Fear me Mac Users, for I am coming to you! >:]

[Crash]

where you ordering stuff from? it looks like somewhere here in doitschland. ive been looking for a good source over here . . (hopefully its not gravis!)

I ordered from Cyberport. If you use some pricesearch sites you will see that they are among the cheapest at the moment. And while they are not the cheapest there are two reasons I chose them.

1. They are one of the bigger shops, are in business for 10 years already and I know their name and service. They also offer some streetshops in Berlin and Dresden I think.

2. They are running a special Apple promotion financing at the moment that allows you finance Apple stuff at either 0% interest over 10 months or 4,9% over 20 months. I used the 10 month option.

You can also find discount coupons on the web for them very easily which makes their already cheap offering even more inexpensive (you can save another 45 Euro when buying anything higher than 900 Euro for example).

By the way, my MBP is on its way now. Should arrive by tomorrow or monday.

[swishniak]

thanks for the tip - ill be heading over to their shop on friedrichstr on monday - need a new hard drive.

kein bock mehr auf mediamarkt / saturn.

[doc holiday]

Can anyone advice for a good book (like some OS X Reference) that explains the guts of OS X and the underlying Next/BSD. I'm mostly interested in the complex stuff like configuration concepts, shell and maybe some apple-script, not how to use the mouse to open Finder.

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003562/

"OSX for Unix Geeks" is pretty good.

+1, the oreilly books are good.

[Crash]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I found a cheap source for a german version of the Unix on Mac Oreilly book via Ebay.

The Macbook Pro has arrived in all its shineyness and for the last two days has mainly been used by my lady for playing Mahjongg!

I still need to get the accessories, but I can tell you so much already that the Fireface 400 does not work with the Agere/LSI port on the late 2008 Macbooks. Midi works great because it's asynchronous, but any isochronous Audio Input or Output just lids up the red HOST led. Too bad.

Once I get an opportunity I will test the Fireface with the external Firewire harddrive in between and check my bandmates MOTU Ultralite. The USB Kore 1 seems to perform worse on the Macbook than on my desktop PC, but that may be due to outdated drivers for its audio interface. The onboard sound performs slightly better than the Kore eventhough both introduce dropouts well below 80% with low latency settings (sounds as if something like the HD is interrupting them).

The width of the Macbook Pro makes it stick out quite high out of the protected pocket of the backback at the upper part. You usually wont see a backpack drop on its "head", but I'm gonna buy a small protection encasing for the MBP nevertheless. There's still plenty of at the sides of the backpack pocket (obviously desinged more with non Macbooks in mind).

[Pitch Black]

I can tell you so much already that the Fireface 400 does not work with the Agere/LSI port on the late 2008 Macbooks. Midi works great because it's asynchronous, but any isochronous Audio Input or Output just lids up the red HOST led.

^^^^Sorry to hear about this, Crash. I have no such problems with my model (A December 2006 2.33GHz - please see specs below) I am using 10ms latency, 8 analog i/o, 8 ADAT i/o with Wordclock Sync (Fireface is Wordclock Master) and both MIDI i/o with no bad behaviour whatsoever.

So the Agere chipset in the Dec 2008 model is to blame? That must be highly infuriating!!

best,
paddy

[SubFunk]

I can tell you so much already that the Fireface 400 does not work with the Agere/LSI port on the late 2008 Macbooks. Midi works great because it's asynchronous, but any isochronous Audio Input or Output just lids up the red HOST led.

^^^^Sorry to hear about this, Crash. I have no such problems with my model (A December 2006 2.33GHz - please see specs below) I am using 10ms latency, 8 analog i/o, 8 ADAT i/o with Wordclock Sync (Fireface is Wordclock Master) and both MIDI i/o with no bad behaviour whatsoever.

So the Agere chipset in the Dec 2008 model is to blame? That must be highly infuriating!!

best,
paddy

yep, i was considering buying myself a new MBP 2.8, but heard a lot of trouble with several cards. and apparently the agere chip is to blame...
so i am on hold, probably waiting for the next generation... as this investment is not really necessary, still happy with my 2.16 just need to upgrade the drive size...
would just fancy a new one, oh well.

[Crash]

So the Agere chipset in the Dec 2008 model is to blame? That must be highly infuriating!!

It isn't nice, but at also not unexpected with all the reports on the web. RME claims that the Agere port and the TI port which is used by the Fireface don't seem to match together. The Fireface surely pushes the limits of FW so the tolerances are small.

Knowing how on the older MBPs with Agere the FW800->FW400 cable worked (only the FW400 port was affected) and now it does not work on the new models I tend to believe as well that Apple made some wrong decisions.

I can either try to put another FW device/hub in between or get a FW ExpressCard. But I wanted to use an eSata ExpressCard for the external HD and have it run at full speed by this. I will have to ponder the options now, but since I'm getting a Pleiaded FW800/400+USB2+ESATA (all in one run by Oxford chipset) external HD case anyway I can try it first and decide later.

best,
paddy

Thanks for the wishes, I'm trying hard here!

