Hello Antoni,
Antoni Scott wrote:After a dozen or more back and forth's with very helpful Hauptwerk enthusiasts, it seems that I can't use my old sample sets on my present computer if I transfer them to the upgraded OS 10.13 becasue in the process of doing this the old dongle won't work anymore.
Correct. As Ed mentioned, and as I and others did too previously in this topic, once you upgrade to v6 (v5+) you wouldn't be able to use v4 any more:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19814&p=148741#p148739mdyde wrote:As Ed mentioned, no -- you won't be able to continue to use v4 once you've upgrade to v6 (v5+). (The licensing sections in the user guide and release notice cover that.) However, there would be no need to keep the v4 installations anyway.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19814&p=148741#p148749mdyde wrote:There's no need to keep your 2008 Mac Pro since it won't be able to run Hauptwerk v6 (v5+), and once you've migrated your licences to v6 you won't be able to run v4 any more anyway (as discussed previously).
Once the new drive is set up, you could simply get the person who does the macOS/Hauptwerk v6 installation for you to clone one of your two drives to the other, so that you have a complete backup in case you later need it. If your 2011 Mac Pro subsequently dies then you could buy another second-hand identical 2011 Mac Pro at that time and put the drive in it, for example. (Or if that were to happen you could just buy a new Mac at the time, and install Hauptwerk and your sample sets on it.)
Second-hand 2011 Mac Pros are readily available and will only get less expensive with time. Also, if yours were to stop working you might well be able to get it fixed inexpensively (without needing to replace the whole computer), even though Apple themselves will no longer fix Macs that old. All computer hardware stops working and/or becomes obsolete eventually -- sooner or later you will have to upgrade any computer hardware with something newer anyway.
If you want to upgrade to Hauptwerk v6, and assuming you can find someone to do the upgrade for you, I suggest:
- Now that you have a macOS 10.13 disk for your 2011 Mac Pro, install Hauptwerk v6 on it, migrate your sample set licences to v6, install all of your sample sets on it (v5+ compatible versions) [as covered in the 'upgrading' instructions in the Hauptwerk user guide]. See whether your PreSonus FP10 will work on macOS 10.13, and if not, then buy the MOTU interface you mentioned instead. If in doubt about drivers for your KeyTech touch-screens, then contact KeyTech, and if they say they don't have macOS.13-compatible drivers for your model of touch-screen then see whether Touch-Base have a suitable driver that you could buy:
https://touch-base.com/drivers .
- Once it's all set up and working, for your peace of mind, get the person to clone the SSD to a spare one, so that you have a fully working spare system. Take that SSD out of your computer and put it somewhere safe, so that if you had a power surge or similar it wouldn't get damaged.
- Sell your 2008 Mac Pro. (It won't be very valuable, and won't be able to run most modern software, but if it's working then you should at least get something for it.)
- Discard your Hauptwerk v4 dongle, since you won't need or be able to use it any more. You also wouldn't need to keep your v4.2 or v4.0 hard-drives, or the installation CDs/DVDs for v4 or for v4-format encrypted sample sets.
- If/when your 2011 Mac Pro does eventually stop working then see whether you can fix it, or whether you can get somebody local to fix it for you. When computers stop working often its nothing more than a failed RAM board (RAM boards are very easy to replace) or a hard-drive/SSD (and you would have a ready-to-go spare SSD anyway). If you can't get it fixed inexpensively, then either buy another second-hand identical-model 2011 Mac Pro to replace it (so that you could simply put your SSD in it and use it straight away, without needing to install anything), or buy a brand new computer, at that point in time.
If you bought an identical-model 2011 Mac Pro then your macOS 10.13/Hauptwerk v6 SSD would work in it straight away, without needing to install anything, or do anything else, so you would have almost no down-time (only the time it takes for the replacement 2011 Mac Pro to be delivered, and for you to put your SSD in it.) I hope that helps.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.