Recording Interface for Mac OS X Yosemite

[avaldes]

Hi, I know there are posts on recording interfaces all the time, but recent updates of Mac OS have made a lot of interfaces incompatible or problematic. I have an old M-Audio that became incompatible, worked with a later version of Yosemite, after downloading a driver, but stopped working with Mavericks. My Tascam DR 7 MK II is not an interface, but has a USB for downloading tracks. It now does not show up when I connect to OS X Yosemite. On the Tascam site, it does not seem to be one of the products for which they plan to release an updated driver. I was able to read the micro SD card with a USB card reader I use for my camera (reads a number of card formats).

My question is: are you using an interface and successfully recording with OS X Yosemite now, and what is the interface?

OK, that's two questions.

[Rob Meldrum]

I recently bought the Blue Microphones Icicle USB interface for my new iMac, and it works great with my microphones. I ahve been busy on other projects and have yet to try my year-old USB interface for my electric guitars.

[mando.player]

What you need to look for are interfaces that are USB class compliant. This means that they do not require additional drivers to function with the operating system.

[terzinator]

I'm using an M-Audio Mobile-Pre usb unit on an older Mac Pro that has Yosemite. Seems to work just fine, and I use GarageBand as the software interface.

This one here:

[avaldes]

What you need to look for are interfaces that are USB class compliant. This means that they do not require additional drivers to function with the operating system.

Thanks, I had seen some info on class compliant interfaces. So one candidate is the Focusrite 2i2 which claims to run in class compliant mode, ergo plug and done. But I have seen some online posts about glitchy performance or clipping, etc. I think these went to the class compliant mode sometime in 2014, so people having trouble may have been using the old driver. Are you (or is anyone) using this specific interface in class compliant mode?

[foldedpath]

Thanks, I had seen some info on class compliant interfaces. So one candidate is the Focusrite 2i2 which claims to run in class compliant mode, ergo plug and done. But I have seen some online posts about glitchy performance or clipping, etc. I think these went to the class compliant mode sometime in 2014, so people having trouble may have been using the old driver. Are you (or is anyone) using this specific interface in class compliant mode?

Unless something has changed recently, the big drawback to using a USB Class Compliant connection as a recording interface, is that it's limited to 16 bits only. For 24-bit recording you'll need a device with its own supplied driver that works on your Mac.

I'm not a Mac user, but I know that's a problem with some pocket recorders like the Zoom H2 when used as a USB recording interface (not in standalone mode); it only works in 16 bits that way.

The main drawback with 16 bit recording is that you'll need to be more careful setting input levels, aiming closer to the clipping point to get a healthy bit depth. With a 24 bit interface, you can set a lower input level for headroom against accidental spikes, and still have plenty of bit depth.

[almeriastrings]

http://us.focusrite.com/answerbase/a...h-osx-yosemite

The 2i2 does work at 24-bits in class compliant mode on a USB 2.0 connection via Core Audio.

I am not using Yosemite myself yet, as the drivers are not yet available for UA Apollo and there are reported issues with some plugins. I tend to wait quite a while before changing OS as there are always bugs in the early days.

[molad]

It might not have all the features you need, but my Griffin Technology iMic has been working fine for casual recording on a Mac Mini running Yosemite.

[Jim Nollman]

Right now i have a i7 iMac with 16 gb memory running Yosemite and Protools 10.3.8. I do a lot more editing these days than recording so about a year ago I downsized my sound device to a UA Apollo Twin. I LOVE my Apollo Twin with its thunderbolt connector, its software console, and it slew of high performance plugins that don't use any part of the iMac's memory.

Protools 10 shows a few minor problems working with Yosemite, and I'll probably upgrade to PT 11 in two or three more months. I've been using PT professionally for over 20 years. I know the software intimately, which is the main reason I plan to stick with it for the long term.

My other major pieces of audio production software — Reaktor, Guitar Rig, Melodyne, Ableton Live, Audition — all seem to work fine with Yosemite.

I realize that your question is actually asking if I would choose PT if I was starting over from scratch. Sincerely, I have no idea. Over the years I've tried lots of other recording, mixing, editing software, including Logic, Audacity, and Ableton Live. I like to use Audition occasionally, especially, if I am doing spectrographic analysis. I choose Reaktor first for sampling, and producing the kind of weird sounds and odd beat structures on which I thrive.

But I always come back to Protools to do music production, meaning anything that is multitrack and complicated. I guess I really do believe that its the best interface available for anybody who sits in front of a computer screen doing pro-level sound editing every day for months at a time.

