Mac Pro Dual Quad/Logic Pro/Alesis I/O 26/Yamaha KX88/Kurzweil K2000/Pod XT Live

[qsblues]

Good evening everyone!

I have a home recording setup which is giving me some problems. Being relatively new to the whole home recording thing, I have a couple of questions, please.

I'm transitioning from a Mac G4/Garageband/Pod XT Live setup to a Mac Pro Dual Quad/Logic Pro/Alesis I/O 26/Yamaha KX88/Kurzweil K2000/Pod XT Live setup. Kind of a learning curve there.

Anyway, the Alesis I/O 26 is connected to the Mac Pro via Firewire 800, which the Mac does not recognize, even though it's listed in the Audio section of System Prefs. The Mac Pro is running OSX 10.5. The software for the Alesis shows that audio is being transmitted from the KX2000, which is connected via standard 1/4" inputs. So, that's problem #1.

Logic is an entirely different beast than what I'm used to, and I just want to be able to control the sounds from the KX88. So far, no juice. Problem #2.

Lastly, problem #3 is that I'm not too sure of the best way to connect this thing to the Mac. Does Firewire transmit only data, or does it transmit the full 192kHz/24 bit audio signal?

I didn't have any problems with my previous GB setup on the G4. Of course, I expected that it would be a minute before I'm able to just sit down and lay down some tracks, but I'm kind of at a loss here.

BTW, there are some analog mixers thrown into the mix for a Roland drum set, the Pod XT Live, and a couple of other Digitech effects processors. I'm not too concerned about them, because they can be connected later. Right now, I'd like to be able to use the Alesis I/O26 and Logic with my keyboard controller. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Looks like a cool site, and I'll be looking here a lot for answers.

Peace.

[boo]

Try the firewire 400 port instead.

[qsblues]

Since FW800 is backwards compatible to FW400, this really wouldn't make a difference, would it? I'll give it a try, but I don't think that's the problem.

Thanks for the response!

[boo]

I need more clarity.. why do you say the mac does not recognize the alesis, if it is in the audio/midi setup?

[qsblues]

In the Sys Prefs under the audio/midi setup, it states that there are no firewire devices configured, but it lists the alesis piece as an option. When I highlight it, the message states the above.

[boo]

Ok, forgive me if I seem too simplistic, but might as well take this a step at a time. You've installed the latest drivers from alesis.
You said audio/midi says it's not configured. It sounds like you may be in the midi section of audio/midi..make sure you have selected audio in the top of that window. And if you have, you should see a line that says properties for..alesis i/o should be available. Let me know if you see all of that.

[qsblues]

Well, I got everything up and running, and I must say, I'm a bit disappointed. Not with Logic, but with this forum. I posted a question, got one actual response, and then ... nothing.

I solved the problem on my own. Turns out that the drivers were outdated for Leopard, and after getting rid of the old drivers and installing new ones optimized for 10.5 fixed the issue.

Back to trial and error.

[boo]

Umm, dude, you pm'd me and said you would get back to me Monday....the first thing I said to check were your drivers, in the take it a step at a time: so didn't you get exactly the help you needed on this forum?

[qsblues]

Actually, no. First you said switch to Firewire 400. Alesis didn't even know that it was a driver issue, and had to get their techies involved. Turns out that I got a beta release, which I downloaded from an email that they sent to me, and then it worked, after some uninstallers were run, then disc verification, repair, and installation of a new software package. It STILL says that the Alesis device is not configured in the Audio/MIDI setup, although I have configured it myself, and it does in fact work.

It has been suggested that the Audio/MIDI configuration was wrong, so I double checked that. When I PM'd you, I did say that I would get back to you on Monday, and I did not. That was my fault. I was up until 8:00 A.M. Tuesday morning configuring my studio, after working on it all day Monday, and going back and forth with Alesis.

So, here it is on Wednesday, and I'm just a bit surprised that I'm the only one who has had this problem. Leopard has been out for over a year, Apple is already working on the release date of 10.6, the I/O26 has been well covered and in use by thousands, yet ...

Oh well ...

Another thing that I learned was that Firewire does in fact transmit audio along with data information. In this case, the audio is strictly from a monitoring standpoint, and without a sufficient audio card on the Mac Pro, it was being lost in translation ... too much information. So, in my never ending quest of reaching new heights of stupidity, I realized that the I/O26 could just plug into the mixer, and all is well. The audio quality is superb, and very transparent, btw.

So, I was going about it the wrong way to begin with. Now that I've realized my mistakes, I've learned a lot more than if someone just said, "do this, and it will work."

I've since ditched the Kurzweil piece, and I am able to control the drum set and all software instruments, AU's, VST's, plug-ins & whatnot from my keyboard controller, and I'm building a librarian for all of the patches. Full integration is only a couple of days away, and I'll be able to start making music. So, that's what's most important.