rack audio, e.g. Motu 828Mk2

B

Bongo Fiend

New member
Hi,

I'm looking to replace my disappointing SB Audigy card with an external audio interface. Here are my main requirements:

* to connect to my PC
* rackmountable, preferably 1U
* 8 or more independent inputs [jack, preferably accepting both balanced/unbalanced leads]
* 4 or more outputs a bonus [as above]
* low latency
* headphone out on front + volume control
* digital out a bonus
* don't care whether it's Firewire or a proprietary interface, just as long as it can effortlessly shift 8+ channels of 48KHz audio into and out of Cubase in real time!

My existing audio card has 4 independent input channels, so I can route these to independent VST effects on Cubase SX, monitor in near-real-time, etc. I'd basically like to be able to do the same thing but with more inputs, and better performance (I've never managed to record 4 channels at once without clicks & pops).

On paper the MOTU 828Mk2 looks like just what I need but at around £600-£700 is very much at the upper end of what I am willing to pay. Is this an overkill for my needs?

The M-Audio Delta 1010 also looks pretty good but I've heard bad things about their support + their Windows XP drivers...?

Am I likely to become unstuck trying to simultaneously record several channels of audio? Is it just my hard disc that will be the bottleneck? Has anyone successfully recorded up to 8 channels at once without clicks & pops?
 
As a possible alternative to the MOTU 828Mk2:
The Edirol DA-2496 looks pretty good too.

Does anyone have any comments on either of these interfaces?
Can you suggest an affordable alternative? (sub £600)
 
I can't really compare it to any other hardware, but my experience has been very good with the 828mkII. No problems so far, and the requarding quality is excellent. I've read many complaints about the screen failing, but I've had good luck so far.
 
Cheers for the comments jm2156.

Have you done any multi-track recording "in anger"?
It is important to me that I can record 8 tracks simultaneously without clicks & pops.
 
The most tracks I've recorded at once is about 4. No issues with clicks or pops, but my setup is more of a one man band type as I generally won't record more than two at a time.
 
Bongo Fiend said:
Anyone else got any multi-input rackmount soundcard experiences / recommendations?
Click to expand...

i have a motu 828 (not mkII) running on my laptop. pretty solid and i can get low latency using the asio drivers. recommended. the drivers were flaky at first, but everything is resolved now.

FYI: motu support sucks a$$, so if something breaks or goes wrong, you're on your own. the dudes are slow as hell with answering email.
 
I'm also thinking (very very hard) about getting an 828mkII.

With regard to your question about 8 tracks of simultaneous recording -- I used to do it all the time (albeit at 44.1/16) on my 133 MHz Pentium ("P1" -- and, no, that's not FSB cache speed -- it was a 133 MHz CPU) -- using the original Frontier ADAT i/o (ISA) card, using my ADATs strictly for their converters. And that was on a 5400 rpm IDE drive!

So, I'm hoping my Centrino laptop (w/ a 7200 rpm UDMA drive and supposedly 20+ times the computing speed/power) and an 828mkII can at least give me the same (at 24 bits, though, thank you).

Then again, raw processing power increases seldom translate to speed/work in anywhere close to a linear fashion.

We'll see. Maybe.

;)


PS... I'm worried that this is overkill, too, since I stopped taking music clients a few years back and have gotten quite used to my current 2/2 Echo Mia desktop rig.

But I've looked at all the USB cards I know of (around 20, I think, 1/2 of them seemingly M-Audio), the Echo Indigo (Cardbus), and the handful of FW units -- though the only FW units I've really considered were the M-Audio (for about 15 seconds), the 828, and the Digi 002-rack.

It seems like there's always one or more things wrong with any give USB device. Some have weak specs (Tascam), limited features, or questionable nameplates (ah hem), or some combination of all of the above.

The only device that didn't have anything wrong for me (except the price and you get plenty for the money, don't get me wrong) was the 828. (Well, the 002R, the main thing wrong was really the price. ;) For that matter the control surface 002 looked pretty good but just too dear for my slim pocketbook.)
 
Last edited:
FWIW, I have the mkII running on my PC smoothly (Pentium 4, Asus Board, Belkin Firewire card). My friend has the same setup and it works famously. I like the MOTU so far. I work down the street from them so if anything goes wrong I'll just walk to Harvard Square and pop a cap in 'em. ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I did buy one this afternoon but I don't have it hooked up yet (I needed to go out and get a 6-to-4 FW cable to fit my laptop). I'll report when I know something...


[Update: getting it rolling was pretty straightforward but I had to do a little reading to get the hang of the Cue Mix system to get headphone monitoring. More later.]
 
Last edited:
I myself is planning to one of these bad boys once american musical gets the 8 outputs for the mpc back in. I want to be able to runn a test and see if i could push all 8 inputs on the motu and have no problems with my computer. so i decide to just wait and get the 8 outs and the motu all at the same time. I think for the price its a great deal. 10 analog inputs(counting the two mic pre amps) thats well under 100 dollars a input. plus there more too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top