2017 iMac- Mojave. Music computer, should I update?

[Studiofletch]

I have a 2017 27" iMac -
3.5Ghz Intel i5, 40 GB RAM DDR4,
still running Mojave 10.14.6

I have never been happy with this machine, spinning wheel a lot, songs with few tracks stopping (not often, but still) and I have to just stop and hit play again but this shouldn't happen. Like I said, when I want to mix, it has to "decide" for 10 seconds with a spinning wheel...

Anyway, it works otherwise. But I was wondering if anyone knows if Catalina or Big Sur would/should make an improvement? I have intel so dont know about Monterey......

I don't like to fix things that already work but the little hiccups seem to indicate either just a lemon, or I need to update.

The problems have been from the get-go, but I didn't really use the computer for recording until I had it almost a year, and it was working enough, But it is getting on my nerves.

Does anyone know if one of these updates would work/make sense?
Thanks

 

[Fishrrman]

What kind of drive is inside?

Something's wrong here.
Music -- particularly just playback -- shouldn't tax a 2017 iMac at all.

I was using my old 2006 "white Intel" iMac for music production until only a couple of years ago, it still worked well enough.

What music production app do you use?
How many plug-ins?
How many tracks at once?

 

[Moonjumper]

Sounds like you have a hard drive searching. If so, boot from an external SSD.

Booting from an external SSD is also the way to see if a newer OS is the solution without having to lose your existing set up.

Setting up a separate installation of macOS on an external drive is quite easy (but it is bit time consuming - an hour or so). I do it on my 2015 iMac because Mojave is needed for some 32-bit apps, and I prefer it. But use Monterey on an external when I need the latest software.

 

[MBAir2010]

studiofletch

did you zap the pram and all that other good stuff?
My macbook air from 2010 with 4gb of ram has no problems especially playing music via airplay.
sometimes my airport express loses video sound but never a spinning ball.
since your iMac has 40GB ram you should not have a problem doing anything
unless your router needs a reboot

A Catalina upgrade might solve your problem, but wont run older programs.

you can always return to mojave when you time machine your imab now.

 

[Studiofletch]

What kind of drive is inside?

Something's wrong here.
Music -- particularly just playback -- shouldn't tax a 2017 iMac at all.

I was using my old 2006 "white Intel" iMac for music production until only a couple of years ago, it still worked well enough.

What music production app do you use?
How many plug-ins?
How many tracks at once?

I use Logic Audio. Sometimes the song has only like 8 midi tracks and when I hit "play" it gets an overload pop up, I close the pop-up and hit play again, all is good. Or if I am bouncing, even a 30 second 3 guitar snippet, I can get the ball. It always comes in eventually, and the ball doesent always come. There is no difference if I have 40 tracks, so it is not taxed, but the little ball spinning (only maybe 10 seconds) or the overload - which always plays after I close it - are simply annoying but not ruining my work.

But it is not just audio. Browser games crash and sometimes even saving a document spins the ball for 3-4 seconds. Like I said, no big deal, but after that much money, I want 8 midi tracks to run like oil.

 

[Studiofletch]

I heard from a friend just now that it is probably my HD. I kinda remembered I had an SSD but I dont so that may be it.

 

[Fishrrman]

Does the iMac have a 1tb fusion drive?
If so, it has a tiny SSD portion -- only 24 or 32gb.
If you're doing a lot of reads/writes, this can get filled quickly.

A suggestion:

Get the following:
- an "nvme" blade SSD. 512gb will probably do fine.
- a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure

Snap them together and erase using disk utility.
Install a copy of the OS onto it, along with your audio apps.
Plug it into one of the USBc ports on the back for the best speeds.
You will see read speeds above 800MBps with USB3.1 gen2.

Use this to boot and run the iMac for audio production.
I predict you may be quite pleased with the results.

Also, with 40gb of installed RAM, I would try TURNING OFF virtual memory disk swapping, and use the hardware RAM "as it is" (no VM).

Again, you may be pleasantly surprised at how well this works.
You DO have to be careful about keeping too many other apps loaded, however.

 

[uller6]

I too had many issues with choking and crashes on Logic Pro (especially system overloads when hitting play if the HDD needed to spin up) when I was using a spinning hard drive. Upgrading my Mac to a SSD fixed everything - logic really thrives on SSD. I recommend you go the external SSD route. The 2017 iMac with 40 GB RAM should be able to last you for at least another 5 years. And, in my experience, Monterey really flies on Intel machines (with SSDs that is).