Using a Mac for music and work

NorioDS

If you use a Mac for both work and recording, have you tried having a separate user for each?

And did that make your Mac slower? Having both users logged in, with all those apps open?

nick_D01

Hey Norio 😀

in solving the situation that you're describing, something that's great on Mac is 'Mission Control'. its like having 3/4/5, as many desktops as u want, all on one machine 😃

this vid demonstrates it a few years ago, but it has since been updated since then 😃

as far as memory goes, a few years ago 8gb would have been just fine. especially if you're also rocking a SSD. with present apps and software as of 2021 12gb maybe should be something to aim for 😃

NorioDS

nick_D01 Thanks @nick_D01! And sorry for the late reply. Been hectic!

I've started using these workspaces and it's a lot better — thanks!

There are some issues with this setup, though:

Command-Tab doesn't work in an intuitive way. (It shows you all your open apps and will switch workspaces if you choose an app in another workspace. Jarring.) I might end up paying for an app that does this properly.
All your apps are open, which can add up. I do all of my email, music and chatting in my browser so Chrome very quickly chows up my memory.

In my opinion, this is one spot where Apple kinda dropped the ball.

Having said all that, I deleted ALL my cache files from over the past 5 or so years and it made a HUGE difference to the performance of my Mac. Sure, I lost a bunch of preferences and stuff like that but it's been TOTALLY worth it. (And 90% of my preferences were saved in the cloud, so Chrome — and other apps — just redownloaded 'em.)

I've had about 3 MacBooks since I switched to Mac in 2016. But each time I've installed a new one, it's copied over all this cache stuff across. That stuff takes up HUGE amounts of space and can REALLY slow down your Mac.

Anyway, useful tip: Delete all those caches. You might surprise yourself at how much better your Mac runs and this stuff is NOT deleteable using Mac's built-in space-saving features.