MOTU Audio Interfaces?????

[TurboPablo]

Anyone have experience with their products? I've read all stellar reviews.

I am going to get another, better interface sometime in the not too distant future. If I had never been turned on to the Warm WA-12 and all it's creamy goodness, my Mackie Blackjack would be fine. But with the WA-12 and Fathead, I am finding that it is way too easy to clip the the little fucker. Plus, they prevent me from being able to use the tone button on the Warm without having to dial way way back. So, I would like to have a interface that will allow me to drive it harder with the mic pre and utilize all it's awesomeness.

Anyway, these are what I am currently fixated on....

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UltraLite3Hy

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioExpress

Is it worth it? Or would I be better of getting a little mixer that will give me more control over the signal before it hits the AI?

Also, I will be buying another WA-12 like, real soon. Along with another Fathead and probably a E906. That should round me out just peachy.

Thank you drive thru please.

[nightflameauto]

Don't have experience with MOTU interfaces, but what you want is a true line level input, and possibly one with a built in PAD that can knock back a few db on the way in. The older Focusrite interfaces do that, not sure about the current ones.

[Ostinato Rubato]

Slate Digital

[nightflameauto]

I swear to god, Mike, you sometimes appear to be so far out of your element that you make Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels seem like Mensa members.

[newholland]

i've never heard a cross word spoken about MOTU stuff, ever. have never had personal experience with one, though.

what bout this thing, too?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/iD22

[TurboPablo]

This is such a fucking rabbit hole........

[newholland]

This is such a fucking rabbit hole........

lord don't i know it.

it's not REALLY all that bad.. you got a decent interface now! it just, unbeknownst to you, doesn't play nice with external preamps. a lot don't.. even mine. i still make decent recordings WITH both. you don't NEED a new interface, you just want one... they're different. you don't need to go down the rabbit hole if you don't want to.

you have some great gear- you can also extract more dirt off the warm by using the pad. it's there to be used, and it still will add a bunch of saturation to the sound if you use it.

don't get too hung up on the new interface thing.

[Ostinato Rubato]

I swear to god, Mike, you sometimes appear to be so far out of your element that you make Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels seem like Mensa members.

obviously I was intentionally being an idiot with that post

[Matt]

I have a MOTU Ultralite. Fantastic interface. All these songs were recorded with it:

https://soundcloud.com/waldosessions/golden-lotus

https://soundcloud.com/waldosessions/perfection

https://soundcloud.com/waldosessions/i-dont-care

Soundcraft mixer into MOTU Ultralite.

[Markdude]

Spend $50 more than the first one and go for the Audient iD22 ($599 at Sweetwater right now; their price recently dropped $100). I can't truly judge it since I don't have one yet (mine should be here tomorrow), but it's probably the most widely acclaimed interface I've ever read about. Many people even say it beats the RME Babyface, which has long been considered the gold standard for small interfaces and is used in a professional capacity often (supposedly all the vocals on Lorde's album were recorded with a Babyface). Even though you have the WA-12, I constantly read that the preamps are stellar. And it would make a great match for the WA-12 because the converters are supposed to be fantastic, and the analog inputs each have Insert send and return jacks for routing gear between the preamp and the converter (which means if you plug the WA-12 into one of the return jacks, you'll be 100% bypassing every bit of the iD22's preamp circuitry and going straight to the converter). The instrument input is also supposed to be very good, and it's even got +22 dBU of headroom, so it'll come in handy if you want to mess around with amp sims and/or record bass direct. I haven't heard any bad things about the drivers either. And it has an ADAT input so you've got a lot or room for expansion if you ever want to track drums or something.

I've been wanting one for months since it seems to be mindblowingly good. I would have gotten one to begin with when I bought the UR44 a couple of weeks ago but I was on a smaller budget. After I ended up not getting along with the UR44's instrument input, I decided to say "fuck it" and pony up the cash for the iD22 since it just had that price drop. I can't wait to geek out when mine gets here tomorrow.

[TurboPablo]

That's the one Newholland posted.

Will do more homework on it for sure.

[TurboPablo]

Yeah, the demos of the Audient iD22 are pretty damn sweet.

Wow.

Sweetwater is doing for 24months 0%.

Fuck.

[RIFF]

i've never heard a cross word spoken about MOTU stuff, ever. have never had personal experience with one, though.

This..

Seems like they were very professional, highly regarded stuff back when. Im sure theyre still great, but theres now a LOT of stuff to choose from.

[AndyTNBD]

I use a MOTU 8-Pre USB2 interface at home with Windows 8, and have no problems. We use a MOTU 828 USB2 interface at my works studio as well, again with Windows 8 and again no problems!

[colejustesen]

I was looking into a MOTU interface before I picked up my Focusrite. I really was eying the 828mk3 Hybrid, but I read it was having driver issues with Windows so I passed on it. It seems like they play great with a Mac. After reading AndyTNBD's post, I am thinking I should have just got it!

Cole

[trimix]

I just tracked my first session on the new MOTU 16A, killer box, but not really the droid you're looking for...
Couple ways to skin that cat, I had a similar issue with a pair of tube mics on drum overheads this weekend, so much output that even with the gain all the way down I was hammering the line inputs on the interface. I solved it by inserting a compressor between the preamp and interface and pulling it's output back lower than unity gain. You could grab a FMR RNC as a clean gain control box to put between your WA12 and interface, you may even find it useful for compressing things now and again.