Solved: That's a bit...

I too am on 10.6.8 and the Axe-FX II and USB play very nicely together. Further to that, when I first installed the driver 10.6.8 met the minimum requirements. I was actually surprised to see that 10.7.4 is now required, given that the driver has not been updated since July of 2012.

Terry.
 
jimfergie said:
wow, some hostility from a few of you out there for my first post! Matt from Tech Support did let me know the 10.7.4 requirement, I thought I had seen 10.6.4 as a minimum somewhere. I've been buying Mac's since they were little brown boxes. I have 3 now. I hate to upgrade system's if everything works, it's a pain in the ass when I find a bunch of other programs, drivers, etc that need replacing. When I spend $2200 on this thing it pisses me off when it doesn't work, that's all. I wanted simplicity, would rather use USB than another audio box and cables.
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Even if you upgrade your OS, don't get your hopes up that your Axe will function as a reliable USB interface. Most likely won't happen. See the "Bugs" section for pages of complaints about popping, clicking, and glitches on a Mac. Like you, I was hoping to simplify my studio setup and use the Axe as my main interface. Unfortunately it has never been very stable.
 
Dear OP,

Please note that contrary to what you may believe or perceive, many of the respondents contained herein actually do play guitar, at given times during their respective days.

I know this news may come as a surprise; perhaps even a little disturbing. But it is the truth.
 
trancegodz said:
I know they say there is a 10.7.4 minimum requirement, but I'm using an iMac on 10.6.8 and the Axe FXII, current Axe Edit, and Fractal Bot, all are working perfectly.
No problems with the USB and the Axe or any of my other software so far. For now, I have no intention on upgrading my iMac and screwing up a bunch of my other programs that are all working perfectly on 10.6.8. I know I'm not alone in this regard.
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Then you are lucky. But when folks post on down-rev operating systems, and make a deliberately inflammatory statement like 'this is going back', then they have zero comment on how it sounds AS AN AMP, just that they won't spend the $25 dollars on an OS upgrade and/or, they have apps that won't work WITH an upgrade, then it's out of Fractal's (and our) hands.

Let it go folks.

R
 
Not a Mac user, so cant comment from experience, but the negative comments here do appear to stem from the "back it goes" comment rather than the actual issue. It appears:

1. The OPs OS system is not compatible - which is clearly mentioned so he cant really be surprised if it doesnt work.

2. Despite the stated min requirements of OS 10.7.4, it appears 10.6.8 does work - which is a free upgrade for the OP. This then is surly a no brainer? if the OP doesnt want to/wont do that - its hardly Fractals fault.

3. The AFX is designed as an all in one guitar pre-amp/FX processor. Even if the USB doesnt work the AFX still performed its primary function. Its up to the OP to decide if the "extra" bits of USB connectivity are must haves. If they are - upgrade your OS, if not dont and sacrifice the USB.

4. If the OP does NOT want to UG his OS, but DOES want computer connectivity - there are other ways also in the hands of the OP - ie a separate audio interface.

Ultimately it strikes me that there are 2 or 3 routes the OP can take to get the AFX to work as he wishes, and also that if he is not prepared to do any of them the AFX still functions in its primary role. Its the OPs money, and the OPs choice - and if at that point he sends the unit back, its totally down to him - however he cant say the AFX doesnt work (which he has) but only hes not prepared to take the steps required to make it work. Thats his choice, and he has to live with his decision.

We - as a forum - shouldn't blame or flame him for that (though the tone/words used in his initial post were a little ..... provocative?), but should provide the options available that would make the system work (that we know of) and leave the choices to the OP.
 
10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro here, running Logic 9 (latest version), and all audio working perfectly. There is screen flicker from time to time, but it doesn't interrupt the audio stream.

If all else fails, you can record the analogue audio through an interface.

Leave the drama to the idiots, step away from it, and prove to be better.
 
jimfergie said:
Lee, you're using your AxeFx II on 10.6.8 and you can connect vis USB and Itunes, etc play back?
Thanks, Jim
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Jim, regardless of any potential performance/connectivity issues with the Axe, updating to 10.6.8 will not break anything else you have running already on 10.6.4 - so in my eyes it's definitely worth trying.

Any usb etc patches could be buried in the main OS update patches so you could be missing out on something by not being at the ultimate version level of 10.6.

Is Software Update offering to upgrade iTunes as well? If so, I'd definitely do that too.

If it still doesn't work with the Axe and FW10, well at least it cost you nothing but a few minutes of downloading and a restart to find out and you'll still have a solid and more secure OS version on your Mac if nothing else. You can then debate on whether to step up to 10.7 or 10.8 or go for an external interface or return the Axe etc.
 
As a user of 10.6.8, and owner of a fair number of plugins that seem to operate pretty stable, I would be loathed to update my whole system and then try to locate and install all other software updates (assuming they are availaable and don't cost additional fees) just to use an updated USB driver for the Axe? Why isn't the USB driver backwards compatible to an OSX version that pretty much every other program out there works with? And please don't give me the "you don't have to upgrade" because that is not the point.

Flame suit on.
 
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Adinfinitum said:
As a user of 10.6.8, and owner of a fair number of plugins that seem to operate pretty stable, I would be loathed to update my whole system and then try to locate and install all other software updates (assuming they are availaable and dont cost additional fees) just to use an updated USB driver for the Axe. Why isn't the USB driver backwards compatible to an OSX version that pretty much every other program out their works with? And please don't give me the "you don't have to upgrade" because that is not the point.

Flame suit on.
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service releases for OSX rarely break anything. It can happen with a new major version (10.6 -> 10.7) as it has a gazillion new things under the hood but I've never seen it happen with a simple bug fix like 10.6.4 -> 10.6.8.

That said, 10.6 is like three years old now. There are already lots of programs that simply refuse to work on it as they require at least 10.7 and due to some framework updates just can't be made to work on old stuff. Personally I like that Apple doesn't do excessive backward compatibility or else we would still have programs that look like Mac OS 9 (similar to how many programs on Windows look and work like shit due to WinXP compatibility).
 
OK! Let's put this subject to bed. Thank you to the guys that suggested 10.6.8, it works! By the way, in the printed manual that came with it, it says after the 10.7.4 minimum requirement "Note: Many Axe Fx II owners achieve satisfactory results with 10.5.7 or later" So I wasn't too crazy. For some reason they removed that from the online manual. I specifically wanted the II model for the USB as well as the performance obviously. I had thought USB was USB, especially for simple audio transfer. But it works now, so let's play with it!
Thanks again, Jim
 
trancegodz said:
I know they say there is a 10.7.4 minimum requirement, but I'm using an iMac on 10.6.8 and the Axe FXII, current Axe Edit, and Fractal Bot, all are working perfectly.
No problems with the USB and the Axe or any of my other software so far. For now, I have no intention on upgrading my iMac and screwing up a bunch of my other programs that are all working perfectly on 10.6.8. I know I'm not alone in this regard.
Click to expand...
Same here. Running 10.6.8 and everything works perfectly. I'm glad to see the OP has his working now too.
 
Lol... In my office, I browse the forums on an almost 15 years old iMac, and the Mozilla (not Firefox ; IE is worse) browser compatible with this OS is so outdated that I have to read the threads in "print" mode
 
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