Anyone using thunderbolt ?

1poorplayer

1poorplayer

Power User
I'm thinking of revamping my old studio and I'm considering going the thunderbolt route. Got my eye on some UA apollo 8P interfaces.

I've done some old school recording in the past , and would like to revisit my music , and rerecord it with the tools I have at my disposal these days.

I've still got a handful of preamps and compressors in the rack , but with the improved software-UA stuff , I might not even use it.

I'd like to hear of any setups , that any of you guys are using , that involve thunderbolt. Mixers , control surface , computer , drives , DAW of choice too.
I hate this stuff. I just want to record , mix , and write. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.
 
I'll be following this thread with interest. My old Mac powered system is dying an agonizing death. I'm busy with moving, but still interested in setting up a new studio in my new nest.
 
many of us here use and love the Apollo, it integrates well with Axe, and I prefer the Mac ecosystem, and Logic X can't be beat for the price
and is relatively easy to get going.
 
I have been using thunderbolt for a year or so. I built a Windows 10 machine w/SSD and a Thuderbolt card. Running a MOTU 1248 audio interface with Reaper at 64 samples with absolutely no pops or clicks and no perceivable latency. I could probably drop the rate down to 32 samples but we're talking milliseconds and I doubt I could hear/feel that much difference.
 
Thunderbolt 3 has some impressive max data transfer rates. 40 Gbps with short or active cables, 20 Gbps for long or passive cables. That's better than SATA 3.2 over an external cable. Glad to see it's using a USB-C compatible cables as well. One less cable type out there. Hopefully everyone will get on board and use USB C for everything.
 
I have an Apollo 8P + thunderbolt on Windows 10 with Pro Tools 12 native.

For my DAW, I needed an extra card and a somewhat strange jumper from the card to the display port of the motherboard. I think this is an anachronism of my motherboard. Looks strange but works perfect.

I'm a long time UAD user. I also have two of their PCie cards in the same DAW. I find their plugins to be fantastic for what I do.

The Apollo 8P is everything I hoped. A truly professional grade interface / preamps without breaking the bank.
 
I use a Presonus Quantum (It really is the name :D ) with my Mac Mini 2012.

I choose that because I want to track with plugins. So I have switched from an Axe Fx II XL to Helix Native (and a lot of other plugins).
I also do vocals with build in pre-amps and plugins.
Works perfectly with minimum latency and I really like, that I can keep everything "in-the-box".

That - combined with the zero-latentency mode in Studio One (meaning you can track with plugins even in big projects) it gives a very efficient and easy workflow.

The problem with UAD and other DSP-based sound cards is that you are locked to their (normally rather expensive) eco-system of plugins.
With the Presonus Quantum I'm free to shop around and even use free plugins.
 
I use it with an Apollo Quad on Win10. It was a bit of a pain to find just the right PCI card with a TB2 port and it's a bit temperamental but it's actually been pretty stable for several months. Usually the worst is that Windows doesn't recognize the Apollo and I may have to reboot once or twice to get it working. Once it's booted up and recognized it works pretty good. I get occasional pops and clicks on PT playback but these are more common if I'm running other programs and don't show up on bounces. Latency isn't really a problem although I tend to monitor through the UAD Console application not the DAW. When I'm not tracking I tend to set the buffer pretty high, maybe 512. I'd say it does the job about 95% of the time without any big issues. It's working well enough that I haven't broken down and bought a new mac in frustration. I originally had it with my macbook pro and it worked flawlessly with that. UAD is supposed to be releasing a TB3 card later this year and I'll probably get one in the hopes it may help with the issues I've had. I wanted to get a mac pro, but I guess I'll be waiting until 2019. I'm not willing to drop $5K or more on a guaranteed non repairable non upgradeable future paperweight (imac pro).
 
Been using a silverface apollo (thunderbolt) for four years now on an iMac. No complaints at all, it just works.
For me I appreciate that fact that you use it like a digital mixer once you’ve powered up your computer - no DAW needed (no detectable latency). Excellent plugins too.
But as far as thunderbolt goes as a port, just plug it in and forget.
 
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