[In progress] SSDT for Thunderbolt 3 Hotplug

[jiffyslot]

Yeah, before the Hack, I was just running this machine as a Vienna Ensemble Pro 6 server with Windows 10 Pro.
I'm not a fan of shutting down my computer every time I want to use the Apollo. I'm not sure of the "commercial-grade" ruggedness of UAD's DAW products, so I'm hesitant to leave the Apollo on 24/7. -I did that with the Apogee Duet 2 USB without a problem. I'd trust the 003R 24/7, but it simply isn't as good as the UAD and it too isn't playing nice with the Hack.
I'll run a few more tests, but it's not looking promising for my needs. I would say that if one was building a Hack for a DAW, I'd stick with native USB stuff and skip Thunderbolt and Firewire. Again, I'll check those patches and test. Thanks for the reply!

 

[jleahy2]

Yeah, before the Hack, I was just running this machine as a Vienna Ensemble Pro 6 server with Windows 10 Pro.
I'm not a fan of shutting down my computer every time I want to use the Apollo. I'm not sure of the "commercial-grade" ruggedness of UAD's DAW products, so I'm hesitant to leave the Apollo on 24/7. -I did that with the Apogee Duet 2 USB without a problem. I'd trust the 003R 24/7, but it simply isn't as good as the UAD and it too isn't playing nice with the Hack.
I'll run a few more tests, but it's not looking promising for my needs. I would say that if one was building a Hack for a DAW, I'd stick with native USB stuff and skip Thunderbolt and Firewire. Again, I'll check those patches and test. Thanks for the reply!

I had some major problems this go around with USB. I kept getting random audio overload issues which were causing dropouts and the entire audio subsystem would reload for some reason. It only happened under Ableton for some reason. Could never figure out what was causing the issue. It wasn't the projects as they worked fine on a real mac and the same audio interface. I tried 3 different usb interfaces and they all exhibited the same issue. I even swapped out to a completely different motherboard thinking there was something going on. No dice. I can only conclude that there's some issue with this z370 chipset, or the USB subsystem of the Hackintosh on this chipset, or perhaps something to do with the Hackintosh config that was causing my issue. I found a few references to others having the same issue, but none of their fixes worked for me.

I ended up finally giving in and deciding to go Thunderbolt or Firewire. I had used Thunderbolt UAD in the past, and loved the lower latency, and after reading the issues with Firewire often killing sleep, I decided to go Thunderbolt. Now, I leave the computer, and the new Focusrite Clarett 8Pre on 24/7. Really sucks doing that too, as I also hate turning the computer on and off. I use it so randomly throughout the day it just doesn't make sense to turn it off. I don't care about the lack of sleep. The water cooler keeps the system plenty cold, but I'd really like to be able to turn the audio interface on and off. Doesn't look like that's going to happen though.

It's too late for me to revert without sinking a ton of additional money into trying a Firewire interface now, and it'd certainly be a step backward in latency/input, but I'm still left wondering if a Firewire interface would have at least allowed me to turn it on and off. Seems there's mixed results with that too.

 

[jiffyslot]

I've had no luck with "hotplug" on/off for the 003R with the latest drivers, so I've removed the Firewire card to free up SATA port 3. When running Pro Tools 2018.7, my Intel Power Gadget reports my CPU jumping from 1 GHz to 4-4.7GHz with temps between 36°C and 46°C. PT is using all 12, but mostly threads 6 and 7 for a total CPU load of 12%-14% with a buffer of 128 samples 24/44.1KHz System Delay is 1.75ms -the same performance/demand as the 2012 Mac Mini QC 2.6GHz 6,2.

Yeah, the UAD (not counting the plugins) cost quite a bit more than my Hack build. The studio pulls very little juice -shockingly little compared to running 3 or 4 Mac Mini's. I really expected this PC to suck down the power -even though I've disabled a lot of the throttling settings in the BIOS that causes problems for Pro Tools. (I know, still...)

I may just run this as a headless VSL/VEP slave after all. But it is very nice for a photo/video machine. Sorry if it's a little OT. Do we need to start a new DAW thread?

 

[jaco]

Hi Jaco,

Similar setup over here, but I have not yet applied any patch. I'm not totally clear on which one is safe for my build. Advice on which one for the GA-Z370 with the GC-Alpine Ridge?

