motu 896hd mod from black lion?

[frugalpole]

anyone gotten this mod done? was it worth? did the pres sound better?
thoughts, etc...

[silencethevoice]

I am also wondering if the motu mod's by black lion are worth it? i have an 828 and really love it, but would welcome any sort of upgrade (as any true slut would) .. and how would it compare to using a better clocking source such as a big ben or something? anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

[Brad McGowan]

I've had my Traveler done and my friend had his 828mkII done. The improvement is stellar, especially for the mic preamps and the A/D. Of course clocking externally to a better clock will improve the MOTU...especially the A/D side of it. I run my Traveler off of a Mytek A/D so I was squeezing extra performance out of the MOTU already. But things got even better after the mod. I'm not really using the A/D on mine, but I do use the D/A, which went from "almost passable" to "hey, that's pretty darn good". I'm planning to finish up some detailed comparisons in the near future and supply a bunch of soundclips for Matt to put up on the Black Lion site. But doing some quick comparisons with my DAC1 on individual tracks sent to outboard gear for processing, the difference between the D/A is much more subtle than it used to be. My buddy who is using the 828mkII exclusively for all his conversion noticed an immediate improvement in all the sounds he was getting: smoother high end, tighter low end, easier to mix tracks, easier to hear EQ adjustments, etc.

If you are using the MOTU conversion as the only A/D and D/A in your studio then getting this mod done should be a no-brainer. It will pay for itself. I don't think you could make a bigger impact to your audio for the price of the mod.

Brad

[antiguru]

My 828 just finished getting modded and on it's way back home. I have sessions lined up for when it returns and am quite excited about hearing the difference.

[cdog]

I've never heard the Black Lion MOTU mods but my experience with modded low-mid-end gear is that its just not worth the $$$.

You're better off buying something really good to begin with.

A lot of sonic limitations are design related and swapping components doesn't help much.

A MOTU mic pre will always sound like a MOTU mic pre, I don't care what you throw in there, it won't ever sound like an Averill 312.

But, your mileage may vary, and no one has ever bought an album because they like the mic pres used on it.

All mods aside, I think the stock 896HD is a usable piece.

[Velvetfreddy]

Anybody check to see what opamps he used to replace the old one's with?

[Brad McGowan]

Originally Posted by cdog

I've never heard the Black Lion MOTU mods but my experience with modded low-mid-end gear is that its just not worth the $$$.

You're better off buying something really good to begin with.

A lot of sonic limitations are design related and swapping components doesn't help much.

A MOTU mic pre will always sound like a MOTU mic pre, I don't care what you throw in there, it won't ever sound like an Averill 312.

But, your mileage may vary, and no one has ever bought an album because they like the mic pres used on it.

All mods aside, I think the stock 896HD is a usable piece.

Yeah this may be true, but a lot of us are using the MOTU gear as the digital hub of our studios--as a way of getting digital audio in and out of our computer. And like myself I'm sure there are a lot of users using other high end converters and preamps. So since the MOTU is already part of the system why not make it into something that's actually useable? Until this point I really have steered clear of the MOTU mic pres and conversion. But now when I have to use them I can feel good about it instead of feeling like I'm making a huge compromise. In that respect it's worth the mod.

Brad

[Brad McGowan]

Originally Posted by Velvetfreddy

Anybody check to see what opamps he used to replace the old one's with?

You could just ask him. I'm sure he would tell you what he does.

Brad

[Damn it, Debbie]

Anyone else had their 896HD modded at Black Lion lately? Are you happy with the results?

[barryv]

I had my 896HD 'modded' by Blacklion. It was in perfect working order and I just wanted to see if the sound could be improved as they claim. The MOTU distributor here in the UK do direct swaps for brand new units even with out-of- warranty units (£99), so if it had a problem, I would have just done that. I once bought an 828MKII for cheap on ebay. It had problems so I sent the unit with £99 to the UK distributor and they sent me a new unopened 828MkII.

Anyway now my unit 896HD is out of commision! Possibly permanently. Turned it on and i'm getting loud popping noises. I paid the $325 US for the clock and analog stages. The full story is here... check out ebay item number 120054386600. I found a guy with the exact same nightmare as mine. He put the unit up for auction starting at $00.01 for a MOTU 24i/o that was 'modded' by Blacklion. They eventually bought it off him!
They say they have many satisfied customers....I'm not one of them!

