doing. When I tried this one, it blew me away. I bought it within 10 minutes.
It’s 110% character, I’m not sure quite how it does what it does, but it’s a mainstay now. It thickens, it drives, it seems to make everything bigger and more….there! As with all character plug ins, use with care not by rote. I love the voodoo of this one.
7. Celemony Melodyne
They say –
Melodyne grants you unrivalled access to all the musical details in your recordings and samples – note by note. This is made possible by a sophisticated analysis that delves deeply into your recordings and samples, and recognizes and understands the musical relationships within them: the individual notes and their characteristics, the scales, keys and chords, the timing, the tempo, the tone colour. And with Melodyne you can edit all these things intuitively. With vocals, but every type of instrument as well – including polyphonic ones, such as the piano and guitar.
Price - $699 – no demo
Just about every DAW these days ships with a bundled pitch correction plug in. So why should you spend this much on one?
Put simply, Melodyne is better at everything it does. If, like me, you spend a lot of time with vocals, this is an indispensable tool – I wouldn’t be without it. Total control over every nuance of every fraction of every note. I’m anal like that.
Pitch correction will never be transparent, but used with care, this is as near as it gets.
8. Izotope RX 8 Advanced
They say –
‘RX 8 Advanced continues to be the industry-standard audio repair tool to restore damaged, noisy material to pristine condition. Get full control over your audio, whether it’s restoring high-end frequencies for streamed dialogue, or removing dialogue reverb—all in multichannel up to Dolby Atmos 7.1.2.’
Price - $1,199 – 30-day demo
During lockdown, I spent a lot of time cleaning up audio for virtual conferences, cleaning up podcasts, and recording and editing two audiobooks remotely. This baby saved me. I can’t even begin to detail what it does – go have a look. It’s unique.
Now I’m back on music production, it’s indispensable there too. Every vocal I record or edit gets run through RX –plosives, mouth noise, rustles, thumps all gone. The new guitar de-squeak in RX is also a lifesaver.
9. Softube Console 1
They say –
‘The revolutionary and award-winning system that redefined mixing in the DAW, Console 1 gives you the best of all worlds: the feeling of analog hardware and the freedom of software. Far beyond a simple DAW controller, Console 1 features real console sounds from legendary brands like Chandler Limited, SSL, Weiss, Empirical Labs, and Summit Audio, plus one-to-one control over EQ, compression, and more.
With plug-ins, channel strips, and the Console 1 Fader hardware unit, you can expand and customize Console 1 to your heart’s content. Can an analog console do that? Give your eyes—and your mouse—a rest. Cross over to the future of analog mixing with Console 1.’
Price - £350 – no demo
Another product that changed my life.
OK, it’s not just a plug in, it’s a hardware controller with a mixing environment that meshes seamlessly with your DAW of choice. Apart from Softube’s great sounding software, the eye opener to me was the GUI. I can load in eqs and/or compressors (including many of my UAD ones), and they…..all look the same! Not pretty.
Hey presto, I’m mixing with my ears again, and not my eyes. Genius.
10. Sonarworks Reference 4
They say –
‘Reference 4 software calibrates your studio monitors and headphones, so you can trust that every mix will translate.’
Price - $249 (software only) - $299 (with measurement microphone) – demo available
In true anti-Hollywood tradition, I left the least ‘sexy’ plug in until last.
You’re probably asking yourself ‘do I really need this?’. Yes, you do. I was gobsmacked.
I have a professionally designed room, and always thought that it was pretty close to ‘reference’. The above picture is my room after calibration. The result? Everything that comes out of my studio sounds great outside the studio. This really does work.
I’d highly recommend buying the version with the bespoke measurement microphone.
One last thing: please don’t use cracked software. We’ve all gotten used to free (or nearly free) software, but these deep deep apps take a lot of work for the girls and boys who make them to develop and maintain. They have to eat too. Besides, cracked software is unsupported and could fall over at any point. Probably just before you put that vital mix down….
