Fed Up With Firewire 410, What's a reliable alternative for a Powerbook? Options

[cheekypaul]

My experiences with the FW410...

MIDI: I have to say that I've NEVER managed even to make the MIDI side of it work! But since I use a USB mother keyboard these days that doesn't matter to me. And, again, that may be my own stupidity there...

This is what I don't understand. To spend hard earned money on a box that NEVER works. M-Audio would be out of business pretty quick.
I moan about the quality, the shape, the price but if it did not work I would take it back or find out why.
Yours puzzled, Paul.

[stimpy]

I thought I'd expand on a couple of the hurdles I've encountered, in case someone's struggling with similar problems.

As well as very unstable MIDI performance it had high latency and hanging notes (which as an issue stood for a LONG time; months, until there came a driver version that ran better with Cubase, and others).

I still have to go into the 410s virtual mixer and click the spd button (on the Analogue In bus) on and off, just to get direct monitoring to come through. Otherwise I can't hear the instrument plugged in.
As you can imagine that took ages to find out. MAD!

I've had this since they came out, as one of the first proper portable 1394 boxes. I've ran this unit on 2 macs, and don't generally update the OSs, as it's potluck if it renders the driver useless. Sometimes it disappears from Audio MIDI Setup. It all seems to be a popular experience (posts on versiontracker.com driver page say similar). I like M-Audio stuff. The 410 looks good and sounds good, but in use..

BUT if it works for you, cool..

[cheekypaul]

Interesting.

Have you telephoned and spoken to M-Audio's support? Talk to Richard Connor.

[MacFeegle]

Greetings!

This may be too late, but I recommend purchasing your gear from a vendor that will give you support when things go awry. Here in the U.S., I buy all my gear from Full Compass Systems, Ltd. <http://www.fullcompass.com/>; they may not be as cheap as some of the vendors, but if I have a problem I can call them and get knowledgable people who have spent hours helping me. Their website isn't the best, but their phone support is. And, no, I don't work for them.

Good luck!