Question

Will the FireStudio Project work at some point with OS X Catalina?

Does the recently announced update Universal Control 3.1.1 address this issue? (https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034790891-Apple-macOS-X-10-15-Compatibility-Statement-)

I'm stuck on Mojave at the moment, waiting to hear from PreSonus that it is safe to upgrade.

Answer 1

Officially we do not support this. 

We posted a statement on our knowledge base about this. 

As the original poster, you can choose to select the answer that best suits your question. 

The community may provide other solutions, while not supported by us may work for you, and if it does, we encourage you to click the check mark for the solution that works best for you. 

Answer 2

"Universal Control 1.7.6 for FireStudio interfaces and StudioLive 24.4.2, 16.4.2 and 16.0.2 will not install on macOS X 10.15 Catalina."

https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034790891-Apple-macOS-X-10-15-Compatibility-Statement-

Answer 3

I think I’m seeing that if the hardware and software is already installed and you update to Catalina, it still works.

I believe my fire studio is one of the affected pieces of hardware but it records audio and plays back as well.

Can someone confirm?

Answer 4

I think I’m seeing that if the hardware and software is already installed and you update to Catalina, it still works.

Short answer: Yes and no. It depends. ;-)

Long Answer:

On my iMac my Firestudio Mobile (as its the same series I think it applies here as well) it still worked after some "tinkering" I can't recall exactly, but on my my macbook it did not. The FS did not initialize and the driver Version in UC was 0.0.0.0. All "easy routes" did not seem to fix the problem.

UPDATE:

I'm pretty sure the reason why the old UC 1.7.6 won't install on Catalina (and later MacOSses to come) is, that the installer wants to put some files into MacOS /System/Library folder - which is considered "not best practice" since long before Mojave and the latest UC updates. And exactly this is not possible anymore since Catalina's implementation of new measures to ensure System Integrity.

Unfortunately it's not so easy to work around that, simply moving the kext file into the "new" directory with finder did not work for me. However with a method a little more complex I managed to get my FS mobile up and running on my Desktop Mac and my older MacBook pro - both running Catalina:

Disclaimer: ****** This is not an officially supported workaround (neither by Presonus or Apple for that matter!!), I cannot be responsible for any issues you may encounter and cannot support this method, so try this at your own risk - and be sure to have backups in place or you can revert safely to your old installation. ******

The initial situation:
- iMac/MacBook Pro with Mojave installed
    - Studio One and UC already installed
    -> FS works, initializes perfectly in S1
- Upgrade to MacOS Catalina (FS not plugged in)
- Afterwards Universal Control shows Driver Version 0.0.0.0, FS does not initialize

After some experimenting, what I did to make it work again:
-  Boot into recovery mode (CMD+R before apple symbol), start terminal from utilities menu, enter "csrutil disable" and enter to disable the System Integration Protection
- Reboot (by issuing "reboot" in terminal)
- Extract the PaeFireStudio.kext file from the Presonus Universal Control.pkg by using for a tool like "Pacifist" for example
- After that I followed the instructions found on the hackintosh portal for installing 3rd party kexts below "The Hackintool Method": https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-installing-3rd-party-kexts-el-capitan-sierra-high-sierra-mojave-catalina.268964/
    - Download the Hackintool from the Link provided below the sceenshots
    - Unzip and start the tool with Right Click -> Hold Alt + Open
    - You do not need to update "Clover" if asked
    - Goto Tools and follow the procedure as mentioned in the thread
        - disable gatekeeper/mount disk as rw
        - install kext
        - rebuild plugin cache and permissions (was started automatically for me after installing the kext)
- Reboot
- After that, Universal Control shows driver version 4.2.1.46437 and the interface initializes normally like before
- Reboot and again boot into recovery mode (CMD+R before apple symbol), start terminal from utilities menu, enter "csrutil enable" and enter to enable the System Integration Protection
- Reboot (by issuing "reboot" in terminal)

As said before:
Take this with a grain of salt. This worked for me, but it might not work for everybody - so be sure to have backups in place or you can revert safely to your old installation. Also with using hackintosh tools you possibly violate your licensing Agreement/supportability with Apple and might harm your system integrity. ALWAYS KEEP BACKUPS!

Answer 5

Any suggestion to get the necessary files to get the Hackintool method working on a fresh Catalina install that never had PreSonus FireStudio Mobile used on it? I just installed PreSonus Universal Control.pkg and PreSonus FireWire Driver.pkg from MAC-Universal_Control_v3_2_0_56558.dmg. Now my FireStudio Mobile shows up in Audio Midi Setup and I can choose it as an audio output for example, but no sound. Thanks for any tip!

Answer 6

So, I was in this similar scenario yesterday. My iMac bombed about two weeks ago from an incremental update and I ended up having to completely reload my system. Of course after reloading my system, my two FireStudio Projects were not being recognized by the system. Scoured the Presonus site for drivers and all I found was articles, comments, and statements saying that the Fire Studio was NOT compatible with Catalina, and with no additional information available. Now onto my remedy.

THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED BY PRESONUS, NOR CAN I GUARANTEE THAT IT WILL WORK FOR YOUR SITUATION IN PARTICULAR. THIS IS JUST WHAT I DID TO TRY AND GET THE INTERFACES GOING AND FUNCTIONAL, AND IT WORKED FOR ME.

I simply downloaded the lates version of Universal Control (3.1 I believe). Once you mount the installation package, there is another installer in there called "FireWire Drivers". I ran this installer first, and then ran the installer for Universal Control. EVEN THOUGH BOTH PACKAGES SPECIFICALLY STATE THEY ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE FIREWIRE STUDIO PROJECT.

I restarted my computer and low and behold, blue lights on the interfaces!!!! I went into Audio MIDI Setup and BOOM! The interfaces show up in there. Went into Logic and I was able to select the interfaces as my input and output devices. I successfully was able to record audio input tracks!! Haven't tested out every single aspect of functionality yet, but it does appear to be working correctly.

Since you are not "hacking" your way into getting it to work, and the installers are legit, I do not believe there is any harm in trying this method to get your interfaces up and going again under Catalina.

Give it a shot and let me know if this works.

Answer 7

I used the 96 audiobox driver, it has a firewire drive. Worked perfectly.

https://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-USB-96/downloads

Answer 8

UPDATE 2021-01-23

I managed to get hold of a Big sur Mac and updated the DMG package, now it should work.

Note: will not work on Apple Silicon (M1)

Grab the latest release here: https://github.com/colin-campbell/firestudio-catalina/releases/latest

(Silent) Video Demonstration: 

UPDATE 2020-07-07: I have released a "point and click" installer DMG file, signed by me and notarized by Apple, to make things easier for people not comfortable with using Terminal. Get it here:

https://github.com/colin-campbell/firestudio-catalina/releases/latest

Note: this does not contain any Presonus code, it just downloads, extracts and installs the driver and Universal Control v.1.7.6 in a way that is Catalina-compatible. Just open the DMG and start the installer.

-----

Universal Control v3.2.1.57677 DMG file contains a signed firewire audio and MIDI driver package  which is an identical version  to the one in old UC 1.7.6 package. The difference is that the installer simply installs the kext in the correct location for 10.15 Catalina.

You will get no support of course, but the kext is as safe as it ever was to use and you will have coreaudio/midi  support, but no UC panel.

I am trying to figure out what makes the 1.7.6 panel segfault on Catalina, if I find a workaround I will make it public.  

EDIT:

Ok I bit the bullet and made an install script that should work, at least for 10.15.

It downloads and installs the new Firewire driver, then downloads Universal Control v1.7.6, extracts the package and installs the Control Panel and interface drivers manually. This is working perfectly for me on Catalina 10.15.4 - your mileage may vary.

The script and instructions for use are located here:

 https://github.com/colin-campbell/firestudio-catalina

It is highly recommended you make a backup and remove any old drivers before running this script! I accept no responsibility if your computer explodes or you get infected with COVID-19! Use at your own risk and read the script before you use it.

It is unfortunate that PreSonus don't spend the 10 seconds it would require to repackage and sign the old Control Panel to be 10.15 compatible, because it works perfectly fine - only the installer is incompatible. 

Good luck!

Answer 9

Thank you so much!!

Answer 10

You made my day! I just installed Universal Controller 1.7 and my FireStudio project is now working! Better still, I was able to connect the my FireStudio Projecrt's Firewire port to my new Mac's Thurnerbolt 3 port (I was skeptical if it would work... but it did!) I will try now to. installl your solution in my old MacBook Pro as well!

RequestingI Prersonus to adopt your solution.

Thanks again!

Answer 11

Steenhive's solution below worked for me.  Thank you for taking the time to create the install script and everything, much appreciated!

_/\_ Brian

Answer 12

HI,

I have FIRESTUDIO project and I have a problem when I am update Catalina. Does this mean that this interface on the Cataline does not work very well. I always have to reset the computer and then it works for a while and again it doesn’t??? But the computer finds it???

What to do?

Than you so much

Answer 13

1) Write the command in the terminal: sudo Mount -uw /

2) Reboot

3) Install Universal Control for macOS Mojave.

Works 100%

Answer 14

Hello steenhive,

Is there any chance for a Big Sure solution for FireStudio? BTW, I am using your solution for Catalina!

Thank you

Answer 15

Thank you so much steenhive for your solution. Worked for me on Catalina 10.15.6 on MacBook Pro. Followed his instructions on this page: https://github.com/colin-campbell/firestudio-catalina , which involved downloading the latest script, running it while connected to the internet (so it can automatically gather the two PreSonus Drivers), and then allowing System Preferences>Security for the script / installation to complete. Reboot, connect Fire Studio Mobile hardware, tested just fine. THANK YOU!