[avaldes]

Thanks for the replies. I am looking seriously at the Focusrite, but also at the Yamaha MG10XU, which is more versatile as a small mixer. Anyone use the Yamaha as a recording interface on OS X Yosemite?

[avaldes]

The MG10 XU is "USB Audio Class 2.0 Compliant", as per http://usa.yamaha.com/products/live_..._model/mg10xu/

[Colin Lindsay]

I have an old M-Audio that became incompatible

Me too, but now I use an M-Audio Profire 610 with no problems. The M-Audio Fast Track is supposed to work up to OSX 10.6.1, but got nowhere near it on my system, which is a pity as it was so simple to use.
Software is Ableton Live.

[almeriastrings]

Right now i have a i7 iMac with 16 gb memory running Yosemite and Protools 10.3.8. I do a lot more editing these days than recording so about a year ago I downsized my sound device to a UA Apollo Twin. I LOVE my Apollo Twin with its thunderbolt connector, its software console, and it slew of high performance plugins that don't use any part of the iMac's memory.

I agree. These are an exceptionally good interface. I was using the (older, firewire) Apogee Ensemble previously, which was also excellent, but the built-in DSP of the Twin is very useful and the new 'Unison' capability of the preamps is amazingly good. I have the hardware 610 preamps and did an A/B comparison with the Unison models and I'd defy anyone to reliably pick pick from the other. The Neve 1073 is also wonderful.

One thing I really like with the twin is the desktop accessibility, combined with the ADAT in - so with a bit of extra outboard if you need 10 mic/lines, you can have them. I've been using the 4-710d recently which is a great match with the Twin. The UA plugins are great, and along with a few of the Fabfilter plugins are all I find I need these days.

[avaldes]

Thanks, Almeria. I appreciate your useful and informative posts. I am looking at an interface in the $200 US range. I record with condenser mics and not a whole lot of effects. So the Focusrite and the Yamaha are in the right price range. I think the Focusrite does everything I need for recording, but the Yamaha is interesting as a true small mixer.
(BG mandolin in Spain? Or do you throw in some flamenco?)

[Michael Weaver]

Thanks, Almeria. I appreciate your useful and informative posts. I am looking at an interface in the $200 US range. I record with condenser mics and not a whole lot of effects. So the Focusrite and the Yamaha are in the right price range. I think the Focusrite does everything I need for recording, but the Yamaha is interesting as a true small mixer. (BG mandolin in Spain? Or do you throw in some flamenco?)

I would go with Focusrite myself. They work flawless with Mac. I've had the Focusrite 4i4 before and I currently run a Focusrite 18i20 with Yosemite, Pro Tools 11 and a series of other things.

Jim Nollman, don't make the jump to PT 11 yet. Avid doesn't officially support Yosemite yet. I just updated to the PT 11.3 version and the "read me" still doesn't support it. That being said I have only had a few small problems ie. the playback engine switching mid project to cut the monitors. Not a big deal but it's happened. That being the only glitch I have had, you will love PT 11.

[Jim Nollman]

Yes, Michael, I have been working with Avid long enough to keep away from upgrading Protools until they "officially support" the OS I am using. And it always seems way too long of a wait between the OS release and the Avid upgrade.

As far as Almeria's praise for the UA Apollo twin, you got me chuckling, because I also own a very fine UA outboard mic preamp (the 710) that I bought a few years back, which vastly improved my microphone input signals. But now, using the Apollo, I really don't hear much difference using the software 610B preamp that's built into the Apollo. Not to mention the 3 or 4 other built-in preamps that are of equal quality, and all slightly different. I wonder if it's the beginning of the end of hardware bussing for all but the most purist of sound guys.

[foldedpath]

As far as Almeria's praise for the UA Apollo twin, you got me chuckling, because I also own a very fine UA outboard mic preamp (the 710) that I bought a few years back, which vastly improved my microphone input signals. But now, using the Apollo, I really don't hear much difference using the software 610B preamp that's built into the Apollo. Not to mention the 3 or 4 other built-in preamps that are of equal quality, and all slightly different. I wonder if it's the beginning of the end of hardware bussing for all but the most purist of sound guys.

You rang?

Okay, I'm a purist sound guy, but here's a valid point (I think) if we're talking about outboard mic preamps vs. preamps built into recording interfaces:

A standalone mic preamp lives forever. Well, almost forever. I still use the Great River preamp I bought 12 years ago, and the AEA TRP preamp I bought 8 years ago. I can still use those years from now, no matter what computer OS I'm using, or what digital doohicky gets the analog audio into a hardware recorder or a computer. They'll survive anything I do, including having a brain malfunction that sends me back to pure analog recording on tape (not likely, but 'ya never know).

