HD Native pci-e - tb4 Chasis for use with M1 mac

[mblack]

Hey guys,

I have upgraded my system and I'm using an apple 16" M1 max laptop.

My HD Native card is in my 2012 Mac and thinking about using it with the new computer.

Wanted to find the best way of doing it.

Is it just a matter of buying a pci-e chassis with a TB4 interface? any recommendations of chassis that work would be much appreciated.

I mainly work with Logic but at times will use PT (Ultimate).

Is there still support for HD Native from Avid? I don't want to get stuck with a new mac OS and no support ...

PS, I'm using Prism ADA-8XR as a converter

Cheers,
Matt

[Darryl Ramm]

Is there still support for HD Native from Avid? I don't want to get stuck with a new mac OS and no support ...

It's still officially supported. Avid recently announced end of sales on HD Native products. But what does "supported" really mean if you have problems?

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Personally if this was mine I'd grab an AES module for the Prism and plug it into an RME AES to MADI converter box here and be done.

Lack of USB support on an ADA-8XR is a PITA. I'd normally suggest HD native folks with small setups run, not walk, away from that platform and DigiLink and get a good USB or Thunderbolt interface. But the ADA-8XR ties your hands a bit.

Dealing with a Thunderbolt Chassis (and all the ones you will look at are likely Thunderbolt 3 not 4, but same difference as far as use as a chassis is concerned), the space, cabling, possible fan noise, etc. is all a pain for what is no benefit over any good modern interface. And then there are the problems that folks have been facing with HD Native cards in chassis with Apple Silicon Macs, some may be issues with Sonnet chassis (the otherwise go to vendor, including the ones that Avid rebrands/resells) and some may be Avid driver issues. See http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=420071, http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?p=2646466, ... there are many others threads. If you buy a Thunderbolt expansion chassis you may want to be able to test and return if you have problems. And you can't just go to any genetic Thunderbolt 3/4 expansion chassis as implementation problems in the Avid cards mean they needs slots that run as PCIe3, and Sonnet adds stuff to their boxes that runs an otherwise PCIe 3 slot in a Thunderbolt 3/4 chassis down to PCIe 2. That's why some older Thunderbolt 1/2 expansion chassis worked OK as they natively provide PCIe 2 slots.

And make sure you use a qualified Thunderbolt 3 or 4 cable to the Expansion Chassis. Some folks complain about how noisy the chassis fans can be... you can use a Thunderbolt 3 Corning optical cable to run longer distances to put that chassis further away. You *cannot* use USB-C *USB* cables.. which look identical to Thunderbolt cables minus the Thunderbolt logo, and watch out for off-brand cheap Thunderbolt cables, all Thunderbolt cables over 0.3m or so use active driver chips in the connectors and you pay for that and for the Thunderbolt qualification/engineering/marketing process.

Alternately you could add a FireWire card to the Prism, and it should all work with an Apple Silicon Mac, since it uses the OS supplied FireWire driver. You won't be able to run the Prism FireWire Control Panel thingy, but IIRC that does not work on modern macOS anyhow and I can't believe it does anything you can't do from the front panel. If latency is critical for you I am not sure what the latency is with the FireWire card vs DigiLink card, I'm sure Prism can tell you.

If you are faced with too many challenges, and give that the ADA-8XR are old and just not that great I'd be willing to take it off your hands for $800.