I’ve hacked together a way of getting my 4x MOTU 24I/Os (and likely all other MOTU PCI / PCI-E devices) working on newer version of MacOS.
I’m fucking pissed off with unnecessarily dropping support for hardware – especially stunningly expensive, niche hardware. Not only would it cost me a small fortune to replace the 24I/Os, but I’d spend weeks rewiring my studio.
Right so, to get these fuckers working on you newer MacOS device here’s what you need:
SOFTWARE
- Download MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (73220).pkg
- Download MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (83634).pkg (yes, both)
- Download Pacifist
PROCESS
Open Terminal are do the following: “sudo mount -uw /”. This mounts the System partition of MacOS and makes it writable. This is where we’ll be installing the drivers.
Open MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (73220).pkg with Pacifist. You should see the following.
Right click on “Contents of PCI_and_PCI_Express_Drivers.pkg” and select “Install to Default Location…”
If you receive any errors at this point, it’s likely that your System partition isn’t writable. Go have a look on Google to see what you need to do.
Next, we need to open the newer MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (83634).pkg with Pacifist. First thing I should draw your attention to is that those cunts have removed the PCI_and_PCI_Express_Drivers.pkg.
So now we need to install the applications by opening “Contents of Common.pkg / Applications” There you should see “CueMix FX.app”, which for my purposes is required to get my set up customised to how I needed it. The drives should work without this, but you’d be missing some functionality.
Anyway drag “CueMix FX.app” to your Applications folder and restart your computer. After a reboot you should now see that everything is working as it should.
Since we don’t have an app to allow us to change the sample rate of the device now, this can be done natively in MacOS “Audio Midi Setup”
This is big news for motu pcie uses. Thanks! This news to find people before they potentially spend ££$$$£££$$ on new equipment.
This works 🙂 I’m running Sur 11.2.3 on a MacPro 5,1. You have to disable SIP (boot a USB stick, bring up an admin window … csrutil disable … csrutil status … I had to do this a few times before it really took for whatever reason which is just Apple junk if you ask me. The best I think is just checking the nvram setting csr-active-config in OSX recovery mode (again from booting off a USB stick for Sur 11.2.3) .. and then nvram -p … shows me csr-active-config was set to %7f%00%00%00 … hooray. Then I boot 11.2.3 and I follow the Pacifist directions (and yes thank you a million times over). It’s sad that these companies squeeze money out of us. Just give people reasonable upgrade paths and we’ll do it but instead we all get cut off and forced to do figure out how to use tools to get around everything which people will always figure out … so hint apple and MOTU : a way to get our money is have a reasonable upgrade path and not
Anyways everything mentioned here works for PCIE-4242 and 2408Mk3 as well. I have a 1296 I’m going to hook up as well. I can control the sample rate through the DAW so ok that’s awesome. The caveat for me is I can’t control some of the other things not exposed through the DAW on my MOTU hardware … which for the 2408mk3 it thinks the 1st bank is analog (I want all 3 banks ADAT) … and of course the MOTU app to configure that doesn’t run on Sur !
Again like it’s killing these vendors to do a few builds … OR JUST RELEASE THE SOURCE CODE … OR BETTER YET … THE INTERCONNECT IT FW SO JUST GIVE PEOPLE A WAY TO FLASH THE DEVICES and control all this stuff over FW if that’s a better way of lett people use their old now unsupported hardware … unless I’ve really not understanding the problem (which I think is called greed if you ask me).
I just need a build of “MOTU PCI Audio Setup.app” for Big Sur (more like a 64-bit build) and then I can configure the MOTU hardware the way I want to again (instead of the defaults where BANK A is analog by default on a 2408mk3 .. I usually turn them all 2408mk3 banks ADAT). Same deal with the1296 as by default “channels 9-12 aren’t analog”. Come on MOTU just build the “PCI Audio Setup” app for 64bit and let us on our way.
Yup, I have the same issue. I can’t find a way to configure the devices correctly without that app. Luckily everything is set up as I need right now however I am in the process of purchasing an HD192 which I will need to configure to use AES on one of the outputs.
