Sonnet Echo 3 Chasis not Recognized my Mac Studio/PT

[Darryl Ramm]

I think the money is already on it’s a driver problem. Avid support seems to have told some users that, and you might get more info if you filed a case. Avid’s recent behavior is to be fairly responsive to issues around the new Apple silicon. Pro Tools 2022.5 was a whole release fairly quickly done, largely for the Aux performance bug on Apple Silicon Macs after that bug was so well found and reported by one user with others also filing cases. Then before that multiple other things like plugin updates for Apple silicon Macs. It’s Avid, not the fastest company at doing stuff, not very communicative, and slow on a native port, but they are watching the Apple silicon customer needs and no surprise since it’s the future for much of their customer base.

[685]

Originally Posted by Uli Auer

Hey guys !
Kind of having the same problems although using a MBP M1 Max here.
My Setup:
Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB RAM, 2TB flashdrive
Echo III Desktop TB3 (following Sonnet's support switched to "HDX compatibility"
HD native card (alongside 2 UAD cards, 1 Octo, 1 Quad)
Pro Tools V2022.4

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 !

To be truthful, I feel that this issue will continue to be totally ignored and will not be fixed because support ends on the PCIe card in June 2023. As I mentioned, I have been in contact with Avid support since April 14, 2022 via back and forth emails. Their first reply was to tell me that the Mac Studio was not supported and they were still testing it. That I already figured but just wanted to sent the CPU spike issue in as early as possible. I'm pretty certain that they would have no trouble testing the exact same hardware setup.
April 26, 2022 they released 2022.4 with support for the Mac Studio but the CPU Spike issue was still occurring and basically made the HD OMNI/HD Native setup unusable. More back and forth emails with Avid and I also had a few back and forth emails with Sonnet but no solutions. 2022.5 as released on May 26, 2022 but still did not fix the CPU spike issue. But it's now June 6 and sadly it's time to get off the train. At least for me that is. SMH

[budster]

I have had the same issue. When I started this thread I tried a bunch of things with the HD native card and a Sonnet Echo Express 3 and an SE-II chassis both with native cards. I did the firmware upgrades etc. no love.
I was finally able to get to HDX cards and they both work well in the SE_III chassis with the Mac Studio(Os 12.3) running ProTools 2022.4.

I have heard that the M1 laptop is working with this set up from a contact at Avid , but I dot not have that to test on.

My feeling is that it may or may not be possible for Avid to tweak the firmware on the native cards if they are so inclined but perhaps the chipset on the older native cards just will not work. My cards are from 2011. The HDN card is also officially not a supported product any longer from what I understand.

Sigh.

[Uli Auer]

Originally Posted by budster

The HDN card is also officially not a supported product any longer from what I understand.

Nope. That's not the case: In fact the exact combination of

- Macbook Pro 2021 (18.x) ->>> in my case, but same goes for the Mac Studio
- The Sonnet Echo III Desktop

is officially called "Supported with up to three HDX cards or one HD native card"

See here:
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...-Compatibility

[Darryl Ramm]

My stupid confused post deleted.

[Uli Auer]

Sorry but I don't understand what you're talking about....

The link and the chart are indeed the most actual ones (as you can see as the chart is containing both the Mac Studio and the Macbook Pro M1 18,x) and the link has been provided directly by Avid Support in my ongoing support request...

So what's your point in calling that "assumptions"?

[Darryl Ramm]

Sorry Uli. Holy cow did I screw up, I was looking at a completely wrong KB article, I can't even find it now. I deleted my post.

---

I really hope Avid has a handle on this and is replying to folks.

Are some folks picking up used Thunderbolt Native boxes to try if they work? With their systems/setup?

[Uli Auer]

No worries !

[Uli Auer]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Are some folks picking up used Thunderbolt Native boxes to try if they work? With their systems/setup?

Yeah. That would be interesting to know !!!

[chaos audio]

What do you think, HD Native Thunderbolt? That works without any problems.