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I am not a pro musician since I don't generate money from it.
I am a professional in another field, but the macs I use for music making.

I am not a professional, but I don't want a toy machine,
but right now, unlike in windows world, you either get a mac mini and Frankenstein it up,
or get an iMac, which in my case don't work since I already have a nice 4k monitor...
!

And why doesn’t that work? An iMac works just great with a 4K monitor - nothing like 2 screens to spread work across.
 
That’s absolutely untrue. I had a working hackintosh after one night of setup and it hasn’t worked flawlessly for over a year. When you pick the right hardware and read up on what you’re doing ahead of time, it’s really not difficult.

it hasn't worked flawlessly? that means you're having trouble? or is that a typo.


Anyways, I did buy the right hardware from a tonymacx86 guide. Even bought the official apple PCI-E wifi/bluetooth combo card from osxwifi dot com. After each macOS update, iMessage would sometimes stop working, so I would need re-register using a new serial number. Sometimes sleep/wake doesn't work. NVME storage support is extremely sketchy. the problems go on and on. AirDrop rarely works. AirPods and other bluetooth headphones rarely work
 



macOS Catalina, currently available to developers and public beta testers in a beta capacity, revives the defunct Expansion Slot Utility app ahead of the launch of the Mac Pro.

The Expansion Slot Utility app is designed for managing and configuring PCI cards, and its return is clearly meant for the Mac Pro, which has a total of eight PCIe expansion slots that Mac users can work with.

macprointernalsnomodules-800x698.jpg

The Expansion Slot Utility app was discontinued years ago following the launch of the 2008 Mac Pro but the new 2.0 version is back for the modular Mac Pro.




Signs of the Expansion Slot Utility app are hidden in the second macOS Catalina beta, and when the Mac Pro becomes available at some point this fall, Mac Pro users will be able to take advantage of the utility.

Article Link: macOS Catalina Brings Back Expansion Slot Utility App Ahead of Mac Pro Launch
[doublepost=1562038111][/doublepost]I REALLY wish Apple would make a lower end Mac PRO for people who don't want an all in one iMac nor a Top of the line Pixar developer machine for 10,000 either lol. PLEASE Apple, make a damn Mac Pro for the every day user and just lower the specs a bit. GAWD! seriously? I mean if this was 2000.00 with a high end i5, 16GB ram and SSD etc etc with a decent upgradable card and slots to upgrade loater I think they'd sell more of them seriously. MOSt people can't afford even the budget model of these new Pros and not everyone wants an iMac or a MacBook family laptop.....seriously Apple make a budget/Family MacPro and sell the peripheral upgrades to those who want them later and you'll increase sales tremendously I'd think. I know I'd buy one.
 
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Can't wait for Mac Pro!

I can since the BASE model is a WHOPPING 6 GRAND. That BLOWS! Make a 2000.00 budget model that can be upgraded and Apple will have something. There priced themselves out of the market in them as only people who make killer money or work in editing if video will every buy such an elaborate machine.
 
All this has happened before. It is just Apple’s turn to decline.
If you can’t see it beyond the bloated cost for hardware versus decline in quality and innovation, then the coming Mac Pro is probably for you.
Hackintosh takes work. It is always at risk of all the bad things. Also it is badass being able to run software I purchased on my MacBook Pro on something with more power. The converse is also true; the App Store got more of my money as I purchased Apps on my Hackintosh that I ended up downloading to my MacBook Pros (I have 2).
To me the Hackintosh is just another vehicle to run the OS. I would gladly pay Apple a license fee to benefit support of my choice of hardware.
Steve might not approve, but if he saw where Apple is with design and defects since 2015, who knows. He reportedly did not freak out when some dude Hackintoshed a Sony to run an Intel version of Mac OS X. He took a ride to Sony to show it works in an attempt to work a deal. Remember that NeXT’s core is the basis for most of Apple’s version spinoffs.
Personally I don’t care if folks bold text the EULA as “proof” Hackintosh is illegal. Apple violated my trust of the brand with the crap they make since 2015. The recalls have only begun.
Rebellion is justified and correct. Apple has achieved true mediocrity and decline past the known bloat of iTunes is not transformative with three separate Apps, it is just forecasting parts of Apple that can be sold off when the time comes.
Apple Park will be a nice museum or community center in time.
Laugh now. Smell the fart later when Apple passes wind and calls it innovation.
Ive leaving is the canary smelling the fart. Can you smell it? I can!
 
I am not a pro musician since I don't generate money from it.
I am a professional in another field, but the macs I use for music making.

I am not a professional, but I don't want a toy machine,
but right now, unlike in windows world, you either get a mac mini and Frankenstein it up,
or get an iMac, which in my case don't work since I already have a nice 4k monitor...

