M-Audio Firewire 410, Powerbook and OS X
M-Audio Firewire 410, Powerbook and OS X
Has anyone tried the new M-Audio firewire 410 with a powerbook yet? I'm interested in it b/c it's bus powered and much more portable than my motu 828 mkII. Any info and/or thoughts appreciated!
peace,
rahlo
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rahlo.com
MacBook Pro, Live 8, Reason 4, Akai MPD 32, Akai MPK 49, Akai APC 40, Metric Halo ULN-2 expanded, Apogee Duet.
rahlo
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rahlo.com
MacBook Pro, Live 8, Reason 4, Akai MPD 32, Akai MPK 49, Akai APC 40, Metric Halo ULN-2 expanded, Apogee Duet.
I'm using one with a 667 powerbook, mostly running in 9 (I've tried it in ten though).
It works well, although it didn't want to work the first time I used it in front of anyone and made the machine crash all over the place. It runs fine getting its power from the firewire bus (although I run the powerbook on the mains while doing that - not sure how long the battery would last).
Used it yesterday and ran for about three hours without a hitch.
In 9 I have found one annoying problem. It loads its firmware on power on, this takes a second or two and sometimes you have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it do that. I knocked the firewire lead and I assume the connection was disturbed - live immediately reported a problem as the asio drivers were no longer loaded - i think I managed to save - at the end of saving got a live quit error and then it took the whole machine down - I don't know whether it was the disappearing 410 or quiting live that crashed the machine and have been keen to not replicate the situation!
I tend to use the power supply that you get with it unless I'm pushed for space now, then if the lead gets disturbed at least the 410 still is active and ready to work as soon as the connection is reestablished, rather than have to initlialise first - it probably makes no diference but I feel more secure and that makes a difference to me (especially live).
Its certainly nice to be travelling with just the power book a mic, xlr lead and the 410 takes me 5 minutes to set up now, rather than my previous setup - griffin imic folio mixer, midi box, rats nest of leads 20 minute set up
Cheers
Nick
It works well, although it didn't want to work the first time I used it in front of anyone and made the machine crash all over the place. It runs fine getting its power from the firewire bus (although I run the powerbook on the mains while doing that - not sure how long the battery would last).
Used it yesterday and ran for about three hours without a hitch.
In 9 I have found one annoying problem. It loads its firmware on power on, this takes a second or two and sometimes you have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it do that. I knocked the firewire lead and I assume the connection was disturbed - live immediately reported a problem as the asio drivers were no longer loaded - i think I managed to save - at the end of saving got a live quit error and then it took the whole machine down - I don't know whether it was the disappearing 410 or quiting live that crashed the machine and have been keen to not replicate the situation!
I tend to use the power supply that you get with it unless I'm pushed for space now, then if the lead gets disturbed at least the 410 still is active and ready to work as soon as the connection is reestablished, rather than have to initlialise first - it probably makes no diference but I feel more secure and that makes a difference to me (especially live).
Its certainly nice to be travelling with just the power book a mic, xlr lead and the 410 takes me 5 minutes to set up now, rather than my previous setup - griffin imic folio mixer, midi box, rats nest of leads 20 minute set up
Cheers
Nick
nickw,
what is your experience regarding latency and, with low settings, performance issues i.e. disk too slow messages and the like? Are you running another FireWire device (hard disk) as well?
I assume your problem must have come from unplugging the 410 while running Live... it's only logical isn't it? Even with hot-pluggability, you can't expect a program to tolerate your taking away its lifeblood
while it's running I should think....
and amazing it is bus-powered.... makes it a lot more transportable than other units..
what is your experience regarding latency and, with low settings, performance issues i.e. disk too slow messages and the like? Are you running another FireWire device (hard disk) as well?
I assume your problem must have come from unplugging the 410 while running Live... it's only logical isn't it? Even with hot-pluggability, you can't expect a program to tolerate your taking away its lifeblood
while it's running I should think....and amazing it is bus-powered.... makes it a lot more transportable than other units..
I understand that it would cause problems for the device to 'disappear' while live is all charging along doing its thing - what is regretable is it brought the whole machine down which then needed to reboot and scan its disk before you have audio again.
What I would hope for is a message saying the device has disappeared and then the option of re-routing audio or check leads and carry on. Maybe a later version of the drivers will be more forgiving !
I can't remember what my buffer settings are, but will be fiddling more this afternoon so will let you know. I'm not running an external hard drive as I am being cautious - there are issues running hard drives on the same firewire bus at present and I don't feel the desire to be that much on the bleeding edge of technology at the moment.
I'm only running four or five tracks at a time so its not to bad.
What I would hope for is a message saying the device has disappeared and then the option of re-routing audio or check leads and carry on. Maybe a later version of the drivers will be more forgiving !
I can't remember what my buffer settings are, but will be fiddling more this afternoon so will let you know. I'm not running an external hard drive as I am being cautious - there are issues running hard drives on the same firewire bus at present and I don't feel the desire to be that much on the bleeding edge of technology at the moment.
I'm only running four or five tracks at a time so its not to bad.
nickw,
you're right ---- would be much nicer if it just informs you of the disappeared audio device --- I seem to remember Logic does that?? Not sure
Yes any details about the 410 would be nice - -- btw I am running a FW HD in front of my Motu 828 , doesn't seem to cause problems even though the disk meter in Logic is always very high up (despite the alleged high FW throughput) ... always though this was due to Mac slowness...
you're right ---- would be much nicer if it just informs you of the disappeared audio device --- I seem to remember Logic does that?? Not sure
Yes any details about the 410 would be nice - -- btw I am running a FW HD in front of my Motu 828 , doesn't seem to cause problems even though the disk meter in Logic is always very high up (despite the alleged high FW throughput) ... always though this was due to Mac slowness...
-
point_misser
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2002 1:53 am
- Location: antwerpen, belgium
I don't know the best order. I've been holding off as I thought I had read somewhere there was a problem with both connected, but can only find references to having a hard drive connected at boot up time.
There is also a note in the improvements to the rereleased 10.2.8 update that it -
Addresses a potential issue in which an audio application can unexpectedly quit when a USB- or FireWire-based audio device is disconnected.
So it may not be ableton or m-audio problem - maybe its time to go for x
There is also a note in the improvements to the rereleased 10.2.8 update that it -
Addresses a potential issue in which an audio application can unexpectedly quit when a USB- or FireWire-based audio device is disconnected.
So it may not be ableton or m-audio problem - maybe its time to go for x
-
Guest
Check out this thread from www.osxaudio.com.
There's a very excellent post by "gblock" that explains some of the ins and outs of firewire protocol design and limitations.
Highly recommended if you're trying to understand how to maximize your Firewire interface & gear, or just have an interest in some hard core facts from the mind of a programmer.
Best,
Logicat
There's a very excellent post by "gblock" that explains some of the ins and outs of firewire protocol design and limitations.
Highly recommended if you're trying to understand how to maximize your Firewire interface & gear, or just have an interest in some hard core facts from the mind of a programmer.
Best,
Logicat