Sound Card for MacPro

G

ggrantly

Veteran
Hello Listers,

I am looking for a PCI sound card for my Newhalem MacPro. This card would run my powered monitors primarily, but having midi is a nice bonus. I probably would not record through this device so pre-amps aren't important. I don't want to cheap out on quality, but don't need anything exotic either. This M-Audio unit seems about what i need in features and is modestly priced. Don't know about the quality. Any comments or other suggestions for other products would be appreciated.

Grant

And happy New Year to everyone.
 
I would vote for the AVID MBOX02 MINI. they are fairly inexpensive and come with pro tools LE. also works great as a physical volume knob for your monitors.
 
I think if I were going that route, I would do the Apogee One. The drawback being the 1/8 output plug. Don't want or need protools. For sure, a volume knob would be nice, but I am pretty comfortable with computer control of volume.

Grant
 
I believe it also has balanced outputs as well ( i might be wrong I own a full Mbox02 which definitely does have them).

Wanting or needing Protools is up to the individual, as it IS the standard for audio multi-track editing, so it could be a great plus for OP.

hope that helps
 
My thoughts... Buying a PCI card solution limits you in the future as Mac is doing away with PCI Macs.

Just food for thought.
 
Yes, that has been on my mind. And quite frankly, if they quit the tower business, I might quit Apple. That was hard to choke out since I go back the the IIe, circa 1982 or something near. In any event, I am good for a few years since my tower is fairly recent, so a cheapo audio card isn't anything I'd worry much about.

Grant
 
Since you are looking for a fairly limited usage of an entry level audio card, I would look at the lower priced alternatives from the companies with a reputation of making good solid drivers. These are apogee and motu for mac, and for both pc and mac echo audio and edirol. RME also makes very solid interfaces, but are more expensive. I would personally not look at other brands than these unless you can get a killer deal, since these are the ones that are most likely to work without inducing any problems. There are of course many who use mbox, presonus etc and have never had a problem, in which case they are a very good value, but the chance of some driver problem is bigger with those than the brands mentioned above.

This is in part my own limited experience, but largely the general consensus of many forums I've looked up when I was going to purchase a card myself. I bought an echo audiofire 4, and it has never given me any problems. The audiofire 4 or apogee one is right up your alley (echo also has some pci cards).
 
FYI you can't put a PCI card in a MacPro, you need a PCIe. That may have been what you meant but you have to be careful because there are still plenty of PCI cards around since most windows boxes can install a PCI card.

I'm a big Protools user but I wouldn't get a AVID interface (All Digi products are now branded AVID). The reason is Digi (Avid) is not known for playing nice with third party applications. They may have changed their ways but especially if your not planning on using ProTools I wouldn't take the chance that the digi interface would be buggy with whatever you are using. Also as of the current version of ProTools you no longer need Avid hardware to run PT so if you get PT in the future you can still se the box.

Sound cards are not as common on Macs as they are on PC's. Not sure exactly why, probably because most of the sound card upgrades are by gammers and that is a heavy PC camp. I would probably opt for a firewire box from MOTU or RME. As an alternative you might pick up a mixer with a computer connection. Especially if this is more a monitor everything kind of use. One of the Alesis or Mackie boards would give you the outs and some nice ins and you could hook up other devices to the extra ins so you can use the sound system for other boxes, CD player etc.
 
The Mboxes are solid with most applications for video as it basically just re-directs what the computer main output to real balanced outputs (at least on the M02, not 100% on the mini) and they can be had fairly inexpensively on the bid sites. and usually comes with some version of Protools LE.

hard to beat
 
Thanks for the great replies.

Jema, you are spot on on the drivers and Apple compatibility.

RecordingWhiz, you are pretty high on the Mbox, do you use that with a PC or Mac? Have you used it with Logic?

Noiz, thanks for the reminder on the card type. And yes, Avid doesn't have a great reputation for playing well with others, though I have no personal experience with this.

