macOS Catalina - share your experiences here

macOS Catalina is coming, so pleases share your experiences, general advice and compatible or incompatible devices in this thread.

Best luck for those who are upgrading!

I have updated a backup drive to Catalina public beta 8 and now 9 on a 2017 iMac.
The update itself went smooth, I just overwrote a Mojave clone install.
Logic Pro was slow to re check AU's.
Kontakt, Spectrasonics, Slate, SD3 and a Bunch of other plugs did pass.
Waves plugs had some trouble passing, but I just enabled in Plugin manager.
Some of them needed approval in security.
Seems snappy, NO bugs or crashes.
The only issue I had was my CP4 hadn’t been 64 compliant, but has since been updated.
Quantum is good, my dock, Ax8, backup drives all seen, 2nd monitor good.
Just a single Roland Um-1 midi first gen isn’t updated. So I just plugged my TD 9 into midi on Quantum.
I would say, just check about my Mac, legacy software and ensure all your devices are 64bit.
All in all, painless.

here at the imac pro and catalina beta 10 the Apollo Twin (thunderbold) is not detected by the audio driver and the Nucleus Remote 2 software (32 bit) does not work either. however, the nucleus is addressed normally under logic and works.

Interesting Oct 5th lots of plugin co. saying don’t upgrade yet, I have many of them and I haven’t noticed any issues.

I am getting emails from just about every company that I have plug-ins from saying they are "not ready" and to hold off on upgrading. Not really a problem for me as once I find a stable version of software/hardware/OS, it would take a team of wild horses to force me to upgrade.

Yes I understand, I usually end up trying a new OS while I still have a working backup. If there are any major hurdles or bugs I just wait for an update or 2 and boot into the backup. But Iv’e been on Catalina for just over a week. Seems stable to me. I haven’t been to my backup. So far mixing a project and laying down a couple of tracks with my writing band. No glitches at all.

All those plugin companies might as well share one email. I'm mean, they already spam us with advertising for plugins we already own, and now they all inform us that they are not ready for the update.

Btw. it's here now, and the Mac Pro is around the corner...

I took the plunge today. So far, my Apogee Control (the hardware remote) is not working with Catalina. I tried reinstalling the Element drivers to no avail. I will contact Apogee tomorrow to see whether it is a known issue.

Edit: Apogee basically said they are recommending that people do not upgrade to Catalina yet as they are still determining compatibility. However, since my Element and the Control App are still working, I'm just going to use the app as a workaround until the hardware remote gets new drivers.

The last releases were really not a big problem, but this time they kill 32bit app support, and introduce improved security.

I know some software companies who are selling high value bundles with costly/over-priced updates every 18 months, not being ready with working installers and stuff.

I've upgraded to Catalina on my MacBook no 3'rd party plugins or audio drivers on the machine at all. Logic 10.4.7 update installed and Ableton 10.1.2 too. They both works really well obviously on it's own. I will keep my studio MacPro on Mojave probably forever as I have lots of hardware connected and few 32bit plugins still in use. I would describe Catalina as a definite no go for now.

I am having the exact same experience
I reinstalled the software from Apogee site and the control just won't work- it will display what's going on inside the software but you can't control anything with the hardware control

I just don't understand why people are so eager to "take the plunge". What's the rush? Why not wait a few weeks/a month and let someone else find out if there are land mines in the cornfield?

Or in my case, a few years/a decade!

Of course, the computer that I use for my recording studio is not used for anything else. If my system got screwed up, I would never blame The Companies for not being "ready for the update". I might blame Apple for shoving these updates down our throats. And for throwing backwards compatibility under the bus on a regular basis.

I might blame myself for getting sucked into the Update Game.

Check out: https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/ before you update, I didn't realise how many applications will not pass the 64bit test. Also was reading on KVR UH-E developer saying how much of. assist storm it is for plugin developers, at least they have some resources I'd hate to see a one person shop try and fix everything. I"m still on 10.13.6 I might update to 10.14.6 but I'm not sure there's much benefit as of yet (I'm also state on my hackintosh)

the warning of the manufacturer surprised me something. you also had enough time to adapt your software to catalina in good time. you also had access to apple's beta program!

It's human nature that some of us are going to want to explore the dark caves and corners of the world that we live in despite any dangers that may await us. For centuries explorers accepted the risks and came back with tales to tell because they wanted to see and maybe conquer the Kraken themselves.

Similar mentality here for some I guess.

OK, but I think we all can admit that going from an OS called "10.14" to one called "10.15" is hardly the same thing as a Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I mean your computer can still get eaten by a Kraken, but the "wondrous tales" you get to tell are, what? The 'all new Photos tab' or 'Sidecar'? No, the most excited reports are that everything "still works". (avoided getting eaten by a Kraken!)

Occasionally, you will get someone who says it is "snappier".

