Ever since i updated my laptop macbook pro to El Capitan, Audacity “Built-in input” & “Recording Channels” does not pickup my DJM900Nexus. Ive Tried everything, deleting audacity, getting the new version of it, restarting my laptop, basically everything i can think of. Everything is plugged in like before n still nothing. Something I’m doing wrong this time??
Which version of Audacity? (Look in “Audacity menu > About Audacity” for the full version number).
There’s a bug in El Capitan. Audio interfaces that are true USB 1.1 don’t work. You’ll have to wait for 10.11.1, I’m afraid.
I’m guessing here the Pioneer DJM900 is a USB 1.1 audio class compliant device, as i couldn’t find any info from Harman about it.
Nearly all audio interfaces work, but some USB 1.1 devices don’t show up in OSX El Capitan. Especially computers with USB3 capable USB ports seem to show the problem. So you could try a USB 2 port, if your Mac has one, or a different computer, if you can’t wait for Apple’s update. The update is already in 10.11.1, that’s being beta tested.
The Pioneer website only mentions support for OS X up to v10.10 (https://www.pioneerdj.com/en/support/software-information/djm-900nxs#operating-system-information) and I see lots of reports of problems with audio devices on El Capitan (for example: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/4273) so it looks like either need to wait for Apple to fix it, or for Pioneer to provide a workaround or change your operating system version.
The manual has a line in it that says:
“This operation does not work with computers that do not support USB 2.0.”
No doubt you’re right, but it would be helpful (generally) if you could provide a reference (such as a link to an announcement from Apple) when you make such statements. Not only does that allow the statement to be easily verified, but (more importantly imo) it provides a useful reference point for both users, and the Audacity support team, to find out more about the issue.
Sorry, no reference. Apple is secretive about anything and they usually don’t send out detailed reports about what’s been fixed or what is going to be fixed.
A new thing is that they are sending out details for security fixes. That’s a relief. But for something as simple as a USB fix, it will just get listed in the readme once the update is published. Sometimes they don’t even do that.
Of course, you can pick up this detail from the beta/dev discussion lists, but these aren’t public anymore and there’s an NDA for participating.
In such cases where the information cannot be verified, please present the information in terms such as “I hear that…” or “the word on the street is …” or “unofficial reports indicate…” or similar so that it is clear that it is not an “official” statement.
This is from the readme of the beta version:
USB Known Issues
USB storage devices, including internal SD card readers, may become unavailable after system sleep and require either re-plug or restart to recover.
USB input devices may become non-functional on some Macs after several days.
USB 1.0, 1.1 and older 2.0 devices may not function.
Some of it is already fixed in the release. Some of it is hardware related. The newest Macs seem to exhibit most of the problems, because of USB3. The first two points already have been fixed.
Everything should be fixed in the next El Capitan update. Or, that’s what I’ve been told.
If you want technical details, the usual Hackintosh fora are your best bet, as these people develop their own fixes for their non-Apple hardware. But there has been war in that turf, so finding it is not easy. Since I know Apple is working on it, I’ve stopped looking. I also don’t have a USB device that doesn’t function as most of my critical gear is firewire…
Macs with USB2 ports seem hardly affected. Harddisks don’t seem affected at all. Audio interfaces, USB-to-ethernet adapters and card readers are affected.