FW400 audio interface into FW800 connection

I am planning to upgrade to Logic Studio 2. Not being ready to but a new machine now, I will have to install it on my MBP (intel) until I can upgrade my tower (G5).
Problem is that my audio interface is a Firewire 400 connection and Apple dropped that on the MBP! I only have FW800 ports.
Is there a way to convert the FW400 connection to a FW 800 port? Or am I going to need a new audio interface?
Thanks!

or this:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html

Similar Messages

Audio Distortion on FW400 Audio Interface Daisy Chained to FW800 Hard Drive

Hi everyone! I’m an experienced Mac user in need of help resolving FireWire device issues.
I received my 27” i7 iMac a couple of weeks ago running 10.6.2. After a long process of migrating over from my 9+ year old Dual 500 MHz G4 PowerMac tower, I was excited to set up two 1TB drives inside an OWC Mercury Elite Quad-Interface Dual HD enclosure via FW800. I then daisy chained my Focusrite Saffire 10 audio interface (FW400) to the HD enclosure via a FW800 to FW400 converter cable. To reiterate:
i7 iMac (FW800 port) --> OWC Mercury Pro Quad-Interface Dual HD Case with 2X 1TB drives (FW800) --> Focusrite Saffire 10 audio interface (FW400)
Although a lot of people may disagree, I wasn’t concerned about having my FW800 hard drives drop down to FW400 speeds because of the slower audio interface. I have read enough about the 1394 FW protocol and its ability to use something called beta clouds, allowing both FW400 and FW800 daisy chained devices to operate at their maximum speeds. So far, so good. The drives are reading/writing data fast.
As many studio audiophiles have said, you should separate your audio recordings and projects from your startup disk. I’ve done so. However, call me naïve, but I did not imagine that every time my external drives read or wrote data, my audio interface would go into a state of distortion (like raising the gain on a track as high as it can go). When the activity of the disk drops below a certain level, the audio interface usually switches back to clean pristine audio. I am experiencing this within a studio environment and with simple CoreAudio iTunes playback via my audio interface. How is this possible? Am I doing something wrong or is there a blatant limitation with the FW chipset Apple is using for their single bus in the new iMacs? If anyone can provide me with a solution or a convenient work around, I will be very grateful!

Thank you for the feedback, Rick. To shed some light on daisy chaining FW800 with FW400 devices, I provide the following quote from one FireWire technical article I came across on the web:
+"The concept of beta clouds allows FireWire to keep all devices on the bus to operating at their maximum speeds. Devices are cluster together on a logical level in a cloud. The cloud operates as a single block at 800 Mb/sec. The borders of these clouds are where legacy devices are connected, operating normally. Each device operates at its highest speed."+
In short, beta clouds allow both devices to operate at their highest speeds.
Both the audio interface and the external hard drive enclosure has its own, connected power source.
I wish I had the option to use USB2 with my audio interface, but it only has a FW400 connection.

Al iMac + FW800 HDD + FW400 Audio Interface

Hi All.
I need some technical advice.
I understand that if I connect a FW800 + FW400 at the same time that the FW800 will drop to FW400 speed (and I'm fine with that) as they use the same bus.
My question is... will both ports operate as inidividual FW400 ports (ie sharing 800Mb/s or will they be sharing 400Mb/s like if you normally have 2 x FW400 on the same bus.
What I want to do is attach a RAID (mirrored) Hard drive setup (Taurus RAID II) to the FW800 and a Firewire Audio Interface (such as a MOTU) to the FW400.
Most of the audio interfaces I've looked at say that they need their own FW400 port (which I take as meaning not sharing the 400Mb/s bandwith with any other devices).
I do have several work arounds if this setup is going to cause problems (ie using a USB audio interface or a ADDA converter attached to the iMac's optical in/out... but this limits my choice of interface).
I really wish now that I had saved a little longer and got an entry level MacPro instead... but am very happy with my iMac (and man does it run quiet... my PC friends are all very jealous!!)
Thanks for any advice you can give.

Thanks to you both.
Some people seem to think its been fixed, others seem to report they are still having problems... but its hard to tell whether its the audio interfaces they are using or an actual problem with the firewire bus.
I think i'm going to use an ADDA converter and the optical ins and outs anyway now... so I'll probably never know the answer to my question... but thanks for the replies.

