
As you know using a PC or Mac for running DAW is take a lot of memory usages especially in the mixing section. We may need to use a ton of plugins to capture the sound that you wanted.
If in every single track we using plugins such as Compressor, EQ, Reverb,
If your RAM size is below 16 Gb, maybe you will be often
So! this a few things you can try to do to optimize your macOS performance for working with Digital Audio Workstation software. By tweaking your Mac setting, so it can run ‘smoothly’ even with a minimum RAM on it.
Disable automatic updates
To disable macOS automatic updates, open System Preferences go to > App Store > uncheck for ‘Automatically check for updates‘
It will stop your macOS for automatically check for software updates in the background. So by doing this, you should always remember to check for updates manually.
Or alternatively, you can only uncheck for ‘Download newly available updates in the background’ and let ‘Automatically check for updates’ leave it in
Disable Computer Sleep
To do that, go to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Set computer sleep to Never.
Also, uncheck Put hard disk to sleep when possible. Important! by doing this may make your hard disk get hotter. So! if you are not using your Mac for recording instead of using it for general use, always remember to set it back to default.
Remove Start Up Items
In System Preferences go to > User & Groups > Choose your account > Login items and remove all Startup items by click on them and then clicking (-) button.
Turn Off Time Machine
Go to Time Machine setting in System Preferences and turn off Back Up Automatically.
Don’t forget to occasionally Back-Up manually with Time Machine and then turn it off again when you are
Turn Off Firewall
Still in System Preferences go to Security & Privacy settings > Firewall and turn it off. You always can turn it on again while not Recording or Mixing.
Disable Siri
If you running macOS Sierra or newer macOS … I know you guys love Siri but it’s better to disable Siri while you are recording.
To temporary disable Siri, open Siri setting in System Preferences > Uncheck ‘Enable Siri’
Repair Disk Permission
In Mac OS X El Capitan you will not found Repair disk permission feature in Disk Utility but you still can repair disk permission using Terminal command.
Here is the command
If you are running Yosemite and the previous version of macOS. You can just open Disk Utilities in Application > Utilities and run Repair Disk Permission.
If you running macOS Sierra the terminal command has removed, but it will automatically run in the background. So you don’t have to worry about it 🙂
Other Settings
- Turn off Airport while recording is a wise choice.
- Also turn off bluetooth if you are not using Bluetooth keyboard or mouse.
- Close unnecessary application while recording or mixing.
- Remove unnecessary widgets in Dashboard and Notification Centre.
- Update your Audio Interface driver to the latest version.
Closing Words
Okay! above are things we can do to optimizing macOS for Digital Audio Workstation performance. However, consider upgrading your RAM if your Mac only
For ‘safe’ and avoid your DAW software freeze, glitch, etc having 8
So if what you have is a
You know … a professional
It’s better to start work with computers and gear that you already have to start recording a demo. And practice to mixing your own song. While saving money to buy
Anyway! I will update this post next time if I’ve found new “tricks.” But until then, if you have a better suggestion, method or if there is something I’ve missed, please let me know in the
Feature image credit: pixabay.com
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