You could get virtually any Mac for this use case.
 
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Are Apple really going to this much trouble is not just for the Mac Pro? Hopefully there are other Macs coming with expansion slots. Yes, I realise this is extremely optimistic.

There is a pretty good chance that they are only doing this for the Mac Pro. Well the MP and the Apple add in cards and specific markets they are primarily targeting.

1. Afterburner card. Very good chance that it won't do "3 8K streams' if you don't allocate enough bandwidth to it. So part of this slot utility's job is to make sure to guide the users so that Afterburner is getting enough bandwidth to be worth the price ( which probably isn't cheap). [ Presuming Afterburner is an expensive card then it is certainly worth writing software to enable realizing the value as the price of 'admission' will be 'painful'. ]

2. Different group is the 3-5 digital audio workstation crowd. ( again high budget cards ) but in this context the "auto allocate" bandwidth will probably work better.

Folks who might be trying to do both with one box would have some "tap dancing" to do to juggle both. And the utility helps with tap dancing ( suggests swapping card x to slot b and move card y to slot c , etc. ). If there is even less bandwidth to play the "rob Peter to pay Paul" game with then there isn't much the utility can do there.


If the major preoccupation here is with high end, expensive PCI-e cards then this isn't a high motivator there for other Macs with expansion slots. Apple is mainly looking at folks at the higher end of the price insensitivity spectrum and they have a system for that market; the Mac Pro.


For Mac's with just Thunderbolt via an external PCI-e expansion box there isn't much to adjust at all.
 
I am not a pro musician since I don't generate money from it.
I am a professional in another field, but the macs I use for music making.

I am not a professional, but I don't want a toy machine,
but right now, unlike in windows world, you either get a mac mini and Frankenstein it up,
or get an iMac, which in my case don't work since I already have a nice 4k monitor...

so no options for the dreamers like me,
I dream to someday live from my music,
but I have a family to feed so I work as an engineer.
In the meantime,
I cannot justify buying a computer that starts at 6,000 just to follow my dream...

So yes, if you are a professional that requires a mac pro, and it will pay itself with that work, good for you!
BUT, remember when you started,
and remember that someone younger is starting right now.
You can bet your mac pro that some of those upcoming pros would be 10x better at whatever you do,
and I bet you they are making all they can with as little as they have, that is how life works!
Are you using Logic Pro X? I don’t really understand why you would need a 2019 Mac Pro. Do you plan to use any of the PCIe slots? Perhaps you’re seriously overestimating the requirements. There are actual (professional) studios using a 2012 MBP i7 for Logic Pro X, and a Mac mini would be perfectly usable as well. What kind of “Frankenstein” Mac mini do you anticipate you would need?

A simple USB audio interface such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 will give you a couple mic pre-amps/instrument inputs and MIDI in/out. It’s around $175, including DAW software (Pro Tools First and Ableton Live Lite) and a bunch of plug-ins.
 
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Apple macOS EULA - https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx107.pdf - Section 2, Sub-section B, Paragraph i:

i) t' loot, install, use 'n run fer personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy o' th' Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded 'puter runnin' macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite, OS X Mavericks, OS X Mountain Lion or OS X Lion (“Mac Computer”) that ye owns or control;

Yarr! That makes perfect sense t’ me.
 
If the Mac Pro can become more competitive in price post-launch, that would be a win for everybody. Get the base model down to $2999 or $3999, then Indies can have their cake along with the pro's. There are many, many Apple fans who might not be pro but still want to build their own Mac.

This is what they should have done to get everyone in on the game. Give everyone access to the starting price point, and hit the pros harder with the MPX modules and Afterburners and so forth - things independent artists might not go for... initially.
 
Are Apple really going to this much trouble is not just for the Mac Pro? Hopefully there are other Macs coming with expansion slots. Yes, I realise this is extremely optimistic.

I see almost zero chance of a second model with PCIe expansion slots. We haven't had that since the demise of the Xserve, and the use case and market for them has rapidly shrunk since.

In the 90s, there were (limited) levels of expansion even on the lower-end models, such as with PDS. But those were days when external ports (such as Thunderbolt now) were less powerful, and more people in general bought expandable/modular hardware.
 
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If the Mac Pro can become more competitive in price post-launch, that would be a win for everybody. Get the base model down to $2999 or $3999, then Indies can have their cake along with the pro's. There are many, many Apple fans who might not be pro but still want to build their own Mac.

This is what they should have done to get everyone in on the game. Give everyone access to the starting price point, and hit the pros harder with the MPX modules and Afterburners and so forth - things independent artists might not go for... initially.

