As it comes to be, audio production just works on a Mac.
Like, so much better.Whilst ASIO drivers for Windows are fine and all, nothing beats Apple’s CoreAudio infrastructure - the low latency, the use of different input and output devices, inbuilt aggregation devices - It’s miles ahead of anything on Windows.
Too bad I’m not a Mac user, huh.
Whilst I don’t prefer Macs nor would I recommend my friends and family on a Mac, I’m definitely not a hater. Being in the software and tech industry, the things I create need to support running on Mac, else people will complain about software not working, etc.. Again, I’m not a hater - and will use a Mac when I need to.
I’ve recently been looking for a second MacBook (Air / Pro) to run some live audio software (Mainstage, Ableton, Studio One, maybe Element), as it offers more portability and flexbility than the iMac or Mac Mini I own (namely an inbuilt screen and battery) - except that pretty much all of the second-hand listings I’ve found have wildly misrepresented the state of their laptop.
There are all kinds of spurious listings associated with an exorbitant second-hand price…
- “thin black line” (it covered at least 30%) - $410
- “taken well after” (dents on the corners, keys are faded) - $450
- “small crack on the screen that’s not noticeable unless you look at it” - $650
- “screen is broken, otherwise everything is working fine” - $700
Yeah… I don’t know what’s going through the minds of these sellers…
But there are some decent and honest sellers who reasonably price and describe what their MacBook’s condition actually is - and I respect those sellers.
The only issue, is that the former group of people by far outnumber these awesome people - and Facebook Marketplace doesn’t facilitate much of a useful browsing experience…
So I made it useful.
In about an hour and a half, I whipped together a userscript that would firstly remove sponsored ads, but also mark previously viewed classifieds - so I would know which listings I have already looked at!
If you don’t know what a userscript is - consider it as extra code that runs on top of the code that a website already has. It lets you extend the functionality of the website (within bounds)
As you can see, all of my previously viewed listings have now been greyed out!
Also, look no ads!