No way 2 get FW800 bandwidth for my HDs while using a FW400 audio interface

I make music with my MBP. I use LaCie d2 hard disks, and a M-Audio FW410 audio interface.
I recently sold my MBP 2.0 to upgrade to the newer MBP 2.33, because I need FW800 bandwidth to get the maximum audio track count out of my system using Logic Pro and ProTools M-Powered.
I've made this work before on a G5 dual2.0 - by using only the front panel FW400 port, I was able to get the rear FW800 port to work at full bandwidth.
Not so with the new MBP.. I knew that plugging anything into the MBP's FW400 port would take the whole bus down to 400, so I purchased a SIIG FW 2-port ExpressCard/34 to create a separate FireWire bus, hoping that I could then use my FW410 interface with it @ 400Mb/sec, while keeping the LaCie drives alone on the FW800 port to get 800Mb/sec.
Unfortunately, as soon as the SIIG card is inserted, even though it does create a separate FW bus, it still takes the MBP's built-in FW bus down to 400Mb/sec!
This is poor design IMHO, because it means there is no way to use the full 800Mb/sec bandwidth of the FW800 port if you're trying to use any FW400 interface at the same time.. And of course other than RME's FireFace800, nearly all audio interfaces work at 400Mb/sec. And since I also use ProTools M-Powered, it's not even an option.
Why does the old G5 have properly separate FW controllers, but the new MBP does not?
My only option now to get a SATA ExpressCard/34 and new SATA enclosures for all my drives.. Needless to say I'm not happy and wish Apple would publish more detailed info about such things!
MBP 2.33 Intel Core 2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2Gb Ram, LaCie d2 HDs, M-Audio FW410, SIIG Exp34 2-port FW card

That is very interesting.
I understand your dillema and have to agree with you that Apple should publish this information.
It does rather compramise the addition of the fw800 port and one would naturally assume that the two busses were seperate.
The lack of info from Apple is reflected in the fact that those who read this forum are significantly more knowledgeable than those who work for Apple.
Well done for posting this.
If anyone can confirm it with a second opinion we can then rest assured in our greater knowledge.
Apple - - - once again get with it and drop the secrecy.

CONNECTING M-AUDIO INTERFACE INTO LOGIC?

I have my M-Audio interface connected to my mac, but when i open logic and attempt to record music i cant hear my guitar or anything, nor does what i am playing show up within the regions.
if you can respond to me at [email protected]

1st of all have you selected your M-Audio interface as the Input and Output Device in *Logic Pro>Preferences>Audio>Devices>Core Audio>* ?
A

Can i use Marshall amp as audio interface/preamp to connect to Garageband(to prevent the feedback when connected to macs audio port)

I have been trying to connect my guitar to my macbook 1,1 for use with Garageband and Mainstage. As per the garageband manual i was connecting my Fender Strat Squire straight into my mac audio port using the 1/4-1/8 adapter. When i do this the sound quality ***** especially when i try to use some of the virtual amp settings that create distortion and cool effects. Basically anytime im playing my guitar in GB or Mainstage and im connected straight into the audio port i get a MASSIVE amount of feedback noise and no matter what i do with the noise gate or settings i cant get it to go away unless i turn the settings down so low i can barely hear the guitar. I know that you can purchase an 'audio interface' or 'preamp' like Apogee or M-Audio Fastrack or some of the many others and this allows for clean sounding recording. My query is basically this: i have a Marshall MG100 DFX that does appear to have an emulated line out port that the manual says i can use to "connect your amp directly to your multi-track recording machine". Does this mean i can just use my amp as my audio interface between my guitar and my computer? I seem to remember hearing before that this was possible but i want to be sure. I really dont want to spend $ on an audio interface as they are very expensive and i figure if my Marshall amp can work just the same ill stick with that for now. Any responses and advice will be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks for your time.
-J

Jkeeezy wrote:
can just use my amp as my audio interface between my guitar and my computer?
yes, you can try it
make sure you're using the line-IN, either way:
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#recordlinein
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)
also note that many of the amps just _are_ very noisy

My iPad Air 2 is no longer recognizing my audio interface when I connect.

Basically I am using the camera connection kit to connect to my korg kronos keyboard, which has an audio interface. The couple times that I did this before, it worked. Sound from the iPad was routed to my monitor via the Kronos interface. I don't know what happened but I didn't use it for a week and ever since then when I connect the sound only comes through my iPad. I used to be able to use the Kronos As midi device to control my music apps but even that functionality doesn't work anymore.
ive tried doing a hard reset several times and in several combinations with the Kronos...such as powering both on at the same time but no luck.
the kronos works perfectly when I connect it to my laptop, so I'm convinced it's an issue with the iPad. When I plug the iPad to my computer it is recognized...so it can't be the connection port that is faulty.
THe kronos is the only class compliant device I have to test it on and have been unlucky so far.
ANy help?

