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One might suggest it was inevitable that the Mac Pro (Early 2008) here in the sound isolation studio would stop working . . . :roll:

THOUGHTS

The Mac Pro (Early 2008) here in the sound isolation studio stopped working about a few days ago, and none of the usual remedies worked . . .

It gets past the initial boot "chime" and then the screen goes white and nothing else happens . . .

All that comes to mind are (a) blasting the inside with pressurized air (perhaps a naughty bit of dust somewhere) and (b) removing and reinstalling the system memory and video card (ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB); but I'm not certain it will do anything . . .

There are four internal hard drives, and it's likely all of them are working with no problems . . .

It's always good to have contingency plans; and in this instance the contingency plan is to get another Mac Pro (Early 2008) with the same primary specifications, which is what I did yesterday for $476 (US) on eBay, including FedEx Ground shipping and sales tax . . .

It's a 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (Early 2008) with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB video card and a 2TB hard drive and 250GB SSD drive . . .

The replacement Mac Pro (Early 2008) has 12GB of system memory, but I don't care about it so much, (a) because I have at least one memory card with 16GB that is working and perhaps a second one; but regardless, system memory is not expensive . . .

Same thing for the replacement internal hard drive and SSD drive--nice, although the SSD drive is intriguing . . .

Depending on how everything goes, I am thinking about getting an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB video card, which apparently is twice as fast as the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB video card . . .

And I plan to get a new internal hard drive to do a full-backup with SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) once everything is working . . .

My thinking is that I can put the old hard drives in the new Mac Pro (Early 2008) and be mostly back in business--other than perhaps needing to reactivate some digital music production software . . .

Then I will work on determining what is not working on the old one . . .

If it costs $750 (US) for all the hardware, then that's reasonable for a supercomputer, even one that's 12 years-old and only runs macOS El Capitan but nothing higher . . .

For reference, there were some units with the same processors (dual 2.8-GHz 4-Core XEON), but this one has the better video card and a 250GB SSD drive, hence is more attractive overall . . .

I think this strategy will work; and if it does then I'm happy with it . . .

Last year, one of the studio monitors exploded and burst into flames during a thunderstorm; so I'm replacing it, as well . . .

It's nice to have spares . . .

When all that stuff is working, I plan to complete the chapters on (a) busing and routing and (b) ReWire MIDI strategy for my new book on digital music production, which might be finished and released this year . . .

After pondering it for a while and having an epiphany or two, I think "busing and routing" is one of the keys to digital music production; and it's not something people typically include in technical books . . .

Doing a bit of "practicing", folks who started doing music decades ago usually know at least something about busing and routing, if only how to connect an electric guitar to an amplifier and how to connect a microphone to a PA system . . .

MIDI adds a layer, but keyboard folks usually know now to work with MIDI cables and all that stuff--although I had to take some online courses from Groove3 and macProVideo to make sense of MIDI . . .

In the digital music production universe, it's mostly virtual cables--unless you play an old-school MIDI keyboard and electric guitar--so for most folks there are no analog and MIDI components to make everything real and tangible, hence it's conceptually confusing . . .

Real or virtual, these are just cables that connect one thing to another thing--ins, outs, sends, returns, buses, ports, channels, and all that stuff . . .

When you understand busing and routing, it becomes possible and practical to do everything, which certainly is a worthy goal . . .

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Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. When I was doing everything on Windows "beige boxes" and Windows stopped working, I would grab a hammer and start banging on the metal box while rapidly toggling the ON/OFF power switch . . .

This usually fixed everything--at least for a while--but I'm not certain I want to do that with a Mac Pro, although it's an excellent way to deal with annoying frustration, which is fabulous . . .

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Fabulous! :P
Last edited by Surf.Whammy on Sun Dec 12, 2021 10:55 am, edited 2 times in total.

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by SwitchBack on Fri May 29, 2020 12:51 pm
Early 2008? I think Apple retired those a few weeks ago...

A fast way to at least get going again is to put the old Mac’s drives in external usb (or firewire) drive bays and then boot the new Mac from the old boot drive. Works like a charm.

Next I would look at Migration Assistant (native app) for transferring old to new.

Also search the internet for patched versions of MacOS releases newer than El Capitan. Depending on the secondary video processor chip in that ‘new’ Mac you may even get Mojave to run on it (if you wanted to).

Oh, and didn’t those Macs use only up to 6GB of RAM? I don’t think putting in more does any good. Or was that only the 2008 MBPs?

Anyway, nice project you have on your hands ;)
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by Surf.Whammy on Fri May 29, 2020 2:11 pm
SwitchBack wroteEarly 2008? I think Apple retired those a few weeks ago...

Apple retired the MacPro (Early 2008) with macOS El Capitan, which is fine with me . . .

When it's working, it runs everything--all the current digital music production software I use . . .

SwitchBack wroteA fast way to at least get going again is to put the old Mac’s drives in external usb (or firewire) drive bays and then boot the new Mac from the old boot drive. Works like a charm.

Yes! I already have one of these--unopened in the original packing--and it's one of the strategies . . .

The one I have now is USB-only, but OWC has an external drive bay that has USB and FireWire . . .

SwitchBack wroteNext I would look at Migration Assistant (native app) for transferring old to new.

My thinking is that since the replacement Mac Pro (Early 2008) is the same processor and video card configuration, I should be able to pull the internal drive bays from the non-working Mac Pro (Early 2008) and to put them in the replacement unit without needing to do much of anything other perhaps than updating some of the software activations, although that depends on the way the new machine is identified for security licensing purposes . . .

Some of my software has USB security dongles, so that part is easy--just move the USB security dongles from the old machine to the replacement machine (iLOK and one for Reason [Reason Studios]) . . .

There are different ways software licensing systems identify computers; and ideally it will be the type that doesn't use hard drive IDs, processor IDs, and stuff like that . . .

Some of them just generate a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) without all the hardware footprints, but it depends . . .

I have more activations available, so I think this part will be good . . .

SwitchBack wrote . . . didn’t those Macs use only up to 6GB of RAM? I don’t think putting in more does any good. Or was that only the 2008 MBPs?

32GB is normal as an option, but OWC has 64GB system memory for the Mac Pro (Early 2008, Model 3,1) . . .

32GB is plenty of system memory . . .

Kontakt (Native Instruments) has its own memory manager, so it can use more system memory; but everything else doesn't benefit much from more than 16GB of system memory . . .

From what I have observed, most digital music production software is what I loosely call "single-threaded" in the sense that it's linear rather than parallel . . .

Technically, it's multitasked and multi-threaded, but overall it's primarily linear . . .

There is multiprogramming but more in the sense of the operating system being able to multiprogram a few applications--and itself, of course . . .

Parallel processing requires too much software engineering, so it's typically used only for video processing applications where it makes a significant difference when rendering video files . . .

It's a matter of the time frame for audio generating, which is very short when the goal is to hear music in real-time . . .

Everything needs to happen very rapidly, which is different from rendering video files offline . . .

These songs are examples of what the old Mac Pro (Early 2008) was doing; and it's all I need to do at present . . .

For reference, these are produced primarily for studio-quality headphone listening, since I like to have a lot of motion-based effects in songs . . .

I do primary mixing when listening to the music played through calibrated full-range studio monitors, but then I switch to SONY MDR-7506 headphones to fine-tunie for headphone listeners .. . .

