Last night I was able to get my audio interface working with Leopard. Almost three months after Apple released Leopard, M-Audio has still not updated their drivers for many of their products. I understand this is affecting not just the FireWire 1814, but other M-Audio devices as well. I don’t think Digidesign has updated their drivers yet, either.
At any rate, I have been able to get my interface working with Leopard using M-Audio’s FireWire driver version 1.8.2 (available here). This is not *fully* functional, as there is still some wierdness with the interface. For example; in Live I can route the Master to channels 1 and 2 and the Cue to channels 3 and 4, and have output from 1 and 2 and monitoring in 3 and 4 on the headphones as expected. I cannot, however, use the A/B switch on the front panel to switch the headphone output from Cue to Master as I used to be able to. This is significant, but not a deal-breaker for me.
Here’s how I did it. These instructions worked for me, and I make no guarantees as to whether or not they will work for you. If you break something, I’m sorry, but I can’t be held responsible. I’m sorry I don’t have screenshots or specific filenames, but I wasn’t really thinking this was all going to work at the time.
Moving on…
- Download FireWire OSX 1.8.2 from M-Audio’s website
- Close all your other applications (I don’t know how important this is, but I thought it was a good idea)
- Repair your disk permissions using Disk Utility
- Uninstall the current driver on your system using the Uninstall application in the disk image
- This is where we break a little bit from what M-Audio Support told me to do. In the uninstall application, at the end when it tells you everything is finished, click the “More Information” button. In there, you will see what the Uninstaller couldn’t delete. Find those files on your Mac and delete them. Then tell the uninstaller to finish, and it will prompt you to reboot. Reboot.
- Repair disk permissions again
- Run the Uninstaller again. Do the same thing with the More Information button, and delete the offending files. This time for me it was a kernel extenstion (.kext) called MAudioFireWireSomethingsomething.kext. Delete it, making sure you’re only deleting the file that the Uninstaller told you it couldn’t delete. Tell the Uninstaller to finish, and it will talk about how it is doing something with the boot cache. Let it do what it is going to do and reboot.
- Repair disk permissions again
- Install the new driver
- Repair disk permissions one more time
- Shut down, connect the 1814 and boot up the computer
M-Audio recommends NOT using an AC adaptor, but rather letting the 1814 draw power over FireWire.
Anyway, from there everything should be reasonably functional. Good Luck!
Hi there, well I have the same problem with my FW1814,I tried everything you said but still nothing, actually seemed to start the control panel (1.8.2) but a couple of seconds and then again ” device not found..bla…bla”
Also I have called M-Audio UK for help, but if my system doesn’t see the interface , they said it must be the hardware…so i’m in trouble.
Someone out there can help???
Thanx bro, it works …..to be honest, you are right it sort of works…its not that smooth as it should be…but i am happy because it works with logic, reason and ableton. Thanx a ton because i just purchased a m-audio firewire 1814 and i was really worried as i tried everything before you told me the solution.
Regards,
Additya
Zino – I’m not sure what the problem could be there. Have you sorted it out yet?
Additya – It is definitely not something I would depend on in critical performance situations. However I did use it for a gig this past weekend without problems. I was not doing anything major — just running Ableton Live — but I didn’t have any hiccups.
I have a FW 1814, and since i stepped over to mac i have so many bugs… There are so many out there with the same problems. Although M-Audio promises to soon release drivers, when is that going to happen? what am i supposed to do all this time?
U say it works kind of smooth for u… but do u really use all the interfaces on the FW 1814? I do. and that is why i am having troubles. It works ok when just playing something, but go ahead and touch the faders and see what happen, or alternativly try to use sends to spdif and see the horror.
I really hope to get rid of this piece of junk, because this is what it is. we all try to convince ourselves something good will happen, but to me it seems like a product which is junk and the lack of support just make me wanna throw it away and go for the ultralite motu.
good luck with making music on the fw1814… i am wasting all day on installations and forums :-|(
Nuriel: I have been using the new beta drivers from M-Audio for a while and the only problem I’ve been having is the audio output. I have to “nudge†it by bumping the sample rate up once and back down. Then everything works fine.
You are correct in that I’m not using all of the interfaces. I haven’t used the SPDIF for anything. I use the firewire, generally one output, and an input or two. Nothing too complicated.
When I was shopping for interfaces, the ultralite was out of my price range, so I went with the 1814. I got a good deal on it, but it is true when they say you get what you pay for. Thankfully for me at present the bugs are mere annoyance and not a show-stopper.
Hi Riptide.
i have the lasts drivers.
my Mac connect to the 1814
but, there is no audio input in mac
do u know why?
many tks
sorry my poor english
Javier –
I’m sorry, but I’m not really an expert and probably can’t help you without being in front of your setup. Did you contact their support?