Apple is not going to lower the cost of the Mac Pro from $5999...there is really very little precedent for them lowering the cost of any of their products post launch. They might increase the specs of the base model at some point in its lifecycle as they did with the 2013 Mac Pro, but they are not going to lower the price 33%-50%...that’s just wishful thinking.

Apple wants indies to buy the iMac, iMac Pro or the MacBook Pro...even the Mac mini. They are not interested in getting everyone in on the game of having a tower Mac with PCIe slots. They built the Mac Pro for those creatives that truly NEED PCIe expansion slots to add in cards that no one in the $2000-$4000 tier is using in their businesses. Around 80%-90% of those creatives needs are met by something other than the Mac Pro anyways. There is a very narrow margin of people 10%-20% that are not served by an iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini and they have the choice to add Thunderbolt expansion to one of the Macs I just listed, or purchase a Mac Pro.

There’s just not a large enough market or enough upside for Apple to bring a $3000 Mac Pro Lite to market.
[doublepost=1562075335][/doublepost]
Are you using Logic Pro X? I don’t really understand why you would need a 2019 Mac Pro. Do you plan to use any of the PCIe slots? Perhaps you’re seriously overestimating the requirements. There are actual (professional) studios using a 2012 MBP i7 for Logic Pro X, and a Mac mini would be perfectly usable as well. What kind of “Frankenstein” Mac mini do you anticipate you would need?

A simple USB audio interface such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 will give you a couple mic pre-amps/instrument inputs and MIDI in/out. It’s around $175, including DAW software (Pro Tools First and Ableton Live Lite) and a bunch of plug-ins.

Amen...I am using a Focusrite Scarlet 18i8 with a 2016 15” MacBook Pro and an external 4K display. I started with the Scarlet 2i4 1st Gen, but the 2nd Gen 2i4 is an excellent USB interface for most anyone.

EDIT: I just saw that Focusrite released 3rd Gen USB Interfaces - https://focusrite.com/news/introducing-scarlett-3rd-gen
 
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The specs page lists Mojave, not Catalina. Interpret how you wish :)

Looks more like "copy and paste" from the other tech specs pages that have been updated over the last 6 months.

All the products listed have Mojave as the OS. When 10.15 Catalina ships they'll all be changed. If the Mac Pro doesn't ship until after 10.15 goes "Golden release" version then it will come with 10.15. For Apple to list something else there would indicate a more precise timing of the Mac Pro and they basically have only signed up for a window width of "Fall". So Mojave helps add to air of mystery (of early Fall) and Apple could just "surprise and delight" folks by flip flopping to "not so early Fall" relatively easily.

Sept 24 2018 10.14 https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/24/apple-releases-macos-mojave/
Sept 25 2017 10.13 https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/25/apple-releases-macos-high-sierra/
Sept 20 2016 10.12 https://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/20/macos-sierra-released/
Sept 30 2015 10.11 https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/30/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-released/
Oct 16 2014 10.10 https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/16/yosemite-coming-later-today/


It is pretty likely Apple will shovel 10.15 out the door in late September as to book the upgrade "revenue" before the end of quarter close ( and repeat the same pattern for the last several years where can't count on "even more spectacular than last year " iPhone numbers to to uptick the last month of the Quarter ). Once that ships the tech spec page of the Mac Pro will flip (like the rest of them). They'll shove it out the door and have the first 10.15.1 beta up in the next day or so with bugs they won't stop to fit just so they can hit the fiscal deadline.

The First day of Fall in 2019 is the September 23rd. Is Apple really going to ship a Mac Pro for 2-7 days with 10.14 before flipping them over to shipping with 10.15? That doesn't seem likley. More likely is Apple wanting to keep the folks waiting on the new Mac Pro "circling the airport" . Wink in and out a September web page , dripping Mojave on the specs page .... all probably holding pattern fuel.
 
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The screenshots show it all. It's for allocating bandwidth. Seeing if your cards are getting the bandwidth they need, and managing what slots get how much bandwidth to the CPU/chipset.
It's very cool it can even be adjusted like this.

From the screen shots it looks like it’s for configuring the slots themselves. If you install a WiFi card that is PCI-e x4 in an x8 slot, that’s not very efficient, so you can probably tell that slot to only behave as a x4 slot and save bandwidth/power for other slots that need it.

(That’s just my guess - I’m not too proficient with this stuff outside of a surface layer of knowledge)

You just need to search on Google, not YouTube.

This is the one I’ve found that does the best overall job of explaining it.

https://www.cnet.com/news/managing-pci-express-slots-in-mac-pros/

FWIW, I wouldn’t be surprised if this newer version has additional bells and whistles added compared to its older one.

