New Life for the Original Symphony I/O: An Independent Software Project

With Apogee’s cooperation, an independent developer is helping bring the original Symphony I/O to modern Macs.

Great audio hardware doesn’t stop sounding great just becausetechnology moves forward.

Introduced in 2010, the original Apogee Symphony I/O brought exceptional sound quality and modular flexibility to professional studios. Sixteen years later, many remain valuable tools, even as changes in computer hardware and operating systems have made them increasingly difficult to use.

Now, thanks to independent developer and Symphony I/O owner Daniel Raffel, there’s a promising new option for keeping these interfaces working with modern Macs.

A New Approach to an Old Challenge

Daniel approached Apogee with an idea: could the original Symphony I/O be brought up to date for modern Apple Silicon computers?

Recognizing the value of extending the useful life of our customers’ equipment, Dirk Ulrich supported the effort by providing Daniel with access to Apogee’s legacy source code.

Working independently, Daniel developed USB support, a ThunderBridge driver, and a replacement Maestro control application. The result is Unofficial Symphony Maestro, a free, open-source project designed for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 26 and later. We’re grateful to Daniel for his initiative and for sharing his work with other Symphony I/O owners.

Explore Unofficial Symphony Maestro

Unofficial Symphony Maestro is Daniel Raffel’s independently developed beta software, with limited testing across Symphony I/O Mk I configurations. It is not an official Apogee release, and Apogee Technical Support cannot assist with installation, compatibility, or troubleshooting. Users should review the project’s documentation before installing, particularly on mission-critical systems, and direct questions or bug reports to the project.

Learn more and access the software:

https://www.generouscorp.com/unofficial-symphony-maestro-mk1

Explore the open-source repository:

https://github.com/danielraffel/unofficial-symphony-maestro-mk1