[Crash]

so i am on hold, probably waiting for the next generation...

It seems highly unlikely that Apple will return to TI-based chipsets unless they are really forced to. For one because the LSI/Agere solution is cheaper, but especially because the LSI/Agere chipset and ports are smaller in size. And the latter surely is a very important aspect with a laptop so much squeezed down in size as the MBP

Well, it's really quite wide with showing clearly by the wide bezel around the screen. That the reason why it sticks out so much that it nearly doesn't fit into the backpack which is specifically made for 15.4" notebooks even.

[SubFunk]

Knowing how on the older MBPs with Agere the FW800->FW400 cable worked (only the FW400 port was affected) and now it does not work on the new models I tend to believe as well that Apple made some wrong decisions.

as a long time user, i really start to wonder what is wrong with them?, they do make some massively wrong decisions lately!

biggest problem is, and that i mean seriously, if apple continues to mess up... then there is NO computer left considering... a PC is out of question (at least for me always and forever!)... well, guess going all back to hardware... nice sequencing in electribes and rocking down the recording... tweak, tweak, jepee...

seriously!? damn! what doing, if apples continues this wrong way...???

[SubFunk]

so i am on hold, probably waiting for the next generation...

It seems highly unlikely that Apple will return to TI-based chipsets unless they are really forced to. For one because the LSI/Agere solution is cheaper, but especially because the LSI/Agere chipset and ports are smaller in size. And the latter surely is a very important aspect with a laptop so much squeezed down in size as the MBP

Well, it's really quite wide with showing clearly by the wide bezel around the screen. That the reason why it sticks out so much that it nearly doesn't fit into the backpack which is specifically made for 15.4" notebooks even.

fair enough, only hope is that the other manufacturers managing to 'catch' up with working solutions... or TI with a new smaller chip...

[Pitch Black]

IMHO, Apple have always had the "speed wobbles" when it comes to implementing changes, and you just have to pick up on the "folk wisdom" to know which models are 100% alright for pro-audio applications.

I'm now on my 3rd Apple laptop, and in the past...

The Rev-1 G4 Powerbooks suffered from a FW port that could short out at any time if hot-swapped (remedy: replace logic board - ouch!).

The Rev-2 G4 Powerbooks suffered from a memory bandwidth problem that meant a 400/500 MHz rev-1 seriously outperformed the 550/667Mhz rev-2 for pro-audio (DSP/track count etc)

Rev-1 Core Duo Macbooks (+pros?) suffered randomly (as in some did, some didn't) from heat issues, and LCD issues, accoustic "whine" issues...

The list goes on... If you're going to be a pro-audio user, you owe it to yourself to check the "folk-knowledge" on any particular bit of big-ticket hardware prior to buying it. Sadly, computers (not just Macs) are made to hit the mass-consumer market, with pro-audio being a niche user-base, Yes even Macs.

DO believe the "Never buy a Rev-1 Mac" dictum, and always do your homework.


/rant

[SubFunk]

IMHO, Apple have always had the "speed wobbles" when it comes to implementing changes, and you just have to pick up on the "folk wisdom" to know which models are 100% alright for pro-audio applications.

I'm now on my 3rd Apple laptop, and in the past...

The Rev-1 G4 Powerbooks suffered from a FW port that could short out at any time if hot-swapped (remedy: replace logic board - ouch!).

The Rev-2 G4 Powerbooks suffered from a memory bandwidth problem that meant a 400/500 MHz rev-1 seriously outperformed the 550/667Mhz rev-2 for pro-audio (DSP/track count etc)

Rev-1 Core Duo Macbooks (+pros?) suffered randomly (as in some did, some didn't) from heat issues, and LCD issues, accoustic "whine" issues...

The list goes on... If you're going to be a pro-audio user, you owe it to yourself to check the "folk-knowledge" on any particular bit of big-ticket hardware prior to buying it. Sadly, computers (not just Macs) are made to hit the mass-consumer market, with pro-audio being a niche user-base, Yes even Macs.

DO believe the "Never buy a Rev-1 Mac" dictum, and always do your homework.


/rant

as well, fair enough... that is why i am on hold, was holding back with the Rev-1 Core Duo Macbooks because of reported heat issues... and bought the Rev-2...

but can't help myself that they feel of late to not Rev anything good for serious audio work. they somehow hitting right towards the kitchen market or something... well, we will see... so far my MBP is working fine...

[Pitch Black]

[... so far my MBP is working fine...

ahhhh.... how we love our jailors!

[SubFunk]

[... so far my MBP is working fine...

ahhhh.... how we love our jailors!

what's jailors a kiwi slang???

[Pitch Black]

err, I mean our "captors"... those who keep us in jail: jailors... we love 'em!

Obscure (un-original) reference: I feel about Apple the way John Hinckley Jr. felt about Jodie Foster...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley,_Jr.