The 2006 Mac Pro used this more than subsequent models due to some unique issues.

It's something you don't want. Legacy Mac Pros didn't have enough PCI-E lanes for all the slots. The old utility allowed you to switch between different lane configurations, for example x16/x8/x1/x1 if you had one graphics card, or x8/x8/x8/x1 if you had 3. This was common on PCs too, sometimes software but other times via a bunch of jumpers.

Thanks chaps, much appreciated.

I read over the twitter link in the article, that made it clear in hindsight.
 
You could get virtually any Mac for this use case.

Some people (like me) don't like machines with integrated monitors.
I will never buy one.
That leaves me with a Mini or Pro. Alternatively a trashcan.
But a trashcan or mini means an expansion chassis, and they don't work with all cards.
They especially don't work with the cards I'm looking at and own.
The mini is inadequate and the pro costs too dang much.
For at least two decades Apple's pro machines entry level was about $3k or less. They have now doubled that.
I don't care what they put in it. It costs to much as an entry level pro machine.

As a share holder, Apple missed the boat.
 
I am not a pro musician since I don't generate money from it.
I am a professional in another field, but the macs I use for music making.

I am not a professional, but I don't want a toy machine,
but right now, unlike in windows world, you either get a mac mini and Frankenstein it up,
or get an iMac, which in my case don't work since I already have a nice 4k monitor...

so no options for the dreamers like me,
I dream to someday live from my music,
but I have a family to feed so I work as an engineer.
In the meantime,
I cannot justify buying a computer that starts at 6,000 just to follow my dream...

So yes, if you are a professional that requires a mac pro, and it will pay itself with that work, good for you!
BUT, remember when you started,
and remember that someone younger is starting right now.
You can bet your mac pro that some of those upcoming pros would be 10x better at whatever you do,
and I bet you they are making all they can with as little as they have, that is how life works!

As @PickUrPoison stated, you don't need a 2019 Mac Pro to make music. Lots of people start making music on way lesser a machine than a Mac Pro of any vintage, or started on an old Mac Pro they picked it up used or at a pawn shop. In other words, they made due with what they could get their hands on at the time.

This guy - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjOdcJbnQcVjH_o4j2AbLog - makes music with his iPad Pro.

And this guy is doing it on his iPhone - https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/

If you want to make music and that's really your dream, then you won't let anything stop you. If you think you need a Mac Pro to do it and that it is Apple is holding you back because the new one is so expensive, then you are not taking responsibility for your own happiness. And that is on you...
[doublepost=1562081644][/doublepost]
Some people (like me) don't like machines with integrated monitors.
I will never buy one.
That leaves me with a Mini or Pro. Alternatively a trashcan.
But a trashcan or mini means an expansion chassis, and they don't work with all cards.
They especially don't work with the cards I'm looking at and own.
The mini is inadequate and the pro costs too dang much.
For at least two decades Apple's pro machines entry level was about $3k or less. They have now doubled that.
I don't care what they put in it. It costs to much as an entry level pro machine.

As a share holder, Apple missed the boat.

Perhaps you would be happier selling your Apple stock and purchasing some Dell stock instead?
 
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License the OS. That would be “thinking different”.
.........
The more Apple becomes like it did before Jobs came back, the more I think of Apple Park like the colleseum in Rome. A round sign that things are ending.
Obviously, you weren't around before Jobs returned. Gil Amelio decided to license the OS and Apple's hardware sales and profits tanked, thus prompting Jobs to stage a coup and take back over.
 
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Some people (like me) don't like machines with integrated monitors.

Yes, and I don't particularly like to eat fish. Apple hasn't been an all-things-for-all-people company in forever, so this isn't a surprise.

As a share holder, Apple missed the boat.

I really don't think any kind of tower Mac was ever going to factor into Apple's revenues in any significant way. Probably not even as a tenth of one percent.
 
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Someone using macOS on non-Apple hardware is a clear violation of Apple's EULA, no matter how noble some thinks the cause.

People not buying a Mac, but instead building a PC and then installing macOS on it means that a potential sale of an Apple computer is lost.

Apple does not sell a license for its operating system for use on a PC the way that Microsoft does with Windows, that's the difference.
[doublepost=1562017421][/doublepost]

Nope, of course that won't stop someone from trying to run some old 32-bit app that has never been updated, been abandoned or a newer version exists (with associated upgrade cost or subscription fee).

