I run Paragon ‘NTFS for Mac’ on the Mac and have my audio/projects drive on an external TB/USB-c NVMe drive formatted in windows NTFS. This works better than the other way round I’ve found…i.e Mac drive on the PC .
As pointed out you can ONLY run VST3 plugins on the silicone mac native.
I don’t isntall anything other than VST3. That has meant a great user eperience on the mac as everything is ‘new’ code and seems to perform really well.
You’ll find yourself hitting th Control key on the mac all the time instead of the Command key when working… evern after a year i still do.
I find there’s more mouse clikcing on the Mac compared to the PC and there’s sems to be no standard for ‘tabbing’ on menus on Mac OS its entirely prohram dependant whereas on PC you can use the key commands across everywindwso program to open/close/save/cancel etc.
Also security!!! it’s very tight on the mac. If you need Kernel mode audi drivers you have to boot into safe mode to allow them to run…a PIA… if you’re used to just installing a driver on windows.
Sometimes things like VST presets can’t be saved if the folder doesn’t have full permissions. I’ve come across folders not being created with IK multimedia due to this and consequently my ARC coudln’t save the room sweeps that took 1/2 hour each time to do!!!
Anyway there are the few things I’ve found running a PC and Mac silicone for a year now.
I’m not sure that’s correct - most VST2 were updated to Apple Silicon compatibility long time ago (it’s not like only VST3 plugins allow that), so with some exceptions this shouldn’t be a problem.
The trick is to demo them, and see if you’re still using it after the 14/30/60 day period. I learnt this a while back and it’s saved me some pennies!
What you will find on Mac is how much cleaner it is to remove items you’ve installed, audio plugin locations have been defined on an O/S level for decades, and applications sit within a single file which you can just remove. On windows i’d avoid demoing products due to what remains on the system.
But, as there’s none of registry/startup management needed as in Windows. It’s such a much enjoyable environment to be creative in.
But it does take a while to adapt to, and you’ll likely wonder why the hell MacOS is being so protective of your files and microphone! That took me a while to wrap my head around as it’s so much more transparent than Windows which will load any old crap in the background.
Coming from Windows when you see these alerts you immediately feel paranoid as it’s quite foreign, but usually it’s just an app wanting access to your documents folder, or an external drive.
That’s not completely correct, though. I’ve been recently testing some plugins & DAWs (S1 v7) and was surprised by the number and amount of data left upon uninstalling them on macOS (by moving the app to Trash - as one is supposed to be doing, right?).
Perhaps I don’t know all the relevant locations by heart, like I did on Windows; but it’s similarly messy
Luckily there’s apps that can help you keep your Mac clean.
For myself, Having the ability to install a demo and refuse it access to automatically startup, run in the background, or access to certain files just makes me more comfortable to trial products.
So many times i’ve searched around for ways to stop an app from loading up in the background in Windows after an install, Only to find it hidden somewhere in the task scheduler which I never agreed to.
I had a nightmare with Avid on my windows machine, and what Windows allowed them to take control of. I just ended up going for a new install. Not to mention at the time I had Steinberg, Cakewalk and god knows how many other VST locations.
In comparison, It’s so simple to pick up an application and plonk it somewhere else too, as it’s self contained. There’s no registry to upset if you decided to do that.
It’s elements like that which I enjoy, the only need i’ve had to go into system locations was for the Cubase MIDI Remote API and Reaper extensions.
Everything else i’ve just gone through MacOS settings. I think coming from Windows you have to learn to relax and not get involved in micromanaging and just put trust in the OS, as it is far more transparent by design.
i have projects from the 90s that i still can open, even though those plugins are ooooooold
ofcourse there is the discussion of printing to audio and new plugins are better or there are updates etc etc but this still wouldnt help opening these old projects, if you wanted to.
specially on PC i had some freaky stuff that still runs on Win 11, all VST2.
I own a big Virus TI with software that wont run on mac…without Audiogridder this would be a 3000 euro paper press
Also, on PC there are plugins that are simply not available for mac, specially cool free ones. Even though the OP wants to clear out his plugin collection (not a bad idea) he also wants to open projects from PC. I just wanted to give him the tools to open pc stuff you can open on mac, if needed.
to the OP …just remembered a BIG differencce withh Cubase mac/Windows:
there’s no ASIO direct monitoring in MacOS/Core Audio…unless you use a steinberg interface.
So for example , with my RME on windows, Cubase controls the total mix channel levels on input, I don’t need to look at the total mix mixer, whereas in MacOS I have to actually have the total mix mixer open and manually ajust monitor/input levels.
Thanks so much mate. I’m blown away by the responses from great people like you. I’m still digesting it all and it probably won’t make a lot of sense to me until I get my Mini Mac. Currently selling my home and moving so as much as I would wish otherwise I can’t really get my Mac until all the property stuff is done - just don’t have a lot of time atm and very much in the planning stage. But I am so relieved that what I thought was going to be a huge drama isn’t at all, made all the easier by wonderful people such as yourself. Thanks so much.
