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Post by wiz on Jun 17, 2015 19:40:34 GMT -6
I don't remember if I've posted in this thread or not. Wiz: fantastic. I didn't think I could like the song Amazing Grace but what you've done with it is impressive, same for Tequila Sunrise. The sound quality is there too. Seems like you've got some really sweet gear. Very nice work. Suddenly, I add MOTU to the list of things to think about. I love that their range includes input only, and output only, modules. So I could, say, use an Audient ASP880 for my inputs, Motu 24Ao for outputs. I've got some thinking to do, haha. thanks dude 8) I had sort of forgotten about this 8) I do have some nice gear, a lot ... nearly all the good stuff secondhand.. which I got at really good prices over a few years. I was talking to tonycamphd about it... I think if you are patient, and save up your pocket money, you can jump fast when something comes along... I burnt a lot of coin on stuff that I didn't like, or went obsolete (digital) so I decided no more a while back. the MOTU is really good. Nothing bad to say about it.. I can do a DA AD trip and not pick it up, so I am happy camper. cheers Wiz
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Post by mulmany on Sept 22, 2015 6:32:22 GMT -6
Placed my order for my 16a. Finally stopped the small GAS attack long enough to save up for it. Excited to use it in person after hearing everything done with one.
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Post by jdc on Sept 22, 2015 7:01:02 GMT -6
I recommend using it with a bla micro clock if you can
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Post by dandeurloo on Sept 22, 2015 8:16:49 GMT -6
I am using mine with the mk3 clock and it helps for sure. It is a nice sounding clock. Really helps tighten things up.
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Post by jdc on Sept 22, 2015 8:54:10 GMT -6
Dan, how much of an improvement is the mk3 over the mk2?
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Post by dandeurloo on Sept 22, 2015 13:11:27 GMT -6
I've not heard the MK2.
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Post by forgotteng on Sept 24, 2015 22:11:43 GMT -6
I have been running a 24Ai a 24Ao and a Monitor8 as an interface all on a Windows7 platform for about 2 months now. I like it. It has been a learning experience figuring out the routing but as I get it I see the flexibility. I originally got this configuration because I was using a 32 input console and wanted the i/o on a budget. I have since eliminated the console and run out to the patchbay with the 24A0 and in the 24Ai. I do have a clocking question that I'd like input on. If I had the time I would try each of these and may get around to that at some point but here goes. Currently I am clocking everything through a focusrite ISA428 with the ADC card (ADAT). I do have a Drawmer M-Clock and of course the MOTU clocking internally. Any thoughts on which the most beneficial clocking scheme is?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2015 22:36:30 GMT -6
I would try to connect the Focusrite, which may be the highest quality ADC interface in the setup, to the 24Ai ADAT port and setting it up as the clock for the 24Ai. Then clocking everything else to the 24Ai. Essentially, the ISA stays the master clock. Clocking an ADC externally is a bad idea generally. A dedicated house clock is a concept i would always try to avoid if possible. So i guess the above might be the most beneficial and hassle-free setup. At times, when you are not using the ISA, but only the MOTUs for i/o, set the 24Ai to internal clock to get the best performance out of it. The rest can stay the same.
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Post by jeromemason on Sept 25, 2015 0:31:38 GMT -6
I use a BLA Sparrow for my master clock with my 16a and then clock everything off the Motu like Martin said. I've never tried the Motu's clock, so, I'm not positive on how good it is, the conversion is the best I've ever had in my shop that's for sure. I'm not familiar with the 428's clock, I'm not sure how good they are, but, if Martin says it's the best in there I would take his word, very wise gent. If you clock into the Motu with ADAT, if your other gear has BNC WC I would go this route for slaving from the Motu. To every WC terminal you want to TEE off and go the the next and keep doing this until you reach the end of the chain, which you would then use another TEE with a 75ohm termination cap. You can build one of these very easily by taking a BNC connector, dremmeling the wire connect off and soldering a 75ohm resistor from the center pin to the shield. That prevents ringing and closes the loop.
You can do a search on that, also can do some listening tests of when BNC isn't wired and terminated properly and you can hear the difference easily. Hope that helps, I may not have addressed your specific situation, but the info is there if anyone else needs it.
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Post by forgotteng on Sept 25, 2015 6:23:16 GMT -6
Thanks guys. That's exactly how I'm running and it seems to work great. No clicking or popping etc.
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Post by mulmany on Sept 25, 2015 6:29:19 GMT -6
If you are using the avb you don't need extra clock cabling, as clock is carried on the cat5. You just need to set what you are using as master. Now how this sounds, or with WC I am not sure.
