1 Topic by joegold (edited by joegold 2021-10-02 22:28:34)

  • From: Toronto
  • Registered: 2013-08-22
  • Posts: 9

Topic: Jeez What's going on with the Babyface Mac Drivers?

So today, I went to use my Babyface (original), like I always do, and nothing worked as expected.

The BF was not in the device list in Sound Preferences or Audio MIDI Setup.
Fireface USB Settings would not launch.
TotalMix appeared to be open but would not show any windows.

So I searched around the web and found some stuff about Class Compliant Mode and figured out how to turn it on and off.
But toggling it on/off did nothing for my issues, iirc.
I was confused between the leds behaviour for CC and Norm modes.
At some point I did get FF USB Settings to open and I did see the BF in the device lists, but I think it was when I was in CC mode, which isn't supposed to happen.
(Note: I've fixed the problem since then and don't totally recall all the details of my troubleshooting efforts.
It may have been that when I was in Norm mode, that I was able to launch the Settings app and select the BF in the devices list.
But still no windows in TotalMix and still not the way the BF usually behaved.)

Then I tried dl'ing the Driver and the Flash Update again from RME's web site.
The latest driver available was 3.25.
So I installed that again, and authorized the Mac to run it in System Prefs.
But I was already running that same driver, and when I restarted the Mac there was no change.
And the Flash Update app would not run at all.
Very weird, I thought.

Then I started reading some other threads on this forum and somebody had posted a link to Driver 3.26.
I dl'd that one, installed it, authorized it, and restarted my iMac, and now everything is fine.

So why the f... is that driver not in the list of drivers now on the main page where we go to dl RME drivers?
As a matter of fact, I can't find any mention of that driver anywhere on RME's site or on the web.
I wasted several hours today troubleshooting this CRAP.

There was a small security update Apple had us install the other day that didn't even require a restart.
I don't think it even changed the OS version number.
I'm on Mac OS 11.6 now.
Maybe that was the culprit that started the issue, and then RME came out quickly with a new driver?
Normally that would be laudible.
But that driver is ng to anybody unless we can find it.
Jeez.

I hope this helps the next poor fool who tries to figure this out.

--
Joey Goldstein
http://www.joeygoldstein.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/JoeyGoldstein

joegold's Website

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-10-03 11:29:01)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 12,028

Re: Jeez What's going on with the Babyface Mac Drivers?

joegold wrote:

So today, I went to use my Babyface (original), like I always do, and nothing worked as expected.

The BF was not in the device list in Sound Preferences or Audio MIDI Setup.
Fireface USB Settings would not launch.
TotalMix appeared to be open but would not show any windows.

So I searched around the web and found some stuff about Class Compliant Mode and figured out how to turn it on and off.
But toggling it on/off did nothing for my issues, iirc.
I was confused between the leds behaviour for CC and Norm modes.
At some point I did get FF USB Settings to open and I did see the BF in the device lists, but I think it was when I was in CC mode, which isn't supposed to happen.
(Note: I've fixed the problem since then and don't totally recall all the details of my troubleshooting efforts.
It may have been that when I was in Norm mode, that I was able to launch the Settings app and select the BF in the devices list.
But still no windows in TotalMix and still not the way the BF usually behaved.)

Then I tried dl'ing the Driver and the Flash Update again from RME's web site.
The latest driver available was 3.25.
So I installed that again, and authorized the Mac to run it in System Prefs.
But I was already running that same driver, and when I restarted the Mac there was no change.
And the Flash Update app would not run at all.
Very weird, I thought.

Then I started reading some other threads on this forum and somebody had posted a link to Driver 3.26.
I dl'd that one, installed it, authorized it, and restarted my iMac, and now everything is fine.

So why the f... is that driver not in the list of drivers now on the main page where we go to dl RME drivers?
As a matter of fact, I can't find any mention of that driver anywhere on RME's site or on the web.
I wasted several hours today troubleshooting this CRAP.

There was a small security update Apple had us install the other day that didn't even require a restart.
I don't think it even changed the OS version number.
I'm on Mac OS 11.6 now.
Maybe that was the culprit that started the issue, and then RME came out quickly with a new driver?
Normally that would be laudible.
But that driver is ng to anybody unless we can find it.
Jeez.

I hope this helps the next poor fool who tries to figure this out.

