Question

Hi, less than a year ago I purchased my 16.4.2 AI mixer. Great desk, and had great succes with doing live shows and recording with it. I used to connect it to my Macbook Air via the Thunderbolt 2 adapter, but my computer is in need of an upgrade. So I ordered the new Macbook Pro 2016 with Thunderbolt 3 via USB-C. I have been Googling like crazy, but cannot find an official statement from Presonus as to how to connect my Studiolive to the new computer. I want to find out the best connection method before buying any dongles and spending money on trial and error.

In my view I have two options:

1) StudioLive --> FW800-to-TB2 dongle --> TB2-to-TB3 dongle --> MacBook Pro. But that would mean using two dongles (buggy?) and to use a protocol (FW) that Apple is not really supporting anymore.

2) Buying a Dante option card for the mixer and then go: StudioLive w/ Dante --> ethernet-to-TB3 dongle --> MacBook Pro. Besides from being a big bucks option, would that actually work? And in terms of latency?

Hope you guys can help me out, and my fear for not being able to use a year old mixer in today's world is not right.

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Looks like there is no "elegant" solution any more. It works with the adapters, as this thread says: https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=23019.

If you don't need to go the Dante road, don't do it. For just connecting your mixer and your computer it's not worth the money, but if you NEED to have a network with a lot of connectivity, it's worth any cent. Latency is no problem. Your MacBook Air is fast enough for 16 tracks and more...

Have a look around int he AI forum and feel free to ask your questions there. There are helpful people around.