Sonic State Studio / Audio Cards/Hardware /
 MOTU 828 At a Glance  
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arrowReleased: March 2001  arrowVersion: 0.00
arrowRated: 6.0/10arrow User reviews: (20)
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arrowSoftware: Win 95/98, Win NT, Win XP, Mac, OSX,
arrowHardware: Firewire
Jim B-Reay writes:
Offers 18 simultaneous I/O and connects to a Mac or PC via Firewire - no PCI card needed. Easy to install and configure - on Mac, it's managed via a control strip module!

The front panel has trim pots for the analog inputs configured as stereo pairs - essential if you're using this as a mixer replacement.

Latency can be set between 128 samples (3ms) to 1024 samples (40ms). I tried 128 and it was very stable - it handled multiple audio tracks and VSTis without any pops. You can do hardware monitoring using CueMix (included) if you want true zero-latency monitoring.

Analog Channels 1+2 have XLR+1/4" combo inputs and preamps. They sound good!

Ships with AudioDesk, MOTU's very good audio tracker - basically Digital Performer without the MIDI.

Good Points
This really is plug-and-play for anyone with Firewire. Anyone with a Firewire computer should consider this interface - it's a great value! This makes the Laptop Studio a real possiblity. I built a track last night in Logic on Mac with 10 audio tracks (loops and vocals), 4 EXS24 sampler instruments, an LM4 kit, 2 reverbs, a delay, 3 pitch shifters, etc - running at 128 samples - no stutters or pops. No worries.
Bad Points
If you have a lot going across the firewire bus - if you're using FW hard drives for example - there can be some lock-ups - bandwidth is not infinite! I did have trouble with my Rev 1 G3, running 2 FW hard drives and the 828 together. But I COULD run the 828 just fine using IDE drives for audio. I have had no troubles since installing an orange micro FW PCI card instead of using on-board Firewire and moving the Drives to that card.
 

 MOTU 828 Specifications:

Digital IOs:
8 ADAT, 2 SPDIF
Analog IOs:
2 Neutrik Combos (XLR+1/4
Midi IOs:
0
Maximum Resolution:96k@24bits
Software supported:
ASIO, MAS, SoundManager.

 828 Links

Motu 828 pages@ MOTU
Electronic Musician review

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