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MOTU mk3 PCI Card On Windows?

Anyone use a MOTU 2408/828/24io/etc mk3 on Windows? Are the drivers and software as bad as the stories go? I'm thinking of getting a MOTU 2408 mk3 Core system.

They weren't horrible when I used them on Windows, but they were MUCH improved when I moved to Mac.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J they were MUCH improved when I moved to Mac.

How so?

I had various problems on Windows. Audio Dropouts, the unit would suddenly not be available. It seemed to get worse when I has high track counts, which is super frustrating, because thats usually when you are close to finishing a track. The lack of stability with the PCI-424 card was one of the reasons I went to the Apple platform.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J I had various problems on Windows. Audio Dropouts, the unit would suddenly not be available. It seemed to get worse when I has high track counts, which is super frustrating, because thats usually when you are close to finishing a track. The lack of stability with the PCI-424 card was one of the reasons I went to the Apple platform.

Ehhh... you're not really wetting my appetite with that. How long ago were you using it on Windows?

i owned an ultralite mk1 and had issues for days. i hated the thing but then i traded a friend for his 828mk3(he wanted something more portable and myself more long term). 828mk3 has been a dream on windows vista 32bit

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0729 i owned an ultralite mk1 and had issues for days. i hated the thing but then i traded a friend for his 828mk3(he wanted something more portable and myself more long term). 828mk3 has been a dream on windows vista 32bit

Good to hear. The 828 is Firewire, though. The one I'm interested in uses their PCI 424 drivers.

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo Ehhh... you're not really wetting my appetite with that. How long ago were you using it on Windows?

A little over a year ago. MOTU doesn't update their drivers very often on either platform, TBH. However, they seem to focus their driver development on the Mac side of things a bit more than on the Windows side of things. They have driver updates more often for the Mac driver.

Keep in mind, it wasnt unusable, just a buggy at times.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J A little over a year ago. MOTU doesn't update their drivers very often on either platform, TBH. However, they seem to focus their driver development on the Mac side of things a bit more than on the Windows side of things. They have driver updates more often for the Mac driver. Keep in mind, it wasnt unusable, just a buggy at times.

Thanks for the input. Well, I got a pretty good deal, 2408 mk3 /w PCI card for $500. So I thought I would try it out for myself to be sure (I can resell if need be).

My end hope is to use it along with a 24 I/O mk3 for a total of 16 analog inputs for $1,500 less than I was planning to pay for an Apogee AD-16x /w cables and X-Firewire.

Anyway, this shit better work as having buggy drivers at this price range is unacceptable. I'll post here after I try it out.

Yeah and they may have fixed some of the issues. It is also entirely likely that there was something screwy with my setup unrelated to the MOTU which caused the weirdness I saw. The MOTU isn't 100% problem free on my Mac either, but I don't really have any showstopper problems with it, just very minor stuff. 99.99% of the time its fine. I have a pretty convoluted setup, since I like to get experimental.

@Eric - when you were having the slight problems with your MOTU interface in windows, did you use the PCI or PCI-e interface? If you used PCI, did you have another other PCI cards installed?

I was using the PCI interface, and I did have two other cards installed. One UAD PCI card and one PCIe UAD card.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J I was using the PCI interface, and I did have two other cards installed. One UAD PCI card and one PCIe UAD card.

Hah. I bet the UAD PCI card was stealing bandwidth away from your MOTU PCI card. PCI slots all share the same bridge (bus?) whereas PCIe each have their own. I'm betting that's why you were having problems when maxing out your tracks... because you were using both your MOTU PCI card and the UAD card to the max. That's just a theory, though.

I'm going to be using a 2408 and 24 I/O on a dedicated PCI bridge (no other PCI cards installed). So we'll see how it works out. If it fails, I could try upgrading to the PCIe card through MOTU for $300 (you can do this through their website if it interests you).

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo Hah. I bet the UAD PCI card was stealing bandwidth away from your MOTU PCI card. PCI slots all share the same bridge whereas PCIe each have their own. I'm betting that's why you were having problems when maxing out your tracks... because you were using both your MOTU PCI card and the UAD card to the max. That's just a theory, though.

Its possible. Like I said before, there could have been other factors that contributed to the problems I was having. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I'll never know because I switched computing platforms shortly after getting the 24 I/O.

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I'm going to be using a 2408 and 24 I/O on a dedicated PCI bridge (no other PCI cards installed). So we'll see how it works out. If it fails, I could try upgrading to the PCIe card through MOTU for $300 (you can do this through their website if it interests you).

Yeah, I had to get the PCIe 424 card when switching from the PC to the Mac because I originally got the PCI card when I purchased my 24 I/O, and when I got the Mac Pro it only had PCIe slots, so I had to buy a new card.

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