# MacBook Pro with Metric Halo Firewire Interface



## bobkatz (Mar 28, 2009)

As a regular user of Spectrafoo, Metric Halo's superb high resolution analysis program, I feel embarrassed to admit that its waterfall displays are far from adequate, so I began to seek out alternatives. Another Mac Program, Fuzz Measure, is a good possible alternative. 

But a friend pointed out to me REW and I'm very impressed by all the work that's been put into it. Congratulations to John! I've read all the stickies on debugging MacBook Pro and have tried everything but I have found several bugs and would like to see if John or anyone has any other ideas. It looks like there are enough holes in the Mac usage that I have likely found a bug. And I hope that someone here, or perhaps the developer, will have an idea, or a fix if it is truly a bug.

Here goes: I cannot get REW's input to accept the interface. Yes, the interface is assigned as the default device both on Mac Input and Output. REW crashes or gives an error message when choosing "mac Osx...." as the input device so we are left to choosing the default device as our only choice. Unfortunately, the default device is hard wired to the Mac's internal microphone, no matter what tricks I try. I cannot even get REW to switch to the Mac's line input, even when the line input is selected in System Preferences/Sound. 

As a test of the system, I can get a DAW, such as Peak, to read input from the interface, but Peak can choose the Interface directly, and it cannot choose "default device" so I cannot debug in that direction. Let me try another DAW that can read the "default device" as proof that hook is available in the program. I'll come back here and amplify on that idea (pardon the pun!).

To Summarize: Cannot get an external FW interface to feed REW's input, even when that device is chosen in System Preferences. Any ideas? Thanks to all for your dedication to such a nice program.


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Cannot get an external FW interface to feed REW's input, even when that device is chosen in System Preferences. Any ideas?


Yep, it's a known bug.

Apple's Java implementation does not make firewire connected soundcard inputs available to Java applications, even when you have set them as the defaults in the sound preferences. 

You will have to use either the built-in audio input (if a line-in is available) or a USB-connected soundcard.

brucek


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## bobkatz (Mar 28, 2009)

Thanks for answer, Bruce, even though it is bad news. :-( I wonder if I can trick it by using Fusion (runs Windows on the Mac), which can access Apple's sound driver. Might be worth experimenting with some day.


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