[NOTE: This is done with Studio One Professional and NOTION using what i call the "ReWire MIDI Strategy", and it has approximately 100 VSTI virtual instruments and Realivox Blue [RealiTone], my favorite virtual female soprano, along with a few tracks of my singing and being Pretend Johnny Cash . . . ]

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Project: ReWire ~ NOTION + Studio One Professional (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

[NOTE: This was done with Digital Performer [MOTU} and NOTION using a combination of NOTION-hosted VSTi virtual instruments and External MIDI sent from NOTION to Digital Performer, as well as Realivox Blue and a few tracks of my singing for a similar number of total tracks, with everything being virtual except my singing . . . ]

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Project: "Sweet Hour of Prayer" (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

Since I do everything myself, the strategy I use for composing songs is based on layering, where I build the song in layers . . .

Each time I creae a new layer, I do "Save As . . . " with layer identifiers, so I can go backward and revisit a layer if necessary, although it's vastly easier always to go forward . . .

Yet there are times when it makes sense to add another verse or something, and this requires going backward and doing some copying and pasting, like in "Feel Me" when I decided to another another verse . . .

[NOTE: This has real electric guitar, since it's easy to do the glissandi and whammying on a real electric guitar; but everything else is virtual done in NOTION and Digital Performer, except my singing, of course. It's a great song and easy to sing. Someone famous should record it and send me a lot of money. It's inspired sarcastically by "Who Owns My Heart" (Miley Cyrus), because she "stole" my idea for wearing a Venetian mask in a video . . . ]

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[NOTE: This is another song from the same time; and it's equally inspired sarcastically by "Bad Romance" (Lady Gaga), mostly for blowing my mind . . . :P ]

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Lots of FUN! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:13 am
Success! :+1

THOUGHTS

Since I have an USB external hard drive caddy, I pulled the internal hard drives from the MacPro (Early 2008) and tested them with the 2012 MacBook Pro (13", Retina) . . .

The primary hard drive is good; and one of the other drives is good'; but macOS Catalina says one of the other drives is bad; and I did not try the fourth drive, although I pulled it . . .

I read somewhere that removing "external hardware" was a good troubleshooting strategy; so I put the primary hard drive in the first bay and tried booting the Mac Pro; but the tiny status indicator light started blinking, which maps to there being a problem with system memory; so I pulled the system memory card and reset the 16GB memory modules; and after turning ON the power, the Mac Pro booted successfully . . .

Hooray! :+1

It wasn't the MOTU 828mk3 external digital audio and MIDI interface, because it's now working with the 2012 MacBook Pro via USB2; and the only other thing to pull would be the graphic card, but the screen was white, hence it probably was good . . .

Apparently, the problem was a bad internal hard drive . . .

That particular hard drive was being used as a third copy of important stuff; so it's not a big deal; and I have DiskWarrior (Alsoft), hence might be able to use DiskWarrior to recover stuff from the bad drive at least long enough to make a backup copy . . .

My archiving strategy is based on the rule that you never can have too many backups . . . :reading:

The replacement Mac Pro (Early 2008) is supposed to arrive next week; and it will be a backup computer, which was something I was planning to do a year or so ago . . .

The replacement Mac Pro (Early 2008) was $500; a 2004 Apple 30" Cinema HD Display is $300; and 32GB of system memory is $150; and it has a SSD and hard drive; so for under $1,000 it's an Apple supercomputer which is very peppy for digital music production . . .

It's not so fast as a new iMac Pro, but it's plenty peppy for digital music production; and upgrade to an original Apple ATI Radeon HD 5870, which I am doing for the original Mac Pro, and it's even peppier, since the 5870 is twice as fast as the 5770 . . .

[NOTE: The rule from Computer Science regarding making computers faster is that you focus on the slowest stuff first. The hard drive is the slowest; so a faster hard drive or SSD drive maps to a faster computer. Next there is system memory, and then the memory on the graphic card. And while on a Mac you can't get faster system memory, you can get more of it, hence going from 4GB or 8GB to 16GB or 32GB tends to map to faster computing; and upgrading to a better graphic card with more and faster video memory will be a big perceived performance boost, because in a GUI operating system like macOS and Windows, there is a lot of graphic processing, often to the point that the computer processors need to idle waiting on the display to refresh. For the most part, at least on the Mac, you can't upgrade to faster computer chips; and really it doesn't make a lot of difference anyway. Focus on hard drives, SSD drives, system memory, and graphic card memory and speeds, because this is where the greatest performance increases occur. When I am configuring a new Mac and I see that it comes with a 3.0-GHz processor but there is an $800 option for a 3.1-GHz processor upgrade, I say "No!", because it's stupid. It's one-tenth faster, but for the same money you can get a SSD drive, more system memory, or a better graphic card and let the one-tenth faster processor eat the smoke from the screaming tires. On the other hand, going from a single processor to a dual processor can make a significant difference, as can increasing the number or cores, although mostly if you are doing video work where video rendering algorithms are designed to do parallel processing and will use every available processor and all its cores. Digital music production is more linear, so it benefits from faster or larger capacity system memory, SSD drives, and graphic cards. This was easier to observe 30 years ago when everything was slower, but the rule continues to be golden . . . ]

Unless I am rendering video, the 2.8-GHz 8-core XEON dual processors run at perhaps 20-percent of capacity--mostly because nearly all digital music production software essentially is linear . . .

There is a bit of multithreading and multitasking happening, and a tiny bit of multiprogramming; but overall it's linear rather than parallel; and it's linear because everything needs to happen rapidly for the music to be high-quality and responsive with not skips, pops, or glitches in real-time . . .

My perspective is that new Apple computers benefit primarily from faster processors, faster memory, SSD drives, and so forth; but it's not so different from a properly outfitted Mac Pro (Early 2008); and the 30" Apple Cinema HD Display (circa 2004) is very nice . . .

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Lots of FUN! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Sun Jun 21, 2020 5:58 am
Surreal but overall good series of recent events . . . :)

THOUGHTS

Not long after discovering the problem with the Mac Pro (Early 2008) here in the sound isolation studio--which was a bad secondary internal hard drive--I learned that the replacement Mac Pro could not be shipped from New Jersey due to what one might call "unusual social chaos"; and after help from the eBay seller, we decided to cancel the order and do a full refund, which the seller did promptly (good eBayer, for sure) . . .

As noted, by this time the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio is working nicely, and I am using it to write this post; so this part is coming along nicely . . .

Nevertheless, I like the idea of having a backup Mac Pro (Early 2008); and I found another one on eBay and purchased it two days ago . . .

It's shipping from California on Monday and is scheduled to arrive by Friday June 26, 2020 . . .

Instead of being a dual 2.80GHz (8-core) Mac Pro (Early 2008), it's a dual 3.2-GHz (8-core) Mac Pro (Early 2008), hence will be faster than the 2.8-GHz Mac Pro . . .

Going for faster processors is not something I usually do; but the price is attractive, and I like the idea of having a faster Mac Pro . . .

Once it arrives, the current plan is to use the original Apple ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB video card in the replacement Mac Pro and to use the original Apple ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB video card on the original Mac Pro . . .

However, it depends on the way the replacement performs; so I might do some experiments . . .

Either one can be the "official" Mac Pro, since it's just a matter of where the primary hard drive is plugged-in (original or replacement Mac Pro) . . .

I have two sets of 32GB system memory, one which I purchased because the other set did not appear to be working; but this week I discovered that removing a system memory board and reseating the memory strips gets the memory working; so I am more confident that I have two sets of 32GB system memory (8x4G each set) . . .

I plan to get a new internal hard drive for the replacement Mac Pro; and I might get an SSD internal drive, since after doing some price-checking, they are not so expensive now (as compared to a few years ago, which was the last time I did price checks) . . .

I did a full, bootable backup of the primary hard drive to a LaCie Thunderbolt external hard drive, but since the MacPro (Early 2008) does not have Thunderbolt ports, it was done with a USB2 cable and took approximately 22 hours, which is a bit beyond absurdly slow, but so what . . .

I have some "normal" LaCie external drives that have full, bootable backups from several years ago; and I going to zap them to get enough space to do another full, bootable backup of the primary Mac Pro hard drive--presuming they have sufficient capacity (at least 2.5TB) . . .

I need to study the virtual festival of stuff on the primary hard drive to determine how much of it can be moved to another hard drive; since no matter how it's done, it takes too long to do a full, bootable backup of a 2.3TB internal hard drive . . .

Even when I clone it to another internal hard drive, it takes about 5 hours . . .

Previously, I was leaving the Mac Pro ON for weeks and months at a time; but now I turn it and the Apple 39" Cinema HD Display OFF when I am not planning to do anything for a while . . .

This new strategy is working better, especially for the larger display, since it doesn't actually turn-OFF unless the Tripp Lite ISOBAR surge protector is turned-OFF . . .

Part of the reason for this is that at present, it's hot in the sound isolation studio, since I'm not running the central air-conditioner (a) to save money on the electric bill and (b) because it stopped working two years ago . . .

It tends to be a bit miserable in the summer, but this house did not have air-conditioning when I was a child, so it's "old school"; and I run fans and drink a lot of ice-cold water . . .

This lowers the monthly electric bill by $200 to $300, so it's good; and it's only uncomfortable in the summer, and then only in the afternoon, hence so what . . .

The operating system is macOS El Capitan 10.11.6, and the current version of NOTION is the last one for El Capitan; so I'm now in "freezing everything" mode, which is fine with me . . .

After a month of doing computer maintenance stuff, I think with another few weeks of focusing on computer stuff, everything will be back to "normal" and better . . .

Based on the golden rule of Computer Science, which is that the biggest performance gains come from upgrading the slowest stuff to make it faster, I think there will be significant performance increases on the horizon (faster graphic card, internal SSD drives, and faster processors on the second Mac Pro) . . .

Peppy is good, but peppier is better! :+1

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. This is a banner year for round Texas watermelons, and they are attractively priced at present; so I get a bunch of them to augment the ice-cold Ozarka spring water . . .

This is how folks endure hot weather in Texas when going "old school" and saving money on electricity, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :mrgreen:

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by Surf.Whammy on Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:29 pm
The new "replacement" Mac Pro (Early 2008) arrived Thursday and is working nicely . . . :)

THOUGHTS

The starting idea was to get a replacement Mac Pro (Early 2008) and then to work on getting the original one working; but that didn't work as planned, which actually was a bit of serendipity . . .

While waiting for the first one to be shipped--which never happened because FedEX could not get to the shipping store due to "social chaos"--I identified the problem with my original Mac Pro, which was caused by a bad secondary internal hard drive . . .

Now the original Mac Pro is working very nicely, but I ordered a replacement Mac Pro from California, and it arrived just a few days later . . .

The "replacement" has 2x3.2-GHz (8-core) processors, hence is faster than the original 2x2.8-GHz (8-core) Mac Pro . . .

Along the way. I ordered an original Apple ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB graphic card, which I will install in one of the Mac Pro--the original which now is working has an Apple ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB graphic card . . .

I'm also planning to get a PCIe SSD storage device, probably 1TB but perhaps 2TB . . .

Both machines will have 32GB of system memory and at least one large-capacity internal hard drive, which for the most part is all the performance upgrading possible (faster processor, faster graphic card, and at least one SSD device) . . .

Now if there are any problems, I have a backup computer that won't take six weeks to get running . . .

Next on the list is doing a bit of cleaning in the sound isolation studio and installing the replacement left-channel studio monitor, which literally blew-up and caught on fire last year during a thunderstorm . . .

Then everything will be totally back to normal . . . when I put a small air-conditioner in the wall so it's not like a Swedish sauna in here . . .

If I run everything, it generates enough heat to keep the sound isolation toasty in the winter, which is nice but not in the summer . . .

I'm making progress, but this is how hot weather, only wearing underpants, and sitting in front of a "squirrel cage" blower getting blasted with hot air affects my mood:

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Am I going to "borrow" a few ideas from this song and use them in "The Ballad of Dare L. Dupree"?

Yeah! :P

Lots of FUN! :+1

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by Surf.Whammy on Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:20 pm
I bought a Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid-2010) with macOS Mojave this afternoon . . . :)

THOUGHTS

My current primary Mac Pro (Early 2008) is working nicely, as is the backup Mac Pro (Early 2008), but several websites have updated to the point that they don't work with the version of Safari that comes with macOS El Capitan (10.11.6), which is not a huge problem, but it's annoying . . .

So after doing some research, I verified that the Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010) runs macOS Mojave and has a newer version of Safari and a few other applications and things that are part of macOS Mojave . . .

I found a peppy Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010) on eBay for $1,250 and ordered it this afternoon . . .

It has dual 3.46-GHz 6-core Intel Xeon processors (12 cores total), 32GB of 1333-MHz DDR3 system memory, AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB graphic processor, and upgraded WIFI and Bluetooth 4, running macOS Mojave . . .

[NOTE: The system memory for the 2.8-GHz (8-core) Mac Pro (Early 2008) is 800-MHz DDR2 FB DIMM, so the newer system memory is significantly faster, as are the processors and graphic card . . . ]

It's about two and a half years newer than the Mac Pro (Early 2008), which is enough to move it forward a few versions of macOS into the future, relatively . . .

One might suppose that for the cost of the second Mac Pro (Early 2008) and graphic card update, plus the cost of the new Mac Pro (Mid 2010), I could have gotten a new 27" iMac; but I know how these older Mac Pro models work and can update them with better hardware easily, since everything mostly just plugs-in (internal hard drives, system memory, graphic cards, and so forth) . . .

I think the Apple 30" Cinema HD Display (2004) works with the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), and I have a second one of the displays that I got on eBay for $250 (US) plus $50 shipping . . .

Based on using the Apple Migration Assistant to migrate applications and data from a 2012 MacBook Pro to a 2019 MacBook Pro, I expect to be able to migrate the digital music production applications and data from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), although I will do this using one of the bootable internal backup drives . . .

Once that is done, I have a faster graphic card for the primary Mac Pro (Early 2008, which I will install, The secondary Mac Pro (Early 2008) already has this upgrade, which mostly was easy to do, except the two power cables were not so easy to connect . . .

Since the sound isolation studio is only six feet wide, this does not map to a lot of space for two Mac Pro towers and two of the Apple 30" Cinema HD Displays on the work table top, but so what . . .

I think there will be enough room for two of them, side-by-side (primary Mac Pro [Early 2008] and Mac Pro [Mid 2010]) . . .

Migrating and configuring the digital music production software will require a bit of work, but probably not too much work . . .

If all goes as expected, then soon I will be able to do digital music production on an 11 year-old Mac, which should be significantly faster than doing it on the 13 year-old Mac, plus I will be able to order pears and oranges at the Harry & David website . . . :P

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. Yes, the primary motivation for getting the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) was going to the Harry & David website in hopes of being able to order some pears and oranges, but the website displayed blank pages in Safari 11.1.2 . . .

Whether it actually was the primary motivation or a convenient excuse is another matter, but I am looking forward to what I expect will be peppier performance when I am doing digital music production, including the ability to upgrade to the current versions of Studio One Professional and NOTION, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Sun May 09, 2021 2:12 pm
The Mac Pro (Mid 2010) arrived Thursday, and it's very nice . . . :)

THOUGHTS

It came with the factory install for macOS Mojave, so it's a clean install as done for a new Mac . . .

After cloning the internal hard drive and making the cloned 4TB internal hard drive the primary hard drive for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), I did the updates to macOS Mojave, so now everything is current for macOS Mojave . . .

