Motu 828 mkII - first glance

[neilsby]

I've just received this baby and my first impressions are excellent.

Solid construction and simple to install, took 4 minutes.

The cuemix software is excellent too, you can set-up 4 different bus mixes, useful for monitoring on headphones and playing back in the same room, the fuss i had to go to in order to play back through speakers instead of headphones with my m-audio interface

There are 2 mic inputs and a further 8 analogue inputs, all 10 can be used at the same time. I haven't explored the sound quality yet but again from what i've heard it's pretty darn good.

On top of this you get midi in and out, and various digital inputs and outputs which aren't any use to me yet! There's also the option to daisy chain other devices via firewire.

You also get the motu classic metering panel, but in addition a new blue lcd screen which you control all kinds of outputs on and mixes on.

The asio drivers work fine with Logic 5.3, and you can run mme and asio at the same time so system sounds can be heard if you want them without having to change.

Sorry it's all a bit vague, only got it today but if anyone has any specific questions i'd be happy to try and reply.

Neilson.

[Klaseed]

Once you get a feel for the sound, I'd love to hear what you think. This is the only box that might stop me from getting a Mobile I/O...

One more question: have you noticed a slight pop or dropout about three seconds after you begin playing an audio track? I remember seeing this on a friend's 828 mkI, but don't recall if it ever got fixed, or even if we figured out what the issue was...

Thanks.

[Mind-Over-Midi]

Hi;
I just picked up my 828mk2 last night. The mic pre's sound fine, I find them very usable, though a little more gain would be welcome. The converters also sound good, smooth, with good 3D depth perception.

Originally posted by Klaseed
One more question: have you noticed a slight pop or dropout about three seconds after you begin playing an audio track? I remember seeing this on a friend's 828 mkI, but don't recall if it ever got fixed, or even if we figured out what the issue was...

Thanks.

I'm not having any problems with dropouts at all, this box just works! The cuemix software is awesome! Latency is not an issue. So far in the short period that I've played around with the 828 I'm happy. I've never worked with the Mobile I/O so I can't compare. However, I will say at $720.00, what I paid at G.C., this box rocks!

[neilsby]

No clicks what so ever, maybe the latency settings were to low. I'm running a 2.6ghz, 1gb ram with 2 7,200rpm disk drives almost both are completely empty. I was using no software monitoring or plug-ins whilst recording.

I'm not running any other firewire devices, i don't know how additional firewire devices compete for bandwidth, i presume it's similar to usb.

For between £600 - £700, this has to be the ultimate audio interface solution. Nothing else i've seen has all of the amazing features that the motu has.

But as they say the proof is in the pudding, i'll let you know after this weekend what i think of the sound quality.

[John Mayes]

I'm also using one of these units. the A/D converters are light years better sounding than the ones in my old Echo Mona Units. The onboard pre's are not bad at all...in fact they are very smooth and warm sounding. There are tons of features of which I have not yet explored but all in all this unit is GREAT! I was having some problems with it, but come to find out it was my el-cheapo firewire card I bought off ebay for $10...hey you get what you pay for, cept in the case of the 828MKII I think I got much more than I paid for....

[neilsby]

I have to say that this has been one of the easiest interfaces for me to install and use. Technology is supposed to help modern living, great technology should run in the background without you being aware of it. This is certainly one of those devices.

I've recorded some acoustic guitar tracks with a pair of C451bs into the 828 and the sound is smooth with very low noise.