Mac with a Phonic HelixBoard24FireWire MKII Mixer - Software trouble

[zactommo]

If nothing shows up in system profiler, it means the mac mini isn't seeing the mixer at all, regardless of drivers or not. Like cchamp said, remove the FW hub for the moment, it will just confuse things.

Just because it worked on the pc, doesn't mean it was the correct way of doing things, and pluging into two ports on a computer is different to plugging into two ports on a hub. Daisy chaining seems to be cheaper than using hubs, but I guess you've got the hub now.

Have you tried using it with the PC again, if it is close at hand? That would soon tell you whether you've cooked the mixers FW interface or not.

[PhilipClark]

[quote=crypyra;280730]

Originally Posted by zactommo

Does it need drivers in the first place.
Generally speaking, a lot less mac devices need drivers than windows.

So.....go into your applications folder, then into utilites, and open Audio/MIDI Setup. If your mac has picked up the audio card using core audio drivers, then it will appear down the list on the side (if your on 10.6) or you will be able to select it in the drop down menu near the top in 10.5 backwards.

The other way to check is to go into the apple menu, hit about this mac, then more info. Then click on firewire in the list down the side, and if the correct name shows up in there, then it means the computer has picked it up. If it shows unknown device or something, or it locks up or something weird, then the computer is having driver issues.

The problem you may have run into, is that the free software that was bundled with the hardware isn't mac compatible. So the hardware and drivers work with mac, but the free software doesn't. Just an idea. What software program did it come with?[/quote]

If I go into Audio/MIDI setup, the device isn't in the list.

The software that came with it was, from what I could tell, a couple of exe files and some image files... mainly, it's a mixer program that enables you to adjust accordingly in the console view on GarageBand, ProTools, or Sonar(among other things). We were for the time being just using an 8th out into the input on the mac mini (since we were waiting on a FW hub for more port space)... Now that we have the hub, I want to use the mixer the way it was intended. I want to be able to use this thing at its full potential.

I'm actually a little honked to be honest w/you. It shouldn't be this difficult by far, and the reason we even bought the MiniStack was to use this board.

I registered just to address this thread, because I just purchased this board and had the same problem. There's a glaring omission in the manual on how to fix this.

As stated by other posters, the Mac requires no drivers. If you're running 10.3.5 or higher, you should be ok. You just need to set the mixer correctly.

If you look on the rear panel, near the USB/Firewire connections, there is a switch. Now, that switch is directly above the firewire ports, which leads you to believe that it switches between firewire port A and port B. What it REALLY does is switch between USB functionality and Firewire functionality.

Took me a nearly a good hour until I figured it out. As soon as I flipped the switch toward the firewire side and away from the USB side, Audio/MIDI setup was able to recognize the Phonic as the input device. You'll probably need to restart your Mac, and when you do you should power up the mixer last. But if you do this, it should fix your problem.

Just wanted to post this for the original poster and anyone else who has this problem trying to hook this board to their Mac. The manual says nothing (that I saw) about the switch and what it does. It doesn't switch between the two firewire ports. There are two so you can daisy chain if necessary. The switch selects between USB and Firewire function.

Now that it does work, it's glorious, and I can't believe I'm fully digital for a fraction of the price. Good luck, all.