[NOTE: It has blue film, which I suppose is an artistic embellishment, and it's very clean. At first, I thought the blue film was a bit odd, but now I like it, and it fits with the color scheme of the sound isolation studio, which is blue, too. It has all four, internal hard drive holders, but I removed one of them temporarily, hence only three are shown in the photo. Realivox Blue (RealiTone) is my favorite virtual female soprano, so she will be in the Blue Mac Pro (Mid 2010). which is a bit cosmic in a Freudian metaphysical sense, with flavors of Carlos Castenada's Yaqui Indian sorcerer, Don Juan . . . ]

Image Image
Mac Pro (Mid 2010) ~ side cover removed

It has 32GB of system memory, but I have a friend who has a lot of 16GB system memory cards, and if they work in the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), then I will replace the current 4GB system memory cards with 16GB system memory cards for a total of 128GB of system memory, which will be nice, although most of it is unlikely to be used for anything except video rendering, since nearly no digital music production software does much parallel multiprocessing and multitasking . . .

Screenflow (Telestream) uses all available processors and cores, as well as all available system memory, as does Final Cut (Apple); but most digital music production software tends to be linear (sequential), although I think VSTi virtual instrument engines might have some capabilities--except I think they run in the same computing space(s) as Studio One Professional and NOTION, which is a guess based on watching processor usage via Activity Monitor (Apple). It's also based on the fact that software engineering costs more when processing is done the way it's done for video rendering . . .

[NOTE: All I know for certain is that Kontakt (Native Instruments) has a memory manager that runs all time, even when Kontakt is not running; so at least that part is independent of what Studio One Professional and NOTION are doing or not doing. It's also possible to configure Kontakt with respect to the number or processors and cores it can use, based on availability . . . ]

Rather than doing video-rendering style software engineering, the practical perspective is that computers become faster over time with new models and technologies, hence doing the extra software engineering is not cost effective and tends to make everything more complex . . .

The computer came with a 1GB internal hard drive, so I added a 4TB Toshiba hard drive and used SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) to clone the 1GB internal hard drive and to make the 4TB clone bootable . . .

I have a 6TB Toshiba drive as the primary internal hard drive on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), which due to a change in the screw locations actually is taped to the hard drive holder with Gorilla Tape at the back of the rail--stupid, but it works . . . :P

I cloned the 3TB portion, which is the bootable drive, to a Seagate 3TB drive; so the plan is to move the 6TB Toshiba drive at least temporarily to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), so I can use Migration Assistant (Apple) to move the applications, user data, and so forth to the newly cloned 4TB hard drive that has macOS Mojave installed and mostly is empty . . .

The user guide for Migration Assistant says this can be done (migrating from applications, user date, and so forth from one internal hard drive to another internal hard drive on the same computer), so this will be nice if it can be done . . .

I ordered a 4TB Toshiba drive, which I plan to use as the primary internal hard drive for the Mac Pro (Early 2008) once it's cloned, which takes about 8 hours. The 3TB Seagate internal hard drive that I cloned was made in 2017, so while it should be fine, I want to use a new 4TB Toshiba drive if I leave the 6TB Toshiba drive in the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

It's complicated, but it's working nicely according to the plan . . .

So far this week, I have been doing more computer stuff than music, but so what . . .

I'm doing music, but an equal amount of computer stuff; so it's not all one activity . . .

Lots of FUN! :)
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by Surf.Whammy on Sat May 22, 2021 5:27 am
The Apple Migration Assistant is working . . . :D

THOUGHTS

The new Mac Pro (Mid 2010) has a newly cloned 4TB Toshiba internal hard drive (bootable for macOS Mojave and updated) . . .

After cloning the primary internal hard drive on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), I moved it to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), it's the internal drive from which Migration Assistant (Apple) is transferring applications and data . . .

At present, it's migrating the applications and data from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) primary drive to the Mac Pro (2010) primary drive, where both internal drives are mounted in the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

The data transfer rate is approximately 100 MB/s; and the current time estimate is "about 7 hours", which works for me, since that's about how long it takes to clone the Mac Pro (Early 2008) primary drive using SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), since the primary drive has nearly 3TB of macOS El Capitan, applications, songs, data, and so forth . . .

It takes a while; but if it works, then it will be very good . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. The SuperDuper! cloned hard drive on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) is working nicely; and it's the new primary hard drive I am using now on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) . . .

Yesterday, I used it for the first version of my new Simple and Stupid song, "Tell Me Why (I Love You)", which is fabulous . . .

Project: Simple and Stupid (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

Fabulous! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Sat May 22, 2021 11:56 pm
Apple Migration Assistant migrated everything . . . :D

THOUGHTS

I updated NOTION to the current version and now am installing the current version of Studio One Professional 5 . . .

There are a few VSTi virtual instruments and effects plug-ins that need attention for licensing purposes (EW CloudComposer X, MachFive 3 [MOTU], McDSP, Reason [Reason Studios], and few others), and I am researching the best way to do this . . .

All of these products use iLOK, and I have an iLOK USB dongle on the Mac Pro (Early 2008); so the easiest way is to use it to authorize the various software on whichever computer I decide to use at the time, which is the reason for using an iLOK USB dongle . . . :reading:

The other way is to do a new set of monthly subscriptions for these products on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which for a few of the products has advantages due to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) running the current, updated version of macOS Mojave . . .

With EW CloudComposer X and MachFive 3 (MOTU), the easiest and least expensive strategy is to use the existing iLOK; but for McDSP I probably will get a monthly subscription (yearly plan), since it has all the McDSP effects plug-ins and based on the reverberation and echo plug-ins, I think McDSP's other plug-ins will be good to have . . .

I ordered an iLOK 3 to use with the McDSP subscription and whatever else makes sense and is affordable . . .

Kontakt (Native Instruments), IK Multimedia software, FabFilter Software Instruments, and most of the VSTi virtual instruments and effects plug-ins are working nicely, which is good . . .

DUAL USER ACCOUNTS

Migration Assistant gave me the option to migrate everything from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) internal drive or to migrate everything and update the User Accounts on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) internal drive; and I decided to do it the way that copies everything to the new Mac Pro (Mid 2010) internal drive and updates the User Accounts on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) drive . . .

I think this is the smart way to do the migration; and it has the advantage of not adding all the Desktop folders to the primary Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Desktop . . .

Everything is available on the Desktop when I login with the updated Mac Pro (Early 2008) User Account, so everything is there but is not moved specifically to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Desktop . . .

The Desktop for the Mac Pro (Early 2008) has stuff going back 10 to 15 years, so is a bit cluttered . . . :roll:

Doing it this way leaves the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) currently with only the hard drives showing and nothing else; so I can select which Desktop stuff to add, with the goal of creating a more focused Desktop for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

I am installing Kontakt 6 (Native Instruments), since it runs on macOS Mojave . . .

Kontakt 5 runs on both macOS El Capitan and macOS Mojave, but Kontakt 6 requires macOS 10.13 or higher; so it will run on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) but not on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) . . .

Kontakt 6 and the current version of Native Access are installed, and everything is updated and current . . .

I downloaded and installed the current versions of AmpliTube, Miroslav Philharmonik 2, and SampleTank . . .

There are more things I need to check, but so far it's very smooth . . .

THE COMPUTER GEEK PERSPECTIVE

Here in the sound isolation studio, I have been doing Mac stuff for 20+ years and know nearly all the important macOS and digital music production rules and requirements, which is good for me and makes this activity generally easy . . .

When something does not appear to work, (a) there are clues and (b) I know how to decipher the clues and what to do to resolve problems . . .

