Heard about issues with MOTU Ultralite + Intel Macs ?

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Soulgolem

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I really want a bus powered interface for my Macbook, really like the ultralite from Motu, but since it has only two mic pres, how can it record drums, I'll need more for that, but I mainly will be recording one or two tracks at a time. Heard there were midi problem with the Ultralite combined with the Intel based macs, might only be the first shipped batch, forget where I heard that... oh yeah, the review section of musiciansfriend, can anybody confirm this ? Cuz I'm about to buy it !!

Francis.
 
i own it

i have a PPC and and intel mac a 12 in power book and imac respectivly and have never had an issue with midi and my ultralight ever. the 2 mic pres does not give you much options for drums if you are mainly doing drums a MOTU 8pre is the way to go but the ultralight is more versital. when i do drums through it i use a 16input 4 buss console this allows me to mic the set, eq, and compress as necessary then mix that down to 4 busses and take thoes in the 1/4in inputs on the ultralight and i get great results. how ever in a good room 2 over head mics pluged in to the pres and a bass drum mic with a XLR to !/4 in cable in to one of the inputs can sound greate if the room has good acoustics. the midi issue i have never heard about with any MOTU units, that was there orginal stuff all midi, how ever most of the midi ports on like the ultralight and 8 pre are intended for consoles like the mackie control but i use them for drum machines and keys all the time and it works fine. the point is midi is midi no mater what is conected to it. i highly recomend this unit.
 
You need to find out if its the argere or the TI chipset in the EXACT individual unit that you are looking at purchasing. Not the model, not the style, the very exact one.

Every audio forum on the internet is lit up about the firewire problems on the newer macs. There is a lot of info at the rme site. As long as you get the right chipset, you'll probably be ok, but do NOT trust the apple store or any other seller (except maybe companies like ADK) to even know where to look, or to care.
 
I guess I must be lucky. I've used both PCI and firewire interfaces with my Intel Mac (both MOTU and Presonus) without a lick of trouble.

My MOTU Traveler has been rock solid on both my PPC iBook and my Intel Mac. I would expect the Ultralite to give the same solid performance, although I can't say I've used an Ultralite--just the Traveler. I really don't think you need to go around asking manufacturers what chipset is in the serial number unit you are using.

If it works, use it, and if it doesn't send it back for another or another from a different manufacturer.
 
"boot the Mac in single user mode by holding down Command (the "Apple key") and 'S' while booting (just after the startup tone). There will be a line about your firewire chipset; if it indicates "TI" then you've got a Texas Instruments controller as opposed to the newer Agere."

that should explain your luck if you see TI there
 
Okay, I've got a TI firewire chipset.

What's the command to get out of that command line interface and continue booting the Mac in the "normal" way?

So Apple is using TI chipsets in some Macs, and Agere in others? Or have they switched over to Agere in all their new Macs?

This kind of bites, because I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini to use as a dedicated sampler. I'd most likely be using it with a firewire interface. Hopefully Apple is working on this.

Thanks for the heads up pipeline.
 
Err, sorry I dont know I thought if you reboot it would go back to normal :(

I feel like a turkey! Some smart OSX person will know

the mac mini's seem to come with some pretty awful parts, so I don't see too much stink, as it was kind of expected, however, even some of the macbookpro's are coming with the junk stuff, and there was a lot of complaining and allegedly apple is going to change that for new models, but they still arent being forthright about which chip a *specific* computer you are buying has, so it probably needs to be checked youself.

Maybe they are fixing the mini's as well
 
Only Mac Pros have TI right now. Everything else NEW is not.

Just got out of a meeting with our Mac rep. They are well aware of the problem but probably won't fix it until new models are released. So be careful what you attach to them.
 
Only some mac pro's as well, there are pro's with the argere, so you have to check any individual unit you are planning on purchasing
 
pipelineaudio said:
"boot the Mac in single user mode by holding down Command (the "Apple key") and 'S' while booting (just after the startup tone). There will be a line about your firewire chipset; if it indicates "TI" then you've got a Texas Instruments controller as opposed to the newer Agere."

that should explain your luck if you see TI there
Click to expand...

No need to reboot. Just look in /var/log/system.log.
 
I love my UltraLite - it's running nicely on my (Intel based) homebrew PC.

Alcatel-Lucent or TI firewire chipsets will be fine.
If you need more pre-amps... buy more pre-amps? :p

These little ART pre's are meant to be pretty decent for home use:
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/3561

Don't know what they are like for drums though...

There are plenty of inputs to plug pre's into in the UltraLite!

If you need more pre's, it may be worth looking at the MOTU 8-Pre rather than the UltraLite though.
 
An interesting note to add.

I'm setting up an iMac (brand new from Apple) for a customer today and it has Lucent Firewire, which is one of the 2 chipsets supported by MOTU. This has a Presonus Firebox and is working just fine so far in testing.
 
You could tie a blindfold around your head and quite possibly run across the freeway and not get hit too, but anectdotes aside, its not necessarily just the chip thats in question, there could be other factors. For every person who has lucked out even with the sketchier components, there are a number who are insolvable.

My Dell has the dreaded Ricoh combo USB/FW400 on it and I can run a FF800 just fine, doesnt mean that in my wildest dreams I would reccmend that setup to someone.
 
Well, the whole idea of Mac is higher quality components than your off the shelf Dell, etc. That at least holds true in the Pro line, minus the firewire fiasco. They're SUPPOSED to be consistant, and the lack of that lately is what is making this mess. And the closed lip policy of Apple adds to it. When their own reps have no idea what components are coming off the line, that really doesn't help. Their policies have one part of the company working on parts with any knowledge of whats going on inthe other parts of the machine. I think all that is called "paranoia". I haven't sold a MacBook Pro for about 5 months now because I will not qualify them for Pro Audio or support them in their current state. I took a gamble on the iMac. I do have the luxury of getting to pre-test before I will send one out, so I know if it has good parts and if it will work or not. As long as the Lucent firewire is in there, the other components in it should be just fine for Pro Audio. At least thats what 3 days of testing tells me.
 
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