AXR4T Tools for Windows BETA?

Hey, I have had my AXR4T installed in my Studio for a week now but cannot run it in my Windows 10 / Cubase Pro 10 system, because the drivers and Tools software have not yet been released for Windows. I am very excited about this product, and was wondering if its possible to obtain BETA versions until the drivers and tools are officially released? At the very least, is there any ETA?

I would greatly appreciate an answer ASAP. I have the Firewire and USB past versions of this device (MR816csx, and UR824) and just recently upgraded my system to thunderbolt. I didn’t realize this thunderbolt version (AXR4T) did not have support for windows yet until I bought and installed it and got to the download/driver page. I’ve now had the unit for two weeks sitting there looking pretty. I check both driver page and this forum 4 or 5 times a day anxiously waiting for some good news!

Brother I dont know why you would by the interface when it has no drivers to run it yet?? I am jealous of course, sweet interface

I would send support a ticket and simply ask them when they will show up. Just us low end users here that can’t help

Ty for advice, ya I didn’t know drivers weren’t available till I Installed device and began following instructions to install the driver. I’ve been anxiously awaiting someone from Steinberg to notice this forum and give me some hope. Even a beta version would give me something to play with. In the mean while I still have the Ur824 so I’m not dead in the water but I would sure like to try out the Thunderbolt options. It does look very pretty in the rack however.

We’ve all been there with a product impulse buy. I’d contact support via your mysteinberg account to see if they will offer a timeline for you.

I would have bought a few myself for our windows machines but timing meant I went for the Apollo’s. Will still likely pick up a couple at the end of the year. Have had so much use out of our mr816csx’s in the prod rooms. Amazing how sound wise they stack up to more expensive converters we have.

I have high expectations for these new units. Have always loved the integration into Cubase/Nuendo

The Cubase integration is amazing. Thanks again for your support and recommendations. I have sent a ticket as advised.

For any that might be interested, here is the response I receiverd from my ticket to Steinberg:


"Hello Todd,

The rough timeline for Windows drivers/support for the AXR4 is late May/early June. Unfortunately we do not have any more specific information than that at this time.

Thank you,

Adrian
Steinberg Support"

Id bank on AUG/SEPT if it were me. Its beyond stupid that they released this with no Windows drivers working

Ya, at the very least, advertisers selling the product should make it very clear that it is Mac only so guys like us who have owned one or more of the previous models from Steinberg with windows drivers don’t just assume and order what they think is an upgrade they can use when they receive it. If I would have known before I ordered, then I could have held on to the $2700 and the additional $700 I spent on the gigabyte extreme motherboard with thunderbolt support for a couple of more months. I’m still excited about the AXR4T, and I love all my other Steinberg products so I’m going to cross my fingers and hope they either offer me a beta version to play with, or release a full version for Windows as soon as possible.

I bought one today from BAX and already knew the W10 drivers weren’t available, but shouldn’t be for much longer. It comes on Monday having paid less than £1900 for it which I thought was more than fair considering all that it is. I expect there will be a heavy demand for it once the drivers are available, current stocks may run out and the price might rise accordingly.

However I do have a MacBook Pro laptop with a copy of Cubase Elements 10 on it as well as the PC I run my Cubase 10 through so I should be able to familiarise myself with it in the meantime. To me anyway it just makes perfect sense to get all the sounds entering the software in the same digital format as the Cubase software operates in and, correct me if I’m wrong, it’s the only interface that can achieve this.

I have been using an Apollo x6 over the last year, and because the AXR4T spdif and adat i/o are 24 bit I’m hoping to use them both and see how that goes. One thing I’m going to do is connect each in turn to my laptop to compare the latency (especially input latency which can be disappointing on the Apollo) starting at my usual 96000 Hz sampling rate from within Cubase and also how recordings sound on playback etc. I’m hoping to be well impressed otherwise I might even have to return it.

If you like I could post another reply on this thread once I’ve done the above.

PS as I understand it the main difference between TB3 and TB2 in audio is the number of devices you can have in the chain, and that’s only if you’re using the much more expensive 40Gb/s TB3 leads. Perhaps there will be a future TB3 option card where Steinberg have come up with some way, akin to hyperthreading in CPUs, to spread the data traffic across the full 40GB/s bandwidth of TB3 even if only one device is connected, the maximum for TB2 being 20Gb/s. I concede the necessity for the Apple TB2<>TB3 adaptor is a pain in the ass though!

Hello,

Today we have released the TOOLS for AXR4 for Windows!

Additionally there is a Firmware update that resolves some minor issues.

Best regards,

Stefan Schreiber

I’m interested in hearing some user reports of the new Windows driver. Thinking of purchasing an AXR4T myself, would appreciate if some of you could chime in now that the driver has been released. :slight_smile:

Could anybody let me know what ships in the box with the AXR4T? I assume, only the power supply? Thanks.

Also would be interested to know how any users get on with the newly released TB driver for Windows … am a little concerned with the Dell compatibility issues mentioned. My Dell T7910 has been working well with a Dell add-in TB2 PCIe card and an RME UFX+, but the AXR4T integration with Nuendo /Cubase is of interest.