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Post by forgotteng on Sept 25, 2015 7:01:12 GMT -6
If you are using the avb you don't need extra clock cabling, as clock is carried on the cat5. You just need to set what you are using as master. Now how this sounds, or with WC I am not sure. That is correct. I have my ADAT cable from the ISA to the Moniter8 and everything else connects through the network. It's amazing how simple it is. The next thing I have to decide is whether it's worth the hassle to run at 96K.
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Post by indiehouse on Sept 25, 2015 7:27:43 GMT -6
I wonder why there isn't more press/buzz about the new Motu stuff online? Been digging around for info for a couple weeks and there's just not much out there compared to the likes of Apollo, Apogee, etc. (aside from the huge thread on GS, which is basically a giant technical troubleshooting thread, really). Regardless, I'm still moving forward with my plan to switch platforms from the Apollo to the Motu 16A. I admit I'm a little nervous, only because I'm so comfortable with the Apollo's workflow.
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Post by jeromemason on Sept 25, 2015 8:14:09 GMT -6
I wonder why there isn't more press/buzz about the new Motu stuff online? Been digging around for info for a couple weeks and there's just not much out there compared to the likes of Apollo, Apogee, etc. (aside from the huge thread on GS, which is basically a giant technical troubleshooting thread, really). Regardless, I'm still moving forward with my plan to switch platforms from the Apollo to the Motu 16A. I admit I'm a little nervous, only because I'm so comfortable with the Apollo's workflow. $$$$$$ When I was going through getting mine all set up and such they hinted that they put more into R&D and quality to let them gain traction. UA is just pouring money into Apollo pub, but seems like when the BLA thing came out it caused some folks that do their homework to get a little weary, sure did me. If you've ever heard a Symphony then that's pretty much what you're getting, but, with a lot more I/O and a lot more useful features. Like, if you want to make an aggregate device for say PT 11, non HD, and you need to drop your I/O count somewhere you can go in and actually take the I/O from the Motu, and it removes it from Core Audio. So you can do different snap shots for mixing and tracking and never have to touch one cable........ Give one a spin Adam!
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 25, 2015 9:32:59 GMT -6
Hey guys - I haven't really followed this thread because I haven't had a need for a new interface...but was just reading the last page here. So, the Motu 16A is basically the same ADDA and clock as the Symphony? If so, man...that's a hell of a deal.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2015 11:01:01 GMT -6
If you are using the avb you don't need extra clock cabling, as clock is carried on the cat5. You just need to set what you are using as master. Now how this sounds, or with WC I am not sure. That is correct. I have my ADAT cable from the ISA to the Moniter8 and everything else connects through the network. It's amazing how simple it is. The next thing I have to decide is whether it's worth the hassle to run at 96K. One thing i would really try is: Omitting the ADAT card in the ISA and run it into one of the 24Ai ADCs. Could be that the conversion in the MOTU outperforms the conversion card. Then, if the 24Ai is set to be the master, it is always internally clocked which *will* help the ADC conversion i.e. it will perform better. This way you also can omit WC clocking. Once again - from the technical point of view, an ADC can never perform as good with external clock as with the internal. Never! I did not mean the ISA has the best conversion in the setup - i simply don't know if it really performs better than the 24Ai conversion. But as i understand it's the track by track recording micpre and you just use the conversion card because it's already there and provides one more channel. If you omit the ADAT card and feed it analog into one of the 24Ai's ADCs and set the 24Ai as master clock, you ensure best possible performance of the 24 ADC channels, which could be even better than the actual setup, even if you lose 1 conversion channel to the micpre. Just a setup idea that *may* even outperform what you do now and at least well worth trying out... Something i would try to get the best out of the whole setup, even though i am sure your setup already sounds very good.
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 25, 2015 11:03:55 GMT -6
Isn't there one with a smaller in/out count for cheaper with the same guts as the 16A? Or am I making that up...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2015 11:37:44 GMT -6
Btw... last week i had the time to work a bit on a linux setup and as of the last firmware i managed to really get the driver interface with the MOTU 32x32 96kHz channels over USB! Generically by the use of the ALSA usb audio driver in JACK! I start the JACK server with the Qjackctl app and configured the driver configuration / usb audio port there before firing up the Linux DAW program, in my case Mixbus. I just had the chance to check functionality with 2 channels because of limited time and used the SPDIF out interface of the MOTU, but really - it worked instantly! So the generic Linux ALSA usb audio driver works with the MOTU firmware. All tested in Mageia 5 distribution with upped ulimit memory and higher process priority to help it for audio purposes. Since i did not read about actually using the MOTU AVB line under linux, i was really curious about how good the class compliant usb interface works. Well - it does work in real life and not only in theory! Which is great news because one can build a taylored to fit linux OS DAW that is rock stable and independent of any proprietary garbage. And with Ardour or Mixbus it runs also a very usable DAW software - all at very low cost (Mixbus) or free (Ardour). Could be great for a rock stable mobile or stationary recording setups on a low budget but with very high recording quality... On a specialized and audio optimized media production distro like AV Linux you most probably could run it even at silly low latencies...
