• From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,784

Topic: Madiface XT and the Mac Pro (up to 2012), USB 3.0 and PCI-Ex.

Having successfully tested the Madiface XT with USB 2.0 on my Mac Pro (Mid 2010), I went on to find a solution to make it work with USB 3.0 there.

German distributor Inateck supplied a test card with the Fresco chipset, which unlike other solutions does not require a driver under OSX (10.8 and up). The inexpensive KTU3FR-4PA features 4 ports. It requires additional power over a SATA connector. An upcoming model will work without.
http://www.inateck.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/4PA-2.jpg

Result in short: The card and the chipset work. The Fresco has already been added to our compatibility list and seems highly recommendable.

Both in bootcamped W7/64 (Driver required) and in OSX 10.8, I was able to record 192 channels (24/48) in Reaper without any apparent problems. No glitches, no issues of the system beoming unresponsive or so, no USB errors. In W7, I also tested recording to an external 2.5" 2TB USB drive connected to a second port. Playing back the project seemed to sometimes cause disk overload, but this is not USB related. Multichannel recording was not yet tested in Win 8.1 (no driver required) and OSX 10.9, but basic operation is without obvious problems.


Next up: Testing the PCI-Ex Matrox card, with XT and a HDSPe MADI FX in an external case....


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,784

Re: Madiface XT and the Mac Pro (up to 2012), USB 3.0 and PCI-Ex.

I have now installed a Matrox PCI-Ex card alongside the HDSPe MADI FX in an external PCIe case and have Reaper happily recording 390 channels @44k/24bit on the same 2010 Mac Pro onto an external 2TB USB 3.0 drive, connected to the above mentioned Inateck card.... No signs of overload, although I'm not sure the disk will fully manage playback. However, with some fast RAID system or so, there should be no such problems. This is in OSX 10.85, with the two MADI cards set up as an aggregate device.

Conclusion: Don't throw away your pre-2013 Mac Pro yet... :-)


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-03
  • Posts: 6

Re: Madiface XT and the Mac Pro (up to 2012), USB 3.0 and PCI-Ex.

Hi Daniel, that is very impressive. Thanks for testing all this.  Two questions for you.  First, do you know if you use two MADI FXs whether they will be seen as one device by any ASIO program?  I'm on windows so I don't think I can make any kind of aggregate.  Second, again if using two MADI FXs, do you know if you would have to use all four cards total or could you use 2 cards from the first MADI FX and only one from the second?  Since the second card now has madi on it as well unlike the previous generation cards I'm wondering if that would function and if the second card could get clocking from the first card.

Thanks again.

  • From: Cologne
  • Registered: 2014-03-04
  • Posts: 6

Re: Madiface XT and the Mac Pro (up to 2012), USB 3.0 and PCI-Ex.

Hi, Daniel, finally I received the Inateck card and will test it next weekend. Your test result sounds promising! And by the way: the madiface xt makes fun and life in a hybrid mixing world much easier! thanks an best regards André

André
Mixing Ambulance, Cologne
  • From: Cologne
  • Registered: 2014-03-04
  • Posts: 6

Re: Madiface XT and the Mac Pro (up to 2012), USB 3.0 and PCI-Ex.

Hi, the Inateck Pci card is running without problems! Thx for the recommendation!

André
Mixing Ambulance, Cologne