Help Apogee Ensemble Kernel Panic when switching it on

[mdme_sadie]

Originally Posted by Max

On the contrary. The Symphony driver for Apogee's Symphony PCIe and Symphony Mobile is the most advanced audio driver on the market, made right here at Apogee.

So please then, pretty please with sugar on top, could your company write a contingency driver for the Ensemble and Duet to use, so that your customers aren't left out in the cold on this. Apple clearly are not willing to fix their bugs until they become security issues, and even then only when the media finds out about them, so waiting on them to resolve this is a fools game that is only going to damage your own reputation and disenchant your userbase. A fix however will make everyone happy (till the next hiccup at least).

[Max]

Originally Posted by MaestroNYC

So if that's the case, when will Apogee be doing drivers for the Ensemble??

With Ensemble and Duet, we decided to put our resources into making the best sounding FireWire devices on the market. This meant supporting universal driver standards, like Apple's Core Audio Driver. While there are some growing pains with this approach, in the long term, we felt class compliance gave us the best opportunity to bring a new level of sound quality into the personal studio market.

[kingswood6]

Originally Posted by Max

With Ensemble and Duet, we decided to put our resources into making the best sounding FireWire devices on the market. This meant supporting universal driver standards, like Apple's Core Audio Driver. While there are some growing pains with this approach, in the long term, we felt class compliance gave us the best opportunity to bring a new level of sound quality into the personal studio market.

An admirable objective, and who better than Apogee and Apple to make it happen?

The problem is in the very length of "the long run." Unless a fix is literally a couple of days or weeks away--if there was ever a time for PLAN B, this is it. (IMHO, of course! )

Regards,

Bill

[Max]

Originally Posted by kingswood6

An admirable objective, and who better than Apogee and Apple to make it happen?

The problem is in the very length of "the long run." Unless a fix is literally a couple of days or weeks away--if there was ever a time for PLAN B, this is it. (IMHO, of course! )

Regards,

Bill

Understood. We are doing everything we can to pursue an expeditious fix.

[shazza007]

Considering the fact that Apogee and Apple are blatantly selling Ensemble and Duet as working seamlessly together with Mac systems... Has anyone thought of pursuing a class action lawsuit?

I recently attended the seminar in West LA where both companies were present and made no claims to any problems with Leopard on a Mac Pro with more than 2Gb. In fact, quite the opposite. They pushed the 'fact' that Apogee worked flawlessly with Apple which is why we purchased the Ensemble.

After several kernel panics being caused by this piece of hardware, I can only imagine what is happening to my computer's overall system and have never experienced anything like this from any other company.

I also called Apogee who told me to do one of three things:
1. take out my extra Gb until I am down to 2Gb. Not an option for me as I am a pro graphics and video person and ...uh.... isn't that why I have that stuff?

2. Go back to Tiger. Also not an option. Does Apogee realize what a mess THAT would cause?

3. Deal with the multiple crashes and wait for a fix or just sell the Apogee.

All of this information SHOULD have been revealed at the time of purchase!!! WOW. Talk about misleading and fraudulent claims!!!!

At this point, I'm pretty frustrated. The Ensemble does SOUND great but at the cost of my entire computer system?

[liquidorange]

ive never felt so down about a purchase since 95 and adats. i dont buy alesis anymoretutt. i have to eat a 50$ fee to ship this back. i thought i was raising my home set up to a new standard. is there anyone running this thing with no problems or tips?

[lean]

Yeah, because class action lawsuits are so great. Waiting three years to get a $25 coupon all the while giving law firms (on both sides of the issue) wheelbarrows full of cash sounds like a pretty sucky proposition.

As disappointed as I am with this situation, Apogee isn't really doing anything any worse than all the other vendors selling class-compliant FireWire audio devices. Given their reputation you should be able to expect better from them but whatever... The Ensemble happens to be a great-sounding, well made interface, and most likely this problem will be solved shortly.

Originally Posted by shazza007

Considering the fact that Apogee and Apple are blatantly selling Ensemble and Duet as working seamlessly together with Mac systems... Has anyone thought of pursuing a class action lawsuit?

[stratcat]

It's been months since I've been able to use my Ensemble, same issue.
At first the Apogee TS,..claimed "they never heard of this"
yeah, I sent them dozens of forum posts with this issue.

