New Axe-Fx II Drivers for OS X and Windows

FractalAudio said:
Apple did write the driver. The Axe-Fx II is a class-compliant device. If you are "loose synchrony" with Logic then the problem lies with Logic or the Apple driver.
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Cliff, is there a public bug or contact point at Apple for this? What if we "vote" for them to fix the driver? It would seem that we have lots of people interested in getting it fixed but no clear avenue to report it to them.

PS I think I'm still having trouble with glitches which I assume is due to this Apple driver. Aggregate device behavior has improved but is not recoverable when it gets out of sync (requires a restart of the Axe or unplug of the usb cable). It also seems to have interfered with the midi communication (sometimes midi just stops working). I don't have a reproducible case.
 
Cliff, thank you for the information.

Then your company can require a working driver, as you payed for. I am very sure that you already have react so.

So while the new next waiting time starting: What can we help here? Can we?



Regards
Frank
 
fbuerger said:
But what i can't understand: Why i have to assign latency values in the AXE FX??? No other device handle this in such a way. Latency parameter for audio units are always parametrized via software in all my other units that i had owned, Terratec, M-audio.

As a suggestion, let's do the writing of the driver by apple developers, or so.


Regards
Frank
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The value you mention as latency is actually something else it is a buffer value. A buffer is an assigned piece of memory which is used to temporarily store a communications stream. Have you tried adjusting the buffer value, to work around the OSX communication issue ?

To write a driver would require intimate knowledge at a low level of the OS, that is Apple in this case.
 
Sorry...there is a major difference between a class compliant device with a (advanced) USB 2 driver based device! Class Compliant devices simply can't support low latency performance, such as (advanced) driver based devices. If Apple wrote the driver, the main reason is that CC devices should work without the necessary of installing custom drivers. CC is used on various USB audio devices, even some pro-devices...

I quote RME here:

The Fireface UCX operates in three different modes: driver-based USB 2, stand-alone mode, and Class Compliant mode. The latter describes a standard that is natively supported by operating systems like Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. No proprietary drivers are required, the device will be directly recognized when the CC firmware is loaded. Obviously, native features will be limited in comparison to those provided by the RME driver for the UCX. For example there will be no (Total) Mix and no settings for the effects.

The Class Compliant mode can be activated and deactivated by the button on the front panel at any time.

Most Class Compliant audio devices use the USB 1.0 standard, released in 1996 for USB 1.1. The UCX features USB Audio 2.0, therefore supports USB 2.0 and will be ready for future upgrades. USB Audio 2.0 offers a bandwidth performance comparable to operation with the RME drivers, and should allow the transmission of all the unit's channels. It won't be comparable to the RME drivers in terms of latency, though.

Windows does not support USB Audio 2.0 directly. The UCX will be detected, but automatic driver installation will fail.

Mac OS X supports USB Audio 2.0, even with more than 2 channels. The UCX offers 2-channel and 18-channel mode. Linux should work as well, but this has not been tested and will likely depend on the individual distribution.

Neither of these systems is relevant, though, since there are dedicated and matured drivers for both OS X and Windows, which provide ALL the device's features at lowest latencies. The main reason for implementing Class Compliant mode was to allow connecting the UCX to any Apple iPad!
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FractalAudio said:
Apple did write the driver. The Axe-Fx II is a class-compliant device. If you are "loose synchrony" with Logic then the problem lies with Logic or the Apple driver.
Click to expand...

Because basic CC also used apple's standard clock which is not really usefull as we all can see. Most audio manufacturers, use the reference clock of their own devices, no problems at all. Logic is also capable of handling two different USB 2 driver based interfaces at the same time (one for in, other for out).

best regards
Paco
 
My experience:

Installed the new OS X drivers and firmware, restarted the unit. Previously I've been using Ableton Live and the USB driver has been pretty much unusable because it would lose synchronization after a few minutes and not recover. I'm still very early into testing with the new version. I specified my Ableton Live buffer size at 64, and that's what it is on the Axe-Fx as well.

I was able to play for 20 minutes before I had a problem, then the same glitchy noise began again. However the unit seemed to recover from this after a few seconds and now I've been playing for an additional hour without a glitch. I wasn't looking at the new USB buffer status at the time I experienced the first problem, but after looking at the status page the number 1 is above the graph which I interpret to mean that the USB reset happened once.

Overall this set of drivers/firmware seems much more stable to me and likely usable for my purposes, but perhaps not flawless. If I have frequent resets, I'll experiment with upping the buffer size in the Axe-Fx. 64 samples to me is the sweet spot, so it would be nice to run there, but I could live with 128.

At any rate I wanted to pass along this feedback in case it's helpful.
 
kahliburke said:
My experience:

Installed the new OS X drivers and firmware, restarted the unit. Previously I've been using Ableton Live and the USB driver has been pretty much unusable because it would lose synchronization after a few minutes and not recover. I'm still very early into testing with the new version. I specified my Ableton Live buffer size at 64, and that's what it is on the Axe-Fx as well.

I was able to play for 20 minutes before I had a problem, then the same glitchy noise began again. However the unit seemed to recover from this after a few seconds and now I've been playing for an additional hour without a glitch. I wasn't looking at the new USB buffer status at the time I experienced the first problem, but after looking at the status page the number 1 is above the graph which I interpret to mean that the USB reset happened once.

Overall this set of drivers/firmware seems much more stable to me and likely usable for my purposes, but perhaps not flawless. If I have frequent resets, I'll experiment with upping the buffer size in the Axe-Fx. 64 samples to me is the sweet spot, so it would be nice to run there, but I could live with 128.

At any rate I wanted to pass along this feedback in case it's helpful.
Click to expand...

Try increasing the buffer on the AxeFx -- I'm running at 1024 for Logic work on my older iMac.
 
Hi everyone,

This is my first post here in this forum and I can say I am now quite desperate with Axe Fx 2 USB drivers.

I own a MacBookPro Core 2 Duo, early 2008, 2GB RAM and run OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.4. USB connection used to work OK, either under Garage Band, Logic Express and with the Axe-Edit. Both Midi & Audio I/O were recognized. I had at the time the "July 2012" release of OSX driver and Axe Fx 10.00 firmware.

Then under Axe-Edit I started to have issues. The Axe-Fx preset banks were unable to load correctly and the first 20 presets were only showing...

I did not pay attention to this in the first place, but the day after I was unable to connect the Axe Fx. Neither Midi nor Audio I/O were able to be recognized by the Mac (under Audio System Preferences or in the Audio/Midi Apple app. Connection to Axe-Fx with Axe-Edit was impossible (status : not connected).

So I tried this :

- plug/unplug the device / boot with Axe-Fx ON / boot with Axe-Fx OFF then ON
- several Power ON/power OFF of the Axe Fx : NOK
- tried 3 different USB cables (including the one that came with my QUAD CAPTURE audio interface, supposedly audio compliant?) and other USB ports
- delete and re-install OSX drivers : NOK. The driver seemed to be installed correctly, but the Mac behaves as if no device was not connected.

I thought this issue was going to be solved with the new "June 2013" release of OSX driver (the latest one in fact)

Then I download with MIDI the Axe Fx 2 10.09 FW and :

- re-install (clean install with HD formatting) Mountain Lion & re-install the new OS X driver : NOK
- re-install (clean install with HD formatting) Lion 10.7.5 & re-install the new OSX driver : NOK
- then I installed Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bits on my mac and try new Windows driver : NOK. I got Error 105 with "no connection to Axe Fx2"

Thing I noticed under OSX is when I start the axefxload under the terminal it shows "looking for devices matching with Vendor ID:...." and then "star run loop" but nothing happens.
Seems like the Mac cannot see the Axe or cannot download the driver.
When I run the axefxunload app under the terminal it asks me a password but I cannot type anything.

Coult it be I have an USB harware issue with the Axe?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I think I'm lost and I've beeb trying for 2 weeks to make it work.

Thanks
 
What does this fix/add/change?
Also for those who posted about Snow Leopard, why not just update to Mountain Lion instead?
 
Tanax said:
What does this fix/add/change?
Also for those who posted about Snow Leopard, why not just update to Mountain Lion instead?
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The mac in my studio is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion (its a Late 2006 20" iMac desktop, so Snow Leopard or Lion only). I know a few guys have mentioned they have audio devices that are not compatible with Mountain Lion - assuming for similar reasons. While the iMac is the oldest and slowest computer in my home, it has worked flawlessly since the day I bought it and everything music related is on it. Initially I upgraded to 10.09 with the old driver, but rolled back to 10.06 due to my Axe crashing. I have some free time tomorrow, so I plan to call Apple sales to purchase Lion so I can update to 10.11. Its driving me NUTS not being able to use the new wah pedals! :)
 
sgplayer76 said:
The mac in my studio is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion (its a Late 2006 20" iMac desktop, so Snow Leopard or Lion only). I know a few guys have mentioned they have audio devices that are not compatible with Mountain Lion - assuming for similar reasons. While the iMac is the oldest and slowest computer in my home, it has worked flawlessly since the day I bought it and everything music related is on it. Initially I upgraded to 10.09 with the old driver, but rolled back to 10.06 due to my Axe crashing. I have some free time tomorrow, so I plan to call Apple sales to purchase Lion so I can update to 10.11. Its driving me NUTS not being able to use the new wah pedals! :)
Click to expand...

I'm running OS X 10.6.8 with firmware 10.11 and the previous driver. However, I am not using the Axe-II as my audio interface.
 
I got problems as well. After a while....sometimes 5 minutes....sometimes 20 minutes all audio sounds like a broken robot.
No problems if I use my old CLII+ interface.
Im running cubase 7 on a macbookpro i7 2010 with OSX 10.7.5 with the newest axe "driver".
 
any resolution to the matter? I'm on 10.6.8 and dreading upgrading to 10.8.xx. I'd luv to use the axe as my main interface for live performance with ableton/guitar but so far, it's not looking good.
 
Hey guys I'm new to the website, Got my AXE-FX II, all good there, but i'm a bit confused seems like the driver link is taking me to the old driver Axe-Fx II USB Setup (167) for OS X
not the NEW one (168)
Am I missing something ? I also see a new version of the Firmware of 10-12 on the forum, but not on the main website. Any Help / Eduction would be great. Thanks Jmo
 
Welcome aboard, jmo!

Driver version 1.6.8 is for Windows Vista. You won't need it for OS X.

Several of us are puzzled about firmware 10.12 not being on the Fractal site. Not a big deal, though. v11 is just around the corner (it's in public beta already).
 
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