Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

Anyone knows how to run Protools Hd on a MacbookPro? What all is needed for this to happen?

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

you will need an expansion chassis. expresscard 34 -> pcie. magma has a few options. also, last generation macbook pro. the new ones no longer have an expresscard slot.

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

Hello,

The new 17" MacBook Pro still has an ExpressCard/34 slot

Cheers

evs

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

Yep. Too bad they now only make one Pro laptop model, but then again, it is now easy to choose from :)

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

Well you could purchase two of them, then you could have a choice of which one! LOL Hmmmmm actually, that would allow for stereo recording! Man, I'd hate to do surround. :D

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

I have the setup described above: MBP, Magma 4-slot w/Express Card, HD2 Accel. Works perfectly.

edit: you must have a chassis with the newer Pericom chipset. Many older chassis have the DEC chipset which only "kind of" works

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

I just got off the phone with some Magma engineers and they said the ExpressBox PCIe 4U chassis is incompatible with the Unibody MacBook Pro's, except for one model (2.53Hz), and that all the faster models and the 2.4GHz model, as well as the new 17" model were not compatible. They wouldn't say anything definitively; it was sort of wishy-washy, like..."you definitely might have some problems". The sales guy I spoke to beforehand didn't know much when I questioned him concerning specific track counts or latency or DSP/voice allocation, and he transferred me to the engineers. The engineers explained that there's a BIOS incompatibility in the Unibody MBPro when "allocating resources" which "causes problems"...whatever that means...and that they were awaiting word from Apple on addressing the problem in firmware, but since it has been an ongoing issue for at least two generations of MacBook's, there might not be a lot of hope. This was regarding the PCIe ExpressBox, not PCI-X.

Anyone have any thoughts on this, or experiences to the contrary?

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

I have the earlier 17" (2.33) MBP, and PT 8 PCIe in the ExpressBox works perfectly fine. It's a shame to hear there are issues with the unibodys. I was all set to go out and get one, but now I will hold off, thanks to your timely post.

With the core PCIe in the ExpressBox, you can only get up to 96 voices, but it runs smoothly and so far no hiccups whatsoever. I'm an editor, so I have not pushed it in terms of plug-ins and such. I can use this configuration with an Apogee DA-16x and have a nice, compact HD system which I can count on. If you're looking for something like this, then you'll have to buy one of the older MacBook Pros.

Craig

Re: Protools Hd on MacbookPro
 

Likewise. I have a ExpressBox 1 with a PCIe Core, and an Apogee Trak2 with the AMBus HD interface.

The Trak2 is a pretty useful device: a mic preamp, 2 channel A/D, 8 channel D/A, and 8 channel AES/EBU I/O, that interfaces directly to HD -- in a single rack space. Pity they don't make them any more!

Re: Protools HD on MacBook Pro
 

I just spoke with Magma. They said that the Express Box series of PCIe expansion chassis with an Express 34 card can be used with certain solid body MacBook Pro models only.

They said the way to know if your solid body MBP is compatible is to look in the System Profiler (Apple menu --> About This Mac - then click on "More Info") for the "Model Identifier." They said you must have model identifier MacBookPro5,2. My solid body MBP has Model Identifier MacBookPro5,1 and is incompatible according to Magma.

Is anyone using a solid body MacBook Pro with an Express Box expansion chassis with HD1, HD2 or HD3 with a model identifier of MacBookPro5,1 with success?