#1

I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. I would hold out to see what they do next year, cuz they’ve been on a bit of a shitty trajectory with the quality vs price ratio.

Shit.
I haven’t seen any info on that anywhere…
I have both a MOTU and RME interface, and use them often.

Like the drivers aren’t working?

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#2

I’ve got a RME Fireface UC and had issues like dropout with my 2018 MBP. They’ve been resolve using the CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 mini hub.

More infos here: https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=136666#p136666

#3

What. The. Mother. Fuck.

That sounds like a fucking nightmare.

And fuck me if I’m going to be another dongle/hub as a workaround (who on earth needs two HDMI ports on a “mini” hub?!).

#4

Mine should be delivered today. :man_facepalming:

#5

Yep. Annoying.

I wrote an email to Tim Cook about it. Hope he’ll reply and act in consideration. No kidding.

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#6

Happily using a mid 2014 MBP over here… mag safe, great keyboard, 2 thunderbolt, HDMI, SD card slot, no dongles to plug in a USB flash drive, etc…

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#7

So I’ve skimmed through a few threads now, but given how coy and “it’s clearly mentioned in post #156” the RME folk are on there*, it’s not really clear what the issue is.

I guess shit is fucked with any USB soundcards, and it’s “Apple’s fault”.

Does that mean it’s a hardware issue, or a software issue?

Is buying a(nother) fucking dongle the only solution?

Is having a normal USB(2) soundcard “a thing of the past” now?!

*I’ve really loved my RME, but the company presence and answers on that forum are a shit show. Real condescending and dicky.

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#8

I have used another USB2 audio interface with a 2018 MBP without issue. It was an edirol IIRC.

Without a specific dongle.

#9

I did write to “Tim Cook” after my 3rd or 4th keyboard repair in a month, and was contacted back by the store manager of the local shop. He was quite helpful with the situation at the time, so I do think those emails get filtered “somewhere”.

#10

Apple, um, did break class-compliant Firewire audio in exactly this same way back in 2010. Infuriating. I exchanged various bug reports with them for over a year (!) before they blamed Echo for my driverless audio interface’s troubles and shut my ticket. I’ve largely given up reporting bugs to Apple these days. They seem to pick a bus and drop support on everything else that isn’t that choice.
Very happy with RME UCX connected via Firewire PCI-X adapter (!). That would equate to a Thunderbolt hub indeed.

#11

This all sounds like another great reason not to bother getting a new interface until my current 2010 MBP dies (or is put out to pasture for lower stress functions) and I know what I’m working with for a more long-term future. Sorry to hear about all these issues that are (understandably) infuriating. :confused:

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#12

I’m going to do the same. The thing that feels like it matters most is that this bug has made my gaming pc a more reliable audio workstation.

#13

stupid to care about an enormous evil corporation slowly becoming worse, but this thread still bums me out. i’m in the bubble where none of the poor choices of the past couple years have really hit me at all. i got my first macbook for college in 2008 (jumped ship from a dell with windows xp that didn’t have built in wifi), replaced it with a macbook pro for video editing when the retinas came out in 2012. over its life, that computer got 2 screen replacements, free, a battery replacement, a third third party out of warranty screen replacement after an unfortunate latte incident, and was still going strong until 2ish years ago when i took it in for another battery replacement and they were out of batteries and gave me a maxed out 2015 model that was nicer than anything i’d have ever purchased for myself for the price of a battery. something like 4 grand worth of laptop. it was faster than the video editing desktops at my then job! at that time it was like the equivalent of apple giving me a 10% raise.

i am probably out of the market for a laptop until the next big video quality jump hits the industry. even though my story is like the definition of what can’t occur at the invisible hands of the free market, i really hope they can turn it around by then

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#14

That sounds like most of my experience. This usb audio bug is the first thing that’s ever hit me in a “now I can’t actually use this” kind of way.

That thunderbolt hub just arrived on my desk at work. Have to say it’s a very nice piece of kit, if it works well I’m pretty happy with this setup. Would only prefer to have power through it too so it would be a true one-cable solution.

#15

Many many years ago I had some really bad problems with my 17" Powerbook (I think that’s what they were called). Bad audio crackling that would happen periodically, across all audio drivers, including built-in. Eventually it was fixed, but it was a rough period.

Also had a real bad time with a MOTU soundcard and my last laptop (2013 15" MBP), which led to me getting the RME, but in reading the problems that people are having now, it sounds like exactly what I was getting with the MOTU interface.

With all the issues I’ve had with my 2017 machine, and seeing how generally shit other stuff has gotten (lots and lots of bugs, everywhere, that seem to never get fixed), I swore that it would be my last Mac laptop. Turns out that’s not strictly the case as it’s just getting turned into a 2018 machine, but this USB audio thing sounds like a massive deal breaker.

I’ll test things thoroughly when I get it, and thankfully I checked that the hub I bought when I first bought it is actually Thunderbolt, so hopefully that helps.

If I do have the audio problems, which I suspect I will from what I’ve read. I’m going to give them some serious shit, as they’d essentially be replacing my fucked machine, with a fucked-to-the-point-of-being-unfit-for-purpose machine. At least with my busted keyboard I can run an audio interface on this machine…

#16

I have a 2018 MBP and a UCX. I run the UCX in Class Compliant mode and works fine for me, all the Inputs and Ouputs are available, just check in Audio Midi Setup. I’m using Ableton and mixing through it so all wasn’t using Totalmix. I agree RME feedback is a little cold and unhelpful.

#17

I’ve posted on the forum to see if there’s some clearer or more “official” answer than ‘read the hundreds of posts across various threads on the forum’. Seems like really shit customer service, particularly since this applies to someone buying a brand new interface today only to get home and realize it doesn’t work at all with their new computer.

So a UCX is exactly what I have. So @rmro, all you did is not install the drivers and it worked fine? Or do you have to set something on the interface itself first?

A smaller side question, when working in class compliant mode, do the audio inputs go directly to the audio outputs for the latency-free monitoring? (I normally mute this using the rme mixer interface part of the driver as I would get feedback with my setup otherwise).

#18

You can keep the drivers installed, just look in the manual how to boot into Class Compliant mode, from memory:
• Using the encoder on the front scroll till you see ‘SU’ and press
• Scroll to ‘CC’ and press and hold for a few seconds
It will reboot by itself.

I’m unsure about inputs going to the outputs. I don’t use a mixer so everything routes through Ableton, external instruments etc, I found it actually simplifies things for me as any latency is dealt with through the plugins. I just monitor realtime and hit record when I need to and keep going.

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#19

That’s exactly what I’ve done recently.

:slightly_smiling_face:

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#20

I’ve a 2018 macbook pro & RME babyface. I don’t think I’m experiencing the issues reported on the RME page. I can certainly play audio from iTunes or Live through the babyface ok. I’m just using the normal USB-C -> USB2 dongle.