For other folks who are not computer geeks, some of this can be troublesome and overwhelming, even though it's easy to do; so my advice for such folks is to hire someone like and pay them $500 to $1,000 (US) to do the required migrating, installing, updating, licensing, and so forth . . .

Some of the work is little more than starting a procedure and then waiting for it to finish, where in this instance these are the time-consuming procedures:

(1) Clone the primary Mac Pro (Early 2008) internal hard drive using SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket), which took about 8 hours.

(2) Clone the primary Mac Pro (Mid 2010) internal hard drive using SuperDuper, which took about one hour (nothing on it except macOS Mojave).

(3) Update the clone (2) to the current version of macOS Mojave, which took at least 4 hours.

(4) Move the primary internal hard drive from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which took about 15 minutes, mostly because it's a 6TB Toshiba drive and the back mounting screw holes don't align with the rails, hence required a bit of Gorilla Tape. Later, I will drill holes in the correct locations, but for now Gorilla Tape is working nicely--it's a stupid hack but so what.

(5) Run the Migration Assistant to migrate the applications, data, and user settings from the primary Mac Pro (Early 2008) hard drive, now in the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) computer, to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) primary internal hard drive, which took about 8 hours.

(6) Reboot the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and then update and license all the digital music production software, which so far has taken at least 8 hours . . .

As you can see, most of this is a matter of starting a procedure and then doing something else for 8 or so hours; but (a) there are a few nuances to updating and licensing everything and (b) while it's easy for me to do, it's probably not so easy for other folks who are not computer geeks with macOS experience to do, which is the reason hiring a Mac computer geek makes a bit of sense, because in the amount of time required to call technical support for quite a few products and to run procedures and download stuff, you could mow enough lawns to pay for the services of a Mac computer geek and have enough money to buy some cool digital music production software, presuming (a) you have a lawn mower and (b) clients . . .

If you plan to do this with a new 2021 Mac, it's mostly the same set of procedures, but using a Mac-to-Mac cable or an external hard drive and USB-A or USB-C cable . . .

If it's done at a leisurely pace, then plan for a week or two, not counting the time to order the new or "newer than the older" Mac . . .

IDEA

Perhaps I should explore starting a remote contracting service for helping folks do stuff like this?

I think that a combination of emailing screen captures and telephone conversations can be sufficient . . .

Since most of what I am doing in this project mostly is a matter of knowing which procedures to start, which takes just a few minutes once instructions are provided on what to do, it won't take much of my time, hence can be affordable . . .

Getting digital music production software downloaded, installed, and authorized (VSTi virtual instruments and VST effects plug-ins) takes the bulk of the wall clock time; so this is where having experience and understanding how to wade through the inevitable mazes becomes valuable . . .

I don't need money, but it's a thought . . .

Generally, none of this stuff is particularly difficult once you know how to do it . . .

What makes it a bit complex is that there is so much stuff and each bit of stuff tends to have varying sets of rules and procedures, which is the way it works and is what one might characterize is "normal", more or less . . .

I enjoy writing and touch-typing, so perhaps I will start doing a set of "How To . . . " documents and YouTube videos, which I already am doing, actually, but more in response to posts in this forum . . .

SUMMARY

I'm making progress on being able to run the most current versions of the digital music production software I like . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. I plan to include a good bit of this information in my book on digital music production, so it's all good, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :D

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by Surf.Whammy on Tue May 25, 2021 12:04 am
I ordered and installed the McDSP plug-ins subscription . . . :D

THOUGHTS

The iLOK 3 USB dongle arrived Monday March 24, 2021 . . .

I installed it and the iLOK licensing software and then ordered the McDSP plug-ins subscription (Native, not HD), but I misread the ordering information and supplied the iLOK 3 serial number rather than my iLOK User ID, so it didn't work . . .

All Access Subscriptions (McDSP)

McDSP only does email support due to being in California and COVID 19, but I sent an email anyway . . .

McDSP support immediately refunded the first month's subscription charge; explained that they need my iLOK User ID, not the serial number of the new iLOK 3 USB dongle; and provided the link to order the subscription again but this time with the correct iLOK information . . .

I did this, and everything is working nicely now . . .

Downloading all the McDSP plug-ins took about 30 minutes, and installing them to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) took about 30 minutes--there are a lot of effects plug-ins . . .

The download and install is automated, so it's just a matter of starting the download and then running the installation program, which unpacks each ZIP file and then runs it . . .

It's approximately 8GB of plug-ins, presets, and data (compressed) . . .

Smooth procedure, all around--except for my thinking they needed my new iLOK 3 serial number rather than my iLOK User ID . . .

Studio One Professional 5 (current version) scanned and approved all the McDSP plug-ins, which took about 5 or so minutes, and it's all good . . .

McDSP Support gets an A+ from me, and I am very happy . . . :+1

I also ordered MODO Drums and Hammond B-3X (IK Multimedia); and the VSTi virtual instrument Hammond B-3X installs and runs on the MacPro (Mid 2010) but not on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), which is acceptable . . .

MODO Drums requires an Intel processor with AVX Instructions, so it doesn't run on either of my Mac Pro computers, which is a disappointment because it looks to be an awesome set of drumkits . . .

I requested IK Multimedia to refund my credit card and to restore the 30 Jam Points for the MODO Drums order, so maybe they will do it; and If they do, then I plan to get the four legacy tape machine plug-ins for T-RackS 5 . . .

The IK Multimedia discount for T-RackS 5 plug-ins ends today; so I probably will do the ordering soon, because they are discounted to $25 (US) each rather than the full price of $100 (US) each . . .

And I ordered another 4TB Toshiba hard drive for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which should arrive later today, so I can do a full backup of the now migrated and loaded primary hard drive for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

[NOTE: I like to have bootable full backups handy . . . :ugeek: ]

Making steady progress . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Sat May 29, 2021 3:46 am
One of the Apple wired keyboards stopped working, so I ordered a new Apple Bluetooth Keyboard . . . :)

THOUGHTS

It actually was the wired Apple keyboard for the Mac Pro (Early 2008), and I only had two of these--one of which was for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

I like the wired Apple keyboards, so I ordered two of them on eBay; and they should arrive in a few days . . .

Having just one keyboard but two Mac Pro computers was not a lot of FUN, so I checked with Amazon and they had a new Bluetooth Apple keyboard with next day delivery, which I ordered . . .

The new Bluetooth Apple keyboard works with on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), so this is where I am using it; and while it's wireless, there is a charging cable (USB-A to the Apple display and USB-C or Lightning to the keyboard), which makes it a wired keyboard when the charging cable is connected . . .

It's nice, and essentially has the same touch and feel as the older wired Apple keyboards . . .

I touch-type, so the type and style of keyboards is very important here in the sound isolation studio . . .

NEW EFFECTS PLUG-INS FOR MAC PRO (MID 2010)

I have and use the EC-300 Echo Collection from McDSP on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), and it requires an iLOK for licensing . . .

I want to use it on the Mac Pro (MID 2010) but do not want to mess with moving the iLOK 1 from Mac Pro to Mac Pro; so I got a second iLok and ordered a McDSP subscription for all their effects plug-ins, which is nice . . .

The second one is an iLOK 3, and the iLOK software lets me manage both of them, which includes the ability to transfer licenses from one to the other, as well as registering dual licenses when they are available for certain products . . .

I was in a shopping mood and noticed that Waves is having a major discount sale on their effects plug-ins, so I ordered a few and get to choose three more at no charge as a bonus . . .

Most of the digital music production software here in the sound isolation studio have licenses for several computers; so at present I think everything is installed and properly licensed on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010); and this might include Reason (Reason Studios), but I need to verify it . . .

