redlester wrote: the drive name is simply a label and not vital to any paths within shortcuts/aliases etc.? Similar to Windows then. Although I've just been reading (while I should be working) how aliases are dynamic and update if the target file is moved.
I assume the drive's actual system level reference, i.e. C: etc. on PC, is hidden from the user on Mac, at least within the normal Finder view?
No. Mac's underlying core is based on "proper" computers (ie Unix), not the 80s MS stuff.
There is no drive letter abstraction!
The path includes the drive it's on, eg
"/Applications" is the root of the system drive (whatever the drive itself is named), which the system already knows is coming from a particular drive.
"/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications" is the same place, only this time there is a direct drive reference to the path (which is where the drive is "mounted" in Mac-speak).
"/Volumes/myAudio/Samples/Sheep/Happy/" is a path that points to a folder on a drive named "myAudio".
So there are lot of ways to reference files on Unix systems, not even getting into aliases and symlinks and even more modern filsystem concepts...
The fact that I find all this quite fascinating probably says a lot about me!
The first time I ever properly used a computer regularly was when we had a system at work with an estimating software package which was run on Xenix (a version of Unix), back in the late 80's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix
Last edited by redlester on Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
redlester wrote:The first time I ever properly used a computer regularly was when we had a system at work with an estimating software package which was run on Xenix (a version of Unix), back in the late 80's.
I think the first time I actually remember using a computer was borrowing a ZX81 from someone for a weekend, and hooking i up to the family tellybox.
I remember I wrote a Basic program to plot dots on the screen randomly until the screen filled up. I was probably about 8 or 9, probably 1982-ish and until that weekend, I had no idea what programming, or Basic was...
redlester wrote:The first time I ever properly used a computer regularly was when we had a system at work with an estimating software package which was run on Xenix (a version of Unix), back in the late 80's.
I think the first time I actually remember using a computer was borrowing a ZX81 from someone for a weekend, and hooking i up to the family tellybox.
I remember I wrote a Basic program to plot dots on the screen randomly until the screen filled up. I was probably about 8 or 9, probably 1982-ish and until that weekend, I had no idea what programming, or Basic was...
All I remember of it was there was a programme which calculated Biorhythm cycles based on the current date and the user's birth date. It had no method of storage, but I used to know the programme input steps off by heart for it! You can tell what sort of teenager I was.
Last edited by Forum Admin on Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
desmond wrote:I remember I wrote a Basic program to plot dots on the screen randomly until the screen filled up. I was probably about 8 or 9, probably 1982-ish and until that weekend, I had no idea what programming, or Basic was...
I did much the same at about the same time with the same computer, the ZX81. Only difference is I was 31 ...
Still it revolutionised my life and I switched into computer programming very happily for the rest of my working life.
Another tip for newcomers:
If like me you are finding navigation in Finder a bit slow, due to the lack of an "up one level" button (feels like being back on Windows 7!), turn on "Show Path Bar" in the Finder>View menu. It will switch on a status bar along the bottom of Finder showing all the parent folders for wherever you are, and you can double-click any of them to go straight there.
redlester wrote:Another tip for newcomers:
If like me you are finding navigation in Finder a bit slow, due to the lack of an "up one level" button (feels like being back on Windows 7!), turn on "Show Path Bar" in the Finder>View menu. It will switch on a status bar along the bottom of Finder showing all the parent folders for wherever you are, and you can double-click any of them to go straight there.
I find column view in the Finder far more effective for this.
redlester wrote:Another tip for newcomers:
If like me you are finding navigation in Finder a bit slow, due to the lack of an "up one level" button (feels like being back on Windows 7!), turn on "Show Path Bar" in the Finder>View menu. It will switch on a status bar along the bottom of Finder showing all the parent folders for wherever you are, and you can double-click any of them to go straight there.
SOS FOR ARTISTS - our brand new ecosystem designed to support musicians/artists, producers, and collaborators at every stage of the music-making journey.
Can anyone advise on Zip utilities, mainly for un-archiving, for Mac?
I've grown accustomed to using 7-Zip on PC, which works with all archive types and most importantly allows viewing of files within an archive prior to extracting, and even to select just individual files within the archive to be extracted if required. It will even allow viewing and extracting of files from within an .iso disc image if so desired.
Am struggling to find an equivalent for Mac. I think WinZip for Mac may be able to do the selective part, but it costs £29 and I think it can only handle Zip files, not RAR etc.
Does anyone know a Zip un-archiver that gives me full control as described above, or do I just have to extract all files from an archive in order to find out what's in there? That seems so 1990's!
The reason you can't find a zip utility is because from an early stage zip archiving has been built into the OS. If you right click (or CTRL-click for Mac one-button diehards) on a file or a folder you will be offered an option to compress "file or folder name". This will produce a file with the same name as the original file or folder but with .zip appended.
Just double click to unzip a zip archive.
I also have The Unarchiver which I got from the app store and which does all the other formats like RAR and tar etc. It's a while since I got it but I think it was free.
CC
Edit The Unarchiver is free but I see the same people make The Archive Browser which allows you to preview or extract individual files and that's just £3.99 in the app store.
Last edited by ConcertinaChap on Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.
ConcertinaChap wrote:
Edit The Unarchiver is free but I see the same people make The Archive Browser which allows you to preview or extract individual files and that's just £3.99 in the app store.
