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RME User Forum → ADI-2 & 2/4 Pro series, ADI-2 DAC series → Madiface drivers adi-2 pro FS macOS?
Hi RME,
Is it possible, or are there any plans to make this possible, to use the existing madiface driver for the adi-2 pro fs on macos? It would be great to have lower latency and more stable RME drivers instead of the class compliant Apple drivers. If I understand well windows users are using the madiface driver, so they got lucky (a bit 
).
Windows drivers are ASIO drivers.
MacOS has another driver model "core audio".
I do not know why ASIO drivers are incompatible or can't be written on MacOS .. but there seem to be reasons.
Maybe its not so easy (impossible) to access the HW directly in MacOS for security or stability reasons.
Maybe for this reason all needs to go through the Core Audio drivers.
I understand, thanks for the reply. But aren’t the madiface drivers RME proprietary drivers? I was wondering if it would able to use similar RME drivers instead of core audio on mac. I know core audio is a better framework then windows WDM drivers, but rme drivers (like the madiface driver for windows) would leave us with a better stability and/or latency.
Well the one are Windows optimized (ASIO) the others MacOS X optimized (Core Audio).
Two different methodologies, because Windows and MacOS X are completely different operating systems.
Well the mac version of the driver of the adi-2 pro is just the standard class compliant driver made by apple, not RME. The madiface is an asio driver for windows (not by microsoft), but made by RME and using RME’s excellently rewritten USB protocol (if i get this correctly). That explains why eg it has a better latency performance and probably have a better stability in a pro audio system where a system needs to be working consistently under load (eg low latency settings). I think this can be an important factor when wanting to use the adi-2 pro’s usb interface on mac. I’m not completely sure about this, so that’s why I was asking RME or other specialists like you on this forum. Maybe as well, there are plans for an RME mac driver, allthough this doesn’t seem that probable?
Core Audio is a set of programming interfaces (APIs) of the Apple operating systems macOS and iOS for real-time internal audio processing, as well as the connection and control of external audio hardware.
These interfaces provide a direct connection to the hardware abstraction layer on the operating system side, enabling the low latencies required for real-time capability. The developer is provided with a large number of frontend APIs (Audio Units, OpenAL, MIDI, AudioToolbox etc.) for use, the so-called Application Level Services.
It should deliver everything from ground up what applications require.
Windows didnt have this from ground up, so ASIO was needed to be able to give devices direct latency free access to the audio HW.
This doesn't exclude, that the implementation of ASIO under Windows now might be more performant ...
But it also means, that MacOS has its own way to handle audio because of a different kernel and audio architecture.
So in the Mac world you get Core Audio, and thats it.
You should perhaps make a side by side comparison by installing Windows on a Mac ... then you can judge whats better.
If in the past years no developer released an ASIO driver ... then it was either not necessary or not easily possible.
Or there was no market for it, because everybody at the end uses Core Audio ....
I understand this and thanks for the explanation. But do you mean by this that there is no difference between using the class compliant apple driver and the macos usb drivers used by other RME interfaces (set apart the class compliancy)? It doesn’t seem so. I read somewhere in a reaction by RME (by MC) on a comparison of the Babyface pro and the adi-2 pro, that latency would be greater on the last one, because of the used apple drivers. But my strongest concern would be stability. I would use the adi-2 pro fs with a di and preamp in live situations and it needs to be rock solid for this.
Please see the reaction of MC on this thread (halfway)
https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=25179
No, I said try it out on the same HW .. Mac OS HW and install both, MacOS and Windows.
Then look what RTL (round trip latency ) you see in the DAW.
Under Windows, by using smallest ASIO buffersize, dunno what needs to be done on MacOS X.
MCs comments are as always interesting and enlightening.
Well .. tbh .. I am a Windows guy and am not so much interested into Apple anyway.
I only tried to explain why there is no ASIO with Apple.
I have no Windows licence here to try this out. But thanks for the suggestion. Maybe someone from RME could chime in. Can they say something about stability of the Macos driver, or about possible future plans for an RME made driver?
Another question I have if there is a possibility of a multichannel mode through adat without having to turn to the usb mode (for instance when connecting it to my ufx+ By adat)?
Another question I have if there is a possibility of a multichannel mode through adat without having to turn to the usb mode (for instance when connecting it to my ufx+ By adat)?
Not sure whether I understood your question 100%, but ... you can operate the ADI-2 Pro FS fully standalone, it doesn't need to be connected to USB. See Manual, operation modes, ...
I connect the adi-2 pro to my ufx + by adat, and would like to send seperate outputs to the two adi-2 pro dacs from within totalmix. It seems there is no option to do this. There is only a single channel coming through.
If you want to connect two ADI-2 Pro to the UFX+ then it looks from cabling perspective like this:
Either:
UFX+ (ADAT1 OUT) -----------------> (SPDIF IN) ADI-2 Pro #1
UFX+ (ADAT2 OUT) -----------------> (SPDIF IN) ADI-2 Pro #2
Or:
UFX+ (ADAT1 OUT) -----------------> (SPDIF IN) ADI-2 Pro #1
UFX+ (AES OUT) -----------------> (AES IN) ADI-2 Pro #2
Route audio to ADI-2 Pro #1, save to a free snapshot, i.e. TM FX snapshot #1
Route audio to ADI-2 Pro #2, save to a free snapshot, i.e. TM FX snapshot #2
Recall snapshot #1 / #2 as you need.
Was that your question ?
As mentioned in the manual the ADAT port on ADI-2 Pro supports only 2 channels. And that won't change.
Ok that’s clear, thanks for the reactions. I’m using the aes plus adat as Ramses suggested.
Matthias, could you give a reaction on my other questions concerning the stability of the cc apple driver for low latency live use (i fear the answer might be that this depends entirely on Apple), or on any plans to have a RME proprietary driver for the adi-2 pro as the windows madiface driver?
Your fear is right
While CC on macOS could have lower latency it is at least very stable, because integrated deeply into the OS. We have no plans to add Pro/DAC to the existing USB series Mac driver.
Ok thanks for the transparency. But let me put in some nice words too. I have a rack with the adi-2 pro, fireface ufx+ and my old fireface 800 (really great dac still) hooked up and let me just say this in an American way, I love you guys for it!
RME User Forum → ADI-2 & 2/4 Pro series, ADI-2 DAC series → Madiface drivers adi-2 pro FS macOS?
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