I needed to Google "OSX Catalina" and right near the top of the page was this article:

Apple's Arrogant Attitude Has Created Serious Problems With MacOS Catalina

Look closely at that Kraken's face, there is a striking resemblance:

I don't recall this being mentioned previously, but it appears iTunes is gone as well:

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/03/72929...to-music-today

Some companies used the 2019 beta period to do their homework and were ready on day one (like RME) - others seem like they waited to start working after Catalina was released.

Anyway FWIW - I updated and all is well. I have NI Komplete, S-Gear, Amplitube, Valhalla DSP stuff. I use a thunderbolt Focusrite Clarett with the latest drivers. My DAW is Logic Pro X. It all works just like it did before the update.

Good Luck.

Good riddance. iTunes should have been gone years ago. Now its split up the way it should have been.

I just don't understand why people would want to wait years/decades to "take the plunge". Whats the delay? Why not upgrade right away? See how that works? Some of us like to update right away, some don't. There is nothing to understand here other than everyone has their own way of doing things.

I place blame on the companies for not having their act together and getting updates out with a year of lead time.

There is zero reason Apple needs to sit still. There were significant security updates in Catalina that were bound to cause problems, one being no more kernel extensions. 64-bit compatibility is probably one of the minor things as developers had several years at this point to move to 64-bit on the Mac.

So while it's awesome that you have a computer that you only use for your studio some of us aren't so fortunate.

And as was noted already on this thread not all of us are having any problems at all with Catalina. Add me to that list. Everything is working fine.

That is not what Urs said at all. And in fact said in another post in that thread:

"But they also, just like that, pulled a major blow against software piracy on their platform.

(pity we can't post links to the heartbreaking stories of warez users who shed tears over trying their cracked hosts and plug-ins on Catalina. I was in tears, too.)"

Rhetoric aside, I think you do understand "why". The tales of bugs and problems in this thread is a perfect example of the reason. The emails. And this thread is the one about Catalina. Remember the threads about Mojave and about High Sierra, and about Sierra....?

because of the problems?
well actually there is a really significant difference.
I am chugging along happily working with my clients on a stable system, week after week, month after month, year after year. And meanwhile other people are griping because there this and that stopped working for them when they updated.

And its not like it is a one-time thing. They go through this every f^@%ing update.

People like me are not starting threads that bitch about our stable systems. I don't even moan about what my "old" system "lacks". It records, it edits, it mixes. Overall, I am a pretty happy camper.

No way do the companies get a year to test a completed new OS before it is released to the public. I have read bitter complaints from developers about the many last-minute "switcheroos" forcing them to scramble. And of course we all know that even after release, that's when the real fine-tuning of the OS starts. It's not like there is ever a finished solid 'thing'.

It is still a choice - my other computer is on El Capitan. I swear to god, I do not feel in the slightest bit "left out" of the 21st century.

Yeah but they didn't have access to the final public build. Small devs receive it at the same time as everyone else. I imagine big devs (eg: Adobe) are privileged.

We all know that software has bugs, thats just life, but this idea that after final release is when the magic starts is a bunch of nonsense. Tuning starts with the release of beta 1 at the dev conference every June. I'd be curious to know what changes made Mac developers scramble that you're reading about because I am not reading the same things. Catalina feature-wise has been pretty much stable since the day the first dev beta was released back in June. Stability-wise (as in use, not feature set) it's been fine for months for many, many people. There will always be someone who throws caution to the wind and installs, then complains, about the OS upgrade because it broke something. That has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they made a stupid move. I'm happy for you that you don't care about the new things they put in their OS releases. I do care. and in my case all of my audio software and hardware works just fine. I have one piece of software that didn't make it, Beyond Compare which is a dev tool (32bit). But he's had a 64-bit "beta" for a long time.

To some extent yes, thats how Apple gets some of these demos from other companies for their events. But small devs have had plenty of time to work with Catalina and get their software updated for it. It's been feature-stable for a long time.

"What was a bit out-of-the-blue for us was the realisation that having 64 bit alone doesn't cut it. Stuff needs a special "hardened runtime" thing which is available only from a relatively new toolchain. That relatively new toolchain doesn't do 32 bit at all *gulp*

Now, because the beta of Catalina is "lenient" for the time being, our stuff simply worked and thus we thought we're good. But it will very likely stop working next year, when that lenient phase is over. Hence, we're going to run a dual approach where our downloads will have new, absolutely safe installers and plug-ins, and an installer with software made from the old toolchain, which contains 32-bit plug-ins. We'll keep later up for a year or two before we finally switch to 64 bit only.

It is not an overly big deal for us. We're setting up a parallel build system with the latest toolchain. It works on individual dev machines, so now we just need an extra script which does an extra step or two and puts two installers into our downloads."

With manufacturers make you realize that you already have something in the end consumers!

I do not consider Unviversal Audio and Solid State Logic to be the small insignificant companies in Pro Audio. If they really wanted to, they would have been able to get involved with Mac OS Calalina in good time.

Maybe not in the audio world, but in the grand scheme of things audio is a niche industry.

Even the biggest companies like Ableton (~200 employees) are small compared to Adobe (~21000 employees). Also Appple knows very well that a large portion of its macOS users depend on using Adobe products.