As an organic chemist and mac fan boy I have often lamented the lack of free NMR software for the mac. I have had the fortune of using both Bruker and JEOL instruments during my PhD and Post Doctoral careers and have found both to have their strengths and weaknesses ( it is well beyond the scope of this post to discuss either). I have however always been amazed at the lack of support by Bruker to the apple platform, I am sure they have good reason for such a decision however I find it rather a pain that TopSpin is a. Not free at least for processing and b. not available for OS X. JEOL on the other had has always made their DELTA NMR suite free for users on Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X. Having a fondness for JEOL this has always been a big plus for me.
In the last few years two products risen to the front as real contenders to the OS X crown.
iNMR Reader is suitable for most general 1D and some 2D applications is ideal for the PhD student or Post-Doc who wants an economic solution for their personal computer. Price
€ 50 for the first copy and €30 for each additional copy on the same order
MNova is much more polished and very capable of complex analysis and production of publication quality figures with its higher price tag
is aimed primarily as a laboratory purchase. Price €305 for the full version and €105 for the lite version.
UPDATE: Thank you to Marcello for pointing out that there are great reviews on both these products at the nmr-software blog 
Why do you mention iNMR reader and not iNMR full edition? If the reader is good, the main product is necessarily better. Well, the price is different, but iNMR still costs less than MNova (while offering 3-D NMR and dynamic NMR, that are missing in MNova). So: why don't you mention iNMR? There must be a reason...
ReplyDeleteHi Marcello,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, I am glad someone is reading what I write :D
I have never used the full edition and was only really giving a perspective from my own experience. Maybe I should have been more specific that this was the case.
I wanted to show two ends of the spectrum as far as pricing was concerned and I feel that iNMR reader and MNova are at the opposite end.
If you would like to review the three pieces then I would be more than happy to link to it or publish it here with full credit to you if you would prefer.
The point of the post was really to show people that there is some really great software out there, which is very intuitive to use, much more so than either the BRUKER or JEOL software I have used.
Asking me 3 reviews is too much. I simply want to say 1 thing: the Mac is a wonderful machine, a wonderful combination of hardware & software, but there are only a few programs that make this concept tangible. iNMR is one of those programs. Try opening a 3-D spectrum with iNMR and you will notice an incredible speed. NMRPipe can be almost as fast in processing but has far less option for visualization. Try real-time 2-D phase correction with iNMR: wow! Try displaying 2 contour plots in 2 monitors: WOW!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree there, I think both software packages are truly excellent pieces of software and very user friendly.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to read something akin to 3 reviews, read the last 3 posts (interviews) on http://nmr-software.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI agree that MNova is, on the whole, a good product. Anyway, iNMR and MNova are quite dissimilar, therefore if you like one, you dislike the other. I prefer iNMR, it is a true Mac program. Mnova is full of Windows-like details that are good on Windows, but don't fit on the Mac. I understand that MNova is more focused on routine Organic Chemistry NMR, therefore you like it (at least after the initial impact).