EDIT: And then getting on this site to bitch about it as if it is Apple personally screwing them over, but I digress.
Oh and what is this :
You can run Mojave but you have to buy a supported metal card 300$ onwards but of course only Mojave and we will screw you up with the next OS? Is this a reward for buying Apple hardware instead of Hackintosh? Or is this a three finger combination in your face?
 
People not buying a Mac, but instead building a PC and then installing macOS on it means that a potential sale of an Apple computer is lost.


Potential but highly unlikely. People do Hackintoshes because they want a faster computer than what is available for purchase from Apple. Yes Apple did announce a new Mac Pro, but it is not available now, and could always be un-announced.
 
As @PickUrPoison stated, you don't need a 2019 Mac Pro to make music. Lots of people start making music on way lesser a machine than a Mac Pro of any vintage, or started on an old Mac Pro they picked it up used or at a pawn shop. In other words, they made due with what they could get their hands on at the time.

This guy - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjOdcJbnQcVjH_o4j2AbLog - makes music with his iPad Pro.

And this guy is doing it on his iPhone - https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/

If you want to make music and that's really your dream, then you won't let anything stop you. If you think you need a Mac Pro to do it and that it is Apple is holding you back because the new one is so expensive, then you are not taking responsibility for your own happiness. And that is on you...
[doublepost=1562081644][/doublepost]

Perhaps you would be happier selling your Apple stock and purchasing some Dell stock instead?

You can stop defending Apple now.

And no, I'll keep my Apple stock. That doesn't mean I don't think that the MacPro is a stupid decision.

And by the way.
I have owned The Mirrored Door G4, the machine before that one; two different G5 machines and an Intel MacPro. None of them had an entry point as high as the current MacPro.

[doublepost=1562090179][/doublepost]
Obviously, you weren't around before Jobs returned. Gil Amelio decided to license the OS and Apple's hardware sales and profits tanked, thus prompting Jobs to stage a coup and take back over.
Jobs didn't stage a coup.
Apple needed a modern OS.
They looked a BeOS and it was too expensive and no real track record besides hobbyists.
The NeXT machine had a track record, object oriented development tools, a Mach kernel and Steve Jobs.
They bought the company and that was the return of Steve Jobs.
He indicated he only wanted to be interim CEO. That turned into a long stint.

But make no mistake, he didn't decide to come back.
Apple was in dire straights and needed a new OS and direction.
[doublepost=1562090300][/doublepost]
Yes, and I don't particularly like to eat fish. Apple hasn't been an all-things-for-all-people company in forever, so this isn't a surprise.

I never said they were.
But to claim they were looking at content creators with the new MacPro is laughable at best.
Not at a $6k entry level price point. They missed the boat.
 
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<snip>
But to claim they were looking at content creators with the new MacPro is laughable at best.
Not at a $6k entry level price point. They missed the boat.
The 2019 Mac Pro is absolutely aimed squarely at content creators, and anyone else who might need 1-8 PCIe slots or a ton of memory (or I/O) bandwidth. Or lots of RAM and/or cores.

Apple missed no boat. The product you want—a cutdown Mac Pro for $3k—is a loser, for the reasons I laid out in my post #44 above. A three- or four-slot Mac Pro doesn’t give the target customer enough headroom. Those users want to be able to put two or three cards in and still have room to expand over the next 4-5 or 7 or 10 years.

You’ve shelled out 15-20k in specialized PCIe cards for your hobby but now 3k is going to break you? OK, sure; I suppose everybody wants what they want, but Apple doesn’t owe you your ideal Mac Pro. I don’t think you believe you’re entitled to that, and I really can understand the disappointment of not getting what you want. But there are valid reasons for Apple not making a 3-4 slot MP.

As a shareholder, do you really want Apple to substitute the sale of a profitable $6,000 Mac Pro with a $3,000 “Mac Pro mini” sold at a significant loss? That makes no sense (to me). Really, no boat was missed.
 
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I have been wondering if the Afterburner FPGA will be opened up for other usage.

Software support. For whatever reason, CUDA is near universal in scientific and technical fields. I do wish people would go to a more open solution to give Nvidia competition, but I can't rewrite millions of lines of code.

Metal is not an option for a rewrite anyway because it isn't available on Linux compute clusters or cloud providers.

No Nvidia means the Mac platform is effectively dead to scientists and engineers.

Well AMD is working hard on ROCm. Or may be it should be Google working more on Tensorflow ROCm rather than focusing on CUDA?

I think ROCm is close, very close. But like everything when the work is 80% done and you thought the 20% is going to be easy, that 20% normally takes the same amount of time as the first 80%. People are aware of the CUDA lock in, and once AMD reaches the point of good enough, more people will switch and more people will help with ROCm

And needless to say Apple by themselves are also heavy user of Machine Learning.
 
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