Dorico on Mac instead of PC?

Following this thread as I’ve considered doing the same. I’m keeping my PC desktop build, as a comparable Mac build would be way out of budget, but have also thought about switching for a laptop. I’m reasonably proficient at Mac already as everyone else in my family is on Mac. (I’m also on iPhone, iPad, etc) Silly reason to switch, but it would be nice to access iMessages right on the laptop too. M3 single core performance seems quite impressive with Dorico.

I’m probably not due for a new laptop for at least another year or so, but if you do switch to a Mac laptop / PC desktop setup, I’d be curious to hear your experience with it.

1 Like

I’m a die-hard Mac user, but I just don’t understand what you’d gain by adding a second OS to your workflow. Every time I’ve had to use Windows for work I’ve wasted a ton of time trying to remember key combinations, learning new OS conventions, and finding helper apps in the new environment.
(Sorry, this isn’t an answer to your specific questions, just friendly advice!)

1 Like

After a lot of research, I settled on a MacBook Air, M3, 24 GB RAM. My first Mac OS device!

9 Likes

You will love it :+1:

The limitation of Macbook Air or basic MacBook is the lack of ports (ie USB ports). Which means carrying around a mini hub. External drive, external mouse, external audio interface, already too much to plug in, for these slimmed laptops. Audio interface should not be connected through a hub, so it takes a port on the side.

The other downside is Apple’s astronomical premium of internal SSD storage when trying to avoid using external SSD. A typical collection of VST’s require 1 TB just for itself to have room to grow (minimum would be 500 GB), and the size of normal apps and os and working docs means another 1 TB is the next comfortable multiple (minimum would be 500 GB). So 2 TB internal drive is the starting point for real work on a machine with internal-only drives and that creates a premium. My next machine will have 4 TB internal as a mininum for sure.

YMMV. None of those things are issues for me.

3 Likes

If it’s your primary machine, then maybe. If, as in Dan’s listed requirements at the top of this thread, it’s a secondary machine for use on the road, then a 2TB internal SSD is overkill unless he’s planning on doing audio production/video production/“realistic” mockups.

FWIW my only real work machine is a 2019 Intel Macbook Pro, with a 1TB SSD. I have a client who’s well known for his massive Logic projects, and I’m sure I couldn’t play back his projects in real time as I have neither the processing power nor the HD space for his VSTS. However, I’m not in the business of producing mockups so my next laptop won’t be any more powerful than this one. (Well it will, but only because the M chips fly compared to this Intel thing.)

The point about reduced numbers of ports is valid, but in my case I’ve been “on the road” (a combination of working on ships and living mostly at my other half’s place) for the better part of two years, and the vast majority of the time I can get away with nothing more than an external keyboard, bluetooth mouse, USB MIDI keyboard and a pair of headphones. Oh, and a printer. The two keyboards and the printer plug into a single USB-C hub, which also has passthrough power, so - as long as it works reliably - I could theoretically get away with a single USB-C port.

1 Like

My current mobile loaner is a macbook with 250GB internal and it is too small to install all apps desired and tougher on the road; for example both Logic and Protools and Adobe take a huge amount of space (currently I have only 20G free). All VST’s must be external and I keep all my projects and data external (hence the problem of limited ports). This is a real drag on productivity because everything is much slower, opening files, saving files… My Dorico playback is mostly ok for small ensembles with larges buffer size but instruments will drop with orchestra sizes.

Anytime I want to work on Dorico I have to ensure I have all my external stuff ready to plug in & unplug. Does not take a lot of time but does take table space and it can be annoying to lug (meaning it is not lighter in the end), for example if accidentally leaving the SSD elsewhere, then essentially ‘no work’ can get done.

I find trackpad editing to be slower than external mouse. A little bit more slow means it adds up to a lot of time lost overall in orchestra score editing. Bluetooth mouse could be the best way to go instead of usb mouse due to port limitations (but then, have to deal with recharging it periodically) .

True about the printer, when working with a printer I have to unplug something.