Go to ebay auction item number 120054386600...
also
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/194132/0/

You'll be glad you did!

[Velvetfreddy]

Wow----

[skindogdms]

If you are running on pc, (to the best of my knowledge) the clocks BLA puts in the units sometimes aren't compatible with PC. BUT, I got my 2408 MKII modded there and I had the SAME EXACT problem. I did the responsible thing, called them up asked them what was up, they tried to help and couldn't resolve it. They had me send it back and all they did was remove the clock they installed. Now I've got the unit back, and on top of that a 1224 that I modded with them as well and all that stuff works great. Noticable differences even without the clock.

I think they are a fairly new company and are working out the kinks.

[foldback]

I've had reliability problems with Motu hardware. I have two friends that have had problems with their Motu hardware. Audio just ceases to work on 1 or more channels or my one friend with two new 896 has had problems with the preamp trims getting noisy. Motu has been great about servicing, fast and cheap swaps for new replacement pieces but still it has been a pain having their equipment fail.

I think the Motu hardware sounds good enough stock, it's not an embarassing sound quality by any means. I have not heard any of the upgrades but I think the hardware is kind of flimsy and cheaply built. If you're using it I'd just make do with the stock configuration until you can afford to move up to something that is more heavy duty.

In defense of Motu, I still have a 2408 mk II and it still works fine. I use it occasionally to import 24 tracks optical from my HD24XR. On one recording session we used the 2408 with the HD24XR as an audio interface, it worked and sounded ok. After capturing the tracks I imported them into Protools for editing and finishing.

Motu hardware is cheap stuff. Use it, love it, take care of it, sell it and get something better.

[jimj166]

For anyone that's interested, the story is we told Barry to send his unit back on our dime and that it would be fixed and out the door back to him (on our dime again)the same day. It sounds to us like it was damaged during shipping. He's also decided to try to defame our name with an ebay auction when we have been nothing but helpful in trying to help him in this unfortunate situtation. And this has all happened in a matter of two days time.

[Sergievsky]

Don't worry about it, I think it's pretty obvious he's just pissed (understandably) and I'm sure no one is looking at your company that negatively. I have had problems with NEW equipment, so this isn't a big deal. Important thing of course is support, and there are enough people to vouch for BLA to offset the bad stuff.

[Snatchman]

Yeah, I've had several pieces modded by BLA. There was some delay involved when Matt was working by himself, but he more than generously made up for the delays!.......

[Math5461]

The only problem I have found with getting the mod: the MOTU stuff has problems before the mod even comes into it. I sent in my 2408 MKII in for the micro clock and analog stage bundle. The sound was improved. Enough that it brought out the issues inherent with the motu. I now have discovered that both the stock and the modded 2408 have a buzz in the transformer and it gets into the audio outs. I know people will want to blame bad Power for this but I have tried every outlet I have and complete power conditioning not just the crappy Furman stuff and the problem is there. hum is present in both the audio outs and the headphones jack. Luckily it's not on the inputs (detectably) and I can mix ITB. Guess the Midas Venice I bought will just be for the pres...Bummer, because the EQ is awesome for drums! I wish I would have got a better solution from the start but the problem is that there isn't anything worth it, without dropping at least $2500. Good luck all.

[2BEARS]

motu 896hd mod from black lion? anyone gotten this mod done? was it worth? did the pres sound better? thoughts, etc...

Hellz yeah it is worth it. I had mine done and it was well worth it !
As a man of few words. Heres My best decription of the difference, or shall we say the before and after.

STEP 1.

A man at a medium sized venue strikes a large Kettle Drum.
You Stand, 30 ft Away from said man.
You listen critically as the "Rhythmic" strikes the drum.

The man stops when you signal that you have had enough.

STEP 2.

Now you walk to the man who was previously striking the drum.
You introduce yourself, naturally.
Now, Whilst placing your chin on the rim of the Kettle Drum,
Your face so that you may address the Beater. . .


Ask Him to BEGIN ....thumbsup