The Archive Browser is precisely what I was after, thank you so much.
I was aware it was simple to unzip, I just can't abide unzipping without seeing what's in there beforehand. It's just come from years of doing it like that all the time.
OK am at the point where am going to be starting to install recording related software over the coming days.
First basic question, and I will find out for myself soon enough, but when I install software instruments and plugins, will I be given the option to install both VST and AU, or do both get installed by default on a Mac? Am thinking particularly of the likes of Native Instruments Komplete, Izotope stuff, etc.
It depends on the installer, sometimes you get a Custom option which lets you select which type to install, by default they usually install everything.
Quite surprised to find I have had to install Acrobat Reader in order to view PDF's properly.
I thought the in-built Preview would work just fine, but the image quality is pretty terrible and it does some strange things with letter spacing on certain fonts. I downloaded the manual for my audio interface (Native Instruments) and it was almost unreadable in Preview. It's absolutely fine in Acrobat.
Looking at experiences of others am not sure if this is a High Sierra issue or has it always been poor?
redlester wrote:Quite surprised to find I have had to install Acrobat Reader in order to view PDF's properly.
I thought the in-built Preview would work just fine, but the image quality is pretty terrible and it does some strange things with letter spacing on certain fonts. I downloaded the manual for my audio interface (Native Instruments) and it was almost unreadable in Preview. It's absolutely fine in Acrobat.
Looking at experiences of others am not sure if this is a High Sierra issue or has it always been poor?
I haven't had Acrobat installed on a Mac in years. Yes, there are some occasional PDF's that render poorly but this is usually as far as I can see poorly-created or old PDF's - the PDF format is a standard, and so probably created PDF's *should* render fine across the board...
I've never really found it a problem, in practice... I can't remember the last time a PDF wasn't rendered properly for me...
Last edited by muzines on Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SOS FOR ARTISTS - our brand new ecosystem designed to support musicians/artists, producers, and collaborators at every stage of the music-making journey.
In case it is useful to you, it's possible to right-click on any file and choose Open With to select your preferred app.
If you highlight a file type and use Command I (capital 'i') to Get Info on that file, you can change its Open With setting and, if you wish, click on Change All... in the Get Info dialogue box to ensure all files of that type open with your preferred app from that point on. (This can be changed at any time, using the same process.)
SOS FOR ARTISTS - our brand new ecosystem designed to support musicians/artists, producers, and collaborators at every stage of the music-making journey.
Another tip I found out the hard way... some of the music software us lot tend to use is classed as being from "unidentified developers". By default the Mac OS won't allow this to be installed, as I just found out trying to run the installers for Soniccouture sample libraries.
For future newbies, if you encounter this, Control+click on the installer you're trying to run, then select "Open" from the menu which comes up. Alternatively, if you go to Security in the System Preferences, you will see "Install anyway" listed as an option in relation to the item you just had blocked.
Note of caution, which is obvious but will say it anyway: use this with care. Only install apps you are certain are from a trusted source, as the protection is there for a good reason.
Last edited by redlester on Sat May 12, 2018 7:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Well almost two months on I have finally reached a point where all my setup and installation is near as dammit complete and I can actually sit down and try to be creative with it.
Don't regret the change one bit so far. Within a few months I expect I will be confident enough to completely decommission the PC, which I never thought I would say.
Thanks to all who assisted with my early questions, and hopefully this is of use to others over time. My tip would be, if you are considering the switch, definitely try it but only spend what you can afford to risk in case it's not for you. Am glad I went the second hand route.
redlester wrote:Don't regret the change one bit so far. Within a few months I expect I will be confident enough to completely decommission the PC, which I never thought I would say.
I've never been able to say that, even though Mac has been my primary platform for a good few years now. There is software I've never been able to fully replace (Serif PagePlus, for example) and I've never fancied dual boot. Fortunately Vmware Fusion works very well on the Mac with all versions of Windows, and there are other such virtualisation packages out there which probably work just as well, some of which are free. That's my solution and one you might consider if you find you can't quite turn off the PC for good.
CC
Last edited by Forum Admin on Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
redlester wrote:Don't regret the change one bit so far. Within a few months I expect I will be confident enough to completely decommission the PC, which I never thought I would say.
I've never been able to say that, even though Mac has been my primary platform for a good few years now. There is software I've never been able to fully replace (Serif PagePlus, for example) and I've never fancied dual boot. Fortunately Vmware Fusion works very well on the Mac with all versions of Windows, and there are other such virtualisation packages out there which probably work just as well, some of which are free. That's my solution and one you might consider if you find you can't quite turn off the PC for good.
CC
Ha ha cheers will bear that in mind.
The only thing I really miss so far is Sound Forge, which was always my favourite for things like transferring vinyl etc. I find the Sound Forge work flow really easy and it's what I'm used to. I have the "Audio Studio" AKA their 'lite' version, which does everything I need, but is PC only. They do a Pro version for Mac but no lite version, and it's not worth me shelling out for the Pro version, so have now gone with Wavelab Elements. Am sure I'll get used to it.
So...it's taken me just over two months of Mac useage to find that I have begun going up to the top left with my mouse when trying to close a window on my PC at work.
Last edited by redlester on Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
SOS FOR ARTISTS - our brand new ecosystem designed to support musicians/artists, producers, and collaborators at every stage of the music-making journey.
Get your 
