Professional audio use?

Hello, new Parallels user here. As a pro audio engineer, I'm rather tied to the windoze platform as the software I prefer to use it written for PC only. I've loaded Parallels onto one of my home Macs so the kids can play their games (simple learning games, nothing requiring heavy graphics) and all works perfectly. I haven't tried the audio software yet but hope to int he next week. My understanding is that audio hardware is off-limits to windoze via Parallels - is this true or is there any work-around?

I know I can use BootCamp, but the whole point of owning a Mac is using OSX, not XP. The concept of running Parallels is nice as I can do everything I wish to in OSX and only handle the audio via Parallels.

Any help, pointers, suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

 

Yeah, audio support under parallels is pretty bad, I mean if you are using macbook/pro then you will need external soundcard. Chances are your soundcard is firewire? - if so then your fucked.
It is possible to route your macs built in sound out through the card, but then your just getting a stereo pair of your macs native output
Not really "pro" eh?
If firewire was sorted, then i'm sure the situ would be a lot rosier.
My mac is primarily for audio work, and because of this lack of firewire support, parallels is just something to dick about with once in a while.

Also, REWIRE is something i doubt we'll see for a very long time, if ever. Thats another spanner thrown in the works.

chrisj303

 

Crimson,

We are in the same world.. here is what has been working for me.

I am using an M-Audio USB Mobile Pre. As far as using it in WinXP via Parallels, what I have done is installed it on the OSX side. Make sure the device is plugged in and running in OSX before launching Parralels. When I boot into WinXP, all WinXP audio is routed through the M-Audio box, (provided you OSX audio prefs are set that way) It is no different than having the WinXP audio come through the Macbook speakers.

As for software, my 2 big Windows needs are SMAART and Sports Sounds Pro. SMAART works just fine. I have input for my cal. mic.

So again, to say it another way, I have no need to attach my M-Audio box as a USB device in WinXP. Just let OSX and its System Pref's do all the work. I hope this helps

-jerm!

PS... I'm sure if your situation leave you needing multiple I/O... other than stereo... thats a whole different story... good luck with that!

 

Ahh, this is actually very helpful, as I'm a mastering engineer - I deal with stereo signals only.

I'll pick up one of those M-Audio USB interfaces (probably this one as I need dig I/O) and play with it further - thanks so much!

If anyone else has anything to add, please do so!

 

I dont understand...... Why would you guys choose to lmit yourself to a single stereo pair of questionable quality, just for the sake of working within windows?

How are you going to route a particular sound/channel through a hardware compressor/fx etc?
I'm not having a go, in fact it's cool to hear from others trying to make this work for them - but i just don't see the point of limiting yourself, and your studio in such an extreme way, for windows. i can't see how it balances out?

I like to route x2 firewire 410 (16 channels) from my mac, to a soundcraft 3000gs desk, then from there the worlds my oyster. To swap that for a single stereo pair, i f******g hate it.

cheers,
chrisj303

 

There would be no limitation for me. I'll always have a PC for audio playback (greater ability to open different file types), so the audio plays through my analog processing chain and is then captured for editing/cutting parts. IOW, the software running in Parallels would only be capturing already processed audio, editing it, then cutting refs and masters.

I don't see how this is a limitation/compromise assuming data integrity via the dig I/O.

And trust me, if there was better software available on the Mac, I'd be using it.

 

As for me, I'm working in sound reinforcement so my needs cover stereo playback, system tuning and measurement and occasional recording of voiceovers.. all can be handled with the way I mentioned in my last post.

 

I was searching for an answer to my question about using Parallels for Smaart Live with my Firewire Interface and came across this interesting thread. Right up my street. And just wanted to add my 2p.

With Firewire all you get is the first input sent to both left and right channels of the Virtual Machine. If you do have a Firewire audio box there is a workaround, it may cost and the latency issues might be prohibitive for you, but for what I need to do with it I can live with that.

I'll come to the workaround in a minute because as already mentioned USB works well. And the Line In and Mic also can be used within Parallels and this may work if you need a quick and dirty fix. If you already have a Firewire Audio interface and want to get sound in to a VM then a solution is below.

With Soundflower (free) and you're audio app of choice (costs may vary) you can route the Firewire audio channels as the ins for the Mac audio application. Choose to play through and then select Soundflower 2ch as the output. In System Preferences>Sound select Soundflower 2ch as the Input and Parallels will use this as the Virtual sound device.
You'll get, with a bit of latency, audio into you're Windows app. There are a couple of advantages to this, you can change the input to the windows computer without restarting it, and you can record the output of what you're analysing and play it back to the VM if you need to.

Hope this saves someone else the ball ache of working it out.