MOTU Thunderbolt for Windows

So…MOTU’s got beta drivers for Thunderbolt on Windows 10 for their 1248, 16A, 8M, and 112D interfaces. Anyone try them out on Windows yet?

:astonished: I know this original post was from back in July, but I thought I’d weigh in on this now because I’ve just purchased the exact system that the original post is referring to. I have a new project studio PC using Windows 10 Pro 64 bit OS running on a Gigabyte GA-X99P-SLI motherboard (w/ built-in Intel Certified Thunderbolt 3 port) with an Intel i7-5820K 6-core Haswell CPU overclocked to 4.0 Gigahertz, 32 GB of Corsair XMP 3200 DDR4 memory, 3 Crucial 240-250 GB SSD’s, running Cubase 8.5.20 Pro 64 bit DAW software… Thunderbolt bus interface is updated to the current firmware and driver.
I have a brand new MOTU 1248 connected to the project studio PC by Thunderbolt 3 connection, which is stepped down using a Startech Thunderbolt 3 to 2/1 adapter (recommended by MOTU), which must be used since the MOTU 1248 is only Thunderbolt 2 compliant.

When this thing is up and running it is a truly awesome DAW with what seems really amazing, but true round-trip latencies as low as less than 3.5 milliseconds on a track loaded down with a compressor, amp/stomp simulation and mastering effects on the mix buss engaged… imperceptible lag when monitoring through the DAW. And no CPU performance overs noted on the Cubase 8.5 performance meter. I’m running everything at 44.1 K sample rate. This is almost my “dream machine”.

But, there is a problem and therefore the real purpose of my post. I don’t know how to properly describe this, but sometimes when I first start up the PC and peripherals and load a project into Cubase I get no sound… obviously not good. It’s like the audio engine in Cubase is not running. There is no activity showing in the Cubase mix console other than midi activity. The project will run along the time line, but no audible sound and no sound signal showing on the MOTU 1248 metering. Yet while this problem is occurring, I’ve checked and verified that the Thunderbolt connection between the MOTU 1248 and the PC is intact. When I do a sound test using the Windows 10 sound playback device (you know, right click speaker icon in the sys tray, etc.) there is audible audio coming from the studio monitors and corresponding audio signals reflected in the MOTU 1248 metering. So it seems that everything is working fine between PC/Thunderbolt/MOTU 1248 signal chain.
In trying to troubleshoot the problem I then load a couple of different song projects into Cubase and closing each previous one first before loading a new one. Then magically, or so it would seem, as I have no explanation of why, the problem will suddenly disappear and everything will work satisfactorily… good sound, no drop-outs, everything is cool. This maddening problem has been going on now for two or three days, ever since the installation of the new PC/MOTU 1248 system. I’ve been on the phone with MOTU tech support and they say the problem is with Cubase Pro 8.5.20 and not the MOTU 1248…

I really don’t know, but I need to solve the problem or else return the MOTU 1248 for a full refund, which I can still do. I would really hate to do that since this thing sounds and performs wonderfully when it works. Prior to installing the MOTU 1248 I was running an old M-Audio firewire 400 Profire 2626 on this very same new computer with absolutely no trouble/problems. Everything worked great with this system and it was totally reliable.
My next step in troubleshooting will involve changing how I’m clocking everything, which is now using a Mytek Stereo 96 ADC SPDIF cable signal as a clock master into the MOTU 1248 (slave) and then Wordclock Thru from the MOTU 1248 via a wordclock cable into an old Spirit Soundcraft Digital 328 mixer (slave) that I use at times, but now rarely for some older song projects. I’ll first try using the MOTU 1248 as the clock master and slave the Mytek ADC and Digital 328 mixer to it to see is this resolves the problem.
If Steinberg or anyone else can provide some useful advice on helping me solve this problem it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I can’t actually help you but I can tell you that I have exactly the same problem with a Motu PCIe-424 + 2408 mk3 (4). The problem happens from time to time and I need to restart the computer to get the sound back. I’ve also observed that this issue may occur after a Windows 10 automatic update.

We have the same problem with Motu 16A.
We must restart Windows before 16A is recognized. Every time.
This is with Windows 10 and thunderbolt drivers.
Any solution for this?