SeriesMOTU 828

The MOTU 828MK3 is a firewire or a USB connected interface. The manual was easy to read through and understand making the set up process very easy. It is rackable taking up one rack stace and it also has on board effects. The support with this product is not very good though I remember having some issues when working with it on my Mac a few times and contacting them about it got me nowhere. UTILIZATION The DSP effects are built in are a huge plus for any user, there are reverb and EQ plug ins to use with any DAW that you enjoy working in. The preamps are decent, not the best that I have heard from MOTU but not the worse either. This interface will work on a Windows and Mac system and it works great with ASIO drivers as well. It comes with software called AudioDesk which I only used one time and didn’t like it at all but I guess if you are a new user then it could work for you but you will outgrow it and want to do more. It came with software called CueMix FX too, which was great! GETTING STARTED This interface does not seem to be built as well as other MOTU interfaces and it seems like it could have issues if it is used and abused. But it does come with a warranty for 2 years from them so if you have any issues you can always return it. Hopefully it is a hassle free return. OVERALL OPINION There is a small LED screen that is backlit, it doesn’t have the best quality but it is not bad. It is easy to read and see what you want to do on it but it is not very graphical. This interface is average at best to me but the plug ins that comes with it makes it worth having because they are worth the money.

The Motu 828 interface is run by fire wire and not USB which is one of the reason I took a lot of interest in it. When the Motu 828 first came out all the kept saying is that it was going to change the face of computer integration with audio interfaces and in some ways it did just that. The Motu 828 was very easy to use and to install it on my machine. It was very powerful and I was excited to get rid of my PCI card and get into the new era of audio interfaces via fire wire. I was pretty young when I first purchased this, and really wasn’t sure if I wanted to make the leap from the PCI card that I just bought. But needless to say I have kept this interface all the way till the year of 2010. So it really lasted me almost 8 year or so. I used this interface with Cubase LE for a while and later using it with programs like FL Studio. UTILIZATION I didn’t experience any driver updates, maybe I wasn’t aware of them when they came out but for my system I had no issues and no need to update. Even when I switched the Motu 828 to my Quad Core computer years ago, it still worked great and with the same drivers that it came with. Also, the latency on this interface was very low, but I have had lower latency with some newer interfaces. The Motu 828 was very stable and the price when it first came out made it a tough buy at the time because it was not cheap. GETTING STARTED I had no compatibility issues on either system I used it on. I cant remember the specs of my Dell desktop that I first used it on , but the second computer I used it on was a quad core pc with AMD and it worked perfectly. The manual was easy to use as I remember correctly and it wasn’t to long or hard o understand. All of the main functions of the Motu 828 where right on the unit and easy to use. OVERALL OPINION They have upgraded this interface to the MKII and then the MKIII. I have had a chance to work with both of the upgrades that MOTU has made, but the original Motu 828 has set the standard for the other products they have release. I do not regret my decision to purchase the Motu 828. I bought it with every penny I had saved and got well over my moneys worth.

The MOTU 828 MK2 is a 14 x 10 audio and MIDI interface designed for the home studio DAW that will support up to 96 kHz. For such a little unit, it’s actually got a good amount of versatility and options. It’s a firewire based unit, consisting of two ports. There are two microphone preamps, each of which have dual ¼”/XLR jacks and trim knobs, built in phantom power, and a pad for each as well. As far as other connections go, it has six other ¼” inputs, eight ¼” outputs to correspond with each of the inputs, and ¼” main stereo outputs for sending your sound to your monitors. It also has a MIDI input and output and the same for S/PDIF as well. There’s also a ¼” jack for a headphone input and metering is done with the LED screen on the front panel. It’s powered by either your computer via bus power, or with a nine volt power supply. The 828 MK2 is also rackable. UTILIZATION As long as you understand the characteristics and features involved here, you’re going to be able to operate the 828 MK2 without any issues. Everything is pretty straight forward and direct once you understand all of the connections and features here. Of course if this is your first audio interface, you might want to have the manual around to help you understand all of the basic components here. GETTING STARTED The 828 MK2 is overall a very clean sounding unit, from the preamps to the overall playback quality through the converters. Especially considering that this is meant for portability, the sound is quite sparkling clean. The preamps aren’t necessarily the best sounding in the world, but they do have a decent amount of depth to them and will definitely get the job done for remote recording or for work in a smaller home studio. OVERALL OPINION As far as small/portable audio interfaces go, the 828 MK2 has as much flexibility crammed on this little unit as any I’ve used before. It will definitely work in your home studio if you want a little audio interface to run your DAW on, but I think it would work best as a supplemental unit for recording on the go. I don’t own this audio interface myself, but a friend of mine has it for his home studio and uses it all the time for recording on the go, which is really a great thing to be able to do. MOTU has some great audio interfaces in all different price ranges and for different purposes, so if the 828 MK2 doesn’t do it for you, definitely check out the others that they have to offer.