Ezbus And Ez8 Discussion, Continued from other thread... Options

[Levon River]

Or: how efforts at clarification become greater confusion.

First, there is a report from Yukele (in another thread) that BusError wrote some driver or drivers for the Event EZBus and/or the Event EZ8 PCI card for OS X. My efforts to get more information just resulted in greater confusion. So let me lay this out as simply and completely as possible.

Clearly and unequivocally, it's the Event EZBus (digital mixer, audio/MIDI interface, and control surface unit) that has *both* USB and digital (S/PDIF and ADAT Lightpipe) I/O capabilities. The only way to connect it directly to the Mac, though, is via USB, *unless* you have a supported S/PDIF and/or ADAT digital interface to your computer of some sort. Which is where Event's companion EZ8 PCI card comes in.

The EZ8 is a PCI card that has the same two DIGITAL I/O types that the EZBus has, allowing a user to connect the EZBus to the COMPUTER via S/PDIF and/or ADAT Lightpipe, in *addition* to the two-channel USB I/O that the EZBus unit has on board for direct connection to the computer.

So I am and have been all clear on that and don't need any info on what types of I/O either of the two units supports, because I know that going in. That fully established, here are my original questions from the other thread, and hopefully BusError can respond:

Official Request for Clarification: Okay, now, I just got it from what I will describe as "an unimpeachable source" that Event is planning to have Mac support for their EZ8 PCI card, which is the only way I know of that the EZBus can push 8 channels in and out of a computer. It sure ain't going to do it through USB.

So I am aquiver with questions (which I guess only BusError can answer, but probably only within the strictures of a non-disclosure agreement--which probably means not at all.) But of course I'm going to ask anyway.

1. When you [Yukelel] say buserror made "the driver for OS X," uh, what driver is that? Generally, the OS X driver for the EZBus itself, meaning, I guess, for the USB I/O? Or...

2. Is he doing the driver for the EZ8? Or...

3. Is he doing/did he do (sigh) drivers for both? Or...

4. Does it all mean something else altogether that somebody needs to walk me through without using big words?

BTW, these aren't just idle curiosity questions. I am about --><-- that far away from springing for the EZBus on the basis that I *will*, at some point, be able to push and pull 8 channels through the digital I/O, so any specific information would be greatly appreciated.

[Levon River]

There, that answer the questions?

Ohhhhhh, man, does it ever!

That is great news indeed.

Kudos and garlands to you, BusError. I hope it comes to fruition soon, that Event rewards you well, and that they speed (I didn't say "rush") it to market.

I think the EZBus/EZ8/OS X combination will become a very popular recipe for making music, especially as the DAW packages start hitting the market and control-surface maps for them become available.

I've looked at the existing control-surface maps you can download from their site (just in a text editor), and though I can't tell exactly what is going on, the things are pretty tiny; it doesn't look (to a non-programmer, at least) like there's all that much to them. (That may be an idiotic assessment, but I've also looked at their docs for rolling your own control-surface MIDI assignments--which you can save on the machine, as I understand it--and it looks like it could be done pretty easily with a little investment of time.)

Well, this is great news. Very promising news indeed.