As I recall, I purchased what at the time was the new version of Reason when I was configuring a newer MacBook Pro to test macOS Catalina; and if so, then I have a separate license for Reason 10 or some newer version of Reason that does not run on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) under macOS El Capitan, which is the most recent version of macOS that computer runs . . .

The PreSonus applications (NOTION and Studio One Professional) come with licenses for use on several computers here in the sound isolation studio; and for the macOS Catalina experiment I purchased an additional set of licenses; so these primary applications are fully licensed and working nicely on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

[NOTE: I write about digital music production, and I do not want to be influenced by free software because I write about it; so I purchase all the digital music production software I use. It's easier to be objective this way, and it's the way I do it. I use some free software, but it's free to everyone, not just me. When I write that something is good, it's something I purchased; use; and think is good based on actually using it and wanting to use it . . . :+1 ]

The Waves effects plug-ins I purchased are interesting, if not fascinating; and there are some intriguing effects plug-ins from which I can select as a bonus, although none of the bonus effects plug-ins are obviously fabulous in a general sense . . .

The most intriguing and fascinating Waves effects plug-in in the new set is the one designed by Butch Vig (Garbage) for vocals, which has a Steampunk graphic user interface (GUI), which alone is sufficient reason to want it . . .

[NOTE: I watched on the the YouTube videos on the effects plug-in, and I couldn't tell what it does until later in the video when it's used to change the vocal tone and texture to something metallic and surreal, which is what makes it intriguing--especially for use in science fiction radio plays . . . ]

Image

Among other activities, Butch Vig is the drummer and co-producer for Garbage and produced the Nirvana album "Nevermind" . . .

Garbage is one of my favorite music groups, so this selection was easy, plus I like the way it looks . . .

[NOTE: Garbage songs are mixed for headphone listening and have plenty of motion and textural effects, which is the primary reason I like Garbage--especially Shirley Manson's singing and the overall instrumenting, producing, and audio engineering . . . ]

phpBB [video]


Abbey Road Vinyl is another effects plug-in in the set; and I chose it for two reasons, (a) to create vinyl "scratch" type effects for a few songs in the new volume of my science fiction radio play and (b) to do turntable "slowdown" and "stop" effects . . .

Image

Aphex Aural Exciter is another effects plug-in in the set . . .

Image

The fourth effects plug-in is one I already have but want to use on both Mac Pro computers; and it's Reel ADT which emulates the Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) system Abbey Road engineers created after John Lennon decided it was too much hassle to do double-tracking manually by singing the same thing several times . . .

Image

[NOTE: If you listen carefully with studio-quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite), you can hear the manual double-tracking on "Can' Buy Me Love" (Beatles), including on George Harrison's lead guitar solo. Among other things, double-tracking introduces the Haas Effect and widens the stereo image of singing and lead guitar solos. This type of double-tracking was done by singing or playing the same thing on at least two separate tracks or instances. Since nobody can sing or play the same thing two times exactly, this also introduces fast delay, flanging, and other effects that push the singing and lead guitar playing to the front of the mix . . . ]

phpBB [video]


Lots of FUN! :)

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by Surf.Whammy on Wed Jun 02, 2021 4:53 pm
I installed more software to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . . :)

THOUGHTS

I had Stutter Edit 2 (iZotope) installed with the iLOK 1 on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), but the effects plug-in does not run in macOS El Capitan, which is the reason I found Stutter Edit 1 on eBay for $50 (US) and now use it on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) for my custom preset that I call the "Elvis Stutter", which is heard on this Simple and Stupid song, and it's f-f-f-fabulous . . .

Image

phpBB [video]


F-F-F-Fabulous! :+1

So I deactivated the license for Stutter Edit 2 with both iLOK USB dongles inserted to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and then activated the license on the new iLOK 3, which is the primary iLOK device for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010); and now I can use Stutter Edit 2 on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

I have quite a few effects plug-ins from FabFilter Software Instruments, and they work on all the Apple computers here in the sound isolations, which is very good . . .

Recalling a recent announcement for Timeless 3, I decided to do the upgrade; and now it's installed to both Mac Pro computers . . .

Image

Since I already have Timeless 2 and a lot of other effects plug-ins from FabFilter Software Instruments, the upgrade was about $50 (US), since they increase the discount for upgrades and new products based on how many products you already have, which is nice . . .

I had two unused licenses for Whoosh FX (UVI), so I used one of them to activate it on the iLOK 3 for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

Image

And I selected the three bonus effects plug-ins from my recent Waves purchase and installed them to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

I watched the YouTube product videos for these Waves effects plug-ins, and they have some capabilities I like . . .

Image
Kaleidoscopes

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Manny Marroquin Delay

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Scheps Parallel Particles

I verified that all this stuff works in Studio One Professional 5, so everything is good on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

REASON (REASON STUDIOS)

The next step is to determine what to do with Reason (Reason Studios) . . .

I did the upgrade to Reason 10 a while ago. and I use it on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) . . .

But starting with Reason 11, Reason Studios (formerly Propellerhead Software, same company but new name) stopped supporting ReWire and instead does everything with Reason VST, an effects plug-in that provides access to the various Reason and third-party Rack Extension synthesizers, sampled instruments, and effects. . . .

There is a simple delay unit that is perfect for doing simple delays--sounds stupid but it's the only digital delay I have found that actually does a simple digital delay without getting all fancy and essentially useless for the Haas Effect--so if this works with Reason VST, then fantastic; but otherwise I can run Reason 10 for which I have a USB licensing dongle . . .

[NOTE: The sheer simplicity of this effect unit is what makes it brilliant. It does a few other things, but mostly what it does is delay a signal by some number of milliseconds (actually samples, but that's all technical and stuff). There are other ways to do this, but all of them are too complex and are not so easy for me to use. You feed it a signal--perhaps a vocal track--and then tell it how long to delay an exact copy, which makes it super easy to have FUN with the Haas Effect. I discovered this effect unit after using Reason for a few years, but it's so useful that I would buy Reason just to have this effect unit. Not to be all negative, but pretty much everything else adds stuff, which is not what you want. This digital delay does exactly what is needed to create the Haas Effect ruthlessly with exact precision. In fact, it's so simple that it's categorized as an "utility" rather than as an effects unit; so to use it, you add it to the Rack as a utility unit. The technology on this is that at standard CD quality, there are exactly 44,100 samples each second; so divide it by 1,000 to get 441 samples per millisecond. If you want the copy audio signal delayed by 10 milliseconds, then set the delay to 4,410 samples, and there you are . . . ]

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VMG-01 Sample Delay ~ Developed by Normen Hansen

Rollback the clock a few years, and I hated USB licensing dongles, because the concept appeared to be too Orwellian; but now I like them, so it's all good here in the sound isolation studio . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. When the age is in, the wit is out (Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Nothing", Constable Dogberry) . . .

Apparently unbeknown to me, I already did the upgrade to Reason 11--perhaps for the macOS Catalina experiments on two MacBook Pro computers (2012 and 2019)--so I just need to move it to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :roll:
Last edited by Surf.Whammy on Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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by Surf.Whammy on Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:16 pm
I installed Reason 11 (Reason Studios) to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . . :)

THOUGHTS

In addition, I synchronized all the Rack Extensions I purchased a few years ago, including the simple digital delay unit . . .

This is the current version of Reason, and it's the one that has Reason VST, an effects plug-in that provides all the standalone Reason stuff, plus the third-party Rack Extensions you have purchased . . .

As part of the switch to making Reason available as a VST plug-in to a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application like Studio One Professional, the folks at Reason Studios added support for VST effects plug-ins ike the ones from IK Multimedia, McDSP, FabFilter Software Instruments, Sugar Bytes, and so forth, but they need to be 64-bits . . .