The whole driver issue is a real concern with the rate of change in Apple OS. I usually stay a version behind not because I don't like to upgrade, but it takes time for all the third party folks to keep pace. I do some photography also, and have had to upgrade firmware and drivers on all my better photo printers; what a pain and very time consuming. Presently I am using a Motu Traveller Mk3 and it is a really nice piece of hardware, though I haven't used it much for field recording as I first anticipated, so it may be sold and replaced by something more modest. Anyone interested? In the end, I really just need to drive my monitors and reducing the clutter in my workstation would be good too.

Grant
 
I'm going to say the opposite of noiz

GET THE MBOX


It uses the core audio drivers. Not buggy.
It's rugged
You could use it to record something if you wanted to.
You can find them for pretty cheap!

The first thing avid did when it acquired digidesign was get rid of the hardware requirements and put the security on the ilok. You can now use anything that uses core audio (mac) or asio (pc) drivers in Protools.
 
I use my Mbox02 with both my macbook pro as well as my i7 windows desktop machine, and its rock solid on both.
I do not use Logic so I cannot comment on its performance with that piece of software.
however I do Use it with protools, audacity and various other software on my MBP and use it in Windows with Protools, Vegas, and any other software that makes sound in either, again, rock solid for the last few years.

again, hope this helps.
 
not to mention you get 2 decent mic pre's with phantom and can be switched to DI level and a headphone out with its own volume control separate from the main out.
so I think right now probably the best value in what it does in signal flexibility and quality. and you get knobs for volume controls.
Balanced out via TRS so perfect match for powered speakers.

Cheers
 
I have a HD system, an MBox2 and a Mbox micro, so I do have a lot of digi hardware. Digi has been VERY slow to catch up with Apple OS changes. Part of that is that Avid and Apple HATE each other, as in fist fights at trade shows HATE. So last I heard Digi gets no advance info on new OS's as all other developers do. It can take Digi six months to a year to officially endorse a new Mac OS. Digi (unless the V10 changed things) does not use core audio drivers but a special digi driver that shoehorns into the core audio system. So Logic at one point didn't work (or work well) for over a year. And various other apps that depend on Core Audio compatibility also had problems.

The hardware is fine but drivers have historically been a problem and Avid had a horrible reputation for support and it is now calling all the shots.

So it may not be a problem right now??? And maybe they have kissed and made friends at Apple - don't think so. And maybe they have true core audio drivers now??? I kind of doubt it because it would be very counter to their development but?

I just did a remote trouble shooting session with a friend on the west coast with PT9 and Digi required third party hardware to get added to a Digi aggregated virtual device to allow PT to use it so that to me says they aren't using core audio directly so???

Bottom line for me is that their history is not good with non Digi apps. They have not felt the need to support any non Digi software so IF I was mostly using non Digi software I would not be using Digi hardware.

ProTools is my everyday software so I do use Digi hardware for the same reason.
 
I know you are correct with the Digi /Apple issues (I have had Digi gear since 92' when it was 4 track only ) ,

however we need to look at what the OP is asking for. for a simple solid solution to get nice balanced outs with some really decent pre-amps with a bit of options the Mbox is hard to beat, With both of my machines the Core audio drivers have no problem operating as the 2 channel in and out instead of what the computer built in stuff. and you get PT LE in the mix.

Cheers.
 
ggrantly said:
Hello Listers,

I am looking for a PCI sound card for my Newhalem MacPro. This card would run my powered monitors primarily, but having midi is a nice bonus. I probably would not record through this device so pre-amps aren't important. I don't want to cheap out on quality, but don't need anything exotic either. This M-Audio unit seems about what i need in features and is modestly priced. Don't know about the quality. Any comments or other suggestions for other products would be appreciated.

Grant

And happy New Year to everyone.
Click to expand...

I use a Grace m902b - now superseded by the new Grace m903

m903_main.jpg

You can use the optical out from the Mac or use the USB.

It also has other digital and analogue inputs and is extremely versatile.

It's an excellent monitor controller and headphone amplifier.

Highly recommended.

I hope to upgrade my 902b to the 903 soon.

Quality is the absolute tops - but it's not cheap.
 
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