I use headphones (shure studio earbuds) direct into the audio jack but it is not preferable. Mac laptops have good internal amp’s but an external interface will always sound much better and …the name of the game in music is how it sounds. For a Windows laptop I would never trust the quality of the internal headphone amp to be good enough.

Congrats! I’m definitely interested in hearing about any issues you might run into with a cross-platform workflow, so please keep us posted!

Not internal, but I travel with an external 2TB drive with my PC laptop and have all my virtual instruments on it. Not much of a hassle, although I have plenty of USB ports.

A wireless print server for a wired printer is always an option too. My main oversize B&W music printer is a Ricoh SP6330n which I have in another room plugged into an ancient Apple Airport Express that is probably 15 years old by now. Works fine!

1 Like

TBH, my 16" MBP is a little unwieldy, and almost too large to use on, say, a plane or train drop-down table. I really only take it somewhere it will go on a desk, so if I have connected stuff, so be it. I’m not sure I’d bring an audio interface, though…

I have a really nice laptop bag (from Muji), which I store loads of cables, connectors, and a hub; so I can just pick up the laptop, put it in and go, without worrying if I’ve brought the right bit. Just like on NCIS.

Typical? I have c. 130Gb of audio samples: (BBCSO Core, some Orchestral Tools stuff, EW Symphonic Choir, plus the Dorico bundle and some extra Steinberg libs; not forgetting Garritan!) – but I’d wager most people who aren’t doing pro-level mock-ups have much less than that.

Certainly, using audio samples is a ‘special case’, and perhaps the biggest consumer of data space, both RAM and storage, by a considerable factor over most other work.

I consider myself reasonably productive, but a quick summation of my life’s work over 30 years comes to less than 50 Gb. :scream:

2 Likes

Increase the bit depth, it can quickly grow larger.

1 Like

I use both Windows and Mac. There is icloud app for Windows (works great under windows 10 pro). I have my score folder (from Dorico and Sibelius) directly inside icloud, so it is always in sync between my mac Mini and my windows laptop.

1 Like

First impressions after a few hours: it’s all new and unfamiliar, but it feels like a superior experience. The hardware side of things is all I had hoped for. The M3 Air just sits there silently crushing every task I give it without breaking a sweat.

The OS is a learning curve, for sure, but I’m determined to learn to think like a Mac.

10/10 would recommend.

19 Likes

I think you’ll find the macOS interface to be more consistent. Windows still has dialogs from Windows 95.

One thing that just felt weird was in the Finder, the Folders were interspersed with the Files. You can change this in Finder > Settings > Advanced: Keep folder on top.

2 Likes

It’s just like a desktop in real life; there are folders and there are single documents cluttering the space :wink:

@dan_kreider
Another setting in Finder that is very comfortable (and I believe is disabled by default): menu View>Show Path Bar (and the path of the current viewed folder is displayed on the bottom of Finder Window).

Also generally on macos , you can drag the little icon on the left of the file/project name that appears in (mostly) every app on the upper part of the window, and drop it wherever you want (into the mail icon , on the Dock to attach in new email or, for example, in the Post editor here in the forum to attach the file)

3 Likes

The Finder was the worst part of MacOS for me when I was still using it (which is a decade ago).

There is a fantastic replacement, especially if you come from Windows, that is Pathfinder
https://www.cocoatech.io/

1 Like

So it can continue running software from the days of Windows 95 (and before). The legacy support is a very welcome thing. It’s nice to be able to still use most devices and programs for more than a few years.

If newer, well maintained software still uses older OS components, that is developer choice.

I.E. That old Roland Fantom X driver and editor still works in the very latest version of Windows. It’s a nice sounding piece of hardware and it was very expensive back in the day. It hasn’t worked with a Mac since Tiger. It wasn’t all that old (maybe even still in production) when it quit working on Macs. Something similar is due soon when Rosetta gets yanked (Intel Macs become doorstops)?

Macs are super nice for a few years. No doubt about it. Especially the portable stuff they make. It’s just expensive, and the hardware usually well outlasts the software (they break the OS on purpose with older hardware so you have no choice but to use ancient versions, or get a new Mac).

1 Like

Opencore is here to save us.

2 Likes