I’m not sure what we can really do regarding this… Has anyone tried running the 32bit app in a Virtual Machine? Can it interface with the hardware from there? Or would it be possible to have a second install of a 32bit OS (do the configurations save to the hardware?)
The real goal would be to reverse engineer the old app and have a 64bit version created.
виртуальная машина не помогаете проверил
“virtual machine do not help checked”
That’s a shame. Another option gone.
One approach would be to set up dual booting with an older OS (or Windows Bootcamp) where the configuration utility is available. This is what I will be doing, so I will explain how it works in a further reply once I have it all set up.
I’ve tried to get this set up but the problem is that the settings are specific to each OS installed in a multi-boot setup. For example I have 2x 24I/O and 1x HD192 on my main system, which runs Sierra (for Logic 9), High Sierra (for Ableton 11), and now Big Sur (for latest Logic X). I have 60 ins/outs, and all 60 are enabled in Sierra and High Sierra. However, for some reason, every time I install the PCI drivers, each audio device on the PCI-424 card defaults to having only its first 9 ins and outs enabled. So I have 24 ins and outs instead of 60. Not sure how to fix this as it needs to be set from Big Sur itself. If I find out a solution I’ll post an update here.
oh yeah … you just gave me an idea … what if you loaded vmware fusion on sur … and then created a mojave VM … then you could load the apps and the driver on that maybe and then copy the configs off the VM and put them in place on the host OS (which would be sur in this example).
Tony only thing I could find that might help right now is this …
https://motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66861&start=15
looks like the person ran the tools under mojave … and copied the right plist files.
Turns out that if I copy these .plist files over to a new Catalina install (from Mojave in my case) and reboot, I got my settings (for instance, all my channels) back:
from /Library/Preferences: everything that starts with com.motu, including the folder
from /Library/Preferences/Audio: com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
Very interesting… I’ll have a good read through all of that and see what I can come up with. Thank you very much for the link!
Just verified this worked to get my other 38 channels enabled in Big Sur. In my case all I copied was the com.motu.pci.config.console.plist and com.motu.PCIAudio folder+contents in ~/Library/Preferences from my High Sierra install.
With a little work it should be possible to replicate the MOTU PCI Audio Setup app via a plist editor or even a replacement app, by studying what changes in the app result in what changes to these plist files (in Mojave or lower). If anyone is interested reply here, especially if you can help in any way.
I find these two com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist’ but didnt find anything com.motu…… where is
What file are you looking for?
Hello Tony first of all thank you much for your information.
Someone write:
“Turns out that if I copy these .plist files over to a new Catalina install (from Mojave in my case) and reboot, I got my settings (for instance, all my channels) back:
– from /Library/Preferences: everything that starts with com.motu, including the folder
– from /Library/Preferences/Audio: com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
Then reboot and voila. This made me quite happy!”
I didnt find “from /Library/Preferences: everything that starts with com.motu, including the folder”
don’t waste your time trying to do this through a VM using VMWARE or Parallels. I got a spare SSD, loaded Mojave , booted it, loaded MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (73220).pkg , and then grabbed
from /Library/Preferences: everything that starts with com.motu, including the folder
from /Library/Preferences/Audio: com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
and I took the MOTU User settings and put them on Big sur (backing up what was on Sur 1st)… and it worked.
I’m into a different problem now … Cause I have a MOTU 1296, then TWO 2408mk3 units, and I’m using logic … and I’m doing surround sound and I see meters for 6 meters on the 1296 move BUT I need to create a bus in logic for a stereo mix and send that all to my 2408mk3 … BUT because I’m at a rate of 96khz channels 1 and 3 on the 2408mk3 are being sent the audio and the headphone is configured for chanels one and 2 so I only get the left channel of audio…. so I have to boot mojave and see what I can change so that channels 1 & 3 are used for the stereo pair sent to my headphones on the 2408mk3. I hope that made sense … that’s how I unprofessionally understand the problem !
