Ok. I read the referenced theads..
After reading through the rest of this thread, AND going to the Apple Support discussions site, I've made the following observations: (LONG WINDED POST ALERT!)
I'm finally beginning to get a functioning audio workstation again. I installed SuSE Linux on my imac DVSE, downloaded Ecasound and have been experimenting all week long. The current Linux audio core supports most USB devices, and this set-up is running the UA-30 flawlessly. Not a single crackle or distortion to be heard at any time (Take that, OS 10.2!) I am impressed.
iMac DVSE? This is the platform of choice to do serious work on? It doesn't even have a slot! That's like bitching about trying to run the Indy 500 in a Yugo and not understanding why you keep losing.
Most of the posts under both the USB audio and "List your audio problems here" theads were about USB speakers (particularly the iSub). Now granted, from the sounds of things, this is a very real problem for the users affected. However, if you consider yourself a "pro" and you're planning on mixing down on USB (or any computer speaker for that matter) you really should consider an alternate career path. There's a reason they make studio monitors. There's a reason you have your room tuned, RPG diffused and bass trapped. If you don't know why, you should seriously consider finding out.
Some background. I ran a 24 track studio in the 80's. After a two decade hiatus from the music biz, I'm building a new studio in my home. The first thing I did was get a proper machine. A dedicated machine. There's no games, no word processors, or anything else on it. Now I've got a Cube I dearly love, which I've upgraded to the hilt, but I wouldn't for a second use it for Logic, because I've yet to see firewire as a viable means for audio I/O, let alone USB. I went with a Delta 1010 for the following reasons:
1) It sits directly on the PCI bus. This has the benefit of guaranteed packet delivery to the proc, which USB and Firewire do not. They are inherently at the mercy of other processes on the system. USB I wouldn't trust to anything but keyboards, mice and digital camera file xfers. My cube has USB audio, and I file it under the "neat toys" category, but nothing I'd use for serious work.
2) It's stackable. You can load up as many 1010's as you have slots for, and Logic can see them all. I rather doubt that stunt would come off too well using MOTU's firewire products.
This isn't to say the Delta is the be all and end all, it just offered the most inherent reliability over USB and Firewire architectures. Firewire has room for improvement. I'm holding out for the next version, and based on it' specs, it perhaps can really deliver for real time audio.
I mentioned speakers earlier. I'm running a pair of Mackie 824's for near field and Tannoy's for far field. Even with these great speaks and a well planned and wired room, I'm still not releasing a damn thing out of this studio yet. Why? The room isn't finished. I haven't done the proper accoustical treatments, and until I do, anything I mix in here will ONLY sound good in here and I know it. As will any other professional.
The point I'm trying to make here, is that you can't expect pro quality results when you're using what amounts to (no offense) consumer toys. I like iMacs. They're cute, they do what they're supposed to do, and I'll probably get my wife one for Christmas or something. However, I'd never even attempt to try to run an audio business off of one. The same holds with USB audio I/O. It's fine for some limited applications, but to try use it for multitrack/mixing work is nuts. I know Emagic, MidiMan and slug of other folks have cranked these things out, because the market wants something that's "cheap". Perhaps they've (the I/O manufacturers) overtouted what the USB capabilities are, but gang, there's only so much you can stuff through a USB pipe, and since nearly everything in the system can preempt the data stream, you don't stand much of chance in terms of reliability.
Next: The Finger Pointing at Apple for the USB problems:
I don't blame Apple for Emagic's and M Audio's marketing decisions. They targeted those devices at BOTH platforms, remember? And this was LONG before Apple bought Emagic. Let's make an attempt at keeping history in it's proper perspective.
Finally:
I installed LAP 5.3 yesterday as well. And I DID have problems, in that my AMT-8 was not recognized by either 10.2 OR LAP. It eventually showed up, and it turns out the problem is apparently a conflict between the Midi driver for the Delta 1010 and the AMT8's driver. This was a bit of a shock, and almost seems like a PC sort of problem that we Mac users pride ourselves on not having to deal with.
However, I'll give Apple/Emagic/Midiman the benefit of the doubt for the moment for the following reasons:
1) Apple just acquired Emagic a short time ago. Changes cannot happen overnight.
2) 10.2 is new. Like a couple weeks old in fact. The Pro Audio aspect is a smaller part of the big picture, (for us, obviously it's the most important part) and I'm sure the audio part probably could have used more testing, but was it worth holding an entire OS release over in the big scheme of things? Probably not.
3) Midiman and Emagic (and the other "3rd party vendors" haven't had a lot of time to really dig into 10.2. I don't consider 10.1.x a viable platform for audio anyway, as it really wasn't the focus of any of those releases. Apple was far more concerned with the masses (i.e. Photoshop / FCP / etc) getting those bugs worked out. Us Audio types are a smaller population. We're important yes, but they do have to prioritize. Guess what? So does MicroSloth. I'd rather hedge my bet on Apple, since MS is going to prioritize where it always has. Big businesses that buy Windows and MS Office in lots of 1000. Apple know's it can't win that one, which means we stand a far greater chance of being catered to.
4) I can't pin this on OSX 10.2 completely. I had similar midi conflicts between the 1010 and the AMT8 back in 9.2 until I took the 1010's Midi out of the picture completely.
Back to the LAP 5 .3 install:
Once I got the AMT8 recognized, the rest was flawless. I opened a project I'd done under 9.2 and LAP 5.3 offered to convert the audio tracks and audio object references over to CoreAudio for me, (which it did without a hitch, even to the extent of letting me know my 9.x vst plugs weren't availabe). I switched those plug references over to the closest Logic Native alternative and doinked play on the control surface (which also works flawlessly under 10.2/LAP 5.3 once the midi got right).
This track had:
9 Audio tracks
6 EXS24's (two of which were multi channel, the drums alone ate up an additional 11 aux audio tracks)
2 ES2's
1 ESE
1 offboard Midi part (Roland JP8000)
13 Compressors.
8 EQ's
4 Platinumverbs
2 Silververbs
3 Delays.
It ran fine. No glitches that I could tell. The automation cues were just as I'd left em in the 9.2 / LAP 5.2 version.
So far, I'm tickled pink.
There are SOME issues remaining however: I've had this funky business with the cursor hotspot not being "right" even back in 9.2/LAP 5.0-5.2. That one's still there.
Does Apple/Emagic still have work to do? Oh yeah. I've got a wishlist a mile long for LAP (don't we all..)
I think the biggest hurt will be the lack of VST instruments and plugs. While Emagic has offered a library to make the port near painless, it's still going to be a bit before the rest of the 3rd party guys get up to speed. Until then I'm going to be missing some stuff. I'll make do. It's a pure joy to not have to boot back into OS9 just to do audio work for a change.
