MOTU 2408mkIII PCIe and Intel Mac Pro Connectivity Issues

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:19 pm

If anyone is interested, I finally spoke with a tech at MAudio about the MIDI scrambling going on with my 3 Midisport 8X8 interfaces. At least this tech acknowledged that it is an inherint problem when using more than 2 units. So that news is a bit bittersweet. At least I now know it is not my motherboard or cables or even the USB ports on the Mac Pro.

It seems that the interface transmits USB 1.0 so getting better cables are not going to help. So much for buying and installing th Aaxeon USB PCIe card. I guess it can't hurt to have it but it isn't going to make a big difference either.

There seems to be no other solution.
So here is what the tech and I confirmed as a work about.

First delete the MacintoshHD>USERS>USERNAME>LIBRARY>Preferences com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist and the MacintoshHD>USERS>USERNAME>LIBRARY>Preferences>ByHost>com.apple.MIDI.letters&numbers.plist

Turn off the Midisports from their power switch. Keep them off until you power up the computer again.
Then turn them on again one by one. You can also pull out the USB cables and replug them into your computer. Make sure that they are close to each other and not seperated into hubs, or the front and back of the computer.

Ok that's it the routine. Not the way I would like it to be but it will have to do. I guess it is time to sell some of the older synths and eliminate one of the interfaces. More plugins, yeah that's the ticket!

Hope this helps somebody who is having similar problems.

Dave Bourke · Post by **Dave Bourke** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:43 am

For what it's worth, I use an MTP/AV USB networked to a serial MTP II which gives me 16 ports. I have 10 hardware synths and samplers which no VIs can replace. The only quirk with this setup is that sysex can neither be sent or received by any synths connected to the networked MTP II. Easily dealt with.

Kind regards.

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:34 am

Thanks, David I will keep that in mind. Anyone selling an acoustic guitar? Only kidding.

All the best

Trailerman · Post by **Trailerman** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:26 am

Did anyone ever get any kind of resolution to this issue?

I just bought a new Mac Pro, and having sat around for two weeks waiting for my PCIe-424 upgrade to arrive, installed it today. Initially it worked - saw all three of my 2408MkIII's fine etc.

Then after a reboot, it wouldn't see anything - when I fire up the MOTU PCI Audio Setup, it shows no interfaces attached. I've reseated the card, reinstalled the drivers, swapped Firewire cables over, powercycled the 2408's, rebooted a gazillion times .... nothing works.

Please, any info to stop me throwing myself under the next bus would be hugely appreciated. I'm two weeks behind with work, and now have a system which I can't use.

Thanks for any help.

Jules

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:24 pm

Hi Jules,

I had the same problems and drove myself nuts trying to find the solution. I had my card replaced and now all is well. It is the card and not any of the cables, ports etc. Try and get MOTU to send you another one immediately.
Hope this helps.

jazzpbr · Post by **jazzpbr** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:53 pm

Hi All,
I have been a DP user for about 10 years and have gone through numerous Mac platforms. I just gave my G5 which worked flawlessly for the last few years to my son in College. I bought the Mac Pro and soon realized, as you have, that the card needed to be changed. I did that and realized it was not being recognized. I worked with Tech Support and got the replacement yesterday. Same exact problem The card is not recognized. Went to the local Apple store and they got the same results, tried it in a brand new machine: same results.
In the next few weeks I need to complete several audio projects and want to get this behind me quickly. Thanks to you all for the 7 pages of posts. I will continue to monitor and let you know how I eventually resolve this dilema.

jazzpbr · Post by **jazzpbr** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 5:06 pm

Miraculously after seating the card everything worked flawlessly for several weeks. Then, an unrelated program problem forced me to reboot and now I am back to where I was 3 weeks ago. At least 5 reboots later, cable jiggling and lots of back words I am still without my PCIe card being recognized.
Has MOTU come up with a card which seats more secuurely??

Thanks in advance.

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:15 pm

Hi David,

I don't know if MOTU has corrected the card but my second card has been working flawlessly for months. I would request another card immediately and get rid of the one with the problems. What have you got to lose? They sent mine and it arrived in one day.

Hope this helps.

hollandturbine · Post by **hollandturbine** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:10 pm

Could these problems be due to different firmware versions?

(sorry if this has already been asked, but I am way too lazy to read every single post)

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:56 pm

I don't think so. I think it is hardware related. Many have complained about the card not seating properly. Still no problems since I got the new card.

abruzzi · Post by **abruzzi** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:45 pm

Mine just stopped working after being fine for several months. I'm curious to those who have had problems (or are still having problems) If you run System Profiler, does it see the pci card? Mine does and looks something like this:

pci137a,5:

Type: Audio
Bus: PCI
Slot: Slot-2@15,0,0
Vendor ID: 0x137a
Device ID: 0x0005
Revision ID: 0x00ff

I'd think "seating" wouldn't be the issue if it can see the card.

Second, does the MOTU Audio Setup see the card? Mine does too--it sees the card, but no expansions attached.

I have a request in to MOTU, and am waiting to hear back.

thanks,

Geof

mogandus · Post by **mogandus** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:01 pm

Great man....I have a new Mac Pro with Cubase 4. Just got a new MidiTimepiece AV with one LED out. Now I tried to get the 2408 up and running and it says..."no PCI Card detected" even though Sweetwater installed it and I downloaded the latest driver again. Think I'll try another way to get audio to and from the Mac. Is there another way?

Studiogrl · Post by **Studiogrl** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:31 am

You could try the Firewire interfaces made by MOTU. I have a Firewire 410 made by MAudio. I bought it to work with Protools LE 7.3.1. It works fine with DP as well but the sound does not compare to the 2408MKIII. The levels are much lower, I don't know if it is because I am plugging it into my Trident console which is a +4db board. There are no switches on the Firewire 410 to set it to +4 or -10db. If anyone knows how to set this I would appreciate the input. It could be in the software setup, but I don't see it there either. Thanks

Sergievsky · Post by **Sergievsky** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:50 am

Ya, it's a -10 device, so you'll need something like this line level shifter The Motu Ultralite is also -10. Really annoying these mismatches.

richardttt · Post by **richardttt** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:36 am

Dave Bourke wrote:
Except that there's no such utility anywhere on my machine according to Spotlight. Has anyone got this? Or know where I can get it?

Kind regards.

The MOTU manual is wrong. It is not in the Utilities folder.

It is here:

Launch-System>Library>CoreServices>Expansion Slot Utility

Richard