Try doing a hard reset on the iPad. You can also check if your iPad needs to be updated too.
To update go to Settings - General - Software Update
To do a hard reset, i would suggest you do a back up first, either on iCloud or via iTunes.
First try shutting down the device off and on, if that does not help, then you can go ahead and do the hard reset.
Hard Resetting your device.
On your iPad, press and hold both the SLEEP/WAKE button and the HOME button for about ten (10) seconds. After ten seconds you should see the Apple logo showing up, you can then release your fingers from those buttons. Wait for your iPad to turn up completely, then try connecting your projector again to see if it works. I hope it does. Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Line Output From Audio Interface Mutes When Connected To HDMI

Hello Apple Community,
As my first post to the community, I would like to shed some light on an issue I have found no answer to on the internet or support lines. I have spent a great deal of time self-diagnosing and over the phone with technical support for all devices in question.
Problem:
I have no sound when connected to HDMI. The problem is not exclusive to HDMI, as I bought two Mini DisplayPort adapters (HDMI & VGA) -- neither of which resolved my issue.
Hardware:
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) - Intel i7, 8GB RAM, GT 650M Graphics
Audio Interface - Started out with a PreSonus AudioBox 2-In, 2-Out. Now it's a Yamaha Steinberg UR22 (2-In, 2-Out)
Powered Studio Monitors - Yamaha HS7 (Pair)
External Display - Vizio 37", 1080p TV
At first glance, it may sound like my problem is simply that I'm not set to the correct audio output when I'm connected to HDMI. However, this is not the case. With both audio interfaces, I double-checked that the output did not swap to HDMI when plugging in. Many communities believe this is a ground-loop issue with anything from my interface / speakers, to the HDMI cable itself. When I spoke to an audio specialist from Yamaha, he assured me that grounding issues were not the case. He said that ground-loops will only cause noise (hiss, static, hum, etc.), not a complete mute.
Thank you,
Matthew Morris

Okay, so Steinberg responded after 6 days to set up a call time. Three days after that, I finally received the call. Yes, 9 total days.........
Jeff from Steinberg went over all of my issues and went through a whole diagnosis. At the point where I got rid of the stock Yamaha XLR to TRS and used some unbalanced instrument cables I had laying around, the monitors worked! Jeff and I narrowed it down to either bad cables or (more than likely) bad XLR ports. I believe the ladder because the possibility of receiving 2 bad cables is less likely than possibly a single XLR port having a faulty ground or something--which would lead to the above issues.

ITunes won't play songs w/Audio Interface connected

I am using iTunes with a Tascam US-122L audio interface. It worked perfectly fine until yesterday evening, and now iTunes absolutely refuses to play any music when the Tascam is connected. I click a song title and the diamond slider does not move, the song stays at 0:00, and the "play" button doesn't change to the "pause" button. It seemed to have started doing this after I exported a song into iTunes from an app called Audio Hijack, which I downloaded to capture some audio from Logic Pro.
iTunes works perfectly fine when the audio interface isn't connected.
I've tried everything, from restarting my computer, to reinstalling the Tascam drivers to reinstalling iTunes, but to no avail. Anyone got any ideas?

Does anyone have a possible solution to this? I'm getting the exact same issue with the US-122L after upgrading its firmware (believe it or not... it worked with the previous firmware.. silly me, if it ain't broke, don't fix it).
Really considering returning the thing now, even though I really like it. I'd appreciate any leads, even a way to get debugging info out of it - I'm a programmer and I can tinker if needed. Thanks in advance.

Audio interface connection issues - growing very frustrated!

Hi there,
I'm having a **** of a time with a very basic recording set-up. I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track with Logic Pro 9. I have a digital stage piano which is connected via USB to my macbook pro, but I am also connecting one of the audio output ports from my piano (a Kawai MP5) into the audio interface device. Basically I want to take advantage of the software instruments, AND some of the built-in piano sounds of my digital piano. My set-up is like this: the audio interface device is connected via USB to my macbook pro. My piano is also connected via USB to the macbook pro. My piano has another connection going into the audio interface device. I want to be able to hear ALL audio via the headphone output on the macbook pro. I have the audio settings within Logic Pro set up such that the audio input device is the Fast Track, and the audio output device is the built-in output of the macbook.
Within Logic Pro, I create a real instrument track, and I have it record enabled, BUT - I cannot hear anything coming through. The signal indicator on the Fast Track lights up whenever I play the piano...but I do not hear anything in my headphones (connected to the macbook's built-in output). If I create a software instrument track, I have no problem hearing anything.
Would somebody please PLEASE tell me how to connect my devices or adjust settings so that I can hear my piano within Logic Pro? Technically, the way I have connected everything should work from the way I see it. I don't know if I have to have a monitor enabled or disabled somewhere in order to hear the piano, but I have been playing around for over an hour now trying to get sound to come through with no success.
Thanks.

