Apogee Duet & Firewire for Macbook

Apogee DUET seems to be fine, but the Presonus Firebox for example is not (it requires an external PSU)... I cannot speak for the MBox2

Christopher Feroz wrote:
I have read things about the agere firewire chips Apple began using in late '07 (I believe my macbook is one of them) causing trouble with pro audio interfaces.

Does anybody know if that is the case or not, with Logic 8 and Apogee Duet?

Apogee Duet use Compilant firewire drivers (generic)
so the Duet must be plugged in your Firewire buss before starting your macbook

there are many reports about not so good "hot swapping" firewire cables with Duet..
it is not a problem!

How about with MBox 2? I see digidesign recently claims ProTools 7.4.2 now works with OS X 10.5.3 and 10.5.4. Has anybody actually tried that? Is the agere firewire chip a factor?

the chip-set on your Mac is perfect...
About ProTools:
PT cannot share its audio Interface with other DAWs... (When PT running)

if you use Protools with a M-box... you cannot share M-box with any other DAW!

I suggest Apogee Duet...

The M-box converter are obsolete ... and not so good!
Apogee Duet converter are AWESOME!!!

(M-box is not so good for Logic)

G

Apogee Duet use Compilant firewire drivers (generic)
so the Duet must be plugged in your Firewire buss before starting your macbook

Not quite... You really do need to install the Apogee drivers.

there are many reports about not so good "hot swapping" firewire cables with Duet..
it is not a problem!

Maybe, if you don't install the drivers!

The maestro is a software.

but Duet use class compilant driver

I copy & paste the following infos after a little google searching result.

+Incorporating the Duet into a studio rig is blissfully simple. It’s class-compliant under Mac OS 10.4.11 and 10.5 (Leopard), so no drivers are needed. The Maestro control panel launches as soon as the Duet is plugged in. Here, you can adjust output level, input gain (either separately or stereo linked), invert the phase of either input, and toggle phantom power for each mic input.+

(also Ensemble is a Class compilant standard firewire audio interface)
http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/apogee-duet/apr-08/34759

Cheers

G

I just started having problems with my Duet this afternoon and found this thread so I thought I'd give a shout out to you guys to see if you have any ideas before talking with the company....

I've had my Apogee Duet since about feb and never had any problems until this afternoon. For some reason the Duet doesn't seem to want to interface with my computer at all anymore. When plugged in, the lights light up on the Duet however under system profiler I get the "unable to list firewire devices" error msg. Under the Sound tab in preferences, the Duet is not listed as an available I/O. In the Apple Midi Setup or whatever it's called in utilities, the icon for the Duet is still there but it doesn't show it as online. I can still press the big button and the little green light cycles through input 1/input 2 yada yada yada, but the computer doesn't seem to see it. When I open up Maestro, both the control and mixer screens are completely blank. I've tried resetting the unit (holding button down for 5 seconds), using different firewire cords, and finally uninstalling and reinstalling the Maestro software (using the Duet software - May 2008 link on apogees site) and none of these things solve the problem. I haven't had a chance to plug in another FW400 device into my Macbook Pro to see if it's a problem with the port, but I get the same result with the Duet on my MBP and my G5 PPC tower, which leads me to believe it's a problem with the unit. Also, since it's bus-powered, the lights wouldn't light up if the ports on the computer were fried, right?? Has this happened to anyone else?? Any ideas on how to fix it before calling up Apogee?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!