Anyone using Thunderbolt PCIe expansion?

[FutureLegends]

Sloppy quoting. I didn't say this.

Sorry, edited the post.

[EMRR]

Yes! Let's hope this leads to a positive outcome.

I had a nice conversation with a MOTU guy who is deep on the inside.
He's going to ask around and get a more detailed timeline for me in the next day or so.
he says they are definitely working on this. It's just a matter of time.

[mrgkeys]

It's quiet-ish.. you can hear it in a control room.. it's not as loud as my Mac Pro though... I don't believe any of the audio PCIe X1 cards get that hot.. I've used it with the RME and swapped out a Quad UAD2 (also only a X1 speed I believe) to mix without the fan (removed it) with no problems..

I think most of the bandwidth concerns are not any problem at all.. I've daisy chained the RME doing 16 in and 32 out at 96K with a loaded up Quad UAD2 in another chassis without any problems.. Both OWC enclosures.. SSD in a MacBook Pro.

ymmv..

michael

I can confirm my PCI-424 does NOT work with a Thunderbolt expansion chassis.. I bought one for an RME MADI FX from OWC and works like a charm.. nice to be able to carry the PCIe card out with me to track live.. I've had zero problems with that card in the Thunderbolt chassis with my Macbook Pro.. works just as well as inside the Mac Pro.

mg

How noisy is that chassis anyhow?

[mikerbaker]

I had a nice conversation with a MOTU guy who is deep on the inside.

He's going to ask around and get a more detailed timeline for me in the next day or so.

Stay tuned!

PS - he says they are definitely working on this. It's just a matter of time.

Well! - i'm getting a little bit bored with this wait!
Contacted MOTU support by email recently - and here's the answer!

"Hi Mike,

MOTU has not announced any plans for a PCIe-Thunderbolt adaptor. I will pass your interest along to the design team.

Cheers,

Lorne
MOTU Tech Support"

Starting on my hackintosh when i get home tonight!

[cbm]

I give them until fall until I start selling off my MOTU interfaces, and look for something else. I'm going to need something right after the 2013 MacPro ships.

[David Polich]

All depends on how much you "need" the new, as yet undelivered cylindrical
Mac Pro.

I don't and won't for quite awhile. I'm happy with my 2010 Quadcore running at 64-bit. Plenty of speed for me..

[cbm]

Well, of course, but I've been waiting to buy a new MacPro for quite a while, and really need more horsepower.

MOTU is in danger of not having interfaces that work with a large number of available Macs. The Firewire stuff doesn't work with a Thunderbolt-Firewire interface, either.

[Shooshie]

Well, of course, but I've been waiting to buy a new MacPro for quite a while, and really need more horsepower.

MOTU is in danger of not having interfaces that work with a large number of available Macs. The Firewire stuff doesn't work with a Thunderbolt-Firewire interface, either.

Has this been verified? If you install the drivers, then run the interface through a Firewire adapter, it does not work? I have a hard time believing that MOTU is going to leave their product line orphaned by the new Mac Pro. In fact, it's NEVER happened, and I'm thinking it probably never will. But if this has been verified, I'd like to know that. Still, even if there is some sort of verification that it's not working NOW, I'm pretty sure that by the time the new Mac Pro is released, MOTU will have done something about that. Their upgrades are always last-minute, as in the week Apple releases a new product. But they always get it done.

Shooshie

[Marc7777]

I just know that when I talked to a guy who is in the development team at MOTU that he said they are planning on releasing a thunderbolt chassis (or a thunderbolt solution of some sort) at the same time as the new Mac Pros are going to come out.


Very little details were given other than that..

[FutureLegends]

MOTU is in danger of not having interfaces that work with a large number of available Macs. The Firewire stuff doesn't work with a Thunderbolt-Firewire interface, either.

MOTU hasn't released a new PCI based audio interface in over 5 years. I doubt they sell in any great quantities any more either.

My 828mk3 work great with the FW - TB adapter. No issues at all.

[Shooshie]

My 828mk3 work great with the FW - TB adapter. No issues at all.

Here we have 1st hand testimony, folks! MOTU's Firewire boxes (at least the current ones) work with the Thunderbolt Firewire adapter.

That's sort of what I figured. Glad to know someone can verify it.

Shooshie

[Sergievsky]

I read somewhere (Amazon?) that the adapter has a Ti chip in it, which would explain the compatibility I guess. Someone break open an adapter and tell us will ya?

It still sucks that apple took it out, I got enough dongles and cables jutting out from my macbook as it is.

As far as the expansion, I just got the OWC Helios and it works with the Apogee Symphony card (of course updated drivers from Apogee). I went with it as a last chance for Apple-type-of-thing with me. (I sold my MacPro). I can't imagine Motu not following suit.

[Sean Kenny]

I can confirm my PCI-424 does NOT work with a Thunderbolt expansion chassis.. I bought one for an RME MADI FX from OWC and works like a charm.. nice to be able to carry the PCIe card out with me to track live.. I've had zero problems with that card in the Thunderbolt chassis with my Macbook Pro.. works just as well as inside the Mac Pro.

mg

Hi I'm a little late to this thread... I currently use an RME madi pcie card with 24i/o izADA converters, works like a dream and sounds great, but I'm interested in your track count ie how many simultaneous tracks you are recording. I'm going to buy the new Mac Pro when it comes but obviously need something that's going to work.

Do you mind tell me a bit more about the kind of projects you are doing track count-wise to give me an idea of performance.

For what it's worth I have an external desk so I'm hardware playthru monitoring when I'm recording so latency is never an issue and if I need reverb whilst recording I'll use external hardware verbs till mixdown

More info would be very much appreciated

Regards

Sean

[mrgkeys]

for live shows at the moment, 32 tracks @ 96K from an Antelope Orion to a MADI FX in an OWC Thunderbolt chassis.. currently on a 13 in 8,1 MBP, with a SSD, but I've done 32 tracks @ 44.1 into the internal 5400 drive with no problem, and 16 tracks @ 96k on that old drive too.. SSD makes everything easier though..

[ahimmel]

Here is the answer I received:(
Hello Alejandro,

The 2408mkII will not be compatible with a thunderbolt connection.

For the new MacPro we do suggest using either a firewire or thunderbolt based audio interface.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Sarah Chauvin (MOTU)
Customer Service Representative
617-576-2760
sarah_chauvin@motu.com

On Sep 9, 2013, at 8:00 PM, SoundMachin SoundMachin wrote:

Hi, I am planning on buying a Mac pro 2013 when it starts shipping but I use a 2408mkII to connect DP8 to my digital console. Will you have a solution to connect my 2408mkII to thunderbolt or something like that when it ships?

Thanks in advance
Alejandro Himmelbauer