]]>To the sound of virtual trumpets, Apple released their new flagship iMac 24” for pre-order on April 30th 2021. It comes with the new (much vaunted) M1 chip. It looks to have many welcome improvements all around – aside from the all new chip, new design and fruity colours. I won’t go into the details here - you can find all that elsewhere should you wish (and it isn’t the point of this blog!). It is undoubtedly a gorgeous, superfast machine, and the 27” (and rumoured 32” models) will undoubtedly follow soon. Happy days.
I’m not knocking this machine (why would I?), simply pointing out that if you choose carefully, a pre M1 iMac is also…. a gorgeous, superfast machine! We all tend to get caught up in the hype (I am no exception), and it’s easy amid the breathlessness of watching a super slick campaign unfold to not ask the right questions of ourselves.
I’m a ‘power’ user. My day job is making music. I ask a lot of my computers and work to tight deadlines, so I’m not best pleased when they fall over running out of digital gas. I’m also, like all power users, wary of upgrading (either computer or OS) only to find that many of my essential pieces of software upon which I rely may not work properly yet (or at all) on the newest offerings.
So…deep breath…do you really need the newest iMac?
Like many people, I spend most of my working life gazing at a screen, with multiple windows open. Working on a big screen (or two!) is an absolute no brainer, and once you have, anything smaller looks a bit dinky. My Macbook Pro and iPad are both essential for remote work, but frankly, I’d really rather not given the choice – and multiple windows are a pain. So that, for the time being leaves you with a 27” iMac if you’re after an all-in-one solution. You could of course wait for the new M1 versions, but it’s worth asking yourself if a refurbished iMac could fit your needs perfectly well.
Computers have fast become utilitarian items, not luxuries, so you have to figure that your gleaming new (or refurbished) workhorse will need replacing at some point. It’s not if but when.
Apple machines are not cheap, but for good reason - they’re better made and supported than their Windows equivalents, so we can (and should) expect a longer working life from them. Even so, as a power user, I have to figure that I’ll get 3-5 years out of my studio machine before I feel the need to upgrade. For the last ten years, I’ve only ever bought refurbished. I did the maths.
We all know that pretty much anything that we buy drops in value as soon as we break the security seals. iMacs tend to hold their value pretty well, but still and all, you will always drop cash quicker on a brand new machine. If you go to the Apple shop, don’t be fooled by the ‘starting’ price – this will be your basic standard version. This may just be fine for you, but once you start upping the spec, the cost spirals. Is a 256GB SSD really adequate in 2021? Add on a few hundred. Would you be better off upping the RAM? Add some more hundreds. Might as well have the Nano-texture glass too. £300 more. You get the picture (pun intended).
From watching prices on the refurb and new markets, I’d estimate that you’ll lose up to 30% of your money in the first 18 months. It just doesn’t make sense - unless, of course, you really need that M1 chip for your work. Or the Nano-texture glass….
Another thing to bear in mind is Mac OS compatibility. The M1 chip can’t run anything earlier than Big Sur. If you spend your working life running MS Office, Zoom, YouTube, surfing, or anything Apple you’ll be just fine. However, if like me, you run a lot of third party software you could well run into problems. In the world of audio, high end graphics and video, you’ll inevitably use scores of third party (i.e., non Apple) software apps which may not have caught up with Big Sur yet. Apple don’t warn third party software developers of OS upgrades, and I get why, but they’re often caught on the hop. They most often will update their software in due course, but you may find yourself unable to fully open up old projects now. Or that project that is due tomorrow. Big problem. For that reason, power users usually steer away from a new OS for 6 months or so before upgrading – and even then, a tedious number of hours are spent checking compatibility with all of your third party software. Be warned.
When will your computer not be able to run the latest OS….and is that a problem?
When will your iMac be redundant? An open question. ‘Redundant for what?’ would be the better question.
Apple are excellent with ‘legacy support’, as support is part of their selling point. As I said earlier, power users are accustomed to running on an older OS. Couple this with the sheer number of third party developers that need to support professional users that exist outside of the ‘buy the latest model’ market, and your support on older machines is assured.
