Using an Mbox2 Pro with Garageband on Leopard?

I just bought a Digidesign Mbox 2 Firewire interface to use with my Macbook Pro that's running 10.5.1. Since I planned to use Garageband (or Logic in the future) and not ProTools, I didn't think running 10.5 would be a problem... but I just connected the interface for the first time and Garageband isn't seeing it.

System Profiler confirms an Mbox2 interface on the Firewire bus, but no love in either the Sound Preference pane, or Garageband itself.

PLEASE, please tell me that I'm not totally hung out to dry with this Mbox2! I NEVER would have bought Digidesign if I wasn't under the impression that Logic and Garageband were independently compatible without needing Digidesigns awful, incompatible drivers.

Any ideas? Thanks!

-Panicky in San Francisco

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jan 15, 2008 5:29 PM

20 replies

Ian Patterson Author

Level 1

119 points

Jan 28, 2008 12:14 AM in response to Ian Patterson

Good news! I was just able to get the Mbox 2 Pro working in Leopard and Garageband by installing the ProTools device drivers from the ProTools installer and then configuring the Mbox using the Audio MIDI Setup utility. It required me to download and install InterLok, some kind of "anti-piracy" audio plugin (a.k.a. DRM?). After that the Mbox showed up normally. I just recorded a track successfully in Garageband on Leopard.

Ian Patterson Author

Level 1

119 points

Jan 28, 2008 12:21 AM in response to ctbowens

I call DigiDesign's Mac support horrid because of their chronic system incompatibilities (as with Leopard). They even tell you to turn off Software Updates indefinitely and only run approved updates many, many months later. If they did that to their Windows customers it would be a huge security risk--most customers in a dense network would be compromised very quickly. They also let their hardware go obsolete very quickly, refusing to update the drivers for new operating systems and Mac hardware. The Digi 001 was a good example of that, I think.

But you're right that I should have looked elsewhere than Digidesign. Next time I'll look at M-Audio or Apogee. Thanks for the tip.

Jan 29, 2008 8:51 AM in response to Ian Patterson

Good news, indeed. The InterLok stuff is for restricting the use of ProTools plugins to licensed users only. You should have a USB "key" that came with your bundle. The s/w senses and reads the contents of that key to enable plugins.

This has nothing to do with GB, and it shouldn't interfere.

Feb 15, 2008 10:20 AM in response to Ian Patterson

HI Ian-

I'm trying to do the same thing and I installed PT LE but now I'm getting a folder that pops up in the dock and bounces for a while called the, "Core Midi Server/framework"?

When I saw that I ran Disk Utility and clicked repair permissions and a lot came up, like,

Permissions differ on "Library", should be drwxrwxr-t , they are drwxrwxrwt .
Permissions differ on "Library/Audio/MIDI Devices/Generic/Images/USBInterface.pdf", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are -rwxrwxr-x.

What device drivers did you use and how did you do it?

Thanks in advance.

D

FrancoD

Level 1

0 points

Feb 27, 2008 11:49 AM in response to dannyjackred

So, did repairing permissions stop the Core Midi Server/framework from popping up?

thanks,
Franco

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Using an Mbox2 Pro with Garageband on Leopard?