New AXR4 Thunderbolt Audio Interface announced

[Stefan Schreiber]

We are happy to announce our new AXR4 Thunderbolt 2 audio interface.

This interface is the impressive outcome of the collaboration between Steinberg, Yamaha and Rupert Neve Designs.

With AXR4 we set a new standard in professional audio interfaces by 32-bit integer recording and playback, Rupert Neve Designs SILK emulation on the four hybrid mic preamps and the latest SSPLL jitter reduction technology.

Please find more information about AXR4 here.

[lucaleonori]

Only for MacOs because Driver for Thunderbolt on PC is in development....

Thunderbolt 2...???

ahahahahahahah....
Are you joking?

[Timo]

"The Windows driver is still in development."
Happy beta testing. What an early announcement.

Well, you have a better connection type, so the AXR4 should surely perform better than an ordinary USB interface like RME's Fireface UCX. Lower buffers, better sound, greater stability. Did you do your homework and are releasing THE steinberg interface this time?

[lucaleonori]

From my Software House audio reference I was expecting more future vision.
Yes to the Thunderbolt but version 3.
Launch of the interface with drivers for MAC and PC already available (a date for availability drivers PC would be welcome anyway) and a detailed page (and not at the bottom of the presentation page with a link) with the technical specifications.

[shanabit]

cool

[Stealth]

Nice! Been waiting for Steinberg to finally make a thunderbolt audio interface.

[Dallon426]

TB2? Really.... Times have changed. I do not know why Steinberg lags behind in the audio interface world.
The interface should have been
Tb3 and USB-C
Also should have had 2,4,6,8 versions
with 2 and 4 inputs being bus powered.

[stmad]

Very good product! I don't understand all the hype about TB3. Even TB1 is already overkill for audio.
As long as it has good sound and is stable with low latency is ok for me.

[jaslan]

Also should have had 2,4,6,8 versions
with 2 and 4 inputs being bus powered.

They probably will... The UR line came out in “phases” and not all at once.

[jaslan]

32 bit x 384000 Hz = 12.288 Mb/sec. per channel.
TB2 is capable of 20 Gb/sec. or 1626 channels at 32 bits and 384 kHz.
Or 4,340 channels at 24 bit and 192kHz!
Rest assured SOMEONE will claim they need more than that....
TB3 is 40 Gb/sec and unquestionably overkill. It is meant vor extra 4K displays and docking stations with multiple devices connected I would say.
That being said, TB2 is largely an Apple thing and I have seen very few PCs with it. TB3 and USB C is showing up on PCs now but there are adapters to TB2 available...
Overall, the AXR looks nice.

[Dallon426]

It will not compete with RME and UAD at that price point. Also. Steinberg has not had the best drivers written for their interfaces. We shall see how this stacks up. It has been proven that even with USB 2.0 RME can get better RTL results than most companies with TB2 or TB3.

[Stealth]

It will not compete with RME and UAD at that price point. Also. Steinberg has not had the best drivers written for their interfaces. We shall see how this stacks up. It has been proven that even with USB 2.0 RME can get better RTL results than most companies with TB2 or TB3.

Curious to see some benchmark testing to see how this stacks up against other thunderbolt audio interfaces.

[mozizo]

wonder how many channels can have DSP plugin inserts simultaneously,steinberg ur44 for example has very weak DSP processor which limits input inserts even at 44.1 khz sample rate..also when daisy chained are the real time monitoring are on all chained devices (unlike problem with MR816 series when daisy chained only the first was real time monitoring)
overall looks interesting,but pricey not like the other series we got from steinberg

[lucaleonori]

32 bit x 384000 Hz = 12.288 Mb/sec. per channel.
TB2 is capable of 20 Gb/sec. or 1626 channels at 32 bits and 384 kHz.
Or 4,340 channels at 24 bit and 192kHz!
Rest assured SOMEONE will claim they need more than that....
TB3 is 40 Gb/sec and unquestionably overkill. It is meant vor extra 4K displays and docking stations with multiple devices connected I would say.
That being said, TB2 is largely an Apple thing and I have seen very few PCs with it. TB3 and USB C is showing up on PCs now but there are adapters to TB2 available...
Overall, the AXR looks nice.

