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Hi. I'm a relatively new M3 user. I have a Mac Pro and I'm running Logic 8 under Leopard (OSX 10.51) I installed the firewire card per instructions after updating the operating system to V1.1.1. I have also installed the latest version of the M3 Editor. I have a firewire cable going from the M3 to my MOTU Traveler which has a firewire cable going out of it into the Mac Pro. I also have the USB cable hooked up. (Is that wrong? Redundant?) Okay, I took it out and there is no difference in the behavior. Here's what happens. I push the receive all button on the M3 editor to get the patches from the M3 transmitted to the M3 editor, and immediately I receive an error message saying "Hardware not found." This would lead me to believe that I have installed the board incorrectly, but I have checked and double checked. It's in correctly. The M3 doesn't show it when I power up, either, under options. Is there an OSX driver for the firewire card missing? I notice that there is one for the PC on the Korg site but none for the Mac. I assume it's already working in OSX. Perhaps I am wrong? Anyway, $225 spent and I'm dead in the water. Can anyone help?

fm

fm

Double check for that Apple version Firewire driver.

It seems that every branded device that uses firewire has a branded driver (with some exceptions). The Apple OSX Leopard may be the problem as it is still new. If all else fails, try a new partition with OSX Tiger and see if it will be recognized.

hth ~ ymmv

KarmaKazi

I would suggest contacting Korg Product Support -- call them on the phone.

Are you sure you can connect the M3 to your audio interface? What happens if you connect your M3 directly to your computer?

I don't know how all of that "daisy chaining" of FW devices works.

Also, what happens if you don't connect the M3 via USB?

I know the EXB-FW is supposed to be able to support both audio and midi transmission. The only possible reason you might need the USB connection would be for the Editor, but that might even work over FW.

foxymoron wrote:The M3 doesn't show it when I power up, either, under options.

The FW board shows up first on the list of options, so right there you have a problem, which is probably the cause of the rest.

You cannot connect the M3 to your Motu interface - it must be connected to your Mac. That's the issue.

The M3 does have a second Firewire port which is a "pass-thorough" so you should be able to connect your interface to that.

Try this and report back.

Regards,

Jerry

Well, one problem is solved. I had the card seated incorrectly. Fortunately, the M3 shows that it is working now. I took Jerry's advice, and plugged the M3 straight into the Mac. The Mac recognizes the M3, it even says M3 under the system profile, firewire port. So I know that's working. What I think is not is the editor. I have downloaded version. 1.5.1 of the M3 Editor. That's what it says. But when I install it and look at the info on the Editor, it says that it's version 1.2.3. Weird. Is this because I have not disposed of previous versions and just installed over the top of them. If so, how do I clean that up? I'm encouraged that things appear to be working from a software standpoint, but after turning on the editor and doing the midi rescan, I still get an error every time when I try to transmit or receive anything. The M3 and the software program are still not communicating. I think it has something to do with this installation of the M3 editor. Any ideas, procedures for cleanup, trashing prefs or permissions, etc, would be greatly appreciated as I really don't know how to do that stuff well. Thanks for your responses. I appreciate the support.

fm

Ok, we're making progress.

The Editor version is likely correct - when looking at it in the Finder, or running it stand-alone it will still say 1.23, only e plug-in version will say 1.50 (yes, not 1.51 - but that's right). We got some confusing info from Japan, and I didn't see these issues until running the software. We'll have to revise the instructions to make this clearer.

So, now for the editor functions. Do you have MIDI-Exclusive enabled in Global Mode? Did you read the manual that install with the Editor? These are the logical places to start trouble-shooting.

Regards,

Jerry

I have definitely got the midi exclusive enabled in Global Mode. I've been reading the manual, too, and as far as I can see, I'm doing everything that they are asking. I will keep at it today. I just keep getting this behavior where there is no recognition between the editor and the M3 itself. Whenever I try to transmit or receive, there is always an error message. Thanks for responding, Jerry.

fm

FM,

Does the editor manual state whether or not it can work via the FW connection?

MartinHines wrote:FM,

Does the editor manual state whether or not it can work via the FW connection?

Yes it can Martin - that's the whole idea of our VIrtual Hardware concept.

FM: Be sure that you only have Firewire connected, not both Firewire and USB. You have to choose to use one or the other for the MIDI transmissions.

