They are, but over the years there seems to have crept in an “unofficial” default installation location vst2 as well. So I’ve not had any issues with vst2 installations being spread all over as I can recall, in recent years.
Not sure if there’s a better thread to ask this, but - what’s the best way to do loopback recording or otherwise sample audio playing on a macbook?
I’ve used Audio Hijack before to record, say, audio from my browser/YouTube, so that one might do the trick. And there is another app from the same company called Loopback, which I haven’t used, but I think deals more with virtual routings. If you compare the two, you will probably find which one, or maybe both, would suite your needs most. And there are probably other alternatives as well.
Years ago I used Soundflower, but I don’t know if that one is supported anymore.
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might be of interest
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https://www.birdsthings.com/ this is also a great option that i use for quick resampling on live audio. It stores the buffer in ram and i set a shorter record duration for easier editing/viewing of the waveform detail
rolling sampler is for audio, and theres a midi version too which is cool but i havent tried
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loopback or blackhole
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so the MacBook Air will be next for an update?
Yes, any day now.
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because this could be the thing to go for me, instead of a MacMini … and it has a display …
Today Apple announced the new M4 MacBook Air. To my great surprise, they also announced the new M4 Mac Studio (M4 Max or M3 Ultra). I am kicking myself now (not really) for buying the M4 Pro Mac mini just over a month ago. Base Mac Studio is still $1999, which gets you the M4 Max chip, 32 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. Speculation was that the M4 Mac Studio wasn’t going to drop until June-ish (e.g. WWDC). I didn’t want to wait that long. Now, I wish I’d waited. Oh well. Hoping this Mac mini (my second one) holds up better than the first (fans blew out on the first one).
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£2,099 for the base is too rich for me.
I’ll ’make do’ with an M4 Pro base model Mini when I have the dosh later this year (hopefully)
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Yep. Me too. Sigh.
Had the m2 max 14 inch mbp for a month or so. I knew the m4 airs were around the corner but im done with waiting for tech. I’m in love with this thing. perfect size, perfect weight, Lovely screen, absolute powerhouse. It feels alot like my little 10 year old 13 inch mbp that just recently died on me but with sorcery under the hood. Got 64 gb of ram to cover video editing stuff so ableton doesn’t touch the sides. I’m running various slate and ash stuff alongside lots of other hungry plug ins without issue.
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I’m a little disappointed by the M4 MB Air. It has actually no better processor specs than a well configured 13" M4 iPad pro.
Looking at the new M3 ultra / M4 Mac Studio: Let’s wait for the fancy M5 stuff. 
The iPad Pro and Macbook Air aren’t drastically different platforms, after all 
The Pro is going to be on the heavier cross-case scenario of processing and the Air will be on the lighter, so a bit of “what do you prefer/need” may be in order.
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What’s even crazier, was when the iPad Pro was more powerful than the final generation of the intel macbook pro’s. Unfortunately, the iPad Pro will not even come close to needing all the power they give it for most uses cases, because it is a hamstrung device. But what it’s really about at this point is economy of scale. It’s cheaper for Apple to use the same or similar processors in both, and neither machines gets a fan so they can.
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That’s why they call it the air. I have an M1 MBP, but now that I have an M4 Pro Mac mini for heavy lifting (audio, photography stuff), my next laptop might be a MBA because I WANT the tradeoffs on weight, price, and don’t need the more powerful chipsets.
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Deciding between the Mac Mini M4 Pro and the Studio M4 Max is not an easy one.
The extra cores and extra ports are really enticing. My base M4 Mac Mini really lacks ports and storage. That Studio looks like a great option. But it is pricey. And a bit confusing.
First time it’s not gonna be that easy to pick my new machine!
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Haven’t looked deep into it but it sounds like the base studio has the same chip config as the mini with the unbinned pro. But I imagine it has more bandwidth, plus the ports and most importantly, the bigger fan and chassis, means it will be able to sustain heavy loads and not throttle like the mini. I think that’s worth the price, considering it’ll be a machine I’ll use for about ten years or so to drive my business so it’s not really that expensive when one thinks about it that way, you know?
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These machines are pretty sweet, people might need less horse power than they think.
M2 Air flies along for me… If I got another machine today it would be a base cpu M4 Mini, such awesome value.
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