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#1
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
Looking for a little technical insight here. Two things I have run
into lately at places I've recorded, that the DAW interfaces are FW400 and yet there are sometimes no FW400 ports on the computer. I'm referring here to recent MacBook Pros which have 2 USB and a single FW800 port. I know that FW800 was engineered to be backward compatible, but at some places things are not so smooth when combining them, which is a necessity to use the interface. Two rigs in particular which should be more solid than they are both seem to have seemingly random issues introduced when the two are combined, but it's difficult to pinpoint because the alerts thrown up (on an AVID/Digi mBox 3 Pro and 003 rack) are very unspecific "reset your buffer" alerts, and the buffer could be all the way high or low when it happens. I have tried every combination of attaching the drive and interface to the MBP and the results do not change, same random alerts, so I don't believe that any reordering will help. There are a few pieces of advice I received that I would like some clarity on. One was to not use any 800 to 400 adapter but rather use the drive's 800 in and 400 out to get into the interface. The reason being that the pins on the two formats are different, including bus power (which has three pins for FW800 and two for FW400) which may be just enough be an intermittent issue. Is this plausable/poppycock? Normal moving of data is never an issue, but it *seems* there *may* be something to this regarding audio, or at least interfaces.I have an older TDM PT rig on a G5 and never have any issues with either FW or both together, but this is different because everything is not on the same port bus as on a laptop. Unfortunately, there are no ExpressCard slots in new MBPs to add another port to try this on them. Anyone here have this issue, where there was a lessening of stability adapting FW400 interfaces with FW800 drives into a recent MBP with only FW800? FWIW, the mBox 3 Pro has been a world of random problems, so it's hard to trouble shoot when the alerts are so uninformative (and AVID has been less than helpful). But since this issue of the adapting the FW is something there have been some opinions about there I figured to ask here. Thanks! v |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
On 6/3/2011 11:14 AM, vdubreeze wrote:
Anyone here have this issue, where there was a lessening of stability adapting FW400 interfaces with FW800 drives into a recent MBP with only FW800? FWIW, the mBox 3 Pro has been a world of random problems, so it's hard to trouble shoot when the alerts are so uninformative (and AVID has been less than helpful). But since this issue of the adapting the FW is something there have been some opinions about there I figured to ask here. Audio to or from a computer over Firewire is more unpredictable than ever, probably because there are more computers, more Firewire chip sets, and more people who want to do this now than every before. Drivers, both for the Firewire chips in the computer and in the interface, are far from universal. Sometimes certain combinations just don't work and won't work until some software is changed, and these days that just doesn't happen, with the exception of a few manufacturers. And sometimes the problem is as simple as the Firewire connectors just don't make good contact. Over on the PreSonus StudioLive forum, they all say "Get a MacBook Pro. It always works" (get a 400-800 cable, not an adapter for one end). On the Mackie forum, they can't get MacOS to work with any of the Firewire interfaces (or Win7 either, but XP works OK). This just isn't worth spending time or money on. If you have a combination that works, don't mess with it, don't upgrade it, don't change anything. If you can't get a combination working, get rid of it and try something else. I hear about fewer problems with RME than anything else, but you pay more. You're probably paying for the in-house software development team that seems to keep up with things, but everybody else seems to develop their hardware and driver, then throw it over the fence and start working on the next great product. -- "Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and interesting audio stuff |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
I've had nothing but completely rock solid use out of every Mac and
every FW drive and audio interface I've used with them since FW was introduced. I have two Macs at home that I don't use for audio much but that get a huge workout with image work, and I've never had the slightest hiccup due to FW800 or 400, even mixed. This is the first time I've every worked on rig that was finicky at all much less troublesome, and I'm chalking it up to issues in AVIDland in these particular new units. That, and using them both on a single bus on the current MBP are the only differences. The particular rigs I'm referring to the post are not my places, hence not my decisions of whether to cut bait or keep troubleshooting. I've also never had any issues with any Digidesign hardware ever, but my feelings now are that AVID has let some things slip by that should have been smoothed out before release. |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
On 6/3/2011 9:49 PM, vdubreeze wrote:
I've had nothing but completely rock solid use out of every Mac and every FW drive and audio interface I've used with them since FW was introduced. Oh? Then get yourself a Mackie Onyx Blackbird. They test computers with Firewire disk drives and video cameras. Those are all pretty much alike. But audio interfaces are difference, every one of them. One thing that the Mac has going for it is that most audio interface manufacturers try to use the Apple Core Audio driver so they don't need to write a driver for their hardware, but Windows has no such equivalent. People in the Windows world talk about the "quality" of the drivers. I don't think it's a quality issue, it's just a matter of writing good software. At the rock bottom price of hardware these days, they just can't afford to put a lot of development and sustaining engineering time into the companion software. Stuff pretty much either works or it doesn't, and there isn't much hope in waiting for a fix. -- "Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and interesting audio stuff |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
Yep, there are no different FW drivers from interface drivers in any
hardware I own, or use for that matter. It's all in the system. |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
vdubreeze wrote:
Yep, there are no different FW drivers from interface drivers in any hardware I own, or use for that matter. It's all in the system. With Vista ... or was it 7, can't remember ... one should probably choose "legacy driver" since Microsoft screws fw more up whenever they update the driver or the OS or the weather in the state of Washington changes. Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Issues with knocking FW800 to FW400 in DAWs
On Jun 5, 2:49*am, "Peter Larsen" wrote:
vdubreeze wrote: Yep, there are no different FW drivers from interface drivers in any hardware I own, or use for that matter. *It's all in the system. With Vista ... or was it 7, can't remember ... one should probably choose "legacy driver" since Microsoft screws fw more up whenever they update the driver or the OS or the weather in the state of Washington changes. Peter, it's all OSX. The mBox Pro is definitely the culprit in the rig I have the influence on. When I swap it out for my Metric Halo hardware on the same computer it sails. It's finicky, and it's going back. AVID stubbed their toe on this one, IMO. v |
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