I had T-RackS 3 (IK Mulltimedia) installed; but it's 32-bits, and the Reason scan rejected all of them, which is good . . .

I deleted as much of T-RackS 3 as I could find, but there were a few stragglers . . . :roll:

I am using T-RackS 5, which is 64-bits and is the current release version . . .

Reason 10 and Reason 11 run on the Mac Pro (Early 2008); but on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) I use Reason 10, because it works as a ReWire helper device . . .

Reason 11 does not do ReWire but instead uses Reason VST; so I will experiment with Reason VST on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) but can run Reason 10, as well, if it's easier or more convenient--both Reason 10 and Reason 11 are installed, and they are separate and independent, so I can run either of them on both Mac Pro computers, just not at the same time, because the license is for all my Mac computers but only on one computer at any specific time . . .

The goal is to make the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) my primary digital music production computer, and it's near being ready, which mostly is just a matter of switching the locations of the towers . . .

In other words, the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) goes from the desktop to the floor; and the Mac Pro (Early 2008) goes from the floor to the desktop--no moving the displays or anything else, just the towers, which should be relatively easy and probably will not involve a lot of crawling around on the floor of the sound isolation studio, other than to connect a few cables . . .

The next decision involves determining what to do with the display, since at present the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) has an Apple 23" Cinema Display, which is considerably smaller than the Apple 30" Cinema HD Display I use with the Mac Pro (Early 2008) . . .

Do I switch displays or get another Apple 30" Cinema Display for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010)?

This is more of a logistical decision, and there are several other options; but regardless, a 23" display is too small . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

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by Surfwhammy on Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:19 am
I moved everything from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), and it's working nicely . . . :D

THOUGHTS

Over the past month or two, I did a few bootable backups of the Mac Pro (Early 2008) using 4TB Toshiba hard drives and SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket), with the most recent one being a few days ago . . .

Yesterday, starting early in the morning, I moved everything and then focused on ensuring the digital music software was licensed properly and working correctly, which took about 12 hours . . .

It took a call to MOTU technical support to get the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid external digital audio and MIDI processor working in macOS Mojave on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010); and the MOTU technician knew exactly what needed to be done, some of which I would not have found easily. Mostly, it involved abandoning FireWire for USB2; deleting a FireWire kext (macOS kernel extension); and installing an older driver, as well as rebooting. Overall it took about 30 minutes, and this is one of the reasons I like MOTU. :+1

When I first tried "Tell Me Why (I Love You)" in the current version of Studio One Professional 5 and the current version of NOTION 6, there was no sound; and this took a while to understand, but eventually I discovered it was a matter of the Saturn (FabFilter Software Instruments) mastering plug-in not being licensed properly, hence it blocked the audio on the Main Audio Track . . .

The solution was to license it on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which also was necessary to do for the IK Multimedia products and a few others that are software-licensed rather than licensed via an iLOK USB dongle . . .

I have licenses for everything, but these types of licenses are tied to the specific machine; so when you move everything to a new machine, you need to deactivate the licenses on the older machine and then reactivate the licenses on the new machine, although some of the products allow multiple activations.

I also had to reinstall some of the virtual instruments and effects plug-ins to get them installed in the correct locations for the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) . . .

At first, nothing was working; but slowly but surely, it started working . . .

This probably was made all the more complex due to having four versions of the primary start-up hard drive from the Mac Pro (Early 2008)--one of which was used to transfer all the software from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) via the Apple Migration Assistant with the primary drive from the Mac Pro (Early 2008) mounted in one of the drive bays of the Mac Pro (Mid 2010), which took more hours than I can remember, as I think I explained in an early post . . .

It took a while, but it worked . . . :+1

The only missing bits are my user-defined presets for a few of the AU and VST effects plug-ins, which probably are on one or more of the cloned hard drive but apparently are not visible due to the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) thinking I am not authorized to look at them . . .

Doing a bit of anthropomorphizing, I think macOS Mojave pondered the existence of four, essentially identical "primary hard drives" and made an executive decision along the lines of "Dude, you have too much of the same stuff, so rather than get confused, we are introducing a bit of order to the matter by making it off-limits to you, since you're the idiot who created this mess." or something similar, which is fine with me . . . :P

My user-defined presets should be on one of the cloned hard drives, but they do not appear to be there; hence the solution is to find them on the Mac Pro (Early 2008) and copy them to a USB thumb drive or something . . .

Toward this goal, I ordered a USB flash drive, which should arrive Saturday August 7, 2021 . . .

To get on with things, I reset most of the presets to factory defaults, which works because I know how to configure them based on the way they should sound for the specific song . . .

There are another set of effect plug-ins on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) that do not run in macOS El Capitan and the older Mac Pro; so this will be a bit of FUN, since most of them do what I think are useful things . . .

A while ago, I purchased the upgrade to ScreenFlow 9 (Telestream), although it didn't work in the Mac Pro (Early 2008); but it works in macOS Mojave, so now I am using ScreenFlow 9 for YouTube music videos and tutorials . . .

This is the proof-of-concept version of "Tell Me Why (I Love You)" done on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010); and it's coming along nicely . . .

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Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. At one point in getting everything working, I created a new ReWire MIDI project with Studio One Professional 5 and NOTION 6 but when mapping Instrument Tracks to ReWire MIDI busses and channels in Studio One Professional 5, I did not see the ReWire busses and channels; so I created a NOTION technical support ticket . . .

After creating the ticket, I read a few pages in the Studio One Professional 5 Reference Manual and noticed there was a big image showing the "Multiple MIDI Outputs" option checked in the "MIDI Over ReWire" section and realized the problem was caused by not checking this option . . .

If you plan to access multiple Studio One Instruments in Notion, be sure to enable the "Multiple MIDI Outputs" option in the Notion ReWire window that opens.

This option always was checked on the Mac Pro (Early 2008)--probably because I used it so much--but on the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) it was not checked, most likely because it was the first time I used it in the new version . . .

I replied with a comment explaining that I forgot to check the option and that after checking the option everything was working nicely . . .

It was a bit stupid, but now I will remember it in the future, which is fabulous . .

Fabulous!
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by Surfwhammy on Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:17 am
"Gypsy Jazzy" is on sale for $50 until August 9, 2021, so I bought a copy . . . :)

THOUGHTS

Gypsy Jazzy (UVI)

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I like the Gypsy Jazzy bowed violin . . .

Lots of FUN! :)
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by Surf.Whammy on Tue Aug 17, 2021 2:29 am
I got an LG 8,000 BTU 115V Window-Mounted Air-Conditioner 13 months ago and ran it continuously (24x7) the entire time, year-round; but it's not working so well now . . . :(

THOUGHTS

It outputs cool air but not enough to get the sound isolation cold like a dairy cooler; so after doing some checks and determining it was not a matter of icing or anything else, I ordered a new unit, which should arrive today Tuesday August 17, 2021 . . .

It was very nice when it was cooling, but I think it's not designed to be run continuously . . .

I found one at a nice discount with free delivery, so I think this will get everything back to normal; and I can examine the old unit to see if anything looks broken . . .

Mostly, I think the old unit wore out . . .

Not running the central air-conditioner--which doesn't work anyway--saves about $200 a month; so if I need to replace the sound isolation studio air-conditioner once a year for $225, then it's all good . . .

[NOTE: These are photos of the old unit, but the replacement unit is the same. Perhaps this year I will put wood trim around the inside opening and make it look all professional and stuff . . . ]

Image

Image

It was too much work to install it in an actual window--mostly because there are no windows--so I cut a hole in the sound isolation studio wall and put the cool end inside the sound isolation studio with the hot end exhausting to the outer room, which in summer gets a bit toasty, but so what . . .