The dictum tends to be, ‘If it ain’t broke….”. Remember that the term ‘legacy’ can mean ‘very recent’ - the 2020 iMac 27” will by default become legacy as soon as the M1 version is released. Salutory. Many commercial studios that I work at are still running High Sierra on maxed up cheesegrater Mac Pros with no problems at all. I run my studio on a 2015 trash can Mac with no problems at all. Don’t believe the hype.
At the time of writing, any 5k iMac 27” will run the latest OS. In the real world, a 5k iMac should give you at least another 5 years of excellent service in my opinion. Aside from that, a pre 5K would also give you years of service on an old OS (depending on your demands).
If you’re in the market for a 27” iMac, I would hands down urge you to buy refurbished. Go for a post late 2014 5K (retina) model, the best spec you can afford and for what you need. Consider CPU, RAM and the SSD/fusion drive size. Done.
Always but from a reputable seller that offers the same one year warranty as Apple does from new.
What’s not to like?
]]>
There is no doubt that, post pandemic, more and more of us will be spending at least part of our lives working from home. In truth, things were going this way before Covid reared it’s ugly head, but lockdown has accelerated the need for home office environments.
Without doubt, the Apple iMac is a the perfect solution for the home office. It’s an all in one solution, neat and tidy, with everything you’ll need built in - no need for the spaghetti of cables that a modular approach would lead to (although you may do well to consider a couple of ‘extras’ – more of which later).
It’s a plug and play solution, with a large screen that affords plenty of real estate - this is, after all, what you look at all day. Depending on which model you select, it will have plenty of storage and power for your needs. The choice can be bewildering, so the big question is –
Which IMac do you need rather than want?
Please excuse this short rant…..
This is the modern world, folks, and we’re constantly being sold the newest version of just about everything in our lives. That washing machine that you bought last year has now been upgraded so it talks to your toaster, and you just have to have it. But…..do you really need your appliances to be deep in conversation just because they can?
We’re all suckered into the upgrade arms race. Take the IPhone 12. It’s indisputably a fantastic device, but it’s chief big upgrade over the previous version is…..a better camera. We seem happy to part with large sums for that better camera. It appears that marketing is, indeed, king.
Deep breath. Forget the marketing. See your new office computer as the utilitarian device that it really is, and make your choice depending on your demands of it.
The newest range of IMacs feature the much vaunted M1 chip. Like the IPhone 12, it's a truly wonderful machine that will indeed fly you to the moon. Most of us, though, spend our lives flying to Manchester for a meeting at best, but more often it's a short drive to Basingstoke that's required. No disrespect to Basingstoke intended.
I’ll make the argument here for a good refurbished iMac or iMac Pro – with the right choice, you’ll have more power than you will ever possibly use, and save a substantial amount of extra cash (to buy that new talking washing machine?). You’ll also help to save the planet. by keeping older, perfectly good machines in use and not buying in to our cultural unsustainability. Rant over.
So what do you do? Everyone’s needs will vary, so at this point it would be good to consider what you do on your computer (and what you may wish to use it for in the future). It’s a generalisation, but when using the term ‘power’ in an IMac context, we’re talking CPU (the processing) and RAM (memory).
Low power usage
If you generally use the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Powerpoint, Outlook etc), Zoom (or MS teams) comms software, browsing, cloud services – in other words, general office stuff, you are a low power user.
High power usage
If you deal with high end graphics (in which case a higher end graphics card is also a consideration), or high end audio (which I do), then you’re a high power user.
Please bear in mind that IMacs have reached such a high level of base power in recent years, that even a mid range five year old model is a very capable machine for some high end use – processing and rendering may just take a little longer.
The screen!
