Cheap audio interface recommendation for macbook running Catalina

sweave

Hi
Daughter has a 2015 macbook pro and previously used to borrow my Focusrite Saffire 6 USB when home from uni. Problem is that she has had to upgrade to Catalina, which no longer recognises the Saffire. Any suggestions for a cheap audio interface - either USB 2 or Thunderbolt 2 - that should work with Catalina? Happy to look second hand
Thanks in advance
Steve

LightB4sound

I'd say look at the Focusrite Scarlett series. There is a wide range from the single channel Solo all the way up. Cheap and reliable, they are a great interface.

TheBigDipper

Anything that supports Core Audio should be OK. I have a PreSonus AudioBox iTwo. USB into the Mac and Lightning into the iPad. Suits my needs. 

andy_k

That damn upgrade path...
I'd check Focusrite for updated drivers first, the next OS is already out for testing, Big Sur, so surely they have had time to get it working with Catalina.
I'm glad my machine has reached end of life with Mojave, this is getting a bit ridiculous really, a year is not a long time to be chasing for update compatibility.
Things that are built to last, just don't now because of a software switch.

Freebird

SSL have just released a new interface (£179 & £239), but it needs some research. It should be noted that the Focusrite is 3rd Gen.

Freebird

TheBigDipper

andy_k said:

That damn upgrade path...
I'd check Focusrite for updated drivers first, the next OS is already out for testing, Big Sur, so surely they have had time to get it working with Catalina.
I'm glad my machine has reached end of life with Mojave, this is getting a bit ridiculous really, a year is not a long time to be chasing for update compatibility.
Things that are built to last, just don't now because of a software switch.

I've just read that some Saffire 6 units are USB 1.1 and others are USB 2.0. Catalina apparently does not support USB 1.1 and Focusrite have no plans to update those units to USB 2.0 (if indeed it could be done on the unit with software - I've no idea). There's some stuff on the Focusrite website about it.

sweave

Many thanks for suggestions and feedback so far. I know the Saffire 6 (unfortunately usb 1.1) is a bit long in the tooth but I was pleasantly surprised when it still worked on my new home pc running Win 10. Unfortunately cannot find a workround for Catalina, and very much doubt it will work on newer mac os, so looks like more kit needed. 

Flanging_Fred

I recently got a new MBP with Catalina and also a new Scarlett 2i2. Quite a lot of the software that comes with the 2i2 is not compatible with Catalina yet, most notably pro tools first, but also some of the bundled plugins.

I was not very happy finding this out after spending ages trying to work out why Pro tools didn’t work...

NB. The interface itself works fine with ableton and GarageBand, so the problem is with some of the bundled software, not the interface itself.

TheBigDipper

Apple gets a lot of flack for its upgrade policy, and maybe some of it is deserved. Even so, they've been warning people that 32-bit apps were going to be phased out on macOS for quite a while now - and flagging up 32-bit apps when existing users ran them on pre-Catalina versions of macOS so the users understood that their app WAS 32-bit. 

I upgraded to Catalina the day before buying a Gigboard. Headrush took several weeks before the firmware updater could run on Catalina. I didn't know it would be an issue and never checked. I did my firmware update on the Win10 version using my wife's PC. Line 6 has also been late delivering support for new versions of macOS with HX Edit (from memory, maybe something else - I really don't remember) when the Windows version was on time. 

It's not that they didn't know - vendors just put their effort into their much larger Windows user base first, I guess.