Mac tweaks?

[fifthcircle]

So I just picked up an ibook to run a digi002R rig. As a person that has basically come from a PC background, I was wondering if there are any OS X tweaks that need to be done to make the PT rig run more smoothly?

Obviously a PC would need extensive system mods, but I don't know as much about the mac world and what is needed for them... Are there any websites that have good ideas? I've done a couple searches (here, the DUC, and google) and haven't really found much... Is that just because the OS is just better suited to audio work?

Any hints would be appreciated.

--Ben

[TonyBelmont]

Turn the sleep function off....

[Geert van den Berg]

Like Tony said. I can't really think of any other tweaks.

Oh wait... some people turn of Dashboard, though if you don't add any widgets it hardly consumes any resources.

And another one which might be helpfull is to turn off Spotlight, though I really like Spotlight, I guess if you go into the prefs and make sure the OS doesn't have permission to index all the drives that that means spotlight is basically off.

There's an app to turn it off, and there's a terminal command for it, but I have to look this up.

We have Spotlight turned off on all our studio machines, as per advise of our supplier but at home I haven't encountered any problems with audio work.

So I would only look into it if you find that the indexing is causing problems, in our case it could be necessary because there's a big audio server running and if the machines would index everything that would take a long time and would probably eat up a lot of system resources.

[6strings]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

I've done a couple searches (here, the DUC, and google) and haven't really found much... Is that just because the OS is just better suited to audio work?

Bingo!

The only thing I would add is that when you set up your external media drive, turn off journaling for that drive (launch disk utility to do this). Some say it can impair the drive performance, if only slightly.

I also turn off "auto-sleep", but do sleep the machine manually when I don't need it for a few hours...

[Geert van den Berg]

From v6.9 and higher Digidesign recommends to turn on journaling!

Though maybe it's different for external drives, but it isn't specifically noted.

[Tibbon]

I haven't really done any tweaks on my G4 MDD 1.25 2GB. I'm running Logic Pro 7 and Protools 6.7. I leave spotlight and expose on. Seems to work fine.

The only thing I have done, is moved the Digi002R to a separate Firewire slot on a PCI card, due to some weird issue with Protools on this specific computer, when using firewire drives, etc...

I also have two of my hard drives in a RAID 1 set, since I have too much information to really 'back up' on any modern media.

[fifthcircle]

Good to know it isn't my imagination that the apple seems easier to deal with than my PCs... Thanks for your help everybody.

--Ben

[max cooper]

Hey, just as an aside, the freeware application "Spotless" is what you need to really keep spotlight from running in the back ground. I don't remember exactly, but I believe in the FAQ on the download site, it's explained.

But I don't know spit from granola, so don't take my word for it.

Hey, btw, how do you turn dashboard off?

[RadioMoo]

In System Preferences>Software Update, uncheck the "Automatically check for updates when you have a network connection" checkbox.

[FFTT]

One of the major issues with an iBook is that they have very little
hard drive space.

The stock iBook has a 40 GB HD.

The default factory install of OSX uses up 12.5 GB along with basic formatting space.
I generally advise new users with small HD's to run a fresh custom install of OSX.

A few pages into the installer program is an "option" button which brings you to the custom install window.

There you'll find check boxes to de-select all the extra printer drivers, language translators, an additional folder containing demos for iWork and MS Office, Games,
GarageBand Demo Songs and iDVD themes.

By de-selecting this optional software, you free up considerable HD space, knocking
the install down to about 7.4 GB without any harm to the operating system.

Removing this extra fluff leaves you plenty of room to install your primary applications software with room to spare.

Then just re-configure your personal settings again and you're good to go.

[6strings]

Originally Posted by RadioMoo

In System Preferences>Software Update, uncheck the "Automatically check for updates when you have a network connection" checkbox.

Good catch! I forgot about this, but it's the first thing I do when I set-up a new mac! I'm not so much worried about it interrupting work as much as I am having it turning me into an early adopter for the latest update.

[MT Groove]

I'm surprised this haven't been mentioned. Repair Permissions. You should repair permissions after you install any new software. Some claims you should repair permission before and after. To do this, got to your applications folder -> Utilities -> Disk Utilities -> Disk First Aid. Select your system disk and hit repair permissions.

[ptbarnum]

maybe the app delocalizer will help too. it remove gis of foreign language stuff

[commaKaze]

Don't use Filevault...

Get rid of iCal if you can do without it, if you open up Activity Monitor under Utilities, you'll see that iCal is also an app that is constantly running in the background...don't ask me why...that being the case, why don't they have today's date displayed on the dock at all times!? I digress...

