What cable to connect Mac Studio to 828es?

[James Steele]

OK I’m admittedly kind of new to the new generation of Macs. I have a Mac Studio now and my new MOTU 828es interface arrives on Friday. But I’m not exactly sure what cable I need to connect the Mac Studio to the interface. Could somebody clue me in just so I don’t make a mistake? Amazon links are appreciated as well.

[mikehalloran]

I'll let others run with its networking abilities over Ethernet.

This leaves Fast USB 2 vs Thunderbolt. Motu claims 1.6 ms RTL 96kHz/32 buffer over TB. I don't see a USB spec but other units claim RTL of 2.16–2.53 ms. So, we're talking the difference between 14"–8" — that's your ears to your monitor speakers. The only way to hear this is to blend the In/Out of an audio channel 50/50 and listen to the comb filtering caused by phase distortion.

TB and Ethernet give you more available channels than USB. I'm going off Motu's product page and I don't know the details.
https://motu.com/products/proaudio/828es

There has been a lot of discussion about USB externals falling asleep and not waking up. I have been experiencing it myself but only with external storage and/or hubs, never with a direct connection from an interface or keyboard.

So... keeping it simple as can be, a USB 2 cable USB-B — USB-C is the simplest, direct connection. A USB 3 cable offers no advantages and there has been 3/2 confusion in the past (poorly wired cable, perhaps?) — I can't believe this can still be an issue but a USB 2 cable eliminates the possibility. The spec you are looking for is USB2.0 High Speed 480Mbps
https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-Pr ... ref=sr_1_3

If a braided cover appeals to you, this should be fine
https://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Printer- ... r_1_2_sspa


Thunderbolt. That's easy. You will need the Apple TB2–TB3 Adapter. This plugs into your Mac.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQ ... UTF8&psc=1

plus one of these TB2 cables: Apparently, White is only available in the longest one currently:
https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Cable- ... ref=sr_1_4

[James Steele]

Awesome!!! Thanks Mike!! I went with the TB option.

[mikehalloran]

Awesome!!! Thanks Mike!! I went with the TB option.

Gives you more flexibility in the future,

[Phil O]

I have the 8pre es (not the 828es) but I imagine they're similar. Having great luck over TB interface with both my Mac Mini (requires the adapter that Mike mentioned) and my 2013 Trash can. Noticed slightly higher latency with the USB though. Just sayin'.
Congrats on the Mac Studio. I love my Mini - I imagine the Studio will blow you away.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[James Steele]

I have the 8pre es (not the 828es) but I imagine they're similar. Having great luck over TB interface with both my Mac Mini (requires the adapter that Mike mentioned) and my 2013 Trash can. Noticed slightly higher latency with the USB though. Just sayin'.
Congrats on the Mac Studio. I love my Mini - I imagine the Studio will blow you away.

So far it's been an adventure... but a fun one. I elected to do a clean install just because I'd used Migration Assistant so many times over so many Macs that it just was the only thing to do to my mind.

What's most interesting is learning what plugs are going to work and what won't and which ones need DP launched in Rosetta to authorize, etc. It was my hope to use only M1-native plug-ins, but that seems impractical for another six months maybe? Also, some of my old standbys that I've had for years are just not going to work. My Liquid Mix unit is finally done. That had been going for years after it should have thanks to 32 Lives. That also leaves my UAD plug-ins. I had a UAD-2 DUO card in my MacPro and obviously that's history now too. But it's very likely I'll get a UAD Thunderbolt Satellite. I just can't countenance walking away from my UAD plug-ins.

So there's going to be some spending going on to get back up to where I was before. I'm retiring my HD192 and 24 I/O. I used the latter for inputs for hardware synths. I might get a 16A to augment the analog inputs on the 828es so I can have my hardware synths set up like now, connected to a patchbay and normalled to their own analog inputs. When I track them, I sometimes patch the synth outputs into two Avalon U5 for recording them to audio. It also helps me set the input levels a little better that way too.

[mothra]

That also leaves my UAD plug-ins. I had a UAD-2 DUO card in my MacPro and obviously that's history now too. But it's very likely I'll get a UAD Thunderbolt Satellite. I just can't countenance walking away from my UAD plug-ins.

You can always pick up a thunderbolt PCIe chassis and stick the card in it. The Sonnet 1 slot chassis is only $350 and works with the new Macs just fine.