The Mac Pro (Mid 2010) has two 3.46-GHz 6-core Xeon processors and 32GB of faster system memory (1333 MHz DDR3), plus a much faster video card (AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB); so it generates a lot more heat compared to the Mac Pro (Early 2008); and the 30" Apple Cinema Display and its power supply are like a space heater . . .

Lots of FUN! :)
Last edited by Surf.Whammy on Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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by Surf.Whammy on Tue Aug 17, 2021 4:24 am
Addictive Drums 1 does not run in macOS Mojave, so I upgraded to Addictive Drums 2 . . . :)

THOUGHTS

There are 50-percent discount starter kits for folks who have Addictive Drums 1, so I purchased the Custom Starter Kit with three choices of drum kits and three choices of add-on drums (a.k.a., "kit pieces"). . .

For the drum kits, I selected Blue Oyster, Modern Jazz Brushes, and Studio Pop; and for the individual drums I selected the DW Solid Picolo Snare, DW Woofer Bass Drum, and Sonor Latino Bongos . . .

PROCEDURE FOR INSTALLING TO NEW MAC PRO (MID 2010)

It took me a while to discover the procedure, since it was not so intuitive; but I found the information in a FAQ at the XLN Audio website . . .

First, you use the XLN Online Installer to uninstall the software (Addictive Drums and Addictive Keys); and when that is done you go to the XLN Audio website and delete the computer . . .

[NOTE: The license allows installing the software (Addictive Drums and Addictive Keys) to two computers, but the computers have unique codes. When you switch to a new computer, which I did by cloning the hard drive from the Mac Pro (Early 2008), it appears that the new computer (Mac Pro [Mid 2010]) actually is the Mac Pro (Early 2008), which is a problem because the computer key code is for the wrong computer. The correct procedure is as described (see above). The installed software is keyed to the computer name as part of the licensing scheme, so if they do not match, then nothing works. It's an interesting licensing scheme, and once I discovered the rules, everything is working nicely . . . ]

Next, you run the XLN Online Installer to install fo the software (Addictive Drums and Addictive Keys). The XLN Online Installer sees that the computer is not registered or known, so it prompts you to give it a name, which then creates something similar to a GUID or UUID for it (basically a numerical code); and then the software is installed, which takes a while. After the software is installed to the "new" computer, it's all ready to go . . .

I tried only reinstalling the software, but it was associated with the incorrect computer code and did not work . . .

The key is to uninstall the software and then to go to the website and delete the computer, followed by reinstalling to the newly named computer that the XLN Online Installer creates and gives a numerical code . . .

It makes sense when you think about it a while . . . :reading:

I need to update the Simple and Stupid "Basic Rhythm Section" template for Studio One Professional 5, and then I think everything will be working nicely . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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by Surf.Whammy on Wed Aug 18, 2021 11:15 pm
The replacement air-conditioner arrived, and I installed it this evening (Wednesday August 18, 2021). . . :)

THOUGHTS

Now it's cool in the sound isolation studio . . .

I have some guitars on the opposite wall, hanging vertically on guitar holders; and the air-conditioner fan at high-speed moves enough air to rock the guitars, which is what the original unit did at first but stopped doing a month ago . . .

The new air-conditioner is moving a lot of cool air; so perhaps the old unit just needs to be cleaned?

The old unit was outputting cool air but the fan was not doing so much air moving . . .

I cleaned the air filter, so it's not a clogged air filter . . .

If I can get the old unit working again, having a spare will be nice . . .

On the other hand, the new unit was discounted to $225, and it saves about $2,000 per year in lower electric prices, since I do not run the central air-conditioner . . .

I use the saved money for digital music production software, computers, and so forth . . .

Having a cool sound isolation studio provides a pleasant space for the day and night, which during the hot summer months makes it tolerable, overall . . .

I sleep in the main part of the house, usually from 3:00 AM until 8:30 AM when it's coolest in the main part of the house; and I have fans to keep the air moving . . .

Lately, it's been around 91 degrees Fahrenheit in the main part of the house from midday until early evening, which is too hot; but it cools to the low-80s at night, sometimes to the high-70s . . .

The sound isolation studio is 73 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very comfortable and keeps the Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Apple 30" Cinema Display cool . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

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The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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by Surf.Whammy on Fri Dec 10, 2021 7:19 pm
The Mac Pro (Mid 2010) stopped working . . . :(

THOUGHTS

Current thinking is that the GIGABYTE 3-Fan AMD Radeon 7950 3GB GPU For Apple Mac Pro Boot screen, METAL 7970 280X has problems; so I ordered a replacement which should arrive Monday December 13, 2021 . . .

The power supply is another possibility . . .

I am getting help from the fellow who put it together and sold it on eBay . . .

He offered to do Facetime to help troubleshoot the problem . . .

At the moment, I am on a 2012 13" Retina MBP running macOS Catalina, mostly because the Mac Pro (Early 2008) is running macOS El Capitan and its version of Safari is a bit archaic--doesn't display the PreSonus Forum login screen and doesn't do other website stuff . . .

I found a 2013 27" iMac at Macsales (OWC) and ordered it . . .

It has a 4TB hard drive (regular, not fusion), 32GB of system memory, a 3.4-GHz quad-core i5 processor, and a fast graphic card (GTX 780m/4GB) . . .

It will run macOS Catalina; and I am hoping the i5 supports AVX vector processing so I can run MODO Drum (IK Multimedia) . . .

I got the two-year Eclipse warranty . . .

In retrospect, I could have gone directly to a new, very peppy Apple 27" iMac--not the Pro model but certainly peppy--instead of buying a second Mac Pro (Early 2008), Mac Pro (Mid 2010), various hardware upgrades, and the 2013 Apple 27" iMac; but (a) how much FUN would that be and (b) I probably would not have learned so much about fixing dinosaur Macs . . . :roll:

Once everything is working again, I might sell some of the stuff on eBay . . .

Two weeks ago, I was at 2010 here in the sound isolation studio; and if all goes well I will be at 2010 and 2013 next week . . . :punk:

Since I am somewhat stuck in Mac Hell, I have been thinking about doing another chapter in my science fiction radio play ("Extreme Gravity"), which I put on hold for a decade while I discovered how to do pretty much every musical genre with NOTION and VSTi virtual instruments and VST effects plug-ins, which is about how long it takes to make sense of all that stuff to what i think is somewhere at the George Martin and Beatles level . . .

This is important, because the next chapter has a ballroom dancing theme where a female "Brain-O" has been controlled by a male "Brain-O" as punishment for annoying a high-ranking "Brain-O" Imperial Director but somehow manages to take control herself . . .

In the earlier chapters, i spoke all the female lines simply by reading them aloud; but now I have Realivox Blue (RealiTone)--my favorite virtual female soprano--and so long as she sings her lines, the license rules are followed . . .

I discovered how to make Blue speak--and had a bit of FUN making her say naughty things--but the license is very clear that she only can sing, no spoken word allowed; but it's an easy rule for me to follow, in part based on the way John Lennon sang monotone in songs like "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (Beatles) . . .

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[NOTE: in 2013, someone in a guitar forum asked for tips on composing songs; and my advice was to start with a song you like and then to change things until it's your song. I used "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (Beatles) as an example. The new song is "Baby You Were Only Dreaming" . . . ]

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[NOTE: I "borrowed" some musical bits and lyrics from "Not Myself Tonight" (Christina Aguilera) for the bridge. Blue does this, but I don't let her get too naughty . . . :oops: ]

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With Blue, everything is good so long as (a) she sings a simple melody and (b) there are instruments accompanying her . . .

"Chapter 10: Darla's Sexy Dance" ("Extreme Gravity", PDF)

Lots of FUN! :)

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!

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