Sonnet Echo 3 Chasis not Recognized my Mac Studio/PT

[Uli Auer]

Hey guys,
an update from my side - going through Avid Support's checklist which lead me to starting from scratch with an empty session was kind of a half-way success...meaning that the HD native Playback Engine is working in general, playing back a stripped-down version with only one stereo track without issues and also I was able to adress all of my 64 analog outputs....(didn't listen to all of them but they show meters on the HD I/O interfaces.

Trying quite a load of plugins by several manufacturers wasn't an issue either. Still haven't checked out UAD stuff yet (yet to be installed in actual versions)

Can you guys confirm that running the HD native PCIe via Sonnet Echo III Desktop system on your Mac Studios ?

Next step will be opening the large sessions and templates from my old machine and trying to strp down the sheer mass of plugins - maybe I can find out certain candidates that make trouble for fluent playback then....

[Darryl Ramm]

Don't try to find individual problem plugins to start with, start by confirming that if you remove *all* .aaxplugin files (and then trash prefs as well) that the sessions run fine... Pro Tools will automagically put back the default plugins. That means your session might be running with only a few or even no plugins, it does not matter, do that quick test. If that fails you are wasting time looking at plugins, if it works, then focus on adding back the plugins most important to you. Making big bold moves to troubleshoot stuff often saves time.

And then you might be better off installing plugins back by running the latest installers from the plugin vendors. Latest installers downloaded fresh from the vendors site. If you don't do that you should at least be checking versions of all the plugins installed are latest.

[Uli Auer]

I've done pretty much all of that - I've removed all of the plugins (dragged them all to the (unused) Plug-In folder), made a list of them by copying the finder list data (approx. 500 plugins) into Apple Numbers (=Excel), added the manufacturers in another column, sorted the list by manufacturer and went through the manufacturers meaning the most for my work and started checking back / re-installing the latest versions from their sites and then deleting the particular plugin in (unused) folder...in case there was no newer version I dragged these few plugins back from the (unused) folder....

Anyway, agreeing with your suggested process (as you see) I was experiencing the stutter playback issues with my large templates and older crowded sessions. Since this was kind of a "All-In test" right from the beginning in order to run the M1 Max through its paces (which was a dumb idea as of now) - which failed - I was very afraid of having a general incompatibility issue using the combination ProTools / HD native PCIe / Sonnet Echo IIID / Macbook Pro M1 Max......so at this moment I'm pretty happy that this doesn't seem to be the case and that some particular (combination of) plugins could make these troubles instead at least most probably....so of course it still will take some time to figure out what's going on but at least there's hope now....

[chaos audio]

The MacStudio seems to cause the most trouble. From the MacBook Pro M1, however, I had not yet heard of these problems. I now think that the TB4 port is to blame for the whole disaster.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by chaos audio

The MacStudio seems to cause the most trouble. From the MacBook Pro M1, however, I had not yet heard of these problems. I now think that the TB4 port is to blame for the whole disaster.

Current MacBook Pro M1 has Thunderbolt 4 as well, likely identical interface silicon and drivers as the Studio. Are there any reports of similar issues with the 2022 MBP? Original 2020 MacBook Pro M1 was Thunderbolt 3. 3 vs 4 should not make any difference here, emphasis on the word "should".

[Uli Auer]

I also think (!) that they (the Studio and the MBPs 16 Max) should(!) be kind of the same....at least the Max version....at first glance I found "chaos audio"'s idea reasonable....but I think Darryl's right about the MBP Max having TB4 as well....maybe asking Sonnet Support could bring some enlightening information regarding their experience with Mac Studios and the enclosure ? Maybe they also know about possible issues ?
I'm writing that because I was also in touch with them during my discussion here and for troubleshooting checkups they suggested trying out some adapters TB3>TB2 -----TB2 cable ----- TB2>TB3 between the machine and the enclosure.....maybe you Mac Studio guys could also try that...
I was always wondering why I've read about so many issues with "wrong" TB cables - I mean aren't they standardized !?!?!? - but maybe this could be just a case that is sensitive to cable choice and a try might be worthwhile...

[Geoff Green]

"Running playback in PT with HD native as Playback Engine is extremely laggy and stuttering - same session with a simple Audient iD4 interface is playing back perfectly fluent ! "





I'm having the same problem . Laggy. On an intel I7 Mac mini. Sonnet Echo III. HDX card. 64 gig Ram. Thinking it might be because I need to add a GPU. Anyone solve this problem?

[budster]

I understand what you're saying that on the website it is supported I'm just giving my experience. On my new Mac Studio the HDX is working great with the Sonnet echo three and the HDN is working terribly. These cards are not used off of the Internet I've had them since they are brand new as with all of these chassis. I have four of these chassis with the HDN cards and they all fail. When I hook come up to my MacBook Pro (intel) they all work perfectly.

I also tried an OWC chassis for the native cards that is also not working on the Mac Studio.

[MCorbin]

Hi everyone... Thank you for your diligence on this... we're able to reproduce the error as well as provide a workaround. We're actively working with Engineering & QA to resolve the issue. Please take a look at the KB below for more info....

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...or-MacBook-Pro

[massivekerry]

Thanks for the update Mark. I have HD native as well, and have been biting my nails about this issue. I hope a fix can be coded.