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Post by forgotteng on Sept 25, 2015 11:40:12 GMT -6
That is correct. I have my ADAT cable from the ISA to the Moniter8 and everything else connects through the network. It's amazing how simple it is. The next thing I have to decide is whether it's worth the hassle to run at 96K. One thing i would really try is: Omitting the ADAT card in the ISA and run it into one of the 24Ai ADCs. Could be that the conversion in the MOTU outperforms the conversion card. Then, if the 24Ai is set to be the master, it is always internally clocked which *will* help the ADC conversion i.e. it will perform better. This way you also can omit WC clocking. Once again - from the technical point of view, an ADC can never perform as good with external clock as with the internal. Never! I did not mean the ISA has the best conversion in the setup - i simply don't know if it really performs better than the 24Ai conversion. But as i understand it's the track by track recording micpre and you just use the conversion card because it's already there and provides one more channel. If you omit the ADAT card and feed it analog into one of the 24Ai's ADCs and set the 24Ai as master clock, you ensure best possible performance of the 24 ADC channels, which could be even better than the actual setup, even if you lose 1 conversion channel to the micpre. Just a setup idea that *may* even outperform what you do now and at least well worth trying out... Something i would try to get the best out of the whole setup, even though i am sure your setup already sounds very good. Great thoughts. These are some of the questions I am curious about Right now it's a logistic/wiring issue. You can see by the pictures the way I'm laid out. I like the Focusrites on the desk because of close proximity while tracking. The ADAT lines run from the ISA to the middle rack where the Monitor 8 is then the 24Ai and 24Ao is in the far rack with the patchbay so I'm trying to keep my cable runs lean. If you notice there is a mini lunchbox on the middle rack that runs in and out of the analog i/o of the Monitor 8.
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Post by mulmany on Sept 25, 2015 21:51:22 GMT -6
Question...
I don't have my 16a in my hands yet, but I was reading the updated manual and it sounded like it stated that any of the ADAT ports can be selected as optical spdif.
Can anyone verify this? I thought it was only ADAT 1-8.
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Post by jeromemason on Sept 26, 2015 23:09:18 GMT -6
Only the ADAT 1 can be TOSLINK. Unless they've changed it... quite possibly could had and I hadn't caught it yet, but ADAT 2 was ADAT and SMUX.
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Post by indiehouse on Dec 28, 2015 17:13:41 GMT -6
Hey guys, I'm finally making the transition from my silverface Apollo to my Motu 16a (had a bunch of projects to finish and didn't want to switch mid-stream).
The routing on this box is pretty rad. Very flexible.
However, I'm running into a problem. I'm running this over thunderbolt, my chain is motu -> Apple Thunderbolt display -> UAD Satellite Octo thunderbolt -> Mac mini.
It ran fine on a 48k session, but I just pulled up an 88.2k session and I'm getting some bad crackling. I took out the UAD satellite, and the cracking stopped.
Motu tech didn't have a lot of answers (their tech guys are out all week).
Anyone else run into this problem? This could be a deal breaker for me if I can't run my UAD satellite and the interface on the same thunderbolt line.
There's still time to jump on that sweet Apollo deal...or just go back to the silverface. I feel a little disheartened I made the jump right now.
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Post by drew571 on Dec 28, 2015 17:34:37 GMT -6
Double check your satellite has the correct sample rate. My Apollo twin will typically not automatically sync sample rates and causes crackling until I manually adjust.
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Post by stratboy on Dec 28, 2015 17:35:28 GMT -6
Try changing the order? Put the 16a closest to the mini and the monitor last. Check sample rate idea is a good one, too.
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Post by tasteliketape on Dec 28, 2015 18:41:28 GMT -6
I've noticed some crackling also but I don't have any uad but I have a Rosetta 200 word clocked to the Motu also the cracklings doesn't seem to be in the recording just in monitoring But annoying as hell
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