Thunderbolt Interface

Jerry K.

Jerry K.

Experienced
So I just got my Windows 10 64x machine working using the thunderbolt connection through a Motu 1248. I am blown away by how fast the connection is. I can now open Pro Tools and record a dry guitar track and add effect plug-ins in real time and perceive zero latency! I was able to add an amp simulator (not that I need to), reverb and delay and it felt great while I was playing and I did this with a 20 track session full of additional plug-ins and the session buffer size was set to 32. It says it can go down to 8.

This may be old news for some of you but I haven't heard of many windows users doing this. Anyone else messing with this?
 
I've been going between FW and TB for a while now and wouldn't do it any other way. I know USB is supposed to have plenty of bandwidth, but I've yet to meet a well-implemented USB chipset that actually gave all that bandwidth to me at high enough priority that I was happy.
 
I've been wanting to try this route myself but, it's been difficult finding a thunderbolt interface that is Windows compatible. Now that I'm aware of the MOTU 1248 I may give it a try. Just curious, what type of computer are you using with your setup?
 
Rhodes said:
I've been wanting to try this route myself but, it's been difficult finding a thunderbolt interface that is Windows compatible. Now that I'm aware of the MOTU 1248 I may give it a try. Just curious, what type of computer are you using with your setup?
Click to expand...
Me? Mid-2007 iMac and an Early-2015 13" MacBook Pro.
 
Rhodes said:
Sorry iaresee, my question was meant for Jerry K. since he stated he was running Windows 10 64x. Sorry for the confusion.
Click to expand...
I have a custom built machine I put together about one year ago. It has 16 gigs of RAM and I7 processor. I'm not at my machine right now but I'll post some more detailed specs later on.
 
My PC started playing up so I was laptop hunting a few months back. I am so out of touch with tech stuff lol I was looking for something with a firewire port and thinking to myself - 'do I have to throw away my Saffire just because FW ports are basically non-existent now?'

Then I found out about TB and how you can get an adaptor for it to use FW devices and I got all excited.

Then I found out how hard it is to find windows laptops with a TB port AND at a reasonable price and I was all like - 'major bummer dude'. Had to go with a gaming-style lappy. But it works fine with my Saffire interface so I am excited again : )
 
Jerry K. said:
So I just got my Windows 10 64x machine working using the thunderbolt connection through a Motu 1248. I am blown away by how fast the connection is. I can now open Pro Tools and record a dry guitar track and add effect plug-ins in real time and perceive zero latency! I was able to add an amp simulator (not that I need to), reverb and delay and it felt great while I was playing and I did this with a 20 track session full of additional plug-ins and the session buffer size was set to 32. It says it can go down to 8.

This may be old news for some of you but I haven't heard of many windows users doing this. Anyone else messing with this?
Click to expand...
What's your TB interface to a TB connection to your PC?
 
So the motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD7 TH (about a year old) running Windows 10 x64 w/16 gigs of ram. My Thunderbolt/Audio interface is the Motu 1248. I use Pro Tools 11 and the latest version of Studio One and both are latency free (seriously) with the Thunderbolt connection and the buffer set ultra low. I was never able to do this with Firewire or USB, it is a game changer for recording into a DAW. My motherboard has an overclocking feature and I have a Pentium I7 4.40GHz overclocked to 4.70GHz and it is absolutely rock solid. Motu just recently released the Thunderbolt drivers for Windows, as recent as this past January's NAMM show, MOTU said they were not going to support Thunderbolt on Windows and that most vendors were moving away from the Windows platform as far as Thunderbolt support. Thankfully things have changed!
 
Jerry K. said:
So the motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD7 TH (about a year old) running Windows 10 x64 w/16 gigs of ram. My Thunderbolt/Audio interface is the Motu 1248. I use Pro Tools 11 and the latest version of Studio One and both are latency free (seriously) with the Thunderbolt connection and the buffer set ultra low. I was never able to do this with Firewire or USB, it is a game changer for recording into a DAW. My motherboard has an overclocking feature and I have a Pentium I7 4.40GHz overclocked to 4.70GHz and it is absolutely rock solid. Motu just recently released the Thunderbolt drivers for Windows, as recent as this past January's NAMM show, MOTU said they were not going to support Thunderbolt on Windows and that most vendors were moving away from the Windows platform as far as Thunderbolt support. Thankfully things have changed!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info Jerry K. I have recently built an ASUS computer with Thunderbolt for the sole purpose of being able to incorporate an audio interface with Thunderbolt capability. I had no idea finding one to work with windows 10 would be as difficult as it has but, your post has given me hope. I'm returning the Presonus 192 I recently purchased and will give the MOTU 1248 a go. Hopefully it will work out as well as it has for you.
 
slinky005 said:
Your motherboard has TB built in?
Click to expand...
Yes. ASUS has a few motherboards with TB built in as well as a TB header to connect add-on cards. The one that comes installed is the newer TB III which is the USB C type connection so, a converter will be required to connect with legacy TB devices. Hopefully in the near future there will be interfaces to take advantage of the newer TB III technology, if the need to have 40 Gbs ever arises.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad thunderbolt is coming to Windows. I use both and hate not having it on my Win 10 machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom