MOTUnation.com

Good Day to you all,
I have been run a MOTU 828 Mk 2 on a PC and have been for a number of years without problems. I have had a few issues with the PC crashing at critical moments and this prompted me to find an alternative.

I have been given a Mac Book Pro (2.4 I7 8Gb Lion) to evaluate so gor a cable and put the drivers on, connected up the 828 and it worked straight away. Well sort of…

I don’t see any way of routing software to the channels in the 828. Let me explain what I use.
My current setup is the 828 mk2 routed over FW. Then using the internal mixer I route the channels to ADAT which is then passed to a Yamaha i88X then to a Yamaha 01X over Mlan. This all works perfectly

So on the PC ADAT 7/8 is set to the default output and this is routed to the Mixer through the above setup. The Broaadcasting software (SAM) routes the decks to the ADAT 7/8 and the cue channel is sent to ADAT 5/6 all these are patched to the mixer. Return is set up from the Mixer Record bus to ADAT 5/6 and this is set up as default input on the PC.

I broadcast on internet radio as well as using it as a recording device in my studio. So for broadcasting I have set up SKYPE to use ADAT 1/2 and return on ADAT 3/4. The Streaming encoders and Sonar listens in ADAT 5/6 so I can record what is going out live.

My question is When I connect the Mac I don’t see any MOTH audio channels it just says MOTU FW. Skype only reports the same. On the PC I see every analogue and Digital channel listed but I cant find that on the Mac. I looked at supplied software on the mac and I see Audi/MIDI mapper and in the output section I can alter the output volumes but the input is frozen and I can’t alter anything. Additionally I can’t feed anything back to the Mac so presently I can’t use it.

I know I have to get Mac compatible DAW as Sonar is not a Mac product but unless I can see the audio channels and assign various outputs from the playing software then the Mac is not going to be useful and I replace my PC and give the Mac back which is a shame as the mac is a nice product.

Any ideas how to route various internal software over different audio channels in the mac?

Regards

G

On the Mac, the device is not broken out into stereo output pairs ala Windows. If you're application software doesn't allow you to pick what outputs from the coreaudio driver (most do), then they should default to the default stereo output pair defined in MOTU Audio Setup. I haven't used Skype on the Mac in a while, but there used to be an issue where it only recognized the first output pair presented by the driver. If this is still the case, Skype would show up on Analog 1-2 out. Any DAW software on the Mac should allow you access to any/all of the stereo output pairs.

Hmm that is a pain, Itunes only wants to route to the default out I will see if I can get an audio player to pick up the ADAT channel, I still cant get the mac it accept any input. I will keep trying for another week but if I cant get it working then I’ll send it back.

Thanks for your help

Unfortunately there is a fundamental difference between the drivers on the OS side that allows the devices to be seen as several stereo devices or separate device groups under Windows Audio. The Mac sees it the same way as if you were using the ASIO driver for your Windows apps. Maybe someone else has some ideas. It's also partly the fault of the Mac apps that don't allow you to select your outputs.

Ive just loaded Nicecast for streaming audio out. Like the rest of the software it just says "MOTU FW" Nothing works. So I will put the Mac away for a few days as I have a few radio shows to do.
Just had my First mac Crash tonight had to hold the power button for 5 sec to get it to turn off as everything was locked solid.
Hmmmm.....

Is anyone else using Nicecast with an 828 Mk 2
G

ok as an update, not wanting to give in easily,

Using the Audio mapper I have set it to send audio out on ADAT 7/8 and I set Nicecast up to receive and broadcast on 5/6 and this worked.
So nearly there, I may have to use my ipad for call ins and rout that to a separate channel on my mixer. Shame the mac cant separate the channels.

G

It's not the Mac or coreaudio that is at issue, it's the way the apps are written. With Nicecast you have access to all of the I/O available on the 828 - good app. Skype - not so good for pro audio. BTW - what is the audio mapper? Good luck.

The Audio/MIDI mapper in the utilities folder. It let me run Configure speakers and then I set the speaker channles to ADAT 7/8 so it went through my system to the Mixer. and Nicecast was set to listen on ADAT 5/6 and it all worked.

I also put a DJ software on that worked with channels so now If I can get the second set of the quad speakers to work on ADAT 1/2 I will be nearly there.

Shame You cant route audio like you can on the PC

G