[HCMarkus]

That also leaves my UAD plug-ins. I had a UAD-2 DUO card in my MacPro and obviously that's history now too. But it's very likely I'll get a UAD Thunderbolt Satellite. I just can't countenance walking away from my UAD plug-ins.

You can always pick up a thunderbolt PCIe chassis and stick the card in it. The Sonnet 1 slot chassis is only $350 and works with the new Macs just fine.

Will that work with the UAD-2 Duo?

[James Steele]

That also leaves my UAD plug-ins. I had a UAD-2 DUO card in my MacPro and obviously that's history now too. But it's very likely I'll get a UAD Thunderbolt Satellite. I just can't countenance walking away from my UAD plug-ins.

You can always pick up a thunderbolt PCIe chassis and stick the card in it. The Sonnet 1 slot chassis is only $350 and works with the new Macs just fine.

That's an interesting thought. Isn't it about $1k for a TB Quad Satellite these days? I'll have to look. Only reason I might still go the Satellite route is maybe get more power than my DUO card. Also, it feels like I'm putting a bandaid on the situation, but there's no doubt that it's attractive financially. Food for thought, IF it will work my my card.

[James Steele]

That also leaves my UAD plug-ins. I had a UAD-2 DUO card in my MacPro and obviously that's history now too. But it's very likely I'll get a UAD Thunderbolt Satellite. I just can't countenance walking away from my UAD plug-ins.

You can always pick up a thunderbolt PCIe chassis and stick the card in it. The Sonnet 1 slot chassis is only $350 and works with the new Macs just fine.

Will that work with the UAD-2 Duo?

I found a unit on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Express-T ... B01MTP2XMZ

It's TB3 and has a slot to daisy chain other devices off of it. Not sure if I'd want to hang my Sample Library drive off of it. I suppose it can't do much harm since it's only being used when I load a library.

To answer the question, the seller claims it does support the UAD cards:

Screen Shot 2022-08-18 at 11.57.01 PM.png (27.85 KiB) Viewed 2787 times

Hmm... only thing now is I'm thinking what if I want more horsepower? If there's a two slot chassis and people are going to be selling off UAD-2 cards on the cheap, maybe that's another way to get there?

[James Steele]

Screw it... I just bought the single slot one just now. It comes on Sunday.

[HCMarkus]

Screw it... I just bought the single slot one just now. It comes on Sunday.

Winner!

[James Steele]

Screw it... I just bought the single slot one just now. It comes on Sunday.

Winner!

Ha! I don't like this... I'm becoming impulsive ever since I got the Mac Studio. I guess it's the urge to just get back to where I was prior to the computer upgrade.

[James Steele]

I guess if I had nothing better to do I’d take a crack at putting my MOTU PCIe-424 card in it and seeing if I could somehow get it to work, but not worth the time as my 828es arrives today. But it WOULD be interesting if I could get it to work.

[James Steele]

Screw it... I just bought the single slot one just now. It comes on Sunday.

Winner!

Well to follow up, the Sonnet Echo Express SE1 arrived today, and for starters everything worked like a charm. It saw my UAD-2 DUO card just fine and all the plug-ins ran fine as well.

HOWEVER...

I just got back from the UPS Store where I dropped it off to return to Amazon.

WHY?

Not a big thing and in past days when I had my HD192 in my rack and was running my MacPro5,1, I wouldn't have been bothered by it... but now that I'm running the Mac Studio which is QUIET... the fan noise of the unit was enough to push me to go ahead and save my pennies for an actual UAD-2 Thunderbolt 3 Satellite unit. I figure the Sonnet was $350. I could probably sell the UAD-2 card for $200 or so, so I'm about halfway there to a UAD TB3 Satellite QUAD for $1K and from what I understand, that unit does not require a fan. I was on the fence about which way to go, but now that I'm using the Mac Studio and my 828es, I don't want to bring anything into the control room that makes more noise than the Mac Studio.

I had the expansion chassis tucked behind my 43" monitor and in that position you could "barely" hear it, but when I went around behind it, it was definitely audible and I don't know if with time it will get louder. Again, most people might not have any problem with it and with my old setup I wouldn't have noticed it, but the Mac Studio has spoiled me. So I'll be looking to get a QUAD Satellite soon as I can.