Now, I do use a nice RME Fireface UFX recording interface, with some very clean built-in mic pres. It works right now in the modes I use it in... standalone recording to a USB stick with an iPad driving it as a control surface, or hooked up to a laptop running Samplitude Pro for multitracking. But all of that requires a lot of software back-and-forth compatibility.

Meanwhile, my standalone preamps just keep chugging along... blisfully unaware of what they're plugged into. They don't care. They're analog and will work with whatever is in the "middleware" of digital recording and editing. My highest investment in recording has always been on the analog front and back ends -- microphones, mic preamps, monitor speakers and the room. The digital stuff in the middle changes often.

Let me tell you about my old Ensoniq Paris rig... that was pretty cool. Dead as a doornail now, but the mics and mic preamps I used with it still work.

[almeriastrings]

Obsolescence is certainly an issue with anything digital or computer-based. No doubt... you can see this in the way iPad connectivity has changed so quickly, and how firewire (once the fastest and greatest) is not even present on recent Macs. That said, I got quite a few years very productive use from my Apogee Ensemble, and when I sold it not long back, I managed to get enough for it to switch it for a brand new Apollo Twin, which should see me OK for the foreseeable future... so that was not too bad. I am hanging onto my favourite analog hardware (UA 6176, 4-710d, LA-610 Mk.II and a few other bits and pieces), but I did have a big Ebay clear-out and moved some of it on, as in terms of results, I could certainly manage perfectly well with just the Twin....the quality is certainly there.

For a lower-medium priced interface, the Focusrite Scarlett's are really excellent. Super preamps and very good converters. Can recommend highly.

[Jim Nollman]

I also plan to hold on to my hardware "twinfinity" preamp. But only because it's paid for, I don't need the money, its completely integrated into my setup, and I have a fondness for twiddling dials. But I don't actually need it since I got the Apollo twin. And I used to need it a whole lot. That is, until the moment the ATwin replaced the Digi002 in my studio.

Although I nod in empathy to hear the argument that hardware preamps live forever, I think it is just as true that quality software preamps are here to stay. Aside from the tactile comfort of twiddling hardware dials, I find no other superiority in the metal boxes over the algorithms. Sure, I might feel differently if I owned a sound palace with lots of classic hardware boxes.

Once these classic preamp algorithms become standardized, they will cost less and less as time passes. Its not just preamps either, but emulations of classic reverbs, compressors, EQs, guitar amps. UA certainly didn't invent the concept. But so far, they are doing the best job of drastically dropping the price point of sound interfaces that eliminate plugins from the CPU and into the interface.

[almeriastrings]

UA certainly didn't invent the concept. But so far, they are doing the best job of drastically dropping the price point of sound interfaces that eliminate plugins from the CPU and into the interface.

Yes. One of the early units to use these principles (convolution hardware modelling of preamps and compressors) to my knowledge was the Focusrite Liquid Channel back in 2004. That was followed a couple of years later by the Liquid Mix, a DSP computer 'add on' that allowed modelling of comps, EQ's etc during mixdown.

Since then, of course, computer power has increased enormously, we now have very fast connectivity via thunderbolt, and what is most impressive on the UA platform is the lack of any latency problems and the 'real time' Unison technology. All very nice and it works beautifully - but I agree completely, life would not be quite the same without a few real tubes glowing and knobs to twiddle

[avaldes]

OK, I got the Focusrite 2I2. As advertised, it did not require a driver download (when you get to the download page, it says you don't need one for Mac OS).

It is pretty intuitive, and without reading manuals, I did this recording on Garage Band. The missed notes are not the fault of the Focusrite, of course.

It appears to sample at 44.1 KHz, to address a point raised previously.

It has a license code for Ableton Lite, which I started up and worked the basics. But that has more of a learning curve.

WhiskeyMix.mp3

[almeriastrings]

It will record at sample rates of up to 96kHz, 24-bit - however, the main result of doing so in a typical home studio situation is simply huge file sizes. 44.1 at 24-bit is much lower on resources and sonically entirely satisfactory for most purposes.

You can change the sample rate and bit depth from the audio interface settings/preferences pane of your DAW software.

Ableton is rather idiosyncratic software.. and the 'lite' version is heavily limited. Plenty of other choices out there, including free/low cost options that are much more straightforward and that work in a more orthodox fashion.

[avaldes]

This is with the focusrite, two Rode NT3 mics in an X-Y configuration, recorded into GarageBand. Then exported to mp3, so not CD quality.
https://soundcloud.com/prairiealoha/cherokee-shuffle

[Michael Weaver]

It seems like you are getting it figured out. You will be able to fine tune it as you go along. Congrats.