There are Audio track types Mono (one meter) Stereo (two smaller parallel meters) They can be changed using the small circle(s) at the bottom of the channel strip under the meter. It's self explanatory once you click on the circle.
The Inputs reflect your audio Interface. I assume Input 1 is your Mic Input, Input 2 is your guitar input... If you use a stereo track you will probably see Input 1-2 which means both inputs are being monitored... If your guitar is plugged into Input 2 you will only hear one side.
My audio interface has 8 inputs so I if I'm choosing inputs for a stereo strip I see pairs.. 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8. If I choose inputs for a mono track I see 8 individual inputs. If I have in instrument plugged into channel 1 I will only hear sound if the inputs have 1-2, or 1. If it's a stereo track it will be on one side only.
And you have the pan adjustment.. pan left, pan right, pan center.
Use Logic online help for some quick hints

Problem running a FW 400 audio interface at same time as FW 800 drives

I recently installed snow leopard (10.6.2) on a macbook pro 2.4 core duo. I have a couple firewire 800 drives connected. I ran into problems when I hooked up my audio interface to the firewire 400 port. I have the same problem with 2 different audio interfaces - Presonus Firebox and M-Audio Firewire Solo. Basically they refuse to work unless i unplug the firewire 800 drives. I found this information on M-Audio's website:
"Computers that have both a FireWire 400 and a FireWire 800 port may be sharing the same FireWire bus internally. When using both, the 400 and the 800 port at the same time, you may experience problems like audio drop outs or loss of connection to the M-Audio FireWire interface. There's a variety of possible reasons for this including but not limited to bandwidth limitations, clocking issues (400/800) and bus master problems with the devices connected to both ports. M-Audio recommends using the M-Audio FireWire audio interface on the computers original FireWire port while adding a separate FireWire interface card (with a Texas Instruments chipset) to the system (PCI, PCIe, ExpressCard, or PCMCIA). Connect any third party FireWire 800 devices to the added FireWire interface card. If your computer does not have expansion slots for a separate FireWire interface card there are 2 possible alternatives: If your external hard drive has FW400 connectivity, you can daisy chain the hard drive to the 2nd FireWire port* (if available) on your M-Audio Device. If your external hard drive has USB 2.0 connectivity, you can connect the hard drive to a USB 2.0 port on the computer"
This is exactly my problem. The audio interfaces work fine when hooked up to FW 400 port as long as no FW 800 devices are connected. It appears that my only solution is to buy a secondary FW interface card. However, I would like to know if there is a fix on the Apple side of this.
(note: I did not have this issue on my G5 running OS 10.4x, which is what I was on before I switched to this new laptop setup - the laptop is a 2007)
Anyone else have this issue, or know about a fix for it from Apple?

Thanks for that info, but that is not the problem. Obviously the first thing I did was check the FW cables and connections and shut down my computer and rebooted. And like I said, the FW 800 drives work fine when no FW 400 device is connected, and the FW 400 audio interface works fine when no FW 800 devices are connected.
The problem is that when the FW 800 drives are connected AND the FW 400 audio interface is also connected on the same bus (as this is a laptop there is only one bus with both 400 and 800 ports). The drives still seem to work fine, but the audio interface does not work. It's connection lights flash and will not hold a connection or process sound (there is either no sound, or clicks and dropouts). The flashing lights indicated a failed clock sync. M-Audio is aware of this issue as is apparent from my quote on the original post, but the only work around seems to add a secondary FW bus via an adapter card.
This problems seems to be a MAC issue with FW 400 and 800 and the internal clock sync.

Do all FireWire 400 audio interfaces work on a FireWire 800 bus?

I have assumed that one can continue to use FW400 on the new MacBookPros with an adapter cable. But responding to a post where I noted that I was unable to daisychain an RME FW 400 to a FW800 harddisk, a forum member tells me that many FW400 audio-interfaces don't work on FW800 buses, and thus even an adapter cable would'nt work.
Is this true?
If so, the whole music/audio community on Mac will have to switch to PC, no other solution.