The question about TB2 or TB3 is not the speed but the fact that in 2019 a Hardware House should not put on the market a device with an interface already exceeded in the facts

[jaslan]

Sorry but I don’t quite understand what is meant by “the interface is already exceeded in the facts.”
TB2 is certainly not obsolete or outdated. TB3 is the most recent technology, but it is still relatively new and not very common yet. TB3 would greatly limit the amount of potential buyers and the price would go up greatly. TB2 is plenty fast enough and the potential buyer pool is much larger.

[PeppaPig]

Sorry but I don’t quite understand what is meant by “the interface is already exceeded in the facts.”
TB2 is certainly not obsolete or outdated. TB3 is the most recent technology, but it is still relatively new and not very common yet. TB3 would greatly limit the amount of potential buyers and the price would go up greatly. TB2 is plenty fast enough and the potential buyer pool is much larger.

Agreed, TB2 is more than enough for 99% of DAW requirements - only Mac users running multiple retina displays via TB3 are pushing the interface limits, it's not as if audio is suddenly going to increase in resolution 100 fold! I deliberately bought UAD on firewire at the time (even though thunderbolt was out) because firewire was the dependable/solid interface on Windows (I would have gone tb on Mac) I'm still running big mixes and not running out of bandwidth and firewire is way inferior to TB2.

[lucaleonori]

Sorry but I don’t quite understand what is meant by “the interface is already exceeded in the facts.”
TB2 is certainly not obsolete or outdated. TB3 is the most recent technology, but it is still relatively new and not very common yet. TB3 would greatly limit the amount of potential buyers and the price would go up greatly. TB2 is plenty fast enough and the potential buyer pool is much larger.

Agreed, TB2 is more than enough for 99% of DAW requirements - only Mac users running multiple retina displays via TB3 are pushing the interface limits, it's not as if audio is suddenly going to increase in resolution 100 fold! I deliberately bought UAD on firewire at the time (even though thunderbolt was out) because firewire was the dependable/solid interface on Windows (I would have gone tb on Mac) I'm still running big mixes and not running out of bandwidth and firewire is way inferior to TB2.

Year 2019...
Universal Audio Arrow Thunderbolt 3
Steinberg AXR Thunderbolt 2....WHY????
We know that TB2 "is more than enough" for the daw, but the new standard is TB3 or USB-c why not one of this?
Is an error, is a big error…
why Steinberg??? and why so poor number of plugs inside? one reverb, one eq, one dynamics…???

[-steve-]

It's really only a question of the connector, not the protocol.

[PeppaPig]

Year 2019...
Universal Audio Arrow Thunderbolt 3
Steinberg AXR Thunderbolt 2....WHY????
We know that TB2 "is more than enough" for the daw, but the new standard is TB3 or USB-c why not one of this?
Is an error, is a big error…
why Steinberg??? and why so poor number of plugs inside? one reverb, one eq, one dynamics…???

Yes it's great that UAD are TB3 and backwards compatible to 2 and 1. But TB2 is not a problem for the AXR, it's not an equivalent to the UAD platform hosting hundreds of plugins. The AXR DSP is clearly to support a handful of plugins for reverb and compression during latency-free tracking. I do think it's over priced but I don't see TB2 being an issue.

[shanabit]

I think all interfaces should be Tb3 and USB-C at this point. It doesn't really matter though if the drivers suck.

@Dallon, I dont know why you care so much when you are using a UAD or RME there??? Seems like a lot of wasted energy bro. TB is not the issue IMO, the bigger one is why the USB interfaces have not been updated to compete?

[Dallon426]

The Biggest issue is why don't companies write better drivers. Whatever the protocol is. No wasted energy. Just technical observations and discussions.

[shanabit]

The Biggest issue is why don't companies write better drivers. Whatever the protocol is. No wasted energy. Just technical observations and discussions.

Agreed, but trying to get ANY of the companies to do it right like RME aint gonna happen. They go as cheep as they can

[Dallon426]

True. But... We can make it known

[The Sarj]

I really expected these to come with at least 8 preamp’s. Maybe they will be released like someone said earlier in phases, 2,4,6,8 etc.

I would also like to see the Portico plugs in the dsp with the vintage channel strip stuff, so you can track or monitor through them.

[The Sarj]

Also Guitar Amp classics?