Good soundcard for OSX Intel?

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:08 am

Hello there,

I am currently using an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile, but i am not too impressed with the driver for Mac OSX on Intel.
If i use the OSX volume control (not the one within Live or other apps) i hear fragmentations of the sound that is playing. When pressing the remote control once, the volume slider just goes all the way up or down. I also want better outputs.

So, i am looking for a good alternative with great MacOSX support. Ideally it should have:

-XLR balanced or TRS balanced ouput
-6.3mm Headphone jack with its own volume control
-Firewire interface with extra port(s)
-At least one RCA line input
-Midi in and out
-did i mention good MacOSX support?

So, basically a Firewire Audiophile that works well on a Mac, with balanced output added to it.
Any suggestions?

wewillturnoff · Post by **wewillturnoff** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:25 am

don't get the edirol fa101.
great soundcard but mac osx driver is rubbish. i think that could be the case with most soundcards for the intel macs at the moment.

i can't save my changes to the audiomidi setup which is really annoying! and apparently quite a common problem.

djmyke · Post by **djmyke** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:45 am

wewillturnoff wrote:don't get the edirol fa101.
great soundcard but mac osx driver is rubbish. i think that could be the case with most soundcards for the intel macs at the moment.

i can't save my changes to the audiomidi setup which is really annoying! and apparently quite a common problem.

even the FA 66?

stomme · Post by **stomme** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:35 am

I recently bought a macbook pro. Works great with my FA 101, no problems at all. You should give it a try.

grtz
Tom

djmyke · Post by **djmyke** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:43 am

stomme wrote:I recently bought a macbook pro. Works great with my FA 101, no problems at all. You should give it a try.

grtz
Tom

fa101 n fa 66 are just the same banana ...diferent sizes?

nonnus · Post by **nonnus** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:01 pm

stomme,

could you specify the setting you are using with your fa101 / macbook

sample rate, audio buffer, etc...

have you tried to push live into the 60 % 70 % cpu just to check the soundcard crackling and hickups at higher cpu loads ?

wewillturnoff · Post by **wewillturnoff** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:14 pm

fa101 works great but just can't save audiomidi setup onto the driver as seen here,
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93372 [/quote]

sans soleil · Post by **sans soleil** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:19 pm

motu ultralite...i thought that all the stuff i was hearing about motu was just tech-geek hype, but it turns out there really is a significant difference (last card ws a firewire 410, btw).

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:47 pm

Presonus FireBox?
Works fine for me on my old G4 powerbook 1.5Ghz
and on my macbook pro coreduo 2Ghz.

djmyke · Post by **djmyke** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:11 pm

sans soleil wrote:motu ultralite...i thought that all the stuff i was hearing about motu was just tech-geek hype, but it turns out there really is a significant difference (last card ws a firewire 410, btw).

and what was the difference? can u share ur experience?=)

aqua_tek · Post by **aqua_tek** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:39 pm

i have a mackie satellite and its really good

sans soleil · Post by **sans soleil** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:57 pm

motu ultralite sound is much more transparent.

a lot of the stuff i do has multi-layered textures...you can 'see through' the various layers more clearly now, if that makes any sense...there's more detail and everything sounds much cleaner overall.

i'm remastering a bunch of tracks that i had done on the firewire 410...a bit of a pain (i'd rather be working on new stuff) but worth it in the end.

frankie123 · Post by **frankie123** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:59 pm

id go either with an mbox or something by motu.

d.chong · Post by **d.chong** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:19 am

I use to have a edirol fa 66 and it was not reliable, it fucked one of my shows, for no reason the sound started to glitch, the only solution was to turn it of and on again.
Now I have a rme and it didn't cause me any problems so far.

controlphr33k · Post by **controlphr33k** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:41 pm

phoenix wrote:Hello there,

I am currently using an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile, but i am not too impressed with the driver for Mac OSX on Intel.
If i use the OSX volume control (not the one within Live or other apps) i hear fragmentations of the sound that is playing. When pressing the remote control once, the volume slider just goes all the way up or down.

Are you talking about using the Mac volume buttons on the keyboard to control volume on your Aduiophile? From what I understand, Apple often changes the way the volume keys interact with the audio hardware from version to version on OSX. . so a lot of pro and prosumer soundcards don't always utilize that feature to any great extent. What pro soundcards out there DO work perfectly with the mac volume buttons on 10.4.7?

-cF

Good soundcard for OSX Intel?

Good soundcard for OSX Intel?

Re: Good soundcard for OSX Intel?