Although there might be a few specific devices that might have trouble, most firewire 400 devices will work with an adapter to 800. And unlike what a bunch of people on this forum complain about, having a 400 device chained with an 800 WILL NOT slow the 800 down. A few minutes doing some simple research on how firewire works would stop people from spreading incorrect information.

Heavy white noise/hiss while recording guitar through audio interface

I have just purchased a new MacBook pro 2011 (low end 15") and have tried recording with an m-audio fast track audio interface. Unfortunately I'm getting terrible white noise and hiss while recording my guitar. The guitar is plugged straight into the interface using a guitar lead which is then usb connected to my mac.
I am pretty sure it's not the interface because it's brand new. Also I have tried three different guitars and all have the same out come.
Please help
Things that may help diagnose the problem:
I have installed a new driver.
When the gain and presence is increased the noise is worse.
The output is not hitting the red mark.
Thanks
Andre

I had your problem and I resolved it! i have my mic and guitars plugged into my Eurorack UB1202 analog mixer which outputs to my MacBook Pro via Bheringer UCA222 audio interface then back to my mixer and to my headphones/speakers. i noticed a white noise last night while i was working and all I did to fix it was unplug the audio interface from the outside usb hub (closest to the screen) and plugged it into my middle hub. the noise has now stopped and its crystal clear.
TL;DR try plugging your audio interface into different usb hubs. it worked for me. hope that helps!

IMac20" with firewire audio-interface konnekt24D by tcelectronic

Hi folks,
I've got some cryptic problems with my iMac and the connected firewire audio-interface (konnekt24D by tcelectronic). I'm running MacOSX 10.4.10. The problem is that after four days working with no occuring problems I got no sound output. When I restarted the Mac the blue firewire light of the audio-interface disappeared and the tcnear control panel says 'no device'. I decided to update the firmware and then everything runs properly for one day. The next day I got the same 'no output' problem. I decided to update the firmware again but now the blue firewire light disappears and I got 'no device' message from the tcnear control panel. I started the Mac again but the interface was still gone. Now I switched off the Mac and turned it on again. The interface was there and I had output. Next day I got the same problems.
The tcelectronic support said that I should disconnect any other network cables, enable every network setting on the network control panel and connect the power supply of the audio interface. I did everything but got no improvements. The people from tcelectronic concluded that my audio-interface could be defective. So I went to my mönger and he gave me a new one.
From now on everything worked fine for three days. During this time I changed nothing on my setup. No new software was installed, the only thing I did was to start LogicExpress 7.2.1 and begin with my work. After three days I got the same 'no output' problem again. Now I think that there must be something wrong with the iMac. It is the 'old' version (bought in May this year) and I don't know exactly what to do now.
What I don't understand is that both devices worked a few days and then the problems occured. As I said before I didn't changed anything, installed no new software, etc. Maybe the harddisk of the iMac is defective? I've plugged the audio-interface into the other firewire port of the Mac but got no improvement.
I don't know exactly what I should do know because I worked ten years with a PowerMac/Audiomedia III/SCSI system and never had such strange problems.
Greetings to all of you,
Dorsch.

Check out this thread here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1656583
It appears that sp3 has issues with firewire. I'm seeking a solution too, short of reinstalling as this person suggests. See also his link re: the famous little patch. I tried that already to no avail. I'm using SP3 too. My firewire behaves like USB... which would/could cause issues like you're describing.
Mike

Crashes when audio interface is plugged in

I am using a mac book pro 13" intel 2.5ghz dual core with 4g ram and nvidia 9400m graphics card every time i plug my tascam us-122mkII audio interface into my usb port and attempt to start FMLE it crashes giving me error audio device something or another dont remember exactly what it says, I have all the prober drivers installed for my interface and have it selected in my system preferrences as the main input device. Anybody know why it would do this?
i am using this set up to stream live church services and need the interface so i can pull live feed from the soundboard

Hey jcsinchak,
Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing issues with iTunes unexpectedly freezing/quitting. The following articles may help to resolve your issue, based on your operating system:
iTunes for Windows XP: Troubleshooting unexpected quits, freezes, or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1421
iTunes for Windows Vista or Windows 7: Troubleshooting unexpected quits, freezes, or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1717
iTunes: May become unresponsive when connecting iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3219
Thanks,
Matt M.

FW400 audio interface into FW800 connection

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