Logic Pro 8.02 and Leopard 10.5.3 and M-Audio FireWire 410

Well, you skipped part of the feedback where I said that I've uninstalled/reinstalled. To restate: I uninstalled/reinstalled the M-Audio 10.5.2-8 driver again

No, I did see it.

So, with it connected and power off on the front panel, the blue light must be flashing slowly (I'm inferring this, seeing as you aren't explictly providing this information).

When you turn the power on on the front panel, does the blue light go solid blue? And if you run the control panel software, does it say "No hardware found" or does it display the mixer panel?

And M-Audio's response is still "wait for 10.5.3 drivers". Hence: "no dice". If I want to record any audio with my MacBook and the FW410

Ah wait, you say Macbook. Do you have a Macbook, and not a Macbook Pro? Macbook's have different FW chipsets which can cause issues with any firewire interfaces.

I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad that it's working for you, Bee Jay, but I'm still dead in the water.

Yes, and I was trying to see whether my (quite significant) 410 experiences could try and get you moving, but it seems you are resigned to the fact it simply doesn't work and you don't wish to engage in any troubleshooting. In that case, I'll stop trying to help.

The fact that it works on my similarly specced MBP (I'm not sure which MacBook or Macbook Pro you have) suggests that it does work on this hardware and software combination. By trying to follow some troubleshooting steps I was trying to find out the skinny with your system, what's happening, whether something might be defective, and so on.

In any case, costs aside, any other interface than M-Audio ones might be a preferable solution in the long run. Certainly my experiences have been... let's say, less than overwhelmingly positive with the 410...

Yes. And yes, it displays the mixer panel. Audio playback works just fine, either from iTunes or from the inputs on the FW410. I just can't get the FW410 to show up as a record input...at least as anything other than "FW410 Multichannel" - none of the specific inputs are available.

Ok. So the hardware is being recognised and it's working, cool.

So when you say can't get the FW410 to show up as a record input, what exactly does that mean? Presumably, in Logic, you have the FW410 Multichannel selected as your audio interface driver?

Choose a mono audio track, and click hold the Input field - what menu options do you see under the Input submenu? (You should see "Input 1", "Input 2", "Input 3" and "Input 4" (1 and 2 are the front panel analog inputs, 3 and 4 are the s/pdif ins.)

Change the audio track to stereo, and try again. (You should see "Input 1-2" and "Input 3-4").

Are you saying that you see no inputs at all? Or you see something different to this?

I have a 15" MacBook Pro 2.4ghz (as mentioned in my profile), 4GB of RAM, 320gb
boot drive, FW410 with the latest driver/firmware, and a Seagate external USB 2.0 drive.
The FW410 drivers have always been a bit touchy, but this setup was working reasonably
well until I did the 10.5.3 upgrade.

Is this the recent Penryn MBP, or an earlier one?

Can you give us the full scoop on your setup? Which firmware and driver version are you showing on your FW410 control panel? Which specific version of Logic are you using? Do you have the latest MBP firmware?

Sure.

MBP Penryn 2.4, 4gigs ram, 10.5.3, 250 internal drive, the FW400 port connected to a FW MyBook drive (for backups) and daisy chained to the FW410. (Yes, even daisy-chaining the FW410 works for me too!)

The FW800 port is connected to another FW Mybook drive (main working external drive). The Expresscard slot has an ESATA expresscard connected to a SATA external drive which is my main audio/samples drive.

I'm using the beta-6 driver - as mentioned, I found the later 8 release too crashy for me, so I reverted. I've used this FW410 since Logic 6.2 -> 7.0.0-7.2.1->8.0.0->8.0.2, Panther thru Tiger thru Leopard, on my PPC Powerbook and on this MBP.

Driver: 1.8.3 build 6
Firmware: 2007-05-04 10:26:56

As for MBP firmware, I have whatever came with my Penryn MBP, and I've never been offered any firmware updates via software update, so I assume it's the latest.

Note - no matter what I did, I could never get the 410 to work on my PC with WinXP. After a long time exhausting everything that M-Audio support could suggest, they ultimately took the cop out and said my FW chipset in the PC just probably doesn't work with it. (The drivers installed fine, the hardware is recognised, it just never passes any audio at all and the drivers hang when trying.)

As a result, I installed OSX onto this PC to make it a Hackintosh, and the Mac drivers on the *exact same hardware and FW chipset* worked fine with the 410. Go figure... shrugs

Bee Jay wrote:

My startup routine is slightly different than Bee Jay's

What I wrote was not a startup routine, it was an installation routine.

I've always plugged in the M-Audio into my powered down computer, and then turned the M-Audio on BEFORE powering up my machine.

I *never ever* hotplug the FW410 due to reasons I cannot talk about.

However, it doesn't matter when I turn it on - I can turn it on before booting, or with the computer on, it doesn't matter.

Just to clarify....although it seems that the conversation has gotten beyond this point. I'm not hotplugging my 410. The warning of apocalypse inside the 410 box if I were to attempt to plug in while the computer was on was enough to keep me from doing that! 😉 The only thing different in my suggestion from Bee Jays's was to try pushing the power button on the 410 before turning on the computer, instead of after the computer was booted up. That's what I do when starting up the 410, but the suggestion was to try that when reinstalling the drivers, as perhaps that would make a difference. If memory serves, that is what the instructions say to do when installing the driver, but I could be wrong about that one.





