Using Avid MediaComposer with PreSonus Firebox

[treehorn]

I am thinking of purchasing Avid MediaComposer (basically to broaden my skillset) and downloaded the free 30 day trial so I can make sure it works on my system before I shell out $2K for it.

After installing it twice (as it was freezing during the Audio Initialization screen I uninstalled it, re-downloaded and re-installed) I figured out that the problem is that I am using a PreSonus Firebox to run my KRK VXT4 speakers. If I start MediaComposer with the PreSonus plugged in, it freezes at the Audio Initialization screen. If I disconnect the PreSonus' Firewire connection, MediaComposer starts up beautifully (but then I am stuck with the internal speaker of my MacPro).

For fun I tried plugging in the PreSonus after MediaComposer was already launched and it crashed MediaComposer.

Is there some sort of set up I'm supposed to do to make MediaComposer play nice with PreSonus Firebox, or are the two mutually incompatible?

Thanks for your help!

 

[LethalWolfe]

Sounds like both the Avid and the Firebox want to be lord and master over your Mac's single FW bust. If you have a Mac Pro my suggestion would be to buy a PCI FW card and plug the Firebox into that. That would actually be my second suggestion though. My first suggestion would be to e-mail Avid (or go to their forums) and ask if this is a known issue and what is the solution.


Lethal

 

[treehorn]

Actually...the inverse seems to be the case! The PreSonus was plugged into a PCI card. For fun I plugged it into the built in Firewire bus at the back of the MacPro...and what do you know! It worked.

Switching it back to the PCI card results in it hanging or crashing still.

Already posted at Avid forum but you win for being the first to reply either place (was coming on here to say I kinda-sorta solved it...)

Very strange

 

[treehorn]

I guess I spoke too soon.

It now works occasionally (I'm trying a few tutorials, taking a break every now and then, so starting the program up after quitting, shutting down, restarting).

Now I am getting odd messages that pop up after it has supposedly finished the start-up sequence (the one that just popped up is "Bus error" in thred "MainThread" at address 0X0)

I've repaired permissions, which will work one time, and then...next time another error message.

When I force quit, the report has some details pertaining to Avid Media Composer, but also has



Process: AirPort Base Station Agent [231]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPort Base Station
AgentUID: 501

Does Airport interact badly with this program?

Is this program that buggy? Have to say...Final Cut Pro is looking like a masterpiece of software engineering about now in comparison

 

[LethalWolfe]

Have you heard back from Avid about the Firebox? Also, does your hardware and software meet the recommended specs for MC 5? FCP and Avid typically are okayed for different versions of OS X and QT so it's not best practice to install both on the same system.

I haven't installed MC 5 myself but I haven't heard any complaints about it (above and beyond the norm for any type of software) so I think there might be something with your specific system that is giving it fits.


Lethal

 

[treehorn]

No, haven't heard from Avid but going over the specs, my computer is up to code. I read different things about various problems with patches and person A doesn't get it to work with 10.6.5 but person Z has no problems...leading me to think this is a rather unstable piece of architecture for something that is so expensive (and 'standard')

And it works fine if I don't have Firebox plugged in at all. But having it plugged in seems to cause some problems, so not sure if it doesn't like this product, or if one needs a specific setting or patch or workaround if Firewire is input/output (manual really only focused on Windows settings for Firewire)

Ah welll...have 29 days to figure it out