Thanks so much - very helpful. I use a Behringer X32 Rack as my audio interface. From what I have read so far I think it just gets recognised when it’s plugged in. I won’t know for sure until I get my Mac Mini but I haven’t read anything to suggest that I need kernel mode audio drivers. Also that was a great tip about external drives formatted as NTFS. I have a 2TB nvme for samples that I will install into an external enclusure (USB-C or Thunderbolt if I can find one here in Australia) and I’m going to get another one for Cubase projects etc so that was a handy tip. One thing I would like to know with the Apple operating system - is there any way to tell it to set up your personal data on an external drive rather than the sytem drive since the Mac Mini I am planning to get has only a 512GB internal drive. Otherwise I might need to upgrade that to a 1TB drive which hurts the wallet a bit. But thanks so much I really appreciate your help and comments
Please ignore my request for info re moving user files to an external drive. I admit to be totally clueless about Macs and Apple operating systems. But I am learning! After doing some research I have read a couple of ways to move a user’s directory to an external drive. However someone did make a good point that he would rather fork out the extra money for a bigger drive in the Mac Mini than move the user folder because future Apple o/s updates/upgrades might have an issue in that scenario. So I’ve decided to keep things simple - order a 1TB drive upgrade and set up as normal and just have external drives for samples and Cubase projects (and backups!),
and also, since macos Ventura or something, they changed the way macbook audio drivers work.
before, it was one driver for speakers and headphones both, now there are two drivers.
This gives problems with no audio sometimes!
Solution:
go to Studio/Studio Setup → Build-in Audio → Control Panel
then, under ‘Output’ select headphones (or speakers if its the other way around)
Sometimes i have to do this multiple times to make it work
Ordered my Mac Mini Pro yesterday (and upgraded the internal drive to 1TB). It’ll take 3 weeks before I actually get it. I have 2 2TB nvme drives to attach via Thunderbolt for samples and backups. I’ve upgraded my PC from Cubase Pro 13 to 14 and I’ll be spending time making sure that all the plugins and vsti’s I’m using are the VST3 versions. I will be installing the plugins on the Mac in the default places on the Mac’s system drive. Since this is my first Mac ever (per previous threads in this post) I’m on a very steep learning curve and I’m grateful for the help you guys have given me. One clarification I am seeking though is replicating as best as possible the destination of samples and other content on the Mac. From what I have seen and learned so far is that the Mac does not have drive letters. So is it correct to presume that as long as the drive name is the same - such as Samples - then Cubase will look for the samples automatically in the drive with the same name? Still getting my head around the difference between a Volume and a Partition on the Mac. My understanding is that a partition has a set size whereas a volume is dynamic and adjusts the size as needed. Is that correct? Finally is there any performace hit in formatting a drive with exFat rather than APFS? It’s just a matter of convenience for me - with a drive formatted as exFat I can move files between the PC and Mac whereas I can’t with APFS. But if there is a performance hit I’ll just work around the ability to share the drive between the two if you know what I mean. Sorry, one more thing - do you guys run security software on your Macs (I use ESET on the PC). Anyway thanks so much and I will greatly appreciated any comments or tips,
I found the best way to move a project drive between the 2 OS is to format as windows NTFS and use Paragaon NTFS (£10) for Mac. I treid the otherway rond and used Mac drive on windows but it wasn’t great TBH.
I have a 2TB USB 3 external NVMe drive that I use as my project drive that I can plug in either machine and work.
Don’t worry about your samples, as long as each machine has it’s own structure then any VSTi samplers will load fine on either machine.
I ran exFAT initially on a 2tb external SSD, but never plugged it into a PC after a year so reformatted it to APFS, and left a 500GB partition as exFAT for sharing.
APFS works better if you’re streaming plugin library content for sure (i.e. Kontakt etc), but for general disk access and samples it’s not really so noticeable.
The only time i’d notice a difference was with those libraries where lots of small files were being streamed at once, it doesn’t seem as good at simultaneous access as APFS.
So this is how I structure my external SSD now (1.5tb AFPS, 0.5tb exFAT) and has ran brilliant for me for the past 9-10 months. A lot of my larger instrument libraries for Kontakt are on there. Basically any library larger than 6-8gb I install to it.
I think the main concern with exFAT is that you have to ensure to eject the media before unplugging, as I don’t think it’s so smart on potential data loss as NTFS/AFPS, plus it’s less secure.
As the post above, I’ve heard good things about Paragaon NTFS, i would rather use that than a fully formatted exFat drive in all honesty. But haven’t a clue on it’s performance vs other methods.
High risk of data corruption due to unsafe removable or power loss.
Prone to large file fragmentation.
Does not support encryption or file permissions.
exFAT is a terrible format. Combined with plugging into usb ports and unpredictably being unplugged, it can be corrupted and completely made unusable with an errant tug on a cable. All those files, photos, videos, all gone.
You should never, ever, EVER use exFAT for anything that you care about
Thanks so much you guys. Paragaon sounds the go for me for sure. I was hoping to just have VST3s on the Mac Mini but I don’t think that’s going to work unfortunately. For a start I opened a couple of current projects in Cubase 14 and printed out the VST2 VSTi’s and plugins that weren’t found. I then opened Cubase 13 and saved presets for all the VST2 VSTi’s and plugins I was using. Went back to Cubase 14 and opened those projects again and created new tracks using VST3 versions of the VSTis but alas VST3 must use a different process in handling presets (or maybe it was the Cubase 14 Media Bay) or maybe VST2 presets are not compatible with VST3, but I could not find those VST2 presets that I had saved. Whatever the reason I was hoping to transfer or replace all the VST2 plugins to VST3 but that ain’t going to work. So I just had to enable VST2 support in the VST Plugin Manager in Cubase 14 and be done with it. Besides, some of the great VSTi’s that I have (such as the Arturia Moog Modular V2 and Moog Mini V2 ) do not have VST3 versions unless I buy the latest version and they ain’t cheap. I just hope that Steinberg don’t completely drop VST2 support any time soon. Anyway thanks so much for your responses - very helpful
