All user reviews of 5/5 for the MOTU 828 Mk2

MacBook Pro with 4Gb of RAM, external firewire disk. Home studio and multicasting in theater (theater and contemporary dance) Drivers

UTILIZATION

very stable on XP / Samplitude and MacOS X / Live, or Logic MaxMSP

GETTING STARTED

no problem just drive the motu stand alone by small pots, it's not always easy! But this is not really made for that and it's great to be able to do it anyway.

OVERALL OPINION

Solid product, reliable and robust for my experience ...
Only problem: one day in a theater at a time of performance, loss of sync between the Motu and my computer (macbook pro) can not get them to recognize, even rebooting in any possible order. So I bought a RME Fireface 400 the week after. And since the motu works perfectly!
I knew 2 months this had happened often in theaters, the current is not very clean and the clock of firewire may find it very ... disturbed.
So the answer for all directors and musicians: UPS or power of the card by the computer, what I do now with the Fireface.
The motu is now installed at home and I toured with the EMR.
Quality level, the RME converters seem a little better, less aggressive in the treble. But it must be really good monitor speakers to perceive it.
As for those pre-amps are the motu, the RME are excellent ... and more expensive

His-options-quality converters, software-stability

-Used with Pentium 4 Dual Core Fixed to 2.2 ghz core and soon I3.

-System: Windows XP 32-bit

-Usage: Live Multitrack Recording

UTILIZATION

* The drivers are stable?
YES
* Are they often updated?
YES
* What software do you use most often?
Cubase SX 2, Live 7, Reason 3,
* What latency you get?
low
* How many tracks do you manage to record / playback simultaneously? ...
12 max

Very good

GETTING STARTED



OVERALL OPINION

* For how long have you been using it?
10 years
* What thing do you like most/least about it?
All the + =, = The least its not very accesible connectors, its not terrible preamp anyway ...
* Did you try many other models before getting this one?
Not too
* What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Cher at the time, Must now
* Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice? ...
No loot = Yes
With the loot = Apogee of course!

Nothing missing, in fact, it has extra that comes in very handy. I like to purchase equipment based on whether the equipment can be used for production and live. With the 828mkII, you get a free mixer practically! There are 4 mix channels and slots to save mixing presets. So you can have a "Studio" for a headphone mix and another for Monitoring, then just load a "Live" preset for when you go gigging. CueMix has saved me $80.

Price paid

$750

UTILIZATION

The learning curve is next to nothing. The MOTU 828mkII comes with software for your PC to control anything with a better user interface. Given the limited size of the LCD on the 828mkII, it's a bit hard figuring where things are at first, but using the PC interface, you'll get a good idea and won't find it tough the next time you use the LCD. It comes with ASIO and MME drivers and you can run both concurrently. If you're running your sequencer using the ASIO drivers, you can still run, say, Winamp thru the MME drivers.

GETTING STARTED

Just looking at the construction of the thing tells you it can take a beating... but who'd want to beat a $750 piece of gear with lights in it? You got your wife for that! :P I've only had it for almost a month and I take extra care of any gear, if an accident were to happen, I'm sure as hell confident it'll survive.

OVERALL OPINION

The sound quality is prestine. Recording at 96kHz/24-bit has great improved the overall sound of any recording. Recording in 96kHz better captures waveforms more accurately. 24-bit allows for more digital processing without any noticeable degradation/data loss. All plugs are gold-plated, reducing any possibly of radio/noise interference (of course, hi-quality TRS/XLR cables to help A LOT!) If you're a perfectionist, 96kHz won't be enough(386kHz!). But 96kHz is beyond practical, and if your machine can't handle this, there's 88.2kHz... which is twice more samples/sec. than an ordinary CD.

First of all, it's black, sleek, green and blue lights and an occasional red light when you're clipping... I went from the M-Audio Quattro to this and instantly my recordings sounded better, my production time quicker. If I were given the choice between 10 Digidesign Digi 002 Rack and just one MOTU 828mkII... I'll just take the MOTU (well, take the Digis, sell them all and get more MOTUs!!) It looks good, works excellent, and it's versatile... if I moved to Arkansas, I'd marry this thing!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Borthox ( 2-, 2004)

Allows you to record up to 20 channels at the same time at 24bit. The only catch is that 8 of those channels are ADAT (Great if you have a digital mixer) and 2 of them digital coax. That leaves you with 8 1/4" to work with and a pair of combo XLR 1/4" on the front.

Price paid

700

UTILIZATION

Not bad, I was worried at first not having a lot of reviews from PC users running WinXP. Don't even worry about it, this thing links up with no problems and you can set everything from the Cuemix console on the computer and store it to 20 presets in the unit. Any one of the presets can be loaded from the front panel or the computer very quickly. The six push-turn buttons on the front are confusing as heck, but after a couple of hours of messing with them, you will have the logic down. Lots of routing options, so if you have more gear than inputs, pick up a patchbay at the same time then you can set one Cuemix setup and use your patchbay hardware to do the input switching. The manual is very weak, no help there if you have major questions about using the system without the computer. Its totally written from the computers point of view, assuming that you are running Cubase. If you are running any software that is not ASIO compatable, you can still use it running legacy drivers according to the manual, but its not recommended.

GETTING STARTED

Windows users, you will love this product if you are running Cubase, Vegas, Soundforge, or Acid Pro, All Inputs and outputs are available for use at 96kHz/24bit resolution. I set presets for my diffrent software right into the Cuemix and recall them quickly with the touch of a button on the front panel, as I switch from diffrent Aps. Its even works with my windows laptop with no problems recording 18 channels to the internal hard drive in the field. This is one nice firewire interface that give you a lot of routing options. One word of advice. GET A PATCHBAY so you don't have to reach around back to get to your inputs and outputs, especially if its racked and

OVERALL OPINION

Absolutly flawless, no cracks, pops, or coloration to the sound. What you put in is what you get out. Used a compressor and eq chain on inputs 7 and 8 straight from the powered pre-amp outs on the 2 front panels and got a perfectly polished sound from my bass straight into the computer. You can also record the raw sound from the front panel at the same time.

Wouldn't have my studio with out it! Get one of these! They rock!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Smoothbassman (January 2-, 2005)