Help with Apollo purchase/Firewire errors solved?

smartinuf

New Member
Hi, I'm contemplating purchase of an Apollo duo with original thunderbolt card for use with both a Mac Pro 3.1 (early 2008 and a Macbook Pro 5.1 (late 2008), both of which are bit old but are listed as compatible and are not on the list of models that run at firewire 400 speeds.

My plan is to run firewire (with firewire firmware of course) until I can afford to update to a newer thunderbolt mac. I would be using it with a RME ADI-8 DS connected via adat and a Lucid AD9624 (2channel AD convertor) via spdif both externally clocked to apollo. I would like to use these additional convertors to achieve a total of 18 inputs to record with. From what I can tell, this is indeed possible but am interested if I can expect this in the real world. I'm using Cubase 7.5 as DAW.

Right before I was going to plunk down the cash for purchase I came across the long thread on this forum as well as other forums about all the issues with firewire errors, dropouts etc. and it scared me enough to hold off on my purchase as my current RME PCIe/digiface setup has been mostly reliable and offers a solid 24 ch. in and out. I would be willing to sacrifice the extra inputs on RME for the Apollo but only if it were as reliable.

I guess my main questions are:

Have the firewire issues truly been sorted out with the latest drivers and revisions?

Will I indeed be able achieve the 18 in, 24 out setup reliably as described above?

I'd appreciate any and all comments especially those with similar setups.

Thanks, Stephen
 

Kcatthedog

Hall of Fame Member
you don't even mention the dsp issue due to 2 sharcs,consider if the quad would be a better base unit. Is saving money truely and investment ? I would go quad tbolt: more expensive now: cheaper longrun !
 

smartinuf

New Member
you don't even mention the dsp issue due to 2 sharcs,consider if the quad would be a better base unit. Is saving money truely and investment ? I would go quad tbolt: more expensive now: cheaper longrun !
Thanks for reply but I'm not sure I know what you mean, do you mean I'd be better with a quad for more plugin processing power or is this another issue that's gotten by me altogether, if so can you point me to a reference?

Right now I can pick up a duo with the older thunderbolt card for about $1600 that I could use via firewire with my non thunderbolt macs (theoretically at least, hence my reason for posting). That way, over time I could upgrade to a better mac (with thunderbolt) and perhaps a satellite if more plugin power was needed. Currently as funds are somewhat limited, I could sell part of the RME setup to make up for apollo expense (as long as it is just as solid) and use that for future upgrades for computer or whatever so for now my priority is a stable system over available plugin power.

As I love UAD plugs, I know I'll always want more of them but it would be very frustrating to spend the money for the apollo duo (or quad) and did not get a reliable 18 inputs as I have now with RME.

I'd definitely consider a quad if I could find one with the original thunderbolt card that allows for firewire connectivity at a good price. Thanks!
 

Kcatthedog

Hall of Fame Member
Yes just the doubling of the dsp.

I understand your situation,as the tbolt card cost$500 you are getting that appollo for $1100,you could always buy it to get the card and later sell the apollo for a quad ?

Or have you crunched the numbers with current sale and factored in the plug deal ?
 

Bear-Faced Cow

Hall of Fame Member
Don't be spooked by everything you read on a support forum. By nature it will have issues, no different than the service center of your auto dealership having cars in need of service.

I have an Apollo Quad running on my 2008 Mac Pro on FW and yes, while I do get some FW issues, they are actually very few and far between.

As with any computer, keep your Mac well maintained and only run the system extensions that you need. Also don't have any more fonts than you really need as they eat resources and in some cases cause problems. I also found a couple of "music" things getting in the way, like Kontakt Memory Server. It's no longer needed if you're running 64-bit.

And, yes, I would recommend the Quad. It is great for recording 4 channels with Unison DSP. Invest short term, save long term.
 

smartinuf

New Member
Thanks guys, perhaps most of the horror stories I came across were from folks who had earlier model macs that were not fully compliant with firewire 800, hard to tell as some did not give their model info. Sooner or later I think I'll take the plunge but have a lot of options/future considerations to sort through, just don't want to miss any.
 

Kcatthedog

Hall of Fame Member
Now vs then

Thanks guys, perhaps most of the horror stories I came across were from folks who had earlier model macs that were not fully compliant with firewire 800, hard to tell as some did not give their model info. Sooner or later I think I'll take the plunge but have a lot of options/future considerations to sort through, just don't want to miss any.
Perhaps more to the point there were FW problems and I certainly experienced many of them but UA has put significant effort into addressing these and things are much improved.

Bottom line when I went tbolt pci-e new dedicated drivers not one error ! Perfect performance !
 

n1kk666

Established Member
If it's going to be a while before you update to a TB machine, than I would hold off getting the Apollo and get by for now with your current setup. The Apollo was super flaky for me until a switched to TB. That was a while ago so not sure about the current state of the firewire drivers. However, if reliability is a concern than there's no way you'll find an Apollo over FW anywhere near as reliable as an RME PCIe setup.
 

smartinuf

New Member
If it's going to be a while before you update to a TB machine, than I would hold off getting the Apollo and get by for now with your current setup. The Apollo was super flaky for me until a switched to TB. That was a while ago so not sure about the current state of the firewire drivers. However, if reliability is a concern than there's no way you'll find an Apollo over FW anywhere near as reliable as an RME PCIe setup.
Can I ask what mac you were using with firewire?
 

xgman

Active Member
The firewire issues are NOT solved. I am going to have to switch to TB since there is no hope in site.
 
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