Migrating from Windows to Mac

[billvb]

I'm taking the plunge and finally moving over to Mac for my music and audio work. Is there an easy way to get all of the Ableton instruments and 3rd party ".alps" over and set up on the Mac? I usually just copy my whole Ableton library over when migrating between PCs; then do a "repair library" if needed. l know it's not recommended to do it that way, but it's always worked great, and WAY faster than reinstalling all of the Ableton Instruments and add-ons I've purchased over the years...

[markmakingmusic]

No, you're going from a PC to a Mac. Totally different OS.

You have to reinstall the program using the software DVD's that you *ahem* purchased

[cids]

I'm not 100% sure, but my impression is dat the Ableton Library is the same format on Macs and Windows. Installing the program and copying the library should do the trick...

[bosonHavoc]

yup library is the same..
i've done it
just install ableton onto your mac then
copy over your library so you can keep all your presets and samples

[perplex]

one thing. your third party VST's wont cross platforms. so prepare your anus

[bosonHavoc]

but if you have the mac version of the vst installed your good to go

edit..
since i cross back and forth allot i avoid using AU's and just use vsts..
never a problem as long as the vst exists on both mac and pc

[Akshara]

Is there an easy way to get all of the Ableton instruments and 3rd party ".alps" over and set up on the Mac?

One option would be to upgrade the current Windows library to the latest Live version and then make a copy of the Windows library to an external FAT32 drive; then install a basic setup of Live Suite for Mac OS X from the latest download version, installing the minimum default library to the internal drive, and then manually change the location of the library to the one on the external drive, then running library repair.

If it does work fine, then you can either copy the external library to the internal OS X drive, replacing the default library, or simply keep it on the external drive and erase the default one; if for some reason it doesn't work, you can at least switch the library back to the default one installed to the internal drive, run the repair function again, and start adding things from there.

Some other points which may help...

One important thing to know when switching to Mac is that when pasting or dragging a folder onto another version of itself, OS X replaces the old folder with the new one, rather than merging their contents as Windows does. Just something to be aware of when dragging folders around.

An external drive formatted as FAT32 can be read/write under both OS X and Windows. So it is possible to have one Live library writable by both operating systems. I did this when running a dual boot system, and it required a bit more attention and management, yet worked well. There are third party options which allow OS X to write to NTFS, though I personally have not had stable success with them.

Since VSTs are not stored in the Live Library itself, it is possible to mirror both systems by having the same VSTs installed on both, while sharing the same library; however as mentioned, Windows VSTs will not work on OS X, so this will require upgrading or purchasing the Mac VST equivalents.

The following video, while a bit old, is free to watch online, is less than an hour long, and still relevant to the core basics of OS X and Windows.

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/xpToLeopard

Good luck, and congratulations.

[Piplodocus]

The live library is just basically a load of folders with all the samples in, and the ableton set-up files for the instruments. You can just copy it to whatever OS you like. (although there's not much point copying it to Linux if you want to use Ableton!)

It's just PC-only VSTs you need to worry about.

[billvb]

Hey y'all, thanks for the great responses. I feel much better about the move to Mac (and I was already feeling pretty good about it).

[filibusta]

Is there an easy way to get all of the Ableton instruments and 3rd party ".alps" over and set up on the Mac?

One option would be to upgrade the current Windows library to the latest Live version and then make a copy of the Windows library to an external FAT32 drive; then install a basic setup of Live Suite for Mac OS X from the latest download version, installing the minimum default library to the internal drive, and then manually change the location of the library to the one on the external drive, then running library repair.

If it does work fine, then you can either copy the external library to the internal OS X drive, replacing the default library, or simply keep it on the external drive and erase the default one; if for some reason it doesn't work, you can at least switch the library back to the default one installed to the internal drive, run the repair function again, and start adding things from there.

Some other points which may help...

One important thing to know when switching to Mac is that when pasting or dragging a folder onto another version of itself, OS X replaces the old folder with the new one, rather than merging their contents as Windows does. Just something to be aware of when dragging folders around.

An external drive formatted as FAT32 can be read/write under both OS X and Windows. So it is possible to have one Live library writable by both operating systems. I did this when running a dual boot system, and it required a bit more attention and management, yet worked well. There are third party options which allow OS X to write to NTFS, though I personally have not had stable success with them.

Since VSTs are not stored in the Live Library itself, it is possible to mirror both systems by having the same VSTs installed on both, while sharing the same library; however as mentioned, Windows VSTs will not work on OS X, so this will require upgrading or purchasing the Mac VST equivalents.

The following video, while a bit old, is free to watch online, is less than an hour long, and still relevant to the core basics of OS X and Windows.

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/xpToLeopard

Good luck, and congratulations.

Just so you know you can't use fat32 system to copy or store files over 4gb