Go into Dock preferences: change from genie effect to scale effect, and turn off both "Animate opening applications" and "Automatically hide and show the dock"

Yeah, how does one shut off Dashboard?

[H-Rezz]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

Good to know it isn't my imagination that the apple seems easier to deal with than my PCs... Thanks for your help everybody.

--Ben

Mind you , a lot of these suggestions are more for streamlining your Mac for music and even if all preferences are on you should still have no trouble running your software trouble free

[RadioMoo]

Originally Posted by MT Groove

I'm surprised this haven't been mentioned. Repair Permissions. You should repair permissions after you install any new software. Some claims you should repair permission before and after. To do this, got to your applications folder -> Utilities -> Disk Utilities -> Disk First Aid. Select your system disk and hit repair permissions.

Also, FWIW, "some claim" that it's best to boot up from the install disk and open Disk Utility there and repair permissions - I think it's because it repairs at system level (??).

[RadioMoo]

Originally Posted by 6strings

Good catch! I forgot about this, but it's the first thing I do when I set-up a new mac! I'm not so much worried about it interrupting work as much as I am having it turning me into an early adopter for the latest update.

Slight hijack: there's a funny side note to this <a href="http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php?t=67922" target=" new">here</a>.

[knerd]

you can mess with your swapiness variable, and you can make a swap partition...
Because I always need my mac up and running, and don't have time to play with tweeks, I haven't been able to test the benefits from either of those...

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

So I just picked up an ibook to run a digi002R rig. As a person that has basically come from a PC background, I was wondering if there are any OS X tweaks that need to be done to make the PT rig run more smoothly?

Obviously a PC would need extensive system mods, but I don't know as much about the mac world and what is needed for them... Are there any websites that have good ideas? I've done a couple searches (here, the DUC, and google) and haven't really found much... Is that just because the OS is just better suited to audio work?

Any hints would be appreciated.

--Ben

[commaKaze]

Another thing 5Circle,

There's a free download called "maintenance" that runs via the automator app, you still have to prompt it though which is good cos' it's not running in the background or anything. It's on Apple's website, or go to the Apple on the menu bar, then "Mac OS X Software"...screw that, here's the link...it's freeware, and equivalent to a maintence app you'd pay for like Cocktail, which is also very good, about $10 for lifetime updates. I use both...check it:


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...intenance.html

or if you want to pay 10 smacks for Cocktail, here's that:

http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.html

[John Suitcase]

Do any of you use a special user for recording? My mac is my mac, I use it for office stuff as well as recording, and while I haven't had any big problems, I occasionally push the processor into the red in Cubase SX.

I've thought about creating another user for recording, though, one without ical, etc. But does iCal run anyway?

It'd be nice to have a user account that I can boot into that would be bare bones...

[FFTT]

You can wipe quite a few unused applications simply by dragging their icons and preferences files to trash.

If you decide to add them back later, all you need is your original OS CD and a shareware application called Pacifist.

You can then extract just that one application's installer from your OS CD
and ta dah back in business.

[nek]

Good tips here and I'll add one more to the list:
1. Go System Preferences --> Accounts --> Startup Items (These are all of the programs that launch automatically when you sign in to your account.)
2. I would stop all of them from running by selecting them and pressing the "-" (minus) button.
3. Restart your Mac.

When I am setting up a mac for the first time, I usually open up system preferences and go "section by section" setting it up so there is nothing running in the background (that doesn't have to be) and so nothing is going to annoy me.



I love threads like this one. Keep 'em coming!

[FFTT]

I just dowloaded Dashboard Killer 2.1 from Macupdate.com ( freeware )

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19248

Handy lil sucker seems to work fine although the Dashboard Icon arrow stays on,
Dashboard is deactivated.

[theblotted]

i'll try to cover the ones not mentioned, tips/trix picked up everywhere:

*repair disk from single user mode:
-restart computer
-hold Apple + S
-you'll see a MS DOS-like page
-type "fsck -fy" (without quotes), hit Enter
-let it do its thing. if you see a lot of stuff, good, your mac's fixing itself. if not as much, even better, you're in tiptop shape.
-wait till it says "Your HD appears to be OK."
-type "reboot" (without "), hit Enter

*reset NVRAM:
-restart computer
-hold Apple + option + O + F (open firmware)
-you'll see white version of MS DOS-like page
-type the following:

reset-nvram (then hit Enter)
set-defaults (hit Enter)
reset-all (hit Enter)

*reset PRAM (only do this as a last resort... normally unnecessary):
-restart computer
-hold Apple + option + P + R
-computer will restart itself, continue to hold down those keys until you hear 3 "boooongs"

---------------------------------

*keeping enough space: more space you have left over in your HD, faster you'll run.

