MPC Renaissance and Thunderbolt 3

Hey folks,

I plan on buying the Macbook Pro 2017, which should be announced in the third quarter this year. Currently I own a 2007 iMac. But before I do that, I wonder about the compatibility with my Ren.

I am sure that most of you know about the issues with the MPC Renaissance and USB 3. Well, I did a little research on this forum and on other resources and what I found is that apparently, the firmware of the integrated audio interface in the MPC Renaissance does have problems with the first generation of USB 3, called USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Check this article for more information). This version has known issues with backwards compatibility such as USB 2 and it was built into the Retina Macbook Pros.

Now, the 2016 Macbook Pros have Thunderbolt 3 connections, which means they come with USB 3.1 Gen 2. Do you think, by any chance, that the new Macbooks don't have issues with backwards compatibility anymore, so that the MPC Renaissance will work perfectly fine with them? Does anyone have any experience with USB 3.1 Gen 2 or any of the new Macs? I love my Ren and I really want to keep it, but my 10 year old iMac has become painfully slow...

Thanks for any help!

Hello Acura,

I own the MPC Ren, and I'm a PC user with a fairly new PC that has 4 USB 3.0 ports on it, the problems with the first generation of USB 3.0 wasn't really about the backwards compatibility, it was more to do with the onboard USB 3.0 Host controller board built into the laptop, believe it or not better performance came with MIDI issues of any kind audio or just MIDI data when the USB 3.0 Host controller was made by "Intel", and not some other brand, my first laptop was like that with all of my USB 3.0 stuff, once I purchased a newer laptop with an Intel USB 3.0 Host controller inside everything was fine, as far as Thunderbolt 3, and USB 3.1 gen 2, you'll have to wait and see, either way if you have too many USB 2.0 items connected you might still have issues, unless you actually just the MPC Ren as a MIDI controller and not a USB 2.0 audio interface, I'm getting ready to purchase the Zoom UAC-8 USB 3.0 audio interface, and just use my MPC Ren as a controller only, this should clamp down on the USB traffic issues, hope this helped.

Jimi Jones
https://soundcloud.com/jimi-jones-4