Newbie Interface Questions

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Thunderbolt bus powered devices are not supported, a frequent issue with portable Thunderbolt SSD drives. Not an issue for Symphony interfaces.

Not supported? Didn't now. Working? At least with my Lacie Rugged works fine. And as you said, absolutely zero problems with the Apogee box.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Not supported? Didn't now. Working? At least with my Lacie Rugged works fine. And as you said, absolutely zero problems with the Apogee box.

A matter of luck/low power needs and maybe the direction the adapter is being used in. I would just not assume these can provide power.

[B Wheeler]

I should say I am definitely a Newbie with ProTools and a Laptop based studio.
I have been recording/mixing mostly with 2" tape for years.

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I re-did all the settings you suggested including "PT Prefs 2" and turned off everything automatic I could find in Apple system settings.

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• Listening to music with iTunes and ProTools thru Apogee Symphony I/O mk1 (monitoring thru Neve console)
  
• I am switching plugging the cable from the Symphony into each of the three laptop TB/USB4 ports

System Settings>Hardware>Thunderbolt/USB4, has three ports and all say," no device connected"


System Settings>Hardware>USB>USB DeviceTree, displays three "USB3.1" bus entries with the Apogee Symphony showing up on the last one, no matter which port I plug the Apogee into.




Audio has been playing for hours without any glitches. This time plugged into the TB/USB4 on the right of the laptop. (Previously when I had glitches I was plugging into a TB/USB4 port on the left side of the laptop)

Should I be plugging into one of the ports over the others? How would I know which port to plug into?

Would the laptop be so finicky that it 'cares' which port I plug into?


Thanks again for your replies, lots of good info!

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

A matter of luck/low power needs and maybe the direction the adapter is being used in. I would just not assume these can provide power.

Maybe there is an undocumented wattage limit, but the Lacie Rugged only needs 4W and works perfecltly.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by B Wheeler

Should I be plugging into one of the ports over the others? How would I know which port to plug into?

Would the laptop be so finicky that it 'cares' which port I plug into?

Nope. Not itself. But issues related to Thunderbolt are possible if you have other things chained on the bus, USB if you are going thorough a hub. or occasional other things connected anywhere. If you have a thunderbolt monitor connected it needs to be on a separate port/bus. But check by disconnecting every monitor and every other peripheral possible, including hubs and docks and test. Apple silicon MBP have one thunderbolt port per bus, Intel ones had two ports sharing a bus so more chance of issues.

What *exact* Mac laptop do you have?

What *exact* interface do you have? OK a Symphony I/O (Mk I)? But do you have a Thunderbridge box? Without that (or DigiLink) all you have is USB.

And since Thunderbridge is Thunderbolt (or Thunderbolt 2, I'm not sure, but makes no difference) ... for a modern Mac laptop you would need that adapter I linked to, which I'm assuming you don' have since you did not know about it... so just lets start with you clearly describing exactly what you have.

What *exact* cable are you using? Make/model, and describe connectors at each end. And that is plugging into exactly what? (USB-A port on the back of the Symphony? The Thunderbolt port on the Thunderbridge?

If you are trying to use Thunderbolt....

Thunderbolt 1/2 uses a mini-display connector, you must use a Thunderbolt cable not a mini-displayport cable, which will fit the socket... and not work.

Thunderbolt 3/4 uses a USB-C connector, you must use a thunderbolt cable not a "USB" cable, which if it has a USB-C connector will fit the socket... and not work for Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt 3/4 cables will also carry USB signals, but a USB cable will not carry Thunderbolt.

Google/Wikipedia and the Apogee documentation will explain any terms here you are not sure about.

Remember some tall dark stranger said you may not need Thunderbolt... the Symphony I/O (Mk I) is a USB 2.0 interface if you are using USB... so very old tech.. I have no idea of the RTL... But who cares if you are monitoring off the console.

[B Wheeler]

Thanks for all the replies and education.

In the end I have it working and believe my computer was doing stuff in the background that was interfering with audio.

It seems Ventura has a lot more 'cloud sharing' and other background items going on than my previous Mac which was 10 years old.