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  • Registered: 2021-12-26
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Topic: Fireface 800, Apple Silicon, Dock-w-FW-port vs Dock+Apple-Adapters

BACKGROUND:
My FF800 partially works with my M1 Max MBP using Apple FW-to-TB2, and TB2-to-TB3 adapters.

The two issues are:

1. MIDI driver stops working after sleep/wake cycle-- so I can't ever sleep my MBP.

2. TotalMix eventually becomes non-responsive, requiring me to force quit it, before I can shut down. The workaround is to immediately quit TotalMix when I boot up, which unfortunately prevents access TotalMix when I'm working.

I've posted about these before, but I wanted to inquire about a slightly different approach.

CURRENT SITUATION & QUESTION:
I'd like to try to work around Apple's lack of FW support, perhaps through use of a dock. I just bought an OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock on sale-- However this new model lacks a FW800 port which previous models had included.

Of these two which are likely to fix one or both issues? Which might be consider "best practices" to help avoid bricking from future OS updates?

1. Apple FW-to-TB2 --> TB2-to-TB3 --> OWC dock (via USB-C/TB3)
2. Direct into older OWC TB3 Dock with FW port (no adapters)

Thanks,

Jon

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  • stub
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  • From: Colorado
  • Registered: 2021-12-26
  • Posts: 34

Re: Fireface 800, Apple Silicon, Dock-w-FW-port vs Dock+Apple-Adapters

I connected the dock (w FW port), and it solved the issue of the MIDI driver being lost after sleep.

However, TotalMix still becomes unresponsive after some amount of time. I don't know what causes this.

There might be a way for me to automate quitting TotalMix after I boot up. However, I've noticed if I quit TotalMix too soon after a boot, something causes it to relaunch. I have to wait until the boot sequence is completely finished.

I think that while I'm working, I can launch TotalMix as needed to make changes, then immediately quit it.

Kind of a hassle, but fortunately, I don't need access to TotalMix that often.

Performer, Teacher, Composer