Presonus Firebox and El Capitan

[coffeesidewalks]

Hi all,

I'm new here and new to recording in general. Someone has given me a presonus firebox audio interface, and I have the new MacBook Pro retina which does not have a FireWire port. Before I attempt to buy the thunderbolt to FireWire adapter, I'm wondering if the hardware will even work with my computer and on El Capitan to begin with or if I should just go with getting a new sub interface.

Some help pleaseeee!

[Kray Van Kirk]

You'd have to check the Presonus manual if you were wanting to use the native Presonus software on the Mac. Another option would be to download and install something like Ardour, which will handle the connection from the computer to the interface without installing the Presonus software at all. BUT - the learning curve for Ardour is very steep. It can do pretty much anything (something along the lines of a FOSS version of Pro Tools) but the time needed to understand it and such might be a wee bit intimidating (but that might just be me).

[coffeesidewalks]

Originally Posted by Kray Van Kirk

You'd have to check the Presonus manual if you were wanting to use the native Presonus software on the Mac. Another option would be to download and install something like Ardour, which will handle the connection from the computer to the interface without installing the Presonus software at all. BUT - the learning curve for Ardour is very steep. It can do pretty much anything (something along the lines of a FOSS version of Pro Tools) but the time needed to understand it and such might be a wee bit intimidating (but that might just be me).

Thank you for your reply! What about just basic GarageBand to start with? I may upgrade in the future, but my concern is about the hardware and if GarageBand is going to detect it.

[KevWind]

The Presonus Web sight states OSX !0.3 or later but does not actually state El Cap. I would call or e mail customer support and ask About El Cap and Garage Band compatibility.

[Kray Van Kirk]

Yah - I'd agree with KevWind. There are lots of threads discussing the Presonus unit with Garageband - look those over and see if they have the answer you need.

Isn't Garageband a default install with OS X+? Can you simply jack the two together with a USB port and see if detection occurs?

[Ty Ford]

Having just gone through a very nasty time going from OS X 10.8 to 10.11.3 on my 2012 MacBook Pro, I can categorically state that the trip has not been fun.
Email, Contacts, Browser operation and overall speed was very negatively affected.

Strangely, after ten days of not working well at all, one morning everything began to work much better. I have no explanation.

Perhaps a clean install would have worked better, but I was following the instructions of the "download and click here" version. The MacBook Pro has held a "ready to install El Capitan" position since I git it last year. I had thought that, by now, (11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3) the bad monkeys would have been scraped off, but no. I has been a very unpleasant experience.

Fortunately, my Pro Tools rig is on another machine running 10.7.5

Regards,

Ty Ford