My Fireface works beautifully,. glad I kept it. I'm selling the ensemble.
It is total BS, Apogee,....your reputation is becoming tarnished you have to understand your customers don't care who made the driver in the end. It's not working, thats all that counts.
for months I've been getting the same lame response from your TS,..
"very near future",... fffffffffffft,.. sure

[waldo99]

I have a Apogee Duet and the dreadful kernel panics. I bought a firewire 800 to 400 cable and the kernel panics have stooped. Everything is stable at the moment.

My specs Mac Pro 3.2 GHz 16GB ram OSX 10.5.2

[lockdown]

Originally Posted by waldo99

I have a Apogee Duet and the dreadful kernel panics. I bought a firewire 800 to 400 cable and the kernel panics have stooped. Everything is stable at the moment.

My specs Mac Pro 3.2 GHz 16GB ram OSX 10.5.2

let me get this straight, you're plugging the duet into the fw800 port instead of the fw400 on your macpro using the cable? cuz, if that works, then i might go for this...

[waldo99]

Yes it works. I have had no kernel panics so far. By using the firewire 800 chipset, I think it bypasses the problematic 400 hundred chipset and its drivers that has caused so many problems and that has been discussed in other threads.

[Recordo Guitary]

For people having kernal panics with ensemble; does this only happen in Leopard??

Or does it also happen on 10.4?

[stratcat]

This is a Leopard issue.

"Apogee Quality, Apple Integration, Absolute Simplicity"...

yeah right !

I too have gone back to my FF800, it works great.

I have the Ensemble boxed up,.
it's mint if anyone is looking to pick one up.

SC

[kingswood6]

Glad I saved my original packaging, too.

I don't think Apogee can do as much about the situation as they'd like. Apple will take their own sweet time fixing the "class compliant" firewire problem (just as they are in updating Logic). And, of course, due the rigorous nature of Apple's non-disclosure agreements, Apogee probably isn't free to comment on *anything.*

I haven't tried the Ensemble in stand-alone mode yet, feeding it through my Fireface 800 unit. Maybe that's an option...

"Well, Stanley, that's another fine mess you've gotten us into."

Regards,

Bill O'C

[stratcat]

Originally Posted by kingswood6

Glad I saved my original packaging, too.

I don't think Apogee can do as much about the situation as they'd like. Apple will take their own sweet time fixing the "class compliant" firewire problem (just as they are in updating Logic). And, of course, due the rigorous nature of Apple's non-disclosure agreements, Apogee probably isn't free to comment on *anything.*

I haven't tried the Ensemble in stand-alone mode yet, feeding it through my Fireface 800 unit. Maybe that's an option...

"Well, Stanley, that's another fine mess you've gotten us into."

Regards,

Bill O'C

It's funny because I've been using the ENBLE in Stand Alone mode for a while.
After packing it up, I noticed that the signal sounds better going direct with it.

Something about the dig out transfer was funky,.

[kingswood6]

Originally Posted by stratcat

It's funny because I've been using the ENBLE in Stand Alone mode for a while.
After packing it up, I noticed that the signal sounds better going direct with it.

Something about the dig out transfer was funky,.

Oh, damn. stike

Well, since I use external preamps with the Fireface, it's simpler to use the one interface anyway. Thanks for the heads up.

I almost went back to Tiger yesterday, but stopped myself just knowing that as soon as I do, the OSX 10.5.3 update will come through along with a Logic update. (According to Murphy's Law, though, now it will probably be months. )

Regards,

Bill

[stratcat]

Yeah,
I use Great River & Avalon pres,..

They were plugged into the Ensbm and optical out into the FF800,...

This optical transfer did something funky to the signal,.. hard to describe, almost a comb filtering. And also the signal was not as robust,. nor as hot as it should have been getting recorded.
all in all, the FF just works,.
done.

[shazza007]

Just wanted to add our two cents to the firewire cable idea. We got the 9 pin to 6 pin cable and tried it out. Guess what? We could even switch bitrate and no kernel panic!

So far, it's smooth sailing. All the usual crashes and kernel panics have stopped. The firewire 400 to 800 cable has done the trick.

It's a workaround to be sure, but it is allowing us to continue recording which is important.