Sorry to hear this, but it is nothing new that computer manufacturers (no matter whether Microsoft or Apple) sometimes cause damage to a recording setup with operating system updates.

In such a case, you should simply install the backup from the day before and you're done. That would certainly have solved your problem as well.

Instead, you are changing things on your system that really don't change themselves from yesterday to today and create other issues by this and loose time.

I urgently recommend you to rethink your backup / recovery strategy and to improve it if necessary, in order to get such (not unusual) situations better under control.

RME can't be blamed for quickly publishing a fix in the forum. This is faster than changing the web server and I assume that most customers are more often in the forum than on the web server so that this is a really valid approach and be happy that RME offers a fix so quickly..

With all the annoyance and understanding that computers can sometimes rob you of your last nerve, you should keep a sense of proportion here and not make the manufacturer responsible for things that are not on his table.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • From: Toronto
  • Registered: 2013-08-22
  • Posts: 9

Re: Jeez What's going on with the Babyface Mac Drivers?

ramses wrote:

Sorry to hear this, but it is nothing new that computer manufacturers (no matter whether Microsoft or Apple) sometimes cause damage to a recording setup with operating system updates.

In such a case, you should simply install the backup from the day before and you're done. That would certainly have solved your problem as well.

Instead, you are changing things on your system that really don't change themselves from yesterday to today and create other issues by this and loose time.

I urgently recommend you to rethink your backup / recovery strategy and to improve it if necessary, in order to get such (not unusual) situations better under control.

RME can't be blamed for quickly publishing a fix in the forum. This is faster than changing the web server and I assume that most customers are more often in the forum than on the web server so that this is a really valid approach and be happy that RME offers a fix so quickly..

With all the annoyance and understanding that computers can sometimes rob you of your last nerve, you should keep a sense of proportion here and not make the manufacturer responsible for things that are not on his table.


1. Restoring from a backup would not have fixed this.
The backup would have been using the older driver, 3.25.

2. I don't think I've ever needed to come on this forum before in order to use my Babyface which I've been using since 2013.

3. Posting the needed driver on the forum rather than the web server is useless for the general user of these products.
I just checked the server again today, this time with a different browser to see if that was my issue (Firefox does weird stuff these days), but it's still not there.

4. For anybody else who is also searching for 3.26, here's the link that I found on this forum:
https://rme-audio.de/downloads/driver_usb_mac_326.zip

5. Here's the link to the forum Sticky thread where an admin posted the 3.26 driver.
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=33870
There is no mention of the fact that 3.25 does not work anymore either.
It seems that the reason they put out this driver, which appears to be a beta driver, was to solve some other issue having to do with the installation itself, not with the functionality of the driver itself.

6. I realize that the original Babyface is no longer supported.
Maybe this wouldn't have happened with the BF Pro?

--
Joey Goldstein
http://www.joeygoldstein.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/JoeyGoldstein

joegold's Website

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-10-03 15:08:43)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 12,028

Re: Jeez What's going on with the Babyface Mac Drivers?

> 1. Restoring from a backup would not have fixed this.
> The backup would have been using the older driver, 3.25.

I am talking about a restore of the Operating System not only user data.
With a restore of the OS the Update that caused the issues would not be there anymore and you could again work.
Of course it's advised to turn off automatic OS updates until you know how to handle it.
In this case somebody would have told you, that a new driver is out to fix that (either here in the forum or after opening a support ticket).

> I just checked the server again today, this time with a different browser to see
> if that was my issue (Firefox does weird stuff these days), but it's still not there

Without wanting to offend you, but your expectations seem a bit too high to me. Its weekend and the patch has been made available. Give it a few days until you will see it on the webserver.

I could think of that RME is waiting for feedback from a few users 1st before making it available on webserver. As you can see here Apple had to fix a few things on their own as well short ago: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 19#p176419

If things are still so fresh (fix from Apple just from ~30.09.) then it is rather laudable from RME to wait for some feedback from users for the new driver version before putting the fix on the web server, which has a more official touch.

> I realize that the original Babyface is no longer supported.
> Maybe this wouldn't have happened with the BF Pro?

All Babyfaces use the same USB driver and it is updated regularly. This is one of the key advantages of RME, that the devices get a very long driver support, the Fireface 400/800 now already 20+ years. And your device is also still supported by the driver.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13