Firewire interface with M4 Mac Mini?

[_ Six _]

Hi all.

I'm buying a new M4 Mac Mini but have a Firewire 400/800 interface. Is it possible to get a docking station that will allow me to use my audio interface or do I need a new one?

The Mac Mini only has USC-C and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. My interface is a Focusrite Sapphire Pro 26io

Thank you

Six

[OneWorld]

Well as long as there is a market for something that will connect a plug for this to connect to a socket for that there will always be some sort of gizmo that claims to do it, with about as much success as turning water into wine I would think.

Thing is, a decent convertor will possibly cost more than what your Focusrite is worth and added to that there are legions of worthy USB 2 interfaces available nowadays.

I had an RME Fireface 800 which I was ever so reluctant to let go, but my new PC didn't offer a FW option, well, not with out a lot of messing about, I dropped lucky and got a TASCAM USB 2 equivalent and to my delight it performs just as well, so I sold the FF800 while it still had some value.

Another thing with buying a convertor is you have to factor in an unknown quantity in the mix. Yes it might well work, but will it preserve the same latency figures etc

Yes have a go by all means, but they do say "Don't try this at home folks"

[ConcertinaChap]

Apple used to make a Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire adapter that you might be able to find second hand and that in conjunction with an Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter would in theory make the connection but including suitable Thunderbolt cables would make the whole chain pretty expensive, the wrong side of a hundred pounds I'd guess. And if you can get a suitable driver for your interface would it work with this chain?

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with OneWorld. It's time to move on to a new interface.

CC

[James Perrett]

Buy an RME Digiface USB and use your Focusrite as the A-D and D-A. That's what I do with my Pro26io.

[Wonks]

Focusrite won't have any drivers that will work on an M4 Mac. They walked (well, more like ran) away from Firewire a long, long time ago. So definitely forget Firewire and either get an RME Digiface as suggested and use it over ADAT or get another interface. How many inputs/outputs do you actually need these days, Scott?

[Sam Spoons]

Focusrite won't have any drivers that will work on an M4 Mac. They walked (well, more like ran) away from Firewire a long, long time ago.

I can confirm this, IIRC my Pro24 ran out of drivers before the 2011 MBP ran out of OS upgrades...

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Buy an RME Digiface USB and use your Focusrite as the A-D and D-A. That's what I do with my Pro26io.

I love that this is a viable solution.

[s_e_a_n]

I had been meaning to try my MOTU 828 mkII FW with my new M4 Mini for a while and hadn't got around to it. It's 18 years old so I wasn't expecting much. Following this topic on the motunation forum however I got it working last night... seems fine.

https://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68313

I have two adapters, TB4->TB and TB->FW800 then a FW800->FW400 cable.
It's a lovely interface and I have two of them which I've used since new for all sorts of projects but I suppose at some stage I'll have to retire them. Will be hard to find the same quality of build nowadays though.

[ConcertinaChap]

Interesting. That was the chain of adapters I was suggesting but I was rather pessimistic that it would work. Nice to know it would.

CC

[mumblinstevedubya]

I too have got the double dongle method working with a macbook pro M4 and my 828 Mk2
The dongles can be expensive (on the 2nd hand market) but I shopped around until I found someone selling an old FW interface with dongles.
I kept the dongles and sold the interface on….
Good luck!

[deJerry]

Hy,

I upgraded my Mac Mini M1 to an M4.
My mixer Behringer X32 was connected wia firewire to thunderbolt by a Mac adapter and it runns great for years.

No i tried to connect the same mixer by ading a thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 4 adapter, but the mac M4 can`t find my X32...

So I decided to try the easyest way, I bought an USB 2.0 to USB C cable.
The mac can find the mixer, but after some minutes the sound starts to turn into noise. After disconnecting an reconnecting the usb-c plug it`s ok for some minutes and then the same game starts over and over again...

Does anibody knows why this can happen?

Thanx in advance,

Jerry

[Sam Spoons]

Do you still have the M1 Mini? It might be worth trying connecting the X32 to that using the USB cable and see if the issue disappears. I never liked the idea of using a chain of adapters to make a firewire device work on an M series Mac, so I'm not entirely surprised that yours is giving trouble.

I use an X32 and have just upgraded my studio computer to a 2019 Mac Pro but it's intel powered so probably not much help to you. I could try my M1 MBP if you no longer have your old Mini but I won't be home until later this week and may not get chance then (after which it will be September I'm afraid).

And, welcome to the forums BTW...

[fatbenelton]

I can’t see that anybody mentioned this so forgive me if I missed it.....

The main issue is that Apple dropped firewire support from core audio a couple of operating systems back. From Ventura on.

What this means is that interfaces that relied on core audio - ie plug and play - will no longer work, no matter what dongles you use. This included the original Mackie Onyx/firewire mixers as I found out to my cost!

If the interface required custom drivers then it may work with a combo of thunderbolt 3 to tb 2 to firewire adapters, so long as the company has updated and maintained those drivers to work with the latest operating system. At a guess, I would say that nobody will have done that except perhaps RME.

So...
Core Audio products - no chance
Interfaces with custom drivers - possible if drivers updated recently.

Short answer is - highly unlikely to work.

[ManFromGlass]

Mid range M4 laptop here. I bought a used thunderbolt to firewire box. My ancient RME Hammerfall Multiface is rocking along inside it. 8 analogue in/outs. RME even had a firmware update for it. There was enough room in the converter box for an Nvme drive for all my samples.

[Johnsy]

Mid range M4 laptop here. I bought a used thunderbolt to firewire box. My ancient RME Hammerfall Multiface is rocking along inside it.

Though it uses a Firewire cable/connector, the Multiface/Multiface II isn't actually a Firewire interface, ie, it doesn't use the FW protocol (it really is ancient! ).

On the more general point: Fatbenelton is absolutely right. If the OS doesn't provide a working FW stack, then no drivers or dongles will help you.

[Wonks]

And the latest Apple OS has dropped legacy Firewire support completely. So you can use the previous versions and Firewire should work, but with the newest version you'll get nothing (though with companies like RME that produce their own drivers, you'll have to check on an individual product basis).

[Johnsy]

(though with companies like RME that produce their own drivers, you'll have to check on an individual product basis).

If there's no FW stack, not even RME can save you.

[James Perrett]

I bought a used thunderbolt to firewire box.

Do you really mean a Thunderbolt to PCI/e box? As Johnsy says, the Multiface connection isn't a standard Firewire connection.

[Johnsy]

I bought a used thunderbolt to firewire box.

Do you really mean a Thunderbolt to PCI/e box? As Johnsy says, the Multiface connection isn't a standard Firewire connection.

I assumed that's what he must have meant, James. I can't see what else it can be.

[ManFromGlass]

I bought a used thunderbolt to firewire box.

Do you really mean a Thunderbolt to PCI/e box? As Johnsy says, the Multiface connection isn't a standard Firewire connection.

Doh! Yes that is it. Apologies for any confusion.
I guess I’ll play the Seniors Moment card right now

[Johnsy]

Apologies for any confusion.

Think nothing of it MFG... If I'd spent that long plugging a Firewire cable into a Firewire connector, I think I too would have long forgotten that I wasn't actually using Firewire!