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Techblog Thursday 20/10/11 – Lion and ProTools
Written by Andy Patterson
So, following on from last week’s upgrade to iOS5 on the iPhone, I am happy to report that I decided to install Lion this week.
So, I have now updated to Lion. Install was easy enough. I had burnt my own DVD of the installer following the instructions here.It took a lot longer than the time it said to expect, but then Mac minutes have always been a bit different to real minutes (in the same way that London Underground ‘mins’ are nothing like real minutes – 5 ‘mins’ can last a lifetime, but then other days, it can be over in seconds)
So, I have updated from the version I had (10.7) to 10.7.2. The most important thing in this case is to make sure you download the Combo update from the Apple Website, and run this, rather than using the Automatic Software Update in OS X. Digidesign, and then Avid, always used to recommend that you use a combo updater. I don’t know if this is still the case, but it is certainly a good habit to keep up with.
Given that Lion is not a new beast, I will not give you my first impressions, as there are plenty of blogs all over the net describing this.
Now, for the Pro Tools Update. I downloaded the meaty file from the Avid website (1.75 GB) and given that I already have ProTools installed, it meant that I could download without having to login. This worked fine, the installer closing every other open program before starting to install, and then restarting the computer afterwards.
So, having performed all of the updates, everything was going swimmingly..and I had managed to mix one of our Discovery Artist’s tracks. This was until I tried to create a aggregate device including my MBox2 and my Focusrite VRM box. This gives me a whole host of monitoring options when mixing, and I wanted to check the mix using the VRM, but it would not play fairly with the MBox. I’ve had some bother with aggregate devices in the past, and overall, I’m not a fan, despite the potential.
So, I re-downloaded and installed the VRM software, which made the VRM box work fine, but sent the MBox2 south… So I soldiered on with the VRM alone and finished a few more mixes. I’ll try to get the MBox 2 working again later….and will report back on how I manage it… if I do..
I had heard reports that PT9 wasn’t working well with Lion, but I’ve not seen any of this. Things have all been fine, and the Liquid Mix 16 is even firing up OK. I’ll keep an eye on everything, and I have to record a band at a gig next week (16 track) so that will really give it a workout.. I hope I get the devices working ok in time for that…
I haven’t made the switch to iCloud from Mobile Me yet, but I daresay I will soon, and will update with my experiences when it happens. Maybe for the next Techblog Thursday post.