IMy hack has to be powered off and the Apollo 8 Quad powered up in order to work. Firewire hotplug for the Digidesign 003R is spotty as well. One of the issues I have which may provide some clues to this topic is that my Blackmagic Design Multidock 2 (single-space rackmounted 4x SSDs) "hangs onto" whatever computer last used it. It has no power switch and the only way of freeing up this device is to power off everything. It's akin to the process of resetting the SMC/PRAM but only with power sources and actually unplugging the TB cables and dongles: I think that there's some sort of persistent memory of the device in the electronics of these Apple cables. Definitely some secret sauce going on in those connector ends. If I unplug all Thunderbolt devices from the hack and back into my Mini 2012 QC 6,2 -everything works as if by magic. I'm using all Apple TB cables and dongles. FWIW, everything is hot-plug friendly in Windows 10.

Please and thank you for guidance...

Hey there! All working fine here now.
If u want to use the DSDT u must update to the latest bios.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11kdBFEG2ugU06HhfzHqhsQiJG5Mz4gnO

 

[Consigliere]

Can confirm that GC-TitanRidge is working flawlessly OOB on my rig with attached SSDT.

The only hiccup for me is that I need to eject connected THB and USB-C-disks before sleep otherwise my rig will wake up to a black screen.

As I understand this is a "normal" behaviour for everybody with a connected GC-Titan ridge card

On z370? or on Ws C422?

 

[cbandes]

Hi Jaco - do you mean F7 or F10 BIOS?

Hey there! All working fine here now.
If u want to use the DSDT u must update to the latest bios.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11kdBFEG2ugU06HhfzHqhsQiJG5Mz4gnO

 

[henricjansson]

@LeleTuratti

I am going to buy an
Asus Prime X299-A soon, and atm i have a satellite but is planning to buy an apollo duo as well.

Wonder if you have had any luck on getting hot plug to work on both units yet?

If you use the titan ridge, shouldn’t it work by connecting the 2 units to 2 separate thunderboltports? Without chain.

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

 

[jiffyslot]

Hey everybody. I have some images of my Apollo and how my system is seeing it. I;m hesitant to perform the patch mentioned on page 1 since my system is a Z370 and not an X299. I can only use one port at a time, and if I daisy chain two devices:

TB3 Port 1 ➔ Apple TB 3 to TB 2 dongle ➜ BMD MultiDock 2 (4x SSD bays) ➜ Apollo 8 Quad

Everything works, my SSD performance takes a hit in comparison to my internal SATA6 SSDs. Please see attached images and it may give some clues as to hardware addresses, etc. I've made a couple notations on the attachments. I hope none of it is redundant, but I want to be verbose with this matter. Thanks!

With only the UAD Apollo 8 attached:

And the last one:

I hope this helps. Not sure. @jb007

 

[NorthAmTransAm]

Am I correct in my assumption that using the Gigabyte TB3 card is easier to get up and running even with a Z370a? To be honest my ex3 works flawless besides hot plug and of course being seen as an actual thunderbolt device but there was a steep learning curve learning the initial quirks. However I cant fight the desire to make the hack work completely normal.

PS Apollo trick, run your session at 44.1 and it'll get you a few extra miles for plugin DSP.

 

[jiffyslot]

Am I correct in my assumption that using the Gigabyte TB3 card is easier to get up and running even with a Z370a? To be honest my ex3 works flawless besides hot plug and of course being seen as an actual thunderbolt device but there was a steep learning curve learning the initial quirks. However I cant fight the desire to make the hack work completely normal.

PS Apollo trick, run your session at 44.1 and it'll get you a few extra miles for plugin DSP.

At the time I cobbled together my parts, my setup seemed to be the best blend of parts for what I needed. I would have built an Asus X299 (the one with onboard Thunderbolt) -but it wasn't supported at the time I pulled the finger on this. I thought these Thunderbolt device paths and data would give someone an idea of how to get both ports working, let alone hotplug. After all, it works perfectly (2 ports + hotplug) in Windows 10 Pro 64) –The only way I've gotten my Z370/8700K rig to work is through sheer stubbornness. And it can still be quakey...

I've got the Quad and the only time it craps-out is inside a channel strip -the Delay Compensation Exceeded message. Having to Daisy-chain is annoying. I have read that some builders are disconnecting the cable from the card to the mobo, but I think it has to do with video signals. IDK.

It would seem that identical SSD's should pass the BMD Speedtest, whether internal SATA6 or through the TB3 to TB2 dongle. It should never saturate the bus in a non-RAID setup. See attachments at the end.

And yeah, since all of the samples in VSL are 24/44.1 there's no reason to real-time sample rate convert all of those voices on the fly. I just set the destination rate on my final bounce.

External via Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 BMD MultiDock2:


Internal SATA6 bus: