I have a Motif XF8 with a firewire interface and a Firewire based audio interface (Focusrite Saffire). I connect these to a Windows 7 PC, running Cubase 7. I would like to get into Cubase 12, which requires a Windows and hardware update. It would be “nice” to do this via a laptop.

There seems to be ZERO modern laptops with Firewire. There are thunderbolt to firewire adapters, but I doubt they would be seen properly by my “Steinberg Motif Firewire driver”.

What are my options? The only path I can see is to get a new desktop and add a firewire card.

Thanks!
Craig

Hi Craig,

For desktop computers, viable PCIe adapters can still be found. For a laptop, the waters are murkier. When ThunderBolt gained footing, Focusrite said that Apple’s Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter would work for the Saffire interfaces, and so did Yamaha for FireWire-equipped Motif XS/XF (Yamaha only tested on MacOS, though).

Please note that the linked articles both refer to early ThunderBolt controller generations (TB1, 2012-13). I’ve seen comments elsewhere that some added CPU usage should be expected. Also, using eg. a TB3-TB2 adapter inbetween is not going to work very well.

Back in the mLAN days (which was FireWire-based), an ExpressCard FireWire adapter of the right type could work. A list of compatible FireWire controller chips was kept by mLAN forum users. A laptop with an ExpressCard slot is probably not going to be an upgrade, though, since it too has been abandoned for years.

- H -