Hi
I am setting up a totally new system using a Mac Book Pro. I was PC before ....and it’s all very new to me .

What is the best thunderbolt dock (that has firewire) for music production ?

I will be using using a cable for firewire 800-to FW 400 ) using the Motif XS, software so far is Cubase 8.5, Reason 9 and hardware is UA Apollo Twin.
I have 2 other hard ware components...TC Helcion Voiceworks ( old got it in 2004 ) and Samson Headphone amp if that is relevant.

I am eager to get anyone’s input.

Cheers,

Skybo

Hi skybo,

I am presuming your Macbook Pro is recent and doesn’t offer any firewire connectivity, so you are looking to find a way of plugging everything through the thunderbolt ports.

A thunderbolt dock is basically a hub.  Hubs are never recommend for use with audio interfaces and many audio interfaces often can’t be seen by DAWs once plugged through one. 

I would avoid buying one for music production unless you know for sure (from manufacturers of your gear) that you can use one without problem.

Most thunderbolt docks should be fine for data transfer, but you really need to know about how they perform in an audio recording situation.

From my research. there have been positive reports from many sources in music production communities about the OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock, but, if I were you, I’d shoot UA/Yamaha an email first, to find out for sure if you can use your gear with one.

OWC are also releasing a Thunderbolt 3 version.

Hi Phil,
Yes you are right, am trying to get my XS 8 connected to Macbook Pro that doesn’t have fire wire connectivity so trying to go via thunderbolt. Will follow your suggestion .
Thanks
Cheers
Skybo

I have a Motif with firewire.  I was happily moving along with my 2011 MacBook Pro with a firewire port; and then I upgraded to a new iMac with Thunderbolt 3 and no Firewire port. 

Against all recommendations, I bought two dongles (or whatever they’re called)FW to Tblt 2; and Tblt 2 to Tblt 3.  It worked fine . . . until it didn’t.  After about three months, my computer began crashing and the report blamed it on the FW.  Thinking I was clever, I switched FW ports on the Motif.  It worked fine . . . for a week.

Today I received the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock with 14 ports, including FireWire.  I’ve been connected and using Cubase for a few hours with no latency and no crashes.  The cost was $315 including tax. 

I’ll write again if I have a problem; so if I don’t—assume it’s still working well.

BTW, it’s a really nice dock.  And as OWC goes, I upgraded ram on the MacBook Pro to 16, and on my new Mac to 64, both with OWC chips, which perform flawlessly and were far cheaper than the same from Apple; and on the new Macs, installation is idiot-proof.