First a little bit history, then some experience/hints and finally a question:
History
I'm using RME for more than 8 years with Micstasy as stageboxes, connected over MADI to a MADIface, which uses an ExpressCard/34 sitting in a MBP17 for mobile recording. In the studio, the ExpressCard is sitting in a Supermicro dual Xeon workstation, connected over MADI to ADI-648 to connect to external HW-reverbs, speakers etc. Both solutions are running rock solid with WinXP on the MBP and Win7 x64 on the Supermicro to serve my Pyramix DAW. Last year I also started with Pro Tools native. The actual workflow is: recording and editing with Pyramix, mixing with Pro Tools, (CD-) mastering again with Pyramix. Just as a little test: it's possible to run both DAWs at the same time under RME ASIO, sharing the same plug-in licenses without problems! The only issue is that Pro Tools is supporting only 32 input channels, which means that half of the 64 MADI channels cannot be used with MADIface.
Some time ago, I added an UFX+, mainly to be prepared for actual notebook interfaces, since ExpressCard is no more available and also to get a mechanically more robust connection. It was always a bit dangerous to eject the card by mistake. If that would happen, a complete reboot would be needed. Not very useful for live recording situations! Another reason was headphone monitoring and also USB direct backup recording, which is an important feature of UFX+. Since I still had no new notebook, I was remote controlling the UFX+ with an iPad or using it standalone. For a long time, I was evaluating a new notebook. Apple was out, because of glossy screen, Thunderbolt only connectivity and other really good things missing like the magnetic power connector and so on. This year the 8th generation of i7 came out with the zBooks of HP. So I decided for a zBook Studio G5 with USB3 and Thunderbolt connectivity (and non-glaring UHD display of course).
Experience/Hints with UFX+ and zBook Studio G5
First I tried the Thunderbolt connection to the UFX+, using an Apple cable to convert from TB3 to TB2. It was working, but I had clicks in the audio from time to time. After some time of intensive failure searching, I found the problem: HP is providing several security applications and one of them, HP sure run, was needed to be stopped. Clicks had gone, but I was still missing the rock solid behavior of the MADIface. For example, if WiFi was set to flight mode (which would make perfectly sense during recording), the UFX+ became heavily disturbed! It seems, HP (or Intel) has a problem here. Also an external Thunderbolt docking station of HP observed a lot of problems. That was the reason to try out the USB3 connection of the UFX+. A brand new, medium priced USB3-cable of 3m length didn't work. But the original cable of RME was working without problems. And the good news: no clicks, stable operation even if WiFi is switched on/off and very quick startup time, when the USB cable is connected to the notebook. The only drawback is that the USB connector needs to be pulled out and reinserted after booting of the notebook. Maybe that's related to the ARC remote control, which is also connected by USB to the UFX+.
However, I would only use TB connection with that notebook, if very low latency is required. In that case TB seems a little bit advantageous related to USB3. But in any other case, I propose to use the USB3 for better stability. Not what I was expecting first.
Question
And now to a problem for users of Pro Tools native with UFX+. Since Pro Tools is strictly counting ASIO input channels, only 2 of 64 MADI channels can be used. Why? The ASIO driver of RME is using channel 1 to 30 for analog, ADAT and AES inputs before MADI is counting up. PT native is limited to 32 channels. I tried to re-route the channel order in Pro Tools I/O setup, but it didn't help: PT is strictly on ASIO channel order and just allows the first 32 ASIO inputs getting thru. Very annoying! MADI is completely useless with PT native and UFX+! And even worse, there is no license available from AVID, which would allow more channels with 3rd party interfaces! And to be very clear: it's not a performance problem. Pyramix is working smoothly with all 94 channels!
Therefore my question: it would be very helpful, if the ASIO cannel order could be configured by RME users, what do you think?
All the best