Apple introduced the 5k screen with 2014 models onwards, and it really is a gamechanger. It’s just less tiring to stare at all day. If your work involves a lot of detailed work, I’d strongly recommend a model with a 27” screen. If your work involves ‘multi windows’ (i.e. having to refer to several programmes at once), you should really consider buying a second screen. This needn’t break the bank – many 3rd party (non Apple) screens will work just fine, and you can pick them up on Ebay for £100 - £200 for something decent.
Memory (RAM)
I’d recommend 16gb plus. 16gb will be ample for most people's power usage.
Storage
Look for an IMac with an SSD or Fusion drive with a minimum of 1tb. An SSD (or partial SSD) really does boost performance.
The obvious caveats apply – if you’re a gamer (as well as running your office), a higher spec GPU (graphics processing unit) may be part of your ‘want’ list. If your work (or play) involves a lot of graphics or audio work, you may want to consider an iMac Pro for the extra CPU and Ram. If large storage needs are required, then external hard disks are always an option (or select a refurb that has a bigger internal disc). Having said that, in my day job as a music producer, I’d be happy to run pretty much any post 2014 IMac on most projects!
If you want to push the boat out, but an iMac Pro is just to pricey, I’d say the pick would be a 2017 model (with whatever extra spec you think that you need).
There is the (natural) assumption that by buying new we future proof ourselves. Not so with computers, no such thing. It’s best to assume that whatever you buy, you’ll be upgrading in somewhere between three and ten years. Depreciation from new in computing is steep, but less so with a good IMac – they tend to hold their value reasonably well. Nevertheless, it’s good to consider it as buying a car from new (and think about how much you lose as you drive it from the showroom!).
I’d also recommend learning a little more about your iMac than you think you need to know – basic maintenance. Run a diagnostic from time to time (like TechTool Pro), and keep that downloads folder slimmed down. Learn good file management, and don’t just dump everything on the desktop. I do a lot of troubleshooting family and friends' Macs – machines that appear almost dead are too often just groaning under the weight of redundant files, over used storage and desktops that look like Piccadilly Circus.It's not anyone's fault that they're not taught about this - in fact, it's almost encouraged by an OS that tends to obscure redundant files in folders that can quickly become bloated.
It’s really not that hard to learn what and how to maintain a healthy IMac. You wouldn’t run a car with no servicing for years and be surprised that it ended up as smoking wreck.
I’d also recommend buying an external USB disc as a backup. Use something like the excellent Carbon Copy Cloner to schedule backups of your internal disc on a daily basis (or at night, when you’re asleep!). Personally, I prefer this option over Apple’s Time Machine.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished iMac we are collectively reducing the overall technology carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations. A good iMac is both a sound economic and ecological choice.
I’m an audio professional, and so demand high performance and minimum downtime from my Macs. Modern audio production all starts with capable and reliable computers. I have a static studio setup, and a mobile rig for my ‘on the road’ needs, and both of my rigs are built around refurbished machines.
Every fellow audio professional that I know shares a similar path to me – their computer setup has evolved around their changing needs and practices alongside the steady march of technology, and we’ve all come to rely more and more on working ‘in the box’. What follows will be ‘in my experience’, an inevitably personal take on the subject.
It may surprise you to learn that the last brand new Mac I bought was a Performa 6500 in 1998, to run midi alongside a dedicated digital audio workstation (a Korg VS1680). I’ve been through maybe 4 or 5 upgrades since then, all refurbished machines (and obviously ditched the old standalone recorder). It’s the same story for my laptops, culminating in my current refurbished MacBook Pro.
I’ll try to avoid the familiar battlefield of which platform is ‘better’! For pro users, one tends to stick to the platform you learned your craft on – even just changing from one set of shortcuts to another can be painful when there always seems to be a tight deadline looming.
There are certain hardware and software reasons why it can be strongly argued that Macs are superior machines – you can read more here. Most 3rd party software manufacturers, however, support both platforms, and a good PC will certainly get the job done.
There are a couple of other good reasons why a Macbook Pro and/ or a Mac desktop should be your platform of choice:-
Your choice of DAW
A DAW (digital audio workstation) forms the heart of your system. It’s your tape machine, mixing desk and editing software environment. Like the Apple vs. PC argument, many Pro audio users end up working with the DAW they started with. Although all Daws do much the same thing these days, the unlearning/ relearning process is just too time consuming when there’s work to be done and a living to be earned.
In the beginning, ProTools was the pro audio user’s weapon of choice. It simply sounded better than anything else (and had a price tag for the dedicated hardware to match!), but that gap has now arguably gone.
There are many DAWS on the market - notably Ableton, Cubase, Studio 1, Reason, FL Studio, Reaper to name but a few. They are all, along with ProTools, equally capable on Mac or PC. The exception is the very widely used Logic Pro, which is Apple only. Note the term ‘very widely used’, which is where we come to….
Collaboration
Audio professionals have to be flexible when it comes to DAW formats. Clients, writers, studios will often supply you with data and parts compiled in different software. The top DAW of choice in professional settings is still ProTools, with Logic and Ableton running second and third. A good 99% of projects that I receive will have been made on Macs in the first place. Walk into any half decent recording facility, it’ll be Macs running. Transferring files seamlessly back into your own working environment is crucial, so using a Mac for music professionally is simply a no brainer. It’s not about what is better, or any Apple snobbery – simply ease of collaboration.
Everyone knows that Apple machines are more expensive than PCs, but by buying refurbished, they needn’t be. In the commercial world of computers, as with everything else, we are constantly persuaded that only the newest machine will be up to the job. That may have held water 15 years ago, when advances in technology seemed to be taking giant leaps with every generational release, but I’d argue that this just isn’t the case any more. An older refurbished MacBook Pro or Mac Desktop can suit your needs perfectly, and be way cheaper than buying brand new. As this is from my own experience, it may help to describe how I use my software and which Macs I use, before detailing key points to look for when buying a refurbished Mac.
I have a studio in SW London (from which I write this) - a control room and a live room overstuffed with instruments, mics, outboard etc. I’ve recorded everything from tracking sessions with singers to whole band setups (and everything in between) in here. I’ve done corporate jobs that are inevitably sample heavy, and mixed some very large (80 + track) projects. My key demand from my computers is that they have to not fall over on the job.
No two jobs are the same for me. I’m currently producing an album, making the soundtrack for a corporate online piece and finishing a library album of my own. I need my Macs to be able to be up for anything.
As an example, I had a session as producer in another studio in mid December 2020, miraculously just before the last lockdown. It was a full band session (drums/ bass/ guitars/ keys/ guide vocals). Each track generated 30 – 50 tracks of data + alternative takes. The studio was running ProTools on a modded MacPro tower. As we finished each track, I copied the multitrack ProTools sessions onto my MacBook Pro and imported them into Logic. As a result, I was up and working in Logic on my Mac desktop in my studio the day after I got back home.
My DAW of choice is Logic (as that’s what I started with way back when), but I also run ProTools out of necessity for compatibility (see above). I can transfer easily between the two DAWS in my sleep now (which I sometimes do!). My audio interfaces of choice are UAD Apollos – they sound great, and I really like some of their (admittedly expensive) plugins. I tend to try and stick to plugin suites that I know and love for their sound – I mainly use SoundToys, FabFilter, Waves, Slate Digital, Izotope, Celemony, Native Instruments as well as a good wedge of soft synths that I particularly like. Try not to bloat your system with every plugin under the sun – too much choice can be distracting. How many compressors do you really need?
I use a Mac desktop rather than an iMac in my studio - I really don’t want any fan noise (or all of my cabling and drives) in the room. I run it all on an eight year old trash can Mac Pro on OS Catalina (see system overview below). It’s a fantastic machine, has never run out of CPU and goes like stink – and, not being an iMac, it can be tucked away in a cupboard. I monitor on two 27” Apple Cinema Display screens (I got these refurbished, too). It’s a really workable setup, and I don’t need anything else for the foreseeable future.
My mobile setup is based around Mid 2014 i7 MacBook Pro, a UAD Apollo Twin and a presonus audio interface expander via ADAT lightpipes. I use it for mobile sessions, recording multitrack live shows, remote writing sessions, programming, everything really. I’ve run 32 track out live shows with no problem at all, as well as editing large projects. It runs very smoothly, and has never let me down (see system overview below).
Apple’s habit of continually changing their ports drives everyone mad. A brand new machine with USB C only may well leave all your other older hardware in the cold - or more accurately, will leave you purchasing connecting solutions and hubs. My ‘old’ Mac desktop is a dream in this respect: I run the system on a 512gb SSD, and my audio disks and sample libraries port in via thunderbolt from an 8tb RAID array. The UAD chain goes in via Thunderbolt, and my obsession with backing up is served by two other RAID arrays (one kept offsite). I have a USB hub plumbed in for all necessary iLoks etc.
My MacBook Pro is equally usable, having all the ‘older’ connections that I need:- I run it with a system SSD and an extra 2TB HD on board. If I’m working on something sample heavy, I have a 2tb USB disk loaded with my main sample libraries.
It’s always worth having as much RAM as you can afford for music production – especially if your use is sample heavy. I’m maxed at 16gb on my MacBook Pro and 32gb on my Mac desktop, which unless you’re Hans Zimmer, is fine.
As well as your DAW of choice, there is the issue of plugins to consider. 15 or 20 years ago, you’d have to be really careful on your plugin selection – a CPU intensive reverb plugin, for example, could rinse your power. It just seems less of an issue now:- computers are simply more powerful, and 3rd party developers tend to be more careful with CPU usage. It’s also worth considering an audio I/O platform such as UAD, as their hardware carries the CPU load for their bespoke plugins.
If you’re looking at a mobile rig, it’s got to be a MacBook Pro every time. If you’re buying refurbished, make sure that you use a trusted seller for some sort of warranty. You’ll be looking for the best balance of processor power, RAM, connectivity and spend.
If you’re looking for a Mac desktop, I am a big fan of trash can Mac Pros – they’re highly underrated machines. You will, of course, need to factor in the cost of a screen (or two), but that won’t break the bank. iMacs are great machines too, but as I’ve said, I don’t want to share the room with my tape machine! A Mac mini may be a little underpowered for larger CPU heavy projects.
Remember what you're buying here - much as we all hate built in obsolescence, a computer is the very definition of the term. The good news is that Apple machines tend to hold their value well. You will inevitably be upgrading at some point, whatever you buy, so it's worth adopting the mindset of running maintenance.
This may seem strange (and totally unscientific), but I think a good rule of thumb when buying a refurbished machine is to always select something that is capable of running the latest macOS, then select the best spec that you can afford. That way, you'll have a machine that will give you a good number of years of service before you feel the need to upgrade. Note I use the word 'need' and not 'want'!
There are two golden rules that everyone working in pro audio observes:
Refurbished MacBook Pros and Mac Desktops are more than equal to the demands of creating high end music successfully. Buy refurbished, and you may even have some money left over to spend on that mic or tasty preamp you’ve been lusting after!
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished MacBook we are collectively reducing the overall technology carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations. A good refurbished Mac is both a sound economic and ecological choice.
An Apple Mac can cost a lot more money than it’s Windows PC equivalent, so it’s worth examining the major differences between these two platforms to see what bang you’re getting for your buck. Do Macs really last longer?
]]>An Apple Mac can cost a lot more money than it’s Windows PC equivalent, so it’s worth examining the major differences between these two platforms to see what bang you’re getting for your buck. Do Macs really last longer?
There is no doubting the iconic good looks of Apple products. They’re sleek, ergonomically supremely well designed machines, and appear hardier than their sometimes clunky looking Windows counterparts. Then there’s the cultural kudos;- a glowing white apple and brushed silver statement just says ‘professional’. But does any of this affect longevity? There’s circumstantial evidence that anyone parting with 3 or 4 times the cash for a shiny Apple Mac will tend to care for it better (my children aside), but is the significant investment worth it?
