Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#9): Fix for FireWire audio interface issues; Sound input issues, fixes

Mac OS X 10.4.10 has a hearing problem.

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 1:39 a.m. PT

3 min read

Published Tuesday, July 3rd; updated Thursday, July 5th]

[Note: Yesterday Apple issued Audio Update 2007-001 which resolves some audio issues introduced by Mac OS X 10.4.10 -- namely a repeated "popping" noise. Mac OS X 10.4.10 v.1.1, released simultaneously, incorporates Audio Update 2007-001 and no other changes]

Fix for FireWire audio interface issues We previously reported that Mac OS X 10.4.10 breaks some FireWire audio interfaces, including the Behringer FCA-202 and Mackie Onyx Satellite. The cause of this problem appears to be Apple's upgrade of the FireWire Audio driver (FWAudio driver) from version 2.0.1 to version 2.1.

Mackie, the manufacturer of some affected FireWire interfaces, has now posted a fix that involves reverting to FWAudio driver 2.0.1, included with Apple's FireWire SDK 24. Instructions are as follows:

Download the "FireWire SDK 24 for Mac OS X" from http://developer.apple.com/sdk/ (this will require a free account to login).
Double-click on the downloaded file "firewiresdk24. dmg" to mount the image.
From the mounted image "Firewire SDK 24", doubleclick on "FireWireSDK23.pkg" to launch the SDK installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
Once installed, browse to "Macintosh HD:Developer: FireWireSDK23:FireWireComponents:FireWireAudio 2.0.1." Double-click on "AppleFWAudio-2.0.1fc1-e8.pkg" to launch the installer. Follow the on-screen instructions, which will require a reboot.
Once the computer has rebooted, you can verify the update by viewing the "AppleFWAudio" extension in "System Profiler."
Select the Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of your screen, then select "About this Mac" and click the "More Info" button.
Under the "Software" section in the menu tree on the left-hand side, select "Extensions" (it may take a minute or two to update the extensions list).
When the extensions list has updated, you can view the version of "AppleFWAudio" which should be 2.0.1.

You may need to restart after applying this fix in order to get your FireWire audio interface working.

Update: After this fix, you may encounter an odd effect where the playback speed of music through the firewire interface is wrong. (For example, one reader notified us that "a sound with the exact length of 1 min. was played by iTunes in 55 sec.") The solution is to use Audio MIDI Setup to alter the output rate in the Properties for your FireWire audio device; changing it to 48, for example, then back to 44.1, should be enough to solve the problem.

Sound input issues, fixes In addition to the bevy of audio output issues apparent after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.10 (largely resolved by Audio Update 2007-001), some users experienced sound input issues under the new release -- particularly with regard to third-party microphones, both USB and a standard audio jack.

One fix that has proven successful for some readers is as follows:

Launch Audio MIDI Setup.app from /Applications/Utilities
Under the System Settings heading, select your third-party device from the Default Input: menu.
Select your third-party device again from the Properties For: menu
In the area below Properties For: uncheck the Mute check box. (If it is not checked, check it and then uncheck it.)
Test the input device to verify it works in the Sound and Speech System Preference panes.