External Audio Cards (USB 3.0)

[Woochoo]

I had to roll back to Yosemite some months ago in my MBA (2014) since after updating my external audio card (Roland OCTA CAPTURE) stopped working after 5-10 minutes, and had to reconnect it again or sometimes reset my Mac to make it work again.
At first I thought it was Roland's drivers bug, but every drivers they released for that audio card were rock solid (from Mountain Lion to Yosemite, 0 problems with many hours a day of usage).
Then I read somewhere it was El Capitan problem with USB 3.0 external devices/hubs, making them disconnect frequently, but it was also supposed to be fixed on 10.11.4.

So my question would be: are there still external USB 3.0 problems with the now 10.11.5? I haven't tried it out since I have to work with this machine and can't be losing time updating and rolling back, but if some of you guys use external audio cards with El Capitan, I'd be glad to hear how are these working for you.

 

[beebarb]

Hm... well I don't have it yet, but I'm expecting a package including a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1 external sound card in a few days.

I'll see if I have any issues when it arrives.

 

[beebarb]

It just arrived today.
First glitch: At first OS X misidentified it as a KEYBOARD. I had to dismiss the keyboard setup wizard.

But, after that, once I installed the drivers, everything seemed to work as it should.
I'll continue to use it and see if any more issues surface.

 

[Eduardot]

The USB 3 problem that randomly disconnetcs hard drives, sound cards, cameras, from the computer, is still there, the update to 10.11.5 did not fix my problems

 

[Gochugogi]

I only suffer the USB3 problems with certain hubs. If I plug directly into my Mini or a Dyconn or Inateck hub, my devices are rock solid. I don't have an audio card but I use a Tascam US 2x2 audio interface for tracking/editing with Logic and Bias Peak Pro and it gets used all day several times weekly under 10.11.4. Not one dropout in many months of use. I have it plugged directly into the Mini.

The USB hubs I own that chronically drop connections--often within a few minutes--are my Bokcore (5 port) and Pluggable (7 port) hubs. They were okay under 10.8.5 but became increasingly unstable with each OS update.

I also have an older MOTU Ultralite but it uses FW and works perfectly with my Mini. FW drives, not so much. Well they read/write fine but never sleep...

 

[Woochoo]

The USB 3 problem that randomly disconnetcs hard drives, sound cards, cameras, from the computer, is still there, the update to 10.11.5 did not fix my problems

Same, but with audio card. I finally upgraded to OSX El Capitan 10.11.5 hoping it would solve the problem, no hub in between but directly connecting my USB audio card to the port, and same disconnects.

In this case the solution was to reset coreaudiod in terminal, but it's just a temporary solution. Seriously Apple, after 5th version of El Capitan and many many betas, you couldn't fix it?

 

[Gochugogi]

Strange how some Macs/users have the disconnect problem while others don't. It must be some unique combination of hardware and/or software causing the problem. For me, Mavericks was USB disconnect hell and 10.11.4 never disconnects once I tossed those incompatible hubs.

Just a passing thought, my Tascam (record and output), an old Audioengine D1 (output only), iPhone and Epson scanner are USB2 devices plugged into USB3 ports or hubs. Maybe the problem is with USB3 audio devices? Only my external hard drives and SD card readers are USB3 and they never disconnect anymore.

 

[Woochoo]

It's weird, since both my audio cards are USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 (this one is not really an Audio Card but a Drum Synth with various I/O which can be used also as audio card), so it doesn't have anything to do with USB 3.0 since I skipped the USB 3.0 hubs, unless it's the problem to the USB port itself since my MBA has USB 3.0. Never had problems with those audio cards them on Mavericks or Yosemite, not in this computer neither in my older MBP from 2010.

It's just silly, since I'm planning to buy the upcoming MBP to work (my MBA is performing low for my tasks) and it will come with El Capitan for sure

EDIT: Native Instruments, a renowned audio products enterprise, stated that they've found audio issues with coreaudio between Mavericks and El Capitan (including both OS).

 

[beebarb]

Well, after a few days of use, I've had no other issues with the Sound Blaster Omni Surround.
Why I'm not having similar disconnect issues is quite puzzling.

Though I have noticed some audio issues with the OS, in my case it's mostly to do with MIDI.
Occasionally when playing MIDI files, there will be dropped or wrong instruments, regardless of what SoundFont I use with the player.