• Registered: 2019-12-23
  • Posts: 3

Topic: UFX and Mac Mini

I am a long time faithful and extremely satisfied user of RME products. Coming from a Digiface to a FF 400 to a FF 800 I recently purchased a UFX from a studio colleague of mine.
In my studio setup it connects to my Mac Mini late 2012 via a simple FW 800 to 400 cable.
Now I purchased a brand new Mac Mini 2018 which only sports TB3 and regular USB (2, is it?).
What should be the connection of choice? Apple TB3 to TB2 adaptor into Apple TB2 to FW 800 adaptor and then the said FW cable or simply over the regular USB? I am running recording sessions with usually no more than 8 tracks of simultaneous recording but up to 80 tracks of playback during mixdown, everything at 24bit/48Khz.
The other USB port will host a hub with all the usual stuff (iLok, eLicenser, hard drives, controller) to handle. Does that make any difference? I really do not have any experience with interfaces running with USB, I always had FireWire or PCI (in the early days)
Thanks for your feedback!
Best regards
DP

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,835

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

What prevents you from just trying it? If USB shows problems you can still purchase the necessary dongle parade to run it on FireWire...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2019-12-23
  • Posts: 3

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

Hi,
thank you very much for the swift reply! Will do and post the results in case anybody uses the same setup.

Best regards
DP

  • Registered: 2019-10-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

dietrichpinhammer wrote:

Will do and post the results in case anybody uses the same setup.

Hi dietrichpinhammer, I'm going to have a similar setup, how did you get on?

Many thanks

Andrew

5 Reply by dietrichpinhammer (edited by dietrichpinhammer 2020-04-16 20:34:17)

  • Registered: 2019-12-23
  • Posts: 3

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

Hey Andrew,

sorry for being late with my reply.

My system works flawlessly. I completed a CD production recently with what I described in my first post, up to 80 tracks playback of Audio/Software instruments etc.

The nature of my studio work does not include multitrack recordings of, say, a drumset or a band with simultaneous recording of 8-32 tracks so I can not give any feedback on how that would work. The maximum amount of simultaneous audio recording I did until now was about 4 tracks. But I don't see why it shouldn't work with a lot more tracks.

I connected the UFX to the regular USB port with a regular cable. The other USB port connects to an active USB hub with all the usual mixture of 2 USB 3.0 HDs on which I record and backup, an SSD which contains my sound and sampling libraries, iLok, eLicenser, midi keyboard, launchpad and also QWERTZ keyboard and printer. Two of the TB3 ports connect to my displays, one being a 32", the other a 24". Initially I connected the 24" to the HDMI port as on my old MacMini, but after a few weeks the display had a strong tendency to not wake up any more so I purchased an adaptor and connected this one also to a TB3 port. From what I read the HDMI port on the new MacMinis can be faulty and has a tendency to just fry. But I couldn't afford to stop working so I decided not to bother to get it repaired.   

The buffer is set to 256 samples. The MacMini is a pretty fast BTO, being a 3,2 Ghz 6-core i7, 32 GB, 512 SSD. I also had my Mac dealer install Mojave instead of Catalina as the default OS which requires some reprogramming of the T2 security chip - I wouldn't have been capable of that..

Hope to be of help for you and thanks again for the advice from Mr Carstens himself...

Best regards 
DP

  • Registered: 2019-10-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

Hi DP

Thanks for taking the time to reply. So glad to hear your setup is working flawlessly. I think I may be taking the plunge soon.

Andrew

  • Registered: 2019-10-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: UFX and Mac Mini

FYI - I've had the new Mac Mini running with the Fireface UC for the past couple of weeks with Live 10 and no audio problems whatsoever.

My biggest problem was getting Catalina to allow certain plugins to run (older Izotope ones in particular).

I went for the 3.2 Ghz 6-core i7, 16GB, 1TB SSD

I'm using it with:

Catalina 10.15.3
Fireface UC Firmare v126, Driver v3.19
Live 10 Suite 10.1.14
Mac Numeric Keyboard with Microsoft Mouse in Keyboard USB port connected to outside USB 3.0
Novation Launchpad Pro connected to inner USB 3.0
Fireface UC connected to first USB-C/Thunderbolt Port using Apple USB-C to USB Adapter.

I can run most of my old Ableton projects with a buffer size of 64 samples with no problems. I can remember reading somewhere that this machine had no place being on stage if you are using a USB 2.0 audio interface. I am feeling pretty confident that this will work flawlessly when I'm allowed to gig again. I have been testing it with a hefty Ableton project that I used to use with my old Mac Book Pro on El Capitan running Live 9. I used to have to keep turning the audio on and off as latency grew the more I used the machine. This doesn't happen at all now, I have left the machine on for a couple of days and midi response and scene jumping is still lightning fast. It doesn't even break a sweat with a buffer size of 64 samples where as the old MacBook could just about keep up at 128 samples with the odd pop and click.

I had also heard reports that the WIFI and Bluetooth should be turned off. I have had the WIFI on constantly and occasionally use some Bluetooth headphones with it, no problems yet.

A very happy customer.

Thank you to RME and all.