For anyone interested, we got our cable from superwarehouse.com. Inexpensive solution to try.

Cheers and still hoping for that fix from Apple/Apogee.

[yumdrum]

I have LP8 running with a Rosetta 800 X-FW card and MP 2.8 8 core w/10 gigs RAM on Leopard 10.5.2.

I also experience this kernel panic when anything other than the initial setting for the projects core audio SR setting has been altered before, during or after launching the Apogee.

I have learned not to switch any sample rate settings up at any time during a session, but still I'd rather not have to worry about it.

I have the Symphony PCIe system on its way, so hoping that'll be the end of that.

Other than that I have absolutely no issues.

[mostlykeys]

Any updates on whether apple or apogee will release a fix for the 2 gig of RAM limitation with the Ensemble? It's starting to drive me nuts. I love the interface, i hate not being able to fully utilize my RAM as i work mostly with software synths.

I am considering going back to using the FF800 again. Not ideal but my business depends on my ability to arrange music and i can't have the interface be a limiting factor.

Orlando

[kingswood6]

Too much time (almost five months) has passed. Technically, the fault may not lie with Apogee, but nonetheless the unit does not work as advertised, IMO.

As a consumer, I find this totally unacceptable.

Regards,

Bill

[mostlykeys]

Agreed.

orlando

[John_McEnroe]

I just bought an Ensemble last week to use with my Mac Pro running 10.5.2 (with 4 gigs of RAM).

So far I have had no crashes and everything works (and sounds) awesome. Granted, I always work at 44.1. I usually have logic running alongside quicktime and itunes.

I just wanted to post in order to let anyone who might only work at one sample rate that it does, in fact, work great.

I know I was a bit nervous to buy the Ensemble based on this thread, but I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

[ramagochi]

Same problem here.

I'm using a Mac Pro 2GHz (First release), 4 processors, 5GB Ram, Mac OS 10.5.2 and Nuendo 4.

Cheers

[mostlykeys]

I ended up returning it and getting a motu mkiii and a rosetta 800. One of the things i have noticed is the reduction of firewire overhead due to the motu dsp. Everything is running solid and i can finally work at 96k again.

Orlando

[MaestroNYC]

Was on the tele with Apogee tech support yesterday about some small issues I am having. Only when using headphones I sometimes hear
small pops right as audio starts and then right when it ends. Anyone experiecing this?

What I wanted to mention is that I got the strong impression that earlier ensembles had more issues and the newer ones have had revisions. When I call they keep asking about serial numbers and basically saying the later serial numbers have less issues. Also they said that they are expecting Apple to release an update of 10.5 in the next few weeks with the revised driver that should clear up the issue with ensemble and Leopard.

BTW - just came back from a big 16 track session (for me) using my ensemble and a rented Grace 802 8ch pre with te digi I/O card. I used ADAt to bring audio over from the Grace into the Ensemble and DAMN it was easy, sounded great and no problems. Also had (rented) a M149 > UA 6176 > Ensemble for AD conversion (vocal). While I found the Grace pres smoother and warmer, the Ensemble pres were not far behind and totally usable in conjuction.

[nooneknows]

Originally Posted by MaestroNYC

Was on the tele with Apogee tech support yesterday about some small issues I am having. Only when using headphones I sometimes hear
small pops right as audio starts and then right when it ends. Anyone experiecing this?

I just noticed this the other day... it was driving me crazy... what was Apogee's response to this?

[Matt Fudge]

Originally Posted by nooneknows

I just noticed this the other day... it was driving me crazy... what was Apogee's response to this?

I'd be curious too, I've got a duet but have noticed the same thing on a few occasions. I just shrugged it off as another Logic bug, but if other people are having the same issue too than maybe it is an Apogee issue.

[ramagochi]

Originally Posted by MaestroNYC

Was on the tele with Apogee tech support yesterday about some small issues I am having. Only when using headphones I sometimes hear
small pops right as audio starts and then right when it ends. Anyone experiecing this?

I didn't experienced this problem with the Ensemble, but I have this problem with the Duet.

Cheers

[kingswood6]

O.K., after reading the rest of the posts, I'll hang in for a fix for a little longer. The Apogee Ensemble *does* sound great.

Regards,
Bill