After checking every day, I was so pleased to discover the Windows TOOLS was released. I wanted to Install and test before replying so I could give useful info. The Firmware update would not recognize unit until I first Installed the TOOLS software. Be patient it took nearly 10 min to complete. I then tested in Cubase Pro 10 with all my hardware and software. At 9600 bit rate getting a latency of 3.3. I choose 9600 so I could get 8 extra channels in and 8 out from Combining both A and B ADAT’s from my UR824. The Higher the bit rate the less channels you can send through the ADAT. If I dropped down to 4800 bit rate I could have used 8 channels per ADAT and then could use the channels from any two of my existing units (UR824, MR816csx X 2, or Mr816) for a total addition of 16 extra channels. Remember the AXR4 has 12 input channels already so at 9600 bit rate I now have 20 Hardware Inputs. I’ve been using the unit for 2 days now with no issues. It sounds crystal clearwith no hick ups. Very pleased so far. I have allot of virtual software and hardware alike. Also I have every USB port that my motherboard can support being used as well. So the thunderbolt doesn’t seem to interfere with any of my USB or MIDI devices, they all seem to work together so far. :slight_smile:

That’s good to hear, Todd! Thanks for your mini review! Just out of curiosity, what motherboard and thunderbolt pci card are you using? Been having a bit of a headache researching Windows thunderbolt options!

There are less Expensive options, but I went with the Z390 AORUS XTREME Motherboard by Gigabit because it had a built in thunderbolt 3. I had to buy an adapter though to step down to thunderbolt 2 made by “Cable Masters” . Gigabit also makes a card that you can put on your existing Motherboard but your motherboard needs to be thunderbolt ready with the right pins on it. Also to answer an earlier question the unit came with power supply and Setup up guide that includes codes to redeem a basic version of Cubase.

@Todd Hoff - How are you getting on with the unit? Be great to hear the RTL you’re experiencing at diff sample rates, 48 and 96 etc. Stability, usefulness of integration etc. Any and all feedback appreciated.

At "fuzzydude’s " request I’ll report my experience with the AXR4T with Windows driver so far: I’ve had the unit working with the Windows drivers now for a little over 5 weeks. I leave the unit on nearly all of the time, because it also acts as my computers sound card. It has been extremely stable so far with excellent sound quality. I have been running it at 96 sample rate with the UR 824 connected through ADAT A & B giving me another 8 channels of audio input at 96 sample rate as well. I am using every input on both units. I am also using every usb port availabe on my computer plus an additional 8 usb ports on a hub to get all of my MIDI devices connected through Cubase. Having the Thunderbolt as the base unit seems much improved in stability and latency. Because of my many devices I was having latency issues with just using the usb UR824 as the base unit, and I was only able to run it at 48 sample rate when connecting ADAT to my MR816csx’s. Every so often when I have all of my devices turned on at once in Cubase One of my midi devices might stop sending/receiving MIDI and I have to turn the unit off and back on to get it to be recognized again. I attribute this to the # of units I have connected and the number and length of my USB cables and also the MIDI cables coming out of some units and into others. I typically have 12 to 16 USB/MIDI devices plus the Thunderbolt AXR4T running through Cubase Pro 10. I tried using the 384 rate once just to say that I did it, but I cant really notice the difference with my ear from the 96 rate and I would rather have the extra audio inputs because I have to many units in the studio. I could solve this by buying 2 more AXR4T’s, but I am already in trouble with the wife for spending $2700 on the first one! Any I am very happy so far with the unit using the Windows Drivers and would highly recommend the unit to anyone who can afford it. P.S. both the guitar and Mic sound great plugged into the front inputs using the silk textures.

Many thanks for all the info, greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

I was hoping you might be able to let me know the input and output latency figures you’re seeing in Studio Setup VST Audio System, both at 48 and at 96. I’m wondering what can be achieved with the buffer set at 128. I’ve got two more units to replace and keen to know if the RTL is as good as our new Apollo X’s and our RME UFX+. If it is, based on the good reports in Windows I’ll get a couple of these. Thank s again.

Ok hopefully this is helpful:


When the DMA buffer at 64 and buffer at 256 and Sample rate at 96 Khz the Input Latency is 3.875 ms and ouput Latency is 3.740
When the DMA buffer at 64 and buffer at 128 and Sample rate at 96 Khz the Input Latency is 2.542 ms and ouput Latency is 2.406
When the DMA buffer at 128 and buffer at 128 and Sample rate at 96 Khz the Input Latency is 3.208 ms and ouput Latency is 3.073
When the DMA buffer at 64 and buffer at 128 and Sample rate at 48 Khz the Input Latency is 5.083 ms and ouput Latency is 4.813
When the DMA buffer at 64 and buffer at 64 and Sample rate at 48 Khz the Input Latency is 3.750 ms and ouput Latency is 3.479

Thanks again, Todd Hoff.