Hi... New here as of today, but have recorded before:
 
60's rig: Piano, Hammond, Theremin, ping-ponging with old Dictaphone units that cut directly to vinyl records.
70's: + minimoog, strings, & ponging with a couple Tascam 4 track reel-to-reels
80's: + Rolands, Korgs, etc, Twelve Tone Systems Cakewalk (DOS)
90's: ~20 rack-feet of modules, Twelve Tone Cakewalk Pro for Windows 2.
00's: Sonar 7 Producer (xp) with Motu 896hd  [only used on one longish song].
Now: ~ 8 rack-feet of synths & outboard gear, ... replaced the KX-88 with a moXF8.
 
Planning to get Sonar Platinum, a new i7 laptop (w Thunderbolt 3), and probably an Antelope Zen Tour, or a UA Apollo Twin.
 
Curious if any of you are using Splat on a laptop interfaced with a Zen Tour (or, UA Apollo) via Thunderbolt?
 
Any suggestions on Tbolt enabled laptops you're running Splat on? 
 
Suggestions about audio interfaces with Tbolt?
 
Anything I forgot to ask?
 
Nice forum !  Learned a lot in the past day or so, and thanks in advance for any advice.

Just curious, why are you set on Thunderbolt?  USB3 has plenty of throughput (actually USB 2 has enough even for high I/O counts.)  You might be able to save some money on the computer and interface. 

Ya Thunderbolt seems like a Mac thing that never really was nailed down on a PC. And interface wise the only name that everyone agrees on is RME. It all depends on how many channels you need for  live recording. 
I can record 16 tracks with an old W7 duo core and a cheap Tascam USB interface. 

Hi Dave,
One reason for thunderbolt is an attempt at future-proofing as much as possible (future interface daisy-chaining).
Another is because of tbolt's low latency, and that I plan on running some of the interface's hardware effects from within Splat. Seems like through-put could be important it that instance.
 
I do most of my coding and 3d stuff on an 8 core win7 machine..... but thinking of getting the laptop for my new music rig. I'm pretty ancient at this point, so the cost is not as important as the quality, expandability and future-proffing (this will probably be my last studio). 
 
What you are using... the killer laptop, win10, and Splat is actually what I'm aiming for. How's it working for you?

Hey Johnny V (think we worked on a movie before.. did you used to spell it "Johnny 5"?),
 
I'm just going to be recording alone at home, but will probably expand as time goes on, so not sure what that might require (being the future, and such).  In the past, my tendency has been tons of tracks.
 
Thinking on using a lot of the fx (in the shark, or whatever)  processors running inside the audio interface(s) [zen or Apollo, or ?].... you know, the retro gear & particularly the reverbs. This is so I don't have to use the i7 for that stuff. Some of the interfaces have quad & octal expanders for even more outboard hardware processors for fx.
 
So if I'm using these outboard digital fx from within Splat as plug-ins, its going to put more of a load on the connection between the laptop and interface. Also there's always that latency bit, which with Tbolt is only a couple milliseconds.
 
 

oldNewb
Hi Dave,
One reason for thunderbolt is an attempt at future-proofing as much as possible (future interface daisy-chaining).
Another is because of tbolt's low latency, and that I plan on running some of the interface's hardware effects from within Splat. Seems like through-put could be important it that instance.
 
I do most of my coding and 3d stuff on an 8 core win7 machine..... but thinking of getting the laptop for my new music rig. I'm pretty ancient at this point, so the cost is not as important as the quality, expandability and future-proffing (this will probably be my last studio). 
 
What you are using... the killer laptop, win10, and Splat is actually what I'm aiming for. How's it working for you?

I don't do much recording on the laptop, just project set up and some mixing.  Latency is ok with my 2010 vintage USB 2 interface, about 10 ms (which I can tolerate.)
 
If you want to future proof, you might look into interfaces that use the Dante protocol, which is an audio network protocol that allows you to connect multiple pieces of hardware together.  It is similar to AVB (MotU's protocol) but a bit newer (and more universal).  Anything USB from MotU or RME is going to give you excellent latency and good hardware effects.  I do understand the attractiveness of UAD plugins and hardware.  I don't have much experience with them, though.  And they also make a USB compatible interface.
 
As Cactus mentions above, thunderbolt is a port from MAC and has not taken off on PC.  It may in the future or may end up like Betamax in the 80's.

RME.

@Dave Thanks, I'll do some reading on the Dante protocol.
@Audioicon ... Will study their products tomorrow. Might want more analog I/O connectors than RME mount on their TBolt equipped unit (still own a bunch of outboard gear I may be using as inserts). Not quite sure how they get the 94 analog i/o in and out of their UFX+. Do they sell madi to analog connector boxes?  Have to do some reading.
 
Kind of starting to like the Apollo 16... for the next couple months, if you cough up the 3 grand for it, they throw in an outboard 8 core DSP processor with it, and a BL of fx firmware.
 
Not sure if I can post a link... so ....
check out a site called proaudioblog (.co.uk)  /2015/09/usb-3-vs-thunderbolt-interfaces
 
 
It pretty much spells out the reasons for my thunderbolt fandom.