MacBook Pro Retina with Thunderbolt ports supported?

[robert]

Hi Eventide team,

I recently got a lovely new macBook Retina with thunderbolt ports instead of firewire. And it's running Mountain Lion. While I got it for work, I would of course love to connect the laptop with my H8000FW.

I tried and got zip, but the setup involves a thunderbolt-to-fw conversion plug from Apple, followed by a fw800-to-fw400 cable. 

Question: Am I correct in assuming that OSX Mountain Lion and/or the Thunderbolt->FireWire setup is simply not supported at the moment in the Eventide Firewire driver?

Thanks, Robert

[nickrose]

Currently we don't support Mountain Lion, but expect it to be ready in a few months – this is why we have not fully released V5.6 (we're waiting for the drivers).

Thunderbolt-F/W – no idea. Sounds like it depends how the Mac end works – if it emulates the current F/W interface it should work, otherwise …

[robert]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the quick answer. A couple of months for release sounds perfectly fine. Already guessed that you guys were holding the v5.6 release for Mountain Lion. The previous Lion didn't last long, did it?

Can we assume that the v5.6-beta2 release will definitely not work on Mountain Lion? The Control Panel runs but doesn't see the H8000FW connected. I'd like to be sure that there's not some stupid cable issue causing the problem here. 

Thanks, Robert

[nickrose]

Hi Robert

Can't assume it definitely does not work, but we don't claim that it does. The main issue with Mountain Lion is the dread Gatekeeper security system – if you get round that and it works, well and good. Otherwise, could be anything.

[robert]

I understand. So there's a chance it simply works, and my problem may be the Thunderbolt conversion cable drama. Need to look more into that.

Regarding OSX Gatekeeper, that is easy to bypass. Simply right-click the installer and select Open from the menu. OSX probably assumes that you know what you're doing and offers an 'Open' option on the left hand side of the dialog. Select that and the thing installs. This so far worked for everything that Gatekeeper nagged about. Easy.

I used this way to install V5.6-beta2 and the installation went fine. Just not sure if it's worth anything. 😉

Best, Robert

[robert]

Hi Nick, an update on Mountain Lion support.

I updated my music Mac Pro to Mountain Lion 10.8.1 and Eventide v5.6-beta2, and bypassed the GateKeeper as described above. This Mac has a straight FW400 connection with the H8000FW and Eventide Dice control panel detects the Harmonizer just fine, as I hoped (pfew).

Haven't done any audio tests yet, but the main point is that Mac and H8000 do connect under Mountain Lion.

So I'm now assuming that the problem on my new Retina macBook is in the new connection: Thunderbolt -> FW800 -> FW400 -> H8000FW. Maybe the Eventide driver has to flip a switch somewhere in OSX, maybe my cable setup simply sucks. 

I'll do some more research and report back.

Robert

[robert]

Success!

I'm listening to Ableton Live on the new Retina macBook Pro laptop running Mountain Lion using the Eventide Dice Firewire driver (v5.6-beta2), through my beloved H8000FW. 

Physical setup is macBook Thunderbolt port -> Apple Thunder to FW800 adapter cable -> iWires FW800 to FW400 cable (2m) -> H8000FW Harmonizer.

I get a FIREWIRE1 OK lock on the Harmonizer, and so far (5 minutes) the audio sounds just fine. No glitches.

The problem was a dodgy connection of the FW cable in the back of the H8000FW. I have to butcher (strip away some of the connecter's plastic) all FW cables to make them fit in the back of the Harmonizer due to the FW sockets positioned too low in the back panel. The FW cable simply won't fit without it. Maybe there's a fix for this? Can the IO sub-panel be re-seated in the back panel?

Can't continue the test now but things are looking good. Will report back.

Robert

[robert]

Okay, short update.

The macBook has been running via firewire for hours and hours now without a single glitch. So far my routing only involved firewire in, analog out in the harmonizer. Will test fx soon, but I'm not expecting any issues.

Cheers, Robert

[nickrose]

Sounds promising.

Sorry about the plug issue, but it appears that these days cable makers add a lot of extra plastic to their products, presumably for purposes of style or perceived value. As a result, products designed before this trend was under way often have this problem. We have similar issues with the optical cables, which seem also to have gone for an all-hamburger diet.

[robert]

Hi Nick, thanks for the info regarding the plug problem. Didn't know it was a common problem, and thought maybe my back panel was a little off. Just checked the panel again and there's absolutely zero space for any 'plug fat'.  Oh well, butchering it is.

Just upgraded to Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and also tested FX processing on a signal brought into the Harmonizer via Firewire (and Thunderbolt) and fed back into the macBook via the same link. All fine (on 10.8.2).

As far as I can tell from my simple tests, the only driver problem is GateKeeper on OSX, but as mentioned before, that can be bypassed easily by right-clicking on the installer and select 'Open'.

Robert

[robert]

Okay, there's one thing that should be on the list, and that's bugging me since v5.6-beta1, and since I'm on one of the two OSX Lion operating systems. And I just found out it's also here on 10.8.2 with the v5.6-beta2 driver:

The Dice MIDI port will not automatically activate when the Harmonizer is detected. To fix that I have to open the Audio MIDI Setup app, open the MIDI window and do a Rescan MIDI. Before this wasn't needed.

Robert

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