Haven’t tried it on Monterey or Big Sur yet, but I’ve been using this for years for iPods (and it’s everything iTunes used to be).
It will even convert flacs on the fly for your iPod (if you’re not doing the rockbox thing)
I haven’t touched anything related to iTunes for years.
Fun fact: iOS can play flac on its own (for years). Just iTunes can’t transfer it afaik.
Get this app and never open/be bothered by weird import/syncing behaviours in iTunes again: waltr 2 or on windows CopyTrans
But to be honest… haven’t used it in years because Spotify etc.
Monterey is a breeze here. Awesome OS!
I’ve used waltr. Not really great for cataloging and tagging 6tb of files. 
I haven’t upgraded to Big Sur or later because I rarely use computers anymore. My 2012 minis just run bare metal and vms I remote into when I need.
You should be able to still download it, and I don’t think downgrading OSes is that big a deal. I guess if you have a newer machine though, that would be a problem.
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Yea my machine is too new 
Well, I installed it. Turns out, the only feature I was excited about - Airplay to Mac - doesn’t work on my machine - a 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.
So lame
I just upgraded. I can’t see the difference to be honest 
But nothing breaks at least.
OK i’m having an issue with Logic X on Monterey and Overbridge. When I try and insert an instance of anythi.ng, the only option is Analog heat (which i dont own) despite my DT being connected, and working fine in ableton. Has anyone come across this? Also I’m having some issues with my Audio Interface, channels dropping out when in stereo, and it happens on every single Imput, its super annoying and only happened since i upgraded it. Im thinking I may downgrade it back to big sur as Ive gotta mix a track in logic for an artist and i need OB to work!
Anyone running Monterey on a late 2015 iMac 27" ?
This is listed as one of the oldest Macs compatible with Monterey.
I’m actually really enjoying Monterey on my M1 Air, so I’m considering updating my iMac.
It’s weird for me to say this, but I like how much parity it has to iOS. Especially in the various system preferences, and general setup areas, menubar, etc.
My iMac is running Mojave. It works well and I never thought I’d even consider a look toward updating its OS, especially since Catalina on another machine was a bit sluggish, and Mojave has felt problem free. But my iMac does have a fast internal 1TB SSD, and 32GB RAM. Ableton projects hit similar CPU meter %s on both machines, so processor should be fine (4ghz quad i7).
Monterey (12.2.1) has really been a dream on this M1 Air so far.
There are a few plugins I use that aren’t officially supported yet, but they still seem to work, and I’m sure that official support will come eventually.
Looking for a tales of success or words of caution, and realizing that eventually new software updates for many products I use will require an OS newer than Mojave, so there’s some future proofing (as best I can) in mind as well.
This doesn’t address your specific question but but based on your iMac’s specs it may help.
I updated my 2017 Base Model Pro (non Touch Bar, 8gb of ram, 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5) to Monterey from Mojave and it runs better than ever. I have a friend with an M1 air and he commented that my laptop seems just as snappy as his. It feels like Monterey is just really efficient. It’s worth noting that I did a fresh install rather than an upgrade.
Monterey even solved my battery issues thanks to the addition of ‘low power mode’. Before updating my computer would randomly die on battery power. Now it never does and is back to lasting a good 5-7 hours of continuous use.
Also, low power doesn’t seem to slow regular tasks down at all. My computer isn’t noticeably slower on low power mode (unless building in Xcode or rendering in Final Cut).
It’s like having a brand new Mac…
Another aspect with mentioning is that I use Overbridge in Logic Pro X to record my Digitakt and have had no problems there since updating.
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…update from the monterey front…
after having it in use since two month now, and running also heaps of new actual third party plugins for the first time in quite a while, it all runs smooth so far…
various stuff from sonible, bx, unfiltered audio, klevgrand, suga bytes, sonic charge, izotope and others all do fine, also those few that are not optimzed for silicon age yet…
all hosted by logic or bitwig…all does the trick for me…
in fact, only trouble at first i ran into, was getting my new mobile audio interface in charge with the new macbook pro…antelope’s installer and activation process is a bit weird…
but also worx now…only downer, i have to adress it fresh, sometimes, when i get the laptop out of sleep mode…bitwig can’t see it then…from time to time again at first…and it needs to be flipped off and on once in it’s audio settings to be used properly again…
i can live with that…for now…
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I’ve just recently upgraded an early 2015 MacBook Pro from Mojave to Catalina to Big Sur. At first boot fans were running wild and the machine was decently lagging. But that’s mainly because of many scheduled task trying to keep up at once as I learned. In addition I had to reset PRAM once to get rid of a common issue with video playback stuttering everywhere. Now all is fine and runs very smoothly. Besides unsupported 32-Bit programs/plugins of course.
Edit: As far as I understood from reading above it should be safe and seamless to upgrade to Monterey as next step.
Thanks for the encouragement all.
The only plug-in I’d be losing; since IZotope doesn’t seem interested in Monterey support for it (and a few other Newfangled plugins) is Excalibur
Which is unfortunate. But I only paid $10 ea for my two licenses.
Will try to make some FX chains tonight with Ableton devices M4L LFOs, and M1 native plugins from Audio Damage and Eventide, with the hopes of emulating Excalibur (which I only bought because Kore FX went defunct some years back).
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Put Monterey on the 2015 iMac 5K today, and so far so good.
Initially bumpy though, as I had troubles getting my audio inputs from the Ultralite MK4 into my DAW. But a quick call to MOTU support got it sorted very fast.
All my projects with Excalibur.vst in it won’t open, even though I’ve trashed the .vst and .component. But those were all finished and rendered anyway, and if I do need to go back to them, I can use the Live browser to navigate to individual tracks in those projects and extract them.
Otherwise, yea, looking forward. Got all pertinent software and plug-ins updated as well. Monterey really seems to be the pinnacle of MacOS, a true step forward vs the Apple norm: which was only occasional steps forward between consecutive steps backward.
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Kept my older MacBooks on Big Sir. No problems. My new M1 Macbook Air has the latest OS. Finally getting to run most of my NI Komplete. Still have occasional issues with Overbridge. My feeling, I can make music with M1-Monterey, but not always with the hardware or software of choice. Things are finally getting better but it was a long ride on a whitewater raft.
I really did not expect to enjoy Monterey as much as I do.
Maybe it’s iOS 15, though. They’re just both so well refined, and there’s some logic to how both operate, that caries over between the two. My iPhone 13 Pro Max feels like a mobile extension of MacOS now, and my intel iMac feels like a studio extension of iOS, but not in any way I could have foreseen.
Just in the intuitiveness of it all. Notifications, focus, privacy, file system (I use Files on my phone quite a bit), password management.
I was ultra resistant to the merger of iOS with MacOS, in theory. I liked the way my computer worked, and I liked how my phone worked differently. The differences seemed to make sense. But thanks to the stability of both and the design choices made, Apple has really pulled it off and I’m pleased with the results. And the fact that my M1 Air and my 2015 i7 5K iMac don’t feel like they’re two competing systems, it’s just all pretty damn remarkable. A very much different experience than the PPC to Intel shift.
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Also…
Monterey tip so none of you make the same mistake i did and wonder why your audio interface’s inputs aren’t working with your DAW…
in Security preferences / Microphone. make sure your DAW has permission to use it. (make sure it has the checkmarks on).
Otherwise any audio interface you use for input won’t send audio into your DAW. I turned this off because i was annoyed by the orange dot in the menu bar each time i opened Ableton on Monterey.
MOTU support (very quickly) helped me figure out that that was a mistake.
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Yeah, Apple did a great job. Everybody was afraid that they were merging the two.
But … I think they’re doing a fantastic job. Also with the new beta you can drag&drop files / text between iPadOS and macOS / use both devices as if they were one (which was already pretty good with Continuity / AirDrop / Handsfree). Windows/Android users will never understand how much of a gap there is between the two worlds.