T2 enabled Macs and USB 2.0 interfaces

[zeronyne]

This is an important video for those of you who have a USB 2.0 interface and are considering buying a new Mac.

 

[video:youtube]

[Anderton]

This has been going on for over a year. Apparently, starting with 10.14.4 there was a fix that mostly works, based on user reports in the RME forum.

 

I suppose Apple could say that anyone who can afford a Mac should have moved to USB 3 or Thunderbolt by now. But what I find surprising isn't that there were/are issues, but that apparently, either no one tested the new Macs with a USB 2.0 audio interface...or someone did, but no one cared. Either option is worrisome. The reality is that USB 2.0 is all that many people need, and there are USB 2.0 interfaces with excellent audio specs. People should not have to throw them away (bear in mind that the T2 chip has caused other reported problems, like kernel panics).

 

Of course, in a couple years when USB4 puts Thunderbolt in the same historical zone as USB 2.0, you can at least console yourself with the fact that it will use the same physical connector as USB-C / TB3. So you won't have to buy new dongles! Well...maybe you won't.

 

Or maybe you will. Always in motion is the future...the one thing we know for sure is that the future will ask you to spend more money on things you may not need just so you can keep doing what you're already doing. Just ask Mike Rivers

 

 

 

[Mike Rivers]

...the one thing we know for sure is that the future will ask you to spend more money on things you may not need just so you can keep doing what you're already doing. Just ask Mike Rivers

 

It's easier to not keep up when you're 77 years old than 25.

 

I recently de-commissioned two computers - one to run Mixbus 2 which required a dual core CPU and the other to run Pro Tools 10, which required Windows 7. Both had little other software on them because I was (and still am) doing general work on the computer with Win XT. A couple of years back, I set up a third "optional" computer to run MODO Bass, which requires a 64-bit OS, and, just because I could, I installed Pro Tools and Mixbus on that computer, though I never really used them other than to see if a plug-in would run. One problem was that the only multi-channel (more than 2) audio interfaces that I have use Firewire, and the only other half-height Firewire card I had on the shelf had a "questionable" note in its bag, so I used a 2-channel USB interface with the "new" computer. Last week I moved that computer off the table and down on the floor next to the XT computer, and moved the half-height Firewire card from the retired (32-bit) Win7 computer to the "new" computer. Windows crashed when installing the driver for the Firewire card. Consistently. I put in a full height card (leaving the case open) and that worked fine. Out of curiosity, I installed the "questionable" Firewire card in the new computer and it worked just fine. The bag marked "questionable" now has a different card in it, and it's back on the shelf, with a more detailed note as to where it worked and where it didn't.

 

Saved from planned obsolescence one more time! However, I'll say that if I was using any of these computers for actual productive work rather than testing and learning, I would hopefully found the cost of keeping up with the Gates was worth while.