Ableton Forum

I'm currently a pc user considering switching to Live on a Macbook Pro.
I curious as to what audio interfaces are currently working with it?
Also how is the performance of the built in audio? Playing with one in the apple store the quality using garageband wasn't bad.
I figure if your editing or arranging in Live it wouldn't be bad at least until more audio interfaces become available.
Also seeing as it has optical inputs and outs I could record digitally and monitor thru a layla 24( running on a pc)
Basically if I do switch I know I'll have to wait awhile to buy an audio interface and wondering if I could get by with mac built in audio.
thanks

built-in audio is VERY robust. i know a lot of guys using built-in audio on their dual G5 desktops and using the digital ins and outs to get to their very high-end converters.

built-in audio is also has really low latencies (even compared to firewire interfaces).

off the top of my head, I know the following interfaces work with the intel macs:

all MOTU firewire
all RME firewire
metric halo mobile I/O

any audio interface that is 'class compliant' - meaning they 'just work' with OSX and don't need drivers. you might want to see if the specific interface you want to use is either class compliant or has a Universal Binary driver.

m-audio interfaces as well have a beta that seems rock solid
Tascam suck as they dont have one they say they are going to but on their site there is no mention of it yet

PreSonus Firepod also works, but no Firebox or anything else from their product line.

kenn michael wrote: off the top of my head, I know the following interfaces work with the intel macs:
all MOTU firewire / all RME firewire /metric halo mobile I/O

Problem comes in when you are trying to keep audio and interface on different busses. RME Multiface owners are out of luck (after all, if you bought a laptop, it's for portability, right?...) as the PC card systems are NOT supported, does someone know of any interfaces that use the 'Express Card' system? ...Anything at all?

Firewire 800 port -> gone missing. So the only connectivity option for external hard disks is USB 2.0 if you have a Firewire interface.

Software compatibility: Is there a page where people compile the progress on bringing AU and VST plug-ins up-to-date and compatible with the new CPU's and binaries?

I would love to get one of those, but I think i will wait it out until the peripherals are sorted since Steve (Jobs, that is) once again decided to obsoletize a whole range of hardware.

D.

My Digi 001 just died so i'm in the market for a new interface and i've read nothing but stellar reviews of the MOTU Ultralite.

My Firebox is working well with the MBP. The Firebox comes with two software apps - a Control Panel and a router/mixer. The control panel allows you to boost the input levels on Mic 1/Mic 2 and line 3/line 4 by 12 dB and this is useful sometimes. Until Presonus updates these apps you won't be able to use the Control Panel or the Mixer unfortunately, but otherwise the Firebox works just fine with the MBP (Core Audio).

Good luck!

Joe.

I have worked with a Motu 828 and Motu Traveler, with great success and no downtime whatsoever.

I would recommend RME too.

drumroll57 wrote:

kenn michael wrote: off the top of my head, I know the following interfaces work with the intel macs:
all MOTU firewire / all RME firewire /metric halo mobile I/O

Firewire 800 port -> gone missing. So the only connectivity option for external hard disks is USB 2.0 if you have a Firewire interface.


D.

Nope thats not correct the best external interface you all should be looking at is eSATA. firewire 800 is 800 eSATA is 1.5mb which is way faster. so use eSATA for external drives
and FW400 is fast enough for audio interfaces.