After seven years I've finally ditched all of my M-Audio PCI interfaces and moved on to MOTU. So far, it works like a dream. No fucking popping or clicking, not even at 96khz. It works.... as advertised? OMG what a novel idea!

There are tons of threads on M-Audio's forums complaining about their shitty cards and how the connections (even the digital ones) pop and click all the damn time, sometimes it even sounded like the bit-rate was at 22khz. Tech support would feed these problems crap excuses about the PCI card not having the proper interrupt, electrical interference, etc. Well if that's the fucking problem, why does the popping change with each driver version? The latest drivers are barely audible at 96khz. The earlier ones only pop. Why? It's because M-Audio sucks, that's why!

I remember once saying that MOTU was too expensive for a 'bare-minimum' interface. I have to disagree with that now. If you have any amount of out-board gear, you need something that won't add noise to your recording. It's that simple. Cheaper brands like EMU and PreSonus might not pop and click, but they don't have an input/output solution as simple and logical as MOTU's. That's what I liked most about MOTU's interfaces. Butt loads of inputs and outputs, no frills, just 1/4 balanced connections and the price vs. apogee gear is nearly 1/5.

I'm still using my Apogee MINI-DAC through SPDIF, but for ADC, I'm 100% happy with MOTU.

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Last edited by alanzo on Jan-22-2009 at 16:31

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I remember once saying that MOTU was too expensive for a 'bare-minimum' interface. I have to disagree with that now.

Agreed. I have always considered MOTU stuff the minimum needed for an audio interface unless you are completely ITB and have no need for ADC.

Which MOTU interface did you get?

I have the 2408 mk3 /w PCI interface. I'm going to be getting a 24 i/o expander once I see a good eBay deal.

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Sweet! I have the 24 I/O and I'm happy with it. I'll be curious to see how the two units work together off of one PCI-424 card.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Sweet! I have the 24 I/O and I'm happy with it. I'll be curious to see how the two units work together off of one PCI-424 card.

I needed the 2408mk3 so I could continue to use my Apogee Mini-DAC. It kind of feels like a waste since I think the 24 i/o would have been enough had I not needed the S/PDIF on the 2408. But I'm sure the 2408 will come more in handy with time.

I'll be maxing the two of them out pretty good. I plan on using a total of 28 inputs so we'll see how well it works. Should be fine, though. According to the website, the PCI card capable of 96 inputs and 96 outputs all working at the same time with 24/96 clarity. So I'm sure it can handle 28 at 24/41. Like I said in the other thread I started about this, I'm betting the UAD was stealing bandwidth from your MOTU PCI card.

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M-audio has sucked since it got acquired by Avid/digidesign. The company lost its soul and is going down the same way as digidesign is. In less than a year:

1) They discontinued TONS of excellent products for which you get no replacement, no update, no support.

2) They lied to their public by saying that the Axiom Series are made of top-components, while even their pitch bend can't handle a +24 pitch up without scaling (which is the proof of cheap components inside).

3) They didn't release anything good at NAMM. The Axiom Pro series are a joke and for sure share 90% of the shitty and fragile components of the simple Axiom. for info, my Axiom 25 just died after a gig.

Definitely a company I'll avoid from now on. Unless they make something as reliable as my good old bx5 v.1. which I doubt.

So, definitely yes, M-audio go to Hell.

L.

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quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I needed the 2408mk3 so I could continue to use my Apogee Mini-DAC. It kind of feels like a waste since I think the 24 i/o would have been enough had I not needed the S/PDIF on the 2408. But I'm sure the 2408 will come more in handy with time.

See, thats the one thing I miss about the 24 I/O, I have a couple pieces of gear where I would have liked to use S/PDIF, but I am unable to since the 24 I/O is all analog. I've been toying with the idea of adding a 2408 for the digital inputs, but it seems like its a better idea to just save up for a higher quality interface to replace the MOTU eventually and then I'll have the best of both worlds.

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I'll be maxing the two of them out pretty good. I plan on using a total of 28 inputs so we'll see how well it works. Should be fine, though. According to the website, the PCI card capable of 96 inputs and 96 outputs all working at the same time with 24/96 clarity. So I'm sure it can handle 28 at 24/41. Like I said in the other thread I started about this, I'm betting the UAD was stealing bandwidth from your MOTU PCI card.

Yeah that is certainly possible. I do not seem to have the same problems on the Mac, but that could be easily explained by the fact that my old PC was a nice (3.2HT), but consumer grade computer from Dell. The Apple uses server-class hardware in the Mac Pro tower, so there is less possibility of bottlenecks on the board. Thats my theory anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J I've been toying with the idea of adding a 2408 for the digital inputs, but it seems like its a better idea to just save up for a higher quality interface to replace the MOTU eventually and then I'll have the best of both worlds.

Like what? The only other option I saw was RME and Apogee. I didn't like RME's interfaces, there are too many varied types of inputs.. a mix n' match of XLR and 1/4.. and it was slightly pricier than MOTU. And Apogee is 5x the price for the same amount of inputs with no analog outputs. (2 Apogee AD-16x)

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Probably an Aurora 16. Everyone raves about their ADC and DAC.

Loving my MOTU until I can afford something crazy like that Lynx.

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The Aurora has 16 i/o for the same price as 16 Apogee ins... which is a plus. But it's the same price as Apogee. Stuff like that is ridiculously expensive. Even at eBay prices, I'd have to drop at least 5x the amount I'd spend on an equal amount of analog I/O from MOTU. I doubt I'll ever be wiling to spend $5,000 on something like that. I'd rather put that money towards ... a house?

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Congrats on the MOTU! The 2408 is a great interface and remember so many customers being happy with them and their performance.

You're right about the Auroura and I think there's not much point in doing something else in between - either get a great deal with a lot of good I/O with a MOTU or spend the extra cash (if you have it) and get a lynx.

I used to rate M-audio years ago and it's seems to be such a shame what happened. At one point they were really giving the high end brands a lot of trouble and I believe their early products actually put market pressure on the more expensive brands to bring their prices down and contributed to interfaces now being cheaper. Makes sense then why Avid bought them doesn't it?

Don't forget you can get an analogue to adat converter(s) to use with the 2408 and it can work out a lot cheaper.

I know it's a dirty word, but the Behringer ADA8000's are really good, very clear (I know a shock for Behringer) and have decent Pre-amps (not amazing) but comparable to a Digi001. They're also only $299 each new!!! They sound even better when externally clocked (but lets not all get in to that one again ). I would go for three of them instead of the 24 i/o.

Why not use the MiniDAC as your main monitor outs as the AD/DA will be just slightly better on it?