I loaded Mojave on another SSD , and then got to the point to run the PCI Audio App. I created some configs zipping up each one as I went along. In the end all I wound up moving over (from Mojave to Sur) were my PCI-424.bus5.slot0.plist and PCI-424.bus5.slot0.smux.plist file under /Users/admin/Library/Preferences.
Again shame on you MOTU … the PCI-424 driver still works on Sur. Either update the PCI Audio Setup App to be 64-bit or release the source on GitHub.
Quick update on all this. I upgraded to Big Sur using OpenCore Legacy patcher and it totally removed the drivers. I followed what I could on the net to mount and write enable /system but nothing worked. In the end I found this really easy tool which did the job right away! Kext-Droplet-Big-Sur https://github.com/chris1111/Kext-Droplet-Big-Sur
I dragged the MOTUAudio.kext onto the tool, it installed it and I restarted. After that I went into the Security settings and ‘allowed’ the use of these drivers (there was a new button there after installing).
Back to normal now – well, minus the MOTU Config app.
Hey Tony, which folder is the MOTUAudio.kext file in? I’ve found 2 versions of MOTUPCIEAudio.kext here…
MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (73220) > PCI/PCIe Drivers Contents > Library > Extensions > MOTUPCIAudio.kext
MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (73220) > PCI/PCIe Drivers Contents > Systems > Library > Extensions > MOTUPCIAudio.kext
I’ve tried dropping each of these in the Kext Droplet program and it seems to go through the motions but nothing shows up to “allow” in the security settings after restarting.
I did upgrade directly from Mojave to Big Sur if that might make a difference in this approach?
Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Jack,
I don’t think upgrading from Mojave to Big Sur should have any affect. I believe either version MOTUPCIAudio.kext (they should be the same, I think).
So after dragging the .kext file into Kext Droplet and restarting your machine, the MOTU device doesn’t work?
It does seem to recognize the Motu 24 i/o but I cant get any inputs to pass signal to my DAW. All of my inputs are greyed out in the Audio Midi Setup program. The outputs seem to be working correctly though.
I’m wondering if Im not doing something correctly because after restarting my machine (after running Kext Droplet) I don’t get any sort of options to allow the use of the drivers under my security settings.
Crap … I set everything for 88.2 and I forget how to set up the headphones correctly in Logic Pro.
I get the left channel out of my headphones and no right side. I can clearly see the output going to channels 1 & 3 on my 2408mk3 … and forget how to tell logic/motu that I want channels 1 & 3 going to the headphone output instead of channels 1 & 2 !
Obviously I can switch everything down to 44.8 and then I get see the “left & right” going to channels 1 & 2 … HELP !!!
Hi, could you please repost the downloads here or to another site? The above links for the drivers seem to be dead.
Sorry mate, the blog software keeps messing up the links. The working links are:
“https://bassdress.com/blog/downloads/MOTU%20Audio%20Installer%201.6%20(73220).pkg”
“https://bassdress.com/blog/downloads/MOTU%20Audio%20Installer%201.6%20(83634).pkg”
MOTUAudio.kext where can I find this file?
It’s part of the packages in the links. If you have problems finding it let me know and I’ll extract it for you
Hi,
I’m on Catalina but after downloading the 73220 installer from the link above, I can’t find the “show package contents” anywhere so I can get the kext file. How do you reach to the contents in order to extract it? Is there some other way to get to it?
Never mind, I found it,
I hadn’t realised that I need to open the installer with pacifist
Is there any problem if we use 88091 or 88529 instead of motu audio installer 83634? have you tried it? and why 83634?
Is there any problem if we use 88091 or 88529 instead of motu audio installer 83634? have you tried it? and why 83634?
Those were not released when I was using MOTU. I’d use the ones in my post to be sure.
Will this work with M1 macs?
God knows. If I had an M1 machine I’d be buying a new interface. No point in having an expensive new machine only to hack old drivers into it.
Thanks so much for this Tony – brilliant stuff.
hi, i would like to use my motu HD 192 pcie with mac pro 2019, in your opinion are they compatible?
Hi there, sorry to jump in. I am trying to find the vintage downloads of motu still using High Sierra and sticking to that like a limpid. I need to get my hard drive wiped and not sure, if I can just copy them over.
