Mac and Project Mix I/O

[ilugd]

I just bought a Mac Pro for the studio in our office. The mixer is Project mix with inbuilt sound card. The mac pro version is 10.4.5 and the projectmix driver version cd provided is 1.7.2. I have 2 questions
1. All software came preinstalled in the Mac. There is Microsoft office, Coreldraw, Photoshop, Adobe CS2, Illustrator etc. I want to know if it is pirated or genuine. I didn't get any media for those. This is the first time i am touching a mac and my boss expects me to do a security audit on it (God help me!). The cost was something like 2 lakhs so maybe the software is legal, but I am not sure. I didn't ask for all those software as I need it only for audio recording.

2. I installed the drivers for project mix. The mixer connects through a firewire 6 pin interface. But the mac is unable to detect the mixer. On trying to open the maudio applet in preferences, it gives and error "Preferences error: You cannot open m-audio preferences panel on this computer. Contact the vendor for more information" I tried searching for latest drivers but the website gives version 1.7.1! . Any ideas? I am really new to the mac and so don't know where to go from here. I recollect some mac fanboys here. Maybe they could help??

 

[gxsaurav]

What’s the configuration of Mac Pro? That will give us an idea of the hardware cost of Mac Pro, so that we can differentiate the cost of software

1) Adobe Photoshop $600, CorelDraw $499.

I don't think the applications are original, cos in that case the cost would have exceeded 3 lakh easily. Photoshop & Adobe CS2 alone cost Rs 1L combined.

3) Is Microsoft office a trial version or full? You can find this in about section of the help menu? If it is full then either the company paid for it which should be written in the bill, if not then ask the dealer. Apple doesn't give Office for Mac unless asked for.

4) Update your MacOS X to 10.4.9, this alone will solve lots of compatibility issues. Just use software update in control panel.

5) This is your Project Mix I guess. What recording application are you using, pro tools? M-Audio relesed 1.81v3 drivers for MacOS X 10.4.8 some months ago, these are the latest. Download these & follow the steps below ->

6) Uninstall the drivers from Mac completely first (ask macboys on how to uninstall a device in MacOS X with screenshots).

7) Now once it is uninstalled, just to be on the safe side, reboot. Insert the firewire pin again & check if Mac detects it. If it doesn't then unplug it, install the drivers first from the CD & then after a reboot, now plug the firewire port again. Do this only if you have not upgraded to MacOS X 10.4.8.

If it still doesn't work then again follow step 6 & 7, but this time install 1.81 drivers. Don't worry, you are just new to the Mac world, & once it is configured you don't have to worry about the OS X, you will use it for sound recording more than looking at it anyway.

 

[ilugd]

no, i am not going to use it. It is for the studio technician. I bought thinking that he knew about mac. I was going to ask him to configure it. But the first question he asked after the mac was delivered was why the mouse had only one button and how the cd drive will open. I didn't have the courage to ask him to configure after that and though I would figure it out.

Thanks anyway for all your help.

I am not sure if my network will be able to allow updates. For one, it is slow, damn slow and second we go through vpn and a proxy which slows it further.

Will see if there is anyway in which i can download the update and then install it. I will goto to sify iway and try.

As for the software, a pity. I guess i will have to uninstall them once i get to figure out where the add/remove programs is. Oh! I guess i know. I uninstalled the firewire, didn't i?

Thanks gxsaurav for the advice. But i really want to learn about Mac OSX too.

 

[gxsaurav]

no, i am not going to use it. It is for the studio technician. I bought thinking that he knew about mac. I was going to ask him to configure it. But the first question he asked after the mac was delivered was why the mouse had only one button and how the cd drive will open. I didn't have the courage to ask him to configure after that and though I would figure it out.

:ROFL

I am not sure if my network will be able to allow updates. For one, it is slow, damn slow and second we go through vpn and a proxy which slows it further.

You need to update, most of the firewire compatibility problems will be solved. Find a way to update. i guesss it should be about 200 MB to download from 10.4.5 to 10.4.9, just leave it on, how slow can it be, might take 6 Hours but updating a Mac is a must job. Besides the new drivers for PowerMix install only on MacOS X 10.4.8 or later.

Will see if there is anyway in which i can download the update and then install it. I will goto to sify iway and try.

Yup, you can do that. Download the MacOS X Combo update from Apple 310 MB. This will update your MacOS X to 10.4.9 from any previous version. You are also adviced to browse the same support page for others things & downloads.

As for the software, a pity. I guess i will have to uninstall them once i get to figure out where the add/remove programs is. Oh! I guess i know. I uninstalled the firewire, didn't i?

If they are pirated, things can be balanced out . Ask him weather he is using Logic or Live or Pro Tools. Cos Pro tools comes bundled with Power Mix. While Logic & Live are from apple itself.

Look at the dock, there is System Preference icon. this is your control panel equivalent of Windows. To Uninstall an application in MacOS X you simply drag & srop the application to trash. However it won't remove shared things at all....which I m sure is there in case of Pro Tools such as loaded MIDI drivers etc. Apple forgot to bundle a proper uninstall in case of MacOS X

When you install a software, it is Installed in the Application Folder of MacOS. To install something just drag the application install to this application folder . They are basically self mounting disk images, & usually come in .dmg extension. Sometimes they come as zip file which when extracted give .dmg file.

You cannot Uninstall the firewire man, comon...it's a hardware . Ya, you could have uninstalled the firewire drivers. But MacOS has native support for firewire so after a reboot it will be installed again automatically.

 

[spironox]

Update your MacOS X to 10.4.9

plus an mac software update does the major stuff that u are missing

 

[ilugd]

thanks gx_saurav. And I am sorry to say that it will take more than 6 hours to update. I downloaded a 6 mb driver update through download manager (running around 16 threads or something since the response times are pretty slow) and it took over a hour. So 200 mb is a bit too much for my taste and for my administrator in Kerala. He will call in his RAF to get me thrown out for congesting the network. (We go through a vpn to kerala running on 64 kbps vsnl dsl connection) Since our finance systems (custom made) run while having a permanent connection to kerala, they usually eat up around 40 kbps during the daytime.

Yeah, I meant the m-audio firewire drivers. Not the preinstalled ones.

Oh, but the way, my colleague spent 2 hours today trying to install Kiran typing tutor for windows on the mac before i came to know of it. Seems someone told him that a version is available for the mac, and he assumed that the windows installer will work directly on that. I am not sure though if he is as stupid as he looks or just is pretending to be that ignorant.

Thanks anyway for your help again gx saurav. I have asked a colleague at our head office in kerala to unofficially help me out by sending over the update for offline installation. They have a good connection there and so he should be able to do it.

 

[gxsaurav]

6 hrs. India seriously needs cheap Dataone available everywhere.

Oh, but the way, my colleague spent 2 hours today trying to install Kiran typing tutor for windows on the mac before i came to know of it. Seems someone told him that a version is available for the mac, and he assumed that the windows installer will work directly on that. I am not sure though if he is as stupid as he looks or just is pretending to be that ignorant

Lolz....it happens man, he must have thought it is just Windows XP with some shell pack.

Asking for update is a better option. Incase some of your couligue do screw it up....atleast you can reinstall the OS & the Update. Why don't you yourself download in iWay as u said before?

P.S. - Point to be noted, why isn't there any help from Macboys so far? Did u PMed andy, he can help.

 

[ilugd]

i will try out your suggestions and then post again, ok? Maybe then I will ask andy

 

[ilugd]

solved the problem guys. In case you are interested, do look in at *jsemmanuel.blogspot.com/2007/03/protools-working-now.html

and thanks gx_saurav and spironox