MOTUnation.com

Okay... so my Accelsior card is dead, dead, dead. Which means, however that I have a free slot for my MacPro 4,1. So it occurred to me I might add a USB 3 card... or... and this is where it gets stupid... since I have an old TC PoCo card collecting dust that is virtually worthless, I'm wondering if a combination of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815158165

And 32 Lives would make this old thing work again. I totally grant you that it's dumb... but now part of me is just curious to see if it could actually be revived somehow. I think it would be a hoot if it could be done.

Step one: find current, Mavericks compatible drivers for that TC PoCo (unless it is Class Compliant and doesn't require any). If they don't exist then it can't work, I would think.

If you can find drivers, then the only way you will know for certain is to spend the $35 + shipping.

mikehalloran wrote:Step one: find current, Mavericks compatible drivers for that TC PoCo (unless it is Class Compliant and doesn't require any). If they don't exist then it can't work, I would think.

If you can find drivers, then the only way you will know for certain is to spend the $35 + shipping.

I can't remember if PoCo required drivers or not. LOL. If I had money to waste it would be fun to see.

wvandyck wrote:http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercore

Thanks for the link. I think here's the critical info on that page:

"The PowerCore drivers support 64-bit operating systems, but note that all plug-ins are 32-bit."

In theory it could be possible. My Liquid Mix works with 32 Lives, so the PoCo plugs actually might as well. Would be kind of a kick to get them working just for fun.

You're welcome.

http://www.soundradix.com/products/32-l ... patibility
Powercore plug-ins are listed.

I have a FW PoCo that I've been meaning to reconnect to my Mac Pro1,1 (with drives set up for SL and Mavericks among others). Might be a good science project for tomorrow. Will report back.

wvandyck wrote:You're welcome.

http://www.soundradix.com/products/32-l ... patibility
Powercore plug-ins are listed.

Yep! I'm using 32 Lives already. Seems like if the riser card works, $35 might be worth it since I doubt I could sell the PoCo for much anyway.

Here’s what I found out:

Mac: Mac Pro 1,1, Mavericks 10.9.5.

A firewire PoCo works well with DP 7.24, and SL 10.6.8 when using the latest drivers: 4.4.3f62. No surprise there.

Mavericks on the other hand is a one trick reverb pony when used with DP 7.24 or 8.06.
As seen in the image, the software can be installed on Mavericks. However, only one plug-in can be active. Any other instantiated PoCo plug-ins need to be bypassed, or otherwise the audio degrades (buzzy distortion, time alignment issues etc. Simply not useable)

Any of the dynamics processors degraded the audio even when using the highest available I/O buffers.

Fortunately, reverbs (Classicverb and Megaverb ) work well but only one of them can be active. Otherwise the audio degrades as above.

32 Lives resurrected plug-ins work in DP 8.x with the same issues. Using one reverb is an option.

So it’s possible to use PoCo with Mavericks to access the rich sounds of Classicverb. Megaverb also still sounds great! Multiple channels can be routed to the lone active ‘verb without any issue.

One other thing to consider is that PoCo operates in the 24-bit integer format.
(What? )
This means that input levels will have to be carefully monitored to make sure they’re not overdriven.

Hope this helps with your decision making. I can't make a strong endorsement for use of PoCo with Mavericks. Not sure about ML or Lion. I could be frozen in time with Snow Leopard and be quite happy.

Interesting. Thanks. Well, I wonder what might happen with the PCI PoCo card adapted to PCIe? Might work better than the FireWire PoCo, work the same, or work even worse. Still might be fun to have ClassicVerb again. That was nice as I remember. As I said, more of a curiosity to me just to see if it could be done. My PoCo card I believe is a full length card (I haven't looked at it in years--it's in a box in a closet) and not even sure it would fit using one of those adapters.

I have a PoCo Express card that has been sitting in the box since I went 64 bit. I even had the VSS3 reverb in my package, and couldn't even sell it on ebay last year. Now, I think it's too late to transfer ownership of the plugin license anyway.

Oh well, doorstop!

I've been thinking about filling that PCIe slot (because nature abhors a vacuum) with a USB 3 like James was talking about. This is apparently the one to get:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/legac ... 3pcie.html

^^^ I've had great results with this card from Amazon:
[Optimized for Mac Pro, 4 Ports] Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0... [Optimized for Mac Pro, 4 Ports] Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0

Reasons I recommend it over the Sonnet.

It was just released, it's not a legacy product like the Sonnet is.

It's half the Price of the Sonnet.

The Sonnet card has this blurb-

The Mac OS X driver for this card does not support non-storage USB devices. iPod and iPhones are not supported. USB 3.0 hubs are not suported. Bus-powered 2.5" drives or SSDs are not supported.

I'm using the Inateck with a 7 port USB 3 hub, mostly USB 2 devices and a few thumbnail USB 3 drives, no issues. Inateck managed it seems to follow Apple hardware specs for USB 3 PCIe cards as it requires no driver.

http://www.amazon.com/Optimized-Ports-I ... B00I027GPC

The issue I have always had with Sonnet is that they require special drivers for nearly everything. I prefer class compliant devices whenever available.

As a result of revisiting the FW PoCo, I'm setting up a complete SL system on the Mac Pro 1,1. Just inserted a new (but vintage model ) iogear GBU 321 Bluetooth USB adapter which succesfully connected with the Magic Trackpad.