It’s worth remembering at this point that Microsoft Windows is simply an OS, built (and constantly rebuilt) to work on any one of thousands of machine models built from components supplied by many different manufacturers. It’s obvious when you look inside a Mac and a Windows PC that there is a very different build ethic at work between these two desktop computers. Apple design all of their components to work together in a seamless way to be part of the Apple ‘ecosystem’ – no third party controlled components to constantly update. Every aspect of a desktop Mac’s production is strictly controlled to optimise the machine and dedicated OS. This goes part way to explain the premium price you can pay for a Mac.
On a Windows PC, the BIOS (the system that allows the OS to talk to the hardware) is generally proprietary to the manufacturer, and Microsoft have little control over PC component manufacture. Seen this way, the inner workings of a regular PC are all down to external companies, which means that seen as a whole, they’re not actually ‘Windows PCs’ at all.
A Windows machine is a collection of discrete parts, which makes processing inherently more difficult. Of course, it also makes PCs cheaper!
The approach to OS between Apple and Microsoft really is apples and pears. The Apple destop mac is designed as a whole entity to be part of the Apple ecosystem of products. As a result of a cohesive OS strategy, they talk fluently. Desktop speaks laptop speaks iPhone and iPad. They are designed at a component and OS level to work together. Given the finite number of Mac models, OS updates and regular bug and security fixes target your machine, and they’re never going to result in incompatability issues.
Windows OS, however, is always dealing with machines that are wildly different in component structure, so are open to software conflicts (not to mention bugs). The OS can get bogged down over time (Microsoft even has its own page dedicated to ‘speeding up your machine’) – something that doesn’t generally happen with an Apple OS.
Over the life of a Windows PC, all those disparate components and applications can receive hundreds, even thousands, of minor and major updates from their manufacturers' support teams. Every change is noted in the Windows registry, which is essentially a very long list of commands that the OS has to read every time it boots up. As that list gets longer, the PC slows down.
Absolutely. Apple, of course, want to sell hardware, so as computing speeds increase, the very latest Mac OS may not work on your machine. That, however, really needn’t necessarily be an issue. Apple are really good at keeping even relatively old operating systems updated, patched and working glitch (and bug) free. I run two Apple desktop computers – one in my studio (I’m a music producer), and one for admin/printing etc. My studio machine is a 2013 trash can Mac (on OS Catalina), and goes like stink - I’ve never run out of CPU, even with sample heavy projects. My admin machine is a 2012 iMac – it won’t go beyond OS Mohave, but I don’t need it to. It all works fine.
Look after your Mac! Keep it updated, keep clearing out unwanted files from time to time, keep a clone of your drive on an external disk so you’re backed up and you can troubleshoot from it. You’ll be surprised at how much value a well maintained machine holds.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished iMac we are collectively reducing the overall technology carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations. A good refurbished desktop Mac is both a sound economic and ecological choice.
Lots! The original ‘Gumdrop’ plastic cased iMac was released in 1998, and came in a variety of funky colours. If you watch any US film or TV series from this period, you’re sure to see the unmistakable form of an early iMac showing up somewhere. With it’s innovative design, usability and clever product placement, the iMac is credited with turning the fortunes of Apple around. In this article, we’ll concentrate on ‘the modern era’, 2009 onwards. 12 years is centuries in computer history.
Assuming that your iMac is still functioning, the easiest place to start is here:
If your iMac doesn’t start up, the original packaging may also show an Apple part number, such as MMQA2xx/A (“xx” is a variable that differs by country or region). You can match the Apple part number to one on the list below to find your model.
iMac models are organised below by the year when they were introduced, starting with the most recent. Models from 2012 or later can run the latest version of macOS. For models from before 2012, the latest compatible operating system is listed.