-MOTU Audio Setup.app
-MOTU PCI Audio Setup.app
-MOTU PCI SMPTE Setup.app
-MOTU SMPTE Setup.app
Would you know where I can get them?
Hi Uli, I think you can copy the apps over, but I don’t know if the drivers will work. However, MOTU do have a list of old driver versions here: https://motu.com/en-us/download/product/12/?details=true
For anyone having trouble with Cuemix FX crashing upon launching(in Catalina or Big Sur), I had to run the full installer MOTU Audio Installer 1.6 (83634).pkg(instead of method of just dragging the app from pacifist) in order for it to open and work normally.
This fix worked on Ventura, but no way to see all 24 in/outs on my Motu 24i/o. Only see 8.
If you are willing to make a second partition for Mojave (last OS to support the 32-bit panel), you can use it to generate the needed files to copy over to Ventura to enable the extra channels. See my second reply for a report where this worked. I’ll be keeping a Mojave partition for making changes to the panel then copying the files over any time I want a different default in 10.15+.
Good idea. For the record, I bit the bullet and bought a Mac Studio, A MOTU 24AI and 3x Behringer ADA8200. It all runs over AVB and works perfectly.
It wasn’t cheap but my productivity was suffering trying to find hack and make things work all the time.
Hi, I just changed out my Mac Pro 2006 to a 2010 machine. Had MOTU DP9 and 24io running (badly). New machine is 64bit, DP9.52 is 64bit. Have the PCIe-424 card, but no driver. Running High Sierra 10.13.6. This is the only MAC I have in my life (lol) so I’m pretty dumb there. Am I screwed to get my vintage recording system running now? Any simple guide to get my PCIe-424 to work? THANK YOU!!
If it was me, I’d get a new setup. I just don’t know MacOS well enough to help you out. Someone else may though
have you tried the “MOTU Universal Audio Installer for Mac OS X (1.6.59644)” from https://motu.com/techsupport/technotes/download/download_matching_downloads.html ??
I’m using pci424 flawless with mac pro 5.1 big sur. I will upgrade to ventura. Anyone using pci424 with ventura? Any problem with ventura?
I have been successfully using my 84 I/O MOTU PCIe-424 based system on Catalina, Big Sur and now Monterey – Monterey 12.5.1 that is. I Installed the last version of Monterey today (12.6.3) and no MOTU..! I tried to manually install the .kext file from the 73220 into the System/Library/Extensions but failed to get it to work, even with Tony Mac x86 “Kext Beast”.. I then tried the Kext Droplet and it WORKED..! I even got the security notification to allow changed from MOTU.
So glad I found this blog..!
https://github.com/chris1111/Kext-Droplet-Big-Sur/releases/tag/V2
Extremely thankful for this thread! I flipped a Dell OptiPlex so that I could run newer macOS and thanks to this thread, I was able to get my 2408mk3 and 2408mk to work. Since no MOTU PCI app now, I lost the ADAT functionality, bummer. These 2408s can take 3 ADATs each!
Guys I have tried this on my 24 i/o with Catalina but i’m only getting 8 ins and 8 outs. Any ideas?
I just did this Motu hack with my 3 x 2408 Mk3 interfaces. Everything works perfectly with my 24 Cannal IN and OUT.
Cuemix doesn’t work and be started on my Mac Pro 5.1.
Does anyone have an idea how I can fix this Cuemix App?
Thank you very much for this cool hack.
I just did this Motu hack with my 3 x 2408 Mk3 interfaces on Monterey 12.7. Everything works perfectly with my 24 Cannal IN and OUT.
Cuemix doesn’t work and won’t launch on my Mac Pro 5.1.
Does anyone have an idea how I can fix this?
Thank you very much for this cool hack.
I just tried Cuemix and Motu Audio setup app on my Mac 5.1 (mid 2010) with Big Sure version 11.7.10. Everything is now working perfectly. Many thanks for this information.
hack works but only geting 16 1n 16 out . out of 48 catalina