4pre FireWire on macOS Ventura

[oneway]

Just leaving this here in case anyone else searches for info on the 4pre and FireWire down the road:

I recently picked up a very affordable 4pre Hybrid because it was a good fit for a narrow little use case. I'm using a Mac Studio running macOS Ventura and I don't plan on updating the OS past this. When browsing online, it appeared unclear whether it would work with FireWire on Ventura as there were so many forum posts about FireWire not being supported in Ventura and MOTU's knowledge base didn't explicitly say anything other than "only Hybrid interfaces are supported."

I installed the latest availabledrivers and then, to be safe, reinstalled the new MOTU Pro Audio Installer, which may not have been necessary. After restarting and plugging in the 4pre, MOTU Audio Setup showed up automatically. I docked the old CueMix FX and MOTU Audio Setup, and so far everything has been working fine.

[mikehalloran]

Just leaving this here in case anyone else searches for info on the 4pre and FireWire down the road:

I installed the latest availabledrivers and then, to be safe, reinstalled the new MOTU Pro Audio Installer, which may not have been necessary. After restarting and plugging in the 4pre, MOTU Audio Setup showed up automatically. I docked the old CueMix FX and MOTU Audio Setup, and so far everything has been working fine.

Ok...

Although there are many MOTU interfaces that are no longer supported, all do work under the current macOS if you know what to use—this board is not affiliated with MOTU and we share that info here. MOTU made a support decision not to post those drivers if no longer supported. This does not apply to the 4pre which is a supported Audio interface.

If the MOTU Pro Audio Installer works for you, that's great but it is not the correct driver for the 4Pre. This is:

4pre

MOTU Audio Installer
Version: 89555

Release Date: Oct. 13, 2021

Supported Platforms
macOS 13, macOS 12, macOS 11

Summary
Installs the latest drivers and software for all MOTU Audio interfaces. Supports Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs.

As you can see, Ventura is supported. There are some installation issues over Sonoma but once properly installed, the driver works fine.

[oneway]

Yup, I'm aware this is not motu.com 89555 is the one I'm using. I'd argue it was not clear to a new user that it would work in Ventura, even from that support note and the other articles on their site. Not to mention there's a lot of posts that make it sound like FireWire doesn't work in Ventura. I almost didn't buy it because I didn't see anyone saying they were using a 4pre on Ventura with FireWire. Hence, the post.

[mikehalloran]

Great. 89555 is correct and it's not the Pro Audio Installer. Yes, there are people who get confused. macOS 13 is Ventura.

I have a question: Why FireWire? What Mac do you have?

[oneway]

OK. It says it's the "MOTU Audio Installer."

Mac Studio M1 Ultra

Why FireWire? The only peripheral port I had left was a FireWire port on a dock. Why not?

[mikehalloran]

OK. It says it's the "MOTU Audio Installer."

Mac Studio M1 Ultra

Why FireWire? The only peripheral port I had left was a FireWire port on a dock. Why not?

Easy. Speed. Fast USB 2 aka Hi-Speed USB has a lower RTL (round trip latency) than FireWire 400.