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019)
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019)
iMac Pro (2017)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)
iMac (21.5-inch, 2017)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished iMac we are collectively reducing the overall technology carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations. A good refurbished iMac is both a sound economic and ecological choice.
Here’s a quick guide to the differences between these two Apple iPad generations.
]]>Apple first introduced their premium touchscreen tablet PC in 2010. There are three lines in Apples iPad range: - iPad, iPad mini and iPad Pro. Since introduction, iPads have been through numerous improvements – the latest ‘brand new’ model is the 8th generation. We’ll focus here on the difference between the previous two releases – iPad 6th generation (2018) and the iPad 7th generation (2019).
It’s clearer to start with what hasn’t changed between the two generations:-
The major upgrade on an Ipad 7th generation is the screen size. 7th gen iPads sport a 10.2" (2160x1620) display, 6th gen iPads are 9.7” (2048 x 1536). It’s bigger! The iPad 7th generation also has more RAM – 3GB, as opposed to 2GB on a 6th generation.
The 7th generation also has more advanced LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless networking technology, and has a ‘Smart Connector’ that supports a size-specific Apple Smart Keyboard.
An iPad 7 will cost a little more than a 6 on the refurbished market, so as with everything, the choice is chiefly based on need.
Does size matter to you? For the visually impaired, or for anyone working in graphically heavy areas, a 7 may be worth considering over a 6 given the extended real estate of the screen.
A dedicated Apple Smart Keyboard is a beautiful thing to work with, so may be a consideration if you’re intending to heavily input text. Bear in mind, though, that most OEM Bluetooth keyboards will work with both models. The improved memory (3GB from 2GB) may have implications for future IOS upgrades, but that is unlikely to be an issue for a while yet.
Apple are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, but computer manufacture is notoriously carbon and rare earth heavy - not to mention the sumptuous packaging!
We all have a part to play in maintaining the environment we live in. By buying a refurbished iPad we are collectively reducing the overall technology carbon footprint and preserving the planet now and for our future generations. A good refurbished iPad is both a sound economic and ecological choice.
Everyone is aware that the Apple produce the Rolls Royces of mobile computing. From their slick and ergonomic design to the stability of the OS, they’re highly desired both as very reliable work tools and, yes, fashion statements!
Find out how a refurbished Macbook can offer you everything you need for a fraction of the price of buying new.
]]>Everyone is aware that the Apple produce the Rolls Royces of mobile computing. From their slick and ergonomic design to the stability of the OS, they’re highly desired both as very reliable work tools and, yes, fashion statements!
Macbooks are beautifully engineered and constructed machines over their Windows counterparts, but buying new can be a major hit on the wallet. A refurbished Macbook is a great solution and a good investment that won’t break the bank. Buying secondhand anything can be a major worry, so you’ll want to buy from a trusted source.
When buying a refurbished Macbook, there are five things that you should look for:
1. Ensure that the machine has been erased using software to government approved standard. Blancco is the best tool for this, as it also runs stress tests on every hardware component to ensure that it’s in top working order.
2. Ensure that the Apple extended hardware test tool has also been run. This further tests all hardware components. Double indemnity.
3. Battery wear – ensure that this has been tested and is up to a suitable paremeter.
4. Ensure that any parts replaced in the above processes are genuine Apple components.
5. All refurbished Macbooks should pass through a thorough cleaning and quality assurance stage and have a fresh install of the latest compatible OS.
Peace of mind is everything, and you won’t fulfil this list buying from an individual on eBay (however well meaning!). Always go to a trusted seller.
The short answer is no. A well tested and maintained machine will give you years of good service. Any machine will have components that may fail, so you’ll want some sort of warranty that matches what you’d get from Apple buying new. With laptops, the weakest link in the chain is the hard disk – I’ve had disks that have failed within weeks from new, and others that drive on for years. Luckily, that’s a quick and cheap fix with a refurbished Macbook.
You should expect a 12 month warranty from a good trusted seller. That’s exactly the same warranty that you’d get from Apple. Peace of mind, right there.