-keep it tidy, throw away unnecessary stuff (pretty much covered in above posts, like unnecessary installs such as printer drivers; using "Monolingual" for erasing unneeded languages after install, etc.)

-delete cache: go into HD/Library/Cache, and HD/System/Library/Cache, and Users/YourNameHere/Library/Cache, and delete the stuff in here. only do this when you feel like things are starting to drag a bit. otherwise, no need to do this religiously.

---------------------------------

UNIX commands:
disclaimer. the rest below are commands you can type in Terminal to optimize your Mac. i know it can be a bit overboard and anal at times, so use at your own risk; and if you don't know what you're getting into, don't do it. (if you don't see it working, quit Terminal and relaunch; or restart your computer)....

open /tmp
--> temp folder. if you get a build up, erase all contents in here.

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
--> manually runs cron scripts (so you don't have to waste more space installing app's like Onyx, etc.)

sudo pmset -a spindown 0
--> this'll keep your HD spinning, guaranteed won't go to sleep. this sometimes remedies the problem of when closing laptops and opening back up, HD doesn't wake up. it'll shorten your HD lifespan tho.

sudo update_prebinding -root / -force
--> prebinds programs manually. most better programs do this while they're installing, during "optimizing..." step.

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime .001
--> speeds up sheet animations. Sheets are those widgets that descend from windows when you choose certain operations, such as "Print." By default, it takes 0.2 seconds to draw the sheet. Now, you can make sheet display nearly instantaneous.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES;killall Dock
--> disables Dashboard

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
--> turns it back on

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor -dict tileHeight -int 0 tileWidth -int 0
--> disables Quartz Extreme. Apple engineers have reported that some freezes may be caused by Quartz Extreme and suggest disabling it.

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor
--> re-enables Quartz Extreme

rm -r ~/.Trash/*
--> force delete trash.

defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true
--> disables animations in Finder (change "true" to "false" to enable again)

defaults write com.apple.finder AnimateInfoPanes -bool false
--> To selectively switch off just the superfluous animation when clicking on disclosure trinagles in "Get Info" (or the preview pane for files in Column View), use this command instead (change "true" to "false" to enable again)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

that's pretty good list for now. i would say tho, that disabling some stuff will really sacrifice your experience & enjoyment of being on a Mac.. so choose accordingly.

having a fast Mac is awesome (makes me wanna keep my TiBook a little longer), but sometimes remember to stop and smell the roses....

[RadioMoo]

Read up on it here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html

Be aware of this:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/syscachecleaneffects.html

And use the cache cleaner all the hip and groovy kids use:
http://www.northernsoftworks.com/tigercachecleaner.html

[6strings]

Originally Posted by commaKaze

Get rid of iCal if you can do without it, if you open up Activity Monitor under Utilities, you'll see that iCal is also an app that is constantly running in the background...don't ask me why...

You need to open iCal's preferences and check the box that says "turn off iCal alarms when iCal is not open."

[tgrokz]

honestly, i don't think an ibook is really gunna cut the mustard here. my 1.67gh powerbook has problems doing big sessions on an mbox. i mean, 20 tracks, 20 plugins (only 2 are verb), and no apps running at all in the background will give me slow downs and problems. i know that normal, but if your planning on running a 002r on a ibook, i cant imagine it holding up to well on big sessions.
just my .02
if you can though, then thats excellent
turn off "automatically check for new updates", turn sleep off, make sure your running off an external HD, make sure the energy saver is set on "better performance" and try not to run anything else with PT.

[RadioMoo]

Originally Posted by tgrokz

honestly, i don't think an ibook is really gunna cut the mustard here. my 1.67gh powerbook has problems doing big sessions on an mbox. i mean, 20 tracks, 20 plugins (only 2 are verb), and no apps running at all in the background will give me slow downs and problems. i know that normal, but if your planning on running a 002r on a ibook, i cant imagine it holding up to well on big sessions.

But the key word here is "Mbox;" USB 1.1 is a different animal.

20 tracks and 20 plugs is pretty good for Mbox, BTW.

[tgrokz]

Originally Posted by RadioMoo

But the key word here is "Mbox;" USB 1.1 is a different animal.

20 tracks and 20 plugs is pretty good for Mbox, BTW.

...the mbox wasnt 2.0? that explains things. haha. i just figured that the 002 would be more consuming and the ibook wouldnt be able to give it the juice it needed to be at its max

[fifthcircle]

To be honest, my 002R has been working great for what I need it to do. I don't use many plugins at all and I'm recording up to 16 tracks at 24/48K.

This is a great thread- I've incorporated a number of them into my iBook and it seems to be running a good deal better.

--Ben