Audio must go via Firewire, but you can choose whether to use FW MIDI or USB MIDI. Check that next.

Jerry

Well, this morning I opened up Logic and voila! it's finally trying to see the M3 through the fire wire cable! However, the transmission is unbelievably slow. It takes 3 to 4 minutes just to transmit the information of one bank from the editor to the M3. The USB was way, way faster than this. This is more like the old days when you could go and change your oil and come back to see that it was almost loaded. I never realized that USB could be that much faster than FW. I'm really surprised. I can only ask again, am I doing something wrong here? I guess the more important question would be, if I have a sequence and I'm saving the midi data in Logic and all I really want is to be able to open this song tomorrow and have the same patches I decided on today open tomorrow (that is, start where I left off), do I have to send out the entire bank for whatever the program or combi is? Is there a place in the M3 Editor to just save my patch settings for a particular tune so that when I turn on Logic and it opens up to my last tune it will automatically transmit my most recent patches and not have to endure this unbelievably slow performance on the firewire cable? I will keep reading the manual. I know that the global setting page has a list of preferences for what you autoload. I'm looking for a way to autoload just the patches I'm using and not an entire bank or anything like that. What would you do, Jerry? How would you set that up? I'm grateful to have gotten this far, but I'm disappointed in FW's transmission performance. Any tips? I will keep studying the manual. I have to give this piece of feedback, however. It really sucks that Korg doesn't send out all the manuals for their products anymore. I would much rather read the M3 editor manual than page through it on this computer screen. I'm sure, though, that once I've learned my way through all this, I will be singing the M3's praises. Not yet, though.

fm

FM,

I would definitely suggest calling Korg USA Product Support and report on your results. If they don't have an immediate fix, they can get in touch with the developers at Korg Japan. Given the FW expansion is new, the software drivers might need some tweaking.

Yes, I will do that on Monday. I have the thing working now, which is encouraging. I got the Mac Pro to see both firewire ports (I had to go into Network settings and make sure the firewire wasn't set up to do anything with the network), then I went to MOTU and updated the driver on the Traveler. I think it was updating the Traveler's driver that did the trick. Now, the major hassle I am encountering is how slowly this method transmits data. It is crawling at a snail's pace. I'm not sure what to do about that. I'm hoping there are some settings somewhere that I am not seeing. Whenever I transmit or receive data I keep having to load everything. I know that's not what I'm supposed to do, but I don't understand how to save patches. For instance, the song I'm working on so far has 5 midi tracks (drums, keys and 3 horn lines.) I set up patches for this in the M3 editor and that all works fine. Now, all I want to do is save these patches, not necessarily the entire patch library of the M3. But there is no way to do that as far as I can see so far. When I had the USB connected, it would load up all the banks just as it is doing now, only it would take 2-3 minutes as opposed to the 45 minutes it is taking over the firewire connection. I remember reading in the manual about it saying to save just your settings, but it doesn't explain how or give an example or tell you where to save them to or how to label them or what extension you should use or anything. I'm frustrated by all this, but I will keep reading. In any case, the firewire is slower that molasses in January.

fm

MartinHines wrote:Given the FW expansion is new, the software drivers might need some tweaking.

Right, and the fact the your running Leopard probably has something to do with it. I can't even get Apple's mail program to work right. They have some tweaking to do. You might have better luck running 10.4.11. At least until the bugs are worked out.

Interesting that you had to tweak the network settings to get it to work. That info should save people some time....if they happen to read this thread. Thanks for the info!

Proton
Kid Nepro Sounds - Supporting Korg Synths For Over 20 Years
http://www.kidnepro.com

Is there anyone else on the list using the firewire card for the M3? This thing is so unbelievably slow I can't believe they released it. It cannot possibly be functioning as it is supposed to. This is just plain punishment. I have been waiting for over 2 hours for this piece of s**t to load the preload file from the M3 Editor into the M3. f*ck*ng crazy. Not to mention the fact that I've spent 2 days trying to get it working in the first place. Maybe I've screwed up yet again. I'm going to look into something I read about aggregate devices. I can't seem to find anything about them in the audio/midi setup for the Mac Pro in Leopard. I have no idea where to look to learn how to set one up. God I hate this. This is the biggest downside to technology: The myth that any upgrade will make it easier to make music.

fm