Sort of a moot point I guess .... I'm not having the same problems with my 410, but it is dropping out in 10.5.3 during regular playback. But when working, all components works.

I have the solution.

Logic Pro 8.0.2 works fine with M-Audio FireWire-410 and its newest driver (1.8.3 build 8) in a MBP under Leopard 10.5.2

If you installed Leopard 10.5.3 you should know that there is not a driver for this version of Leopard from M-Audio. So?

Go back to 10.5.2

How?

Insert your Leopard installer disk and go to the menu,and click Restore from Time Machine. It takes more or less one hour (it depends on your amount of data), after that you'll be recording midi, audio and mixing without troubles.

I've felt the frustration!

Rod

Except 10.5.3 works MUCH better with Logic than 10.5.2. Having to revert back to previous versions of an OS just because M-Audio can't get their act together is ridiculous. Their 10.4.11 driver is still in BETA, and 4.11 has been out for, what, a YEAR??

hi folks, i've just spent a packet on an imac 2.66 , 10.5.3 4gbram and logic. fancied home recording and thought, unlike the bluescreen envirnment, apple would be a walk in the park!!!

I also bought a edirolUA-25USB audoi i/f. After trying to install it i got a message back saying it wont run with an intel chipset - joy.

I went back to apple and swapped 25USB for a 410 (at extra cost) and when I came to install it, nothing!

So i've done a bit of trawling and found your thread. So what you're telling me is that M-audio are a waste of space and I've got to get something else?

If this is the case, can anyone recomend another product?

Also, I'm not convinced the machine I've got is good enough to process Surround Sound stuff. Could anyone confirm or deny?

Many Thanks from accross the pond

John

Their 10.4.11 driver is still in BETA, and 4.11 has been out for, what, a YEAR??

That driver is the beta-6 driver the same one as for Leopard. It's now out of beta, in build 8. Try that one on 10.4.11...

After trying to install it i got a message back saying it wont run with an intel chipset - joy.

You mean the driver in the box was PPC? Did you check the Edirol site for driver updates?

and when I came to install it, nothing!

That's not exactly much troubleshooting info to go on, you know... :rolleyes:

So what you're telling me is that M-audio are a waste of space and I've got to get something else?

I don't believe I said that. The 410 works fine for me here on 10.5.3 / Intel.

I've got is good enough to process Surround Sound stuff

What do you mean "process"? If you mean can Logic create surround mixes, then yes it can.

Bee Jay wrote:

Their 10.4.11 driver is still in BETA, and 4.11 has been out for, what, a YEAR??

That driver is the beta-6 driver the same one as for Leopard. It's now out of beta, in build 8. Try that one on 10.4.11...

I know. It works fine for me on Tiger. My point is simply that M-Audio is really bad at keeping their drivers up to date with OS's, as evidenced by the fact that if you go to the M-Audio website and look up the driver the have posted for 10.4.11, it's still a BETA driver.

I also bought a edirolUA-25USB audoi i/f. After trying to install it i got a message back saying it wont run with an intel chipset - joy.

I just looked on the Edirol website, and their most recent driver says it works with PPC and Intel, and supports Leopard. If you didn't download and use this driver from their website, that was your problem.

I went back to apple and swapped 25USB for a 410 (at extra cost) and when I came to install it, nothing!

Lots of people, including myself, don't think to highly about M-Audio stuff, but the 410 should work just fine with your machine. I have one and think it's cheaply made and sort of a pain, but I've been using it on a regular basis for the last 4 years. Download the -6 BETA driver, or the -8 non BETA driver, install it EXACTLY as the instructions on the screen say, and it should work. I just did this yesterday with a brand new Mac Mini running Leopard and a brand new 410, using the -6 BETA driver, and had no problems whatsoever.


I also do work where I need multiple outputs, and I use both the 410 and an MOTU Ultralite. Both work fine, but if you want a really good quality piece I'd recommend the MOTU.






To follow up on my previous posts on this thread, I discovered that my 410 was dropping out when my external driver, also plugged in via Firewire, was spinning. As long as my 410 doesn't share the bus with another device, it works fine with Leopard and Tiger.

many thanks for your constructive help on this. as a complete novice I'm sorry for wasting anyone's time and hope to avoid rolling anyone's eyes in the future.

I'll head your advise and crack on.

Thanks again from across the pond

J

Hi Zuelito, my apologies again if I sound a bit thick, but on the m-audio website I can't see any 6 or 8 beta updates for 10.5.3......is it me?

J

The most recent driver is this 1.8.3 build 8:

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support&tab=driver&serie_ID=2&PID=5f35def5b4 107998b11119907053a313&OS=56

However, this one works better for me on 10.5.3 (your milage may vary)

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support&tab=driver&serie_ID=2&PID=5f35def5b4 107998b11119907053a313&OS=61

Yep, I was referring to the 1.8.3-6 BETA, and the 1.8.3-8 Non BETA. The links Bee Jay provided above are for these two. I'm also using the BETA driver, and it seems OK.