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Hello.

Although I am satisfied with the sound performance of the Track 16, I've run into some problems.

My first Track 16 , almost 3 years after the purchase, started to make a short high pitched noise, randomly, when playing any kind of audio from any kind of software. The playback resumes after. If I am recording in Cubase the event shows as a stop in the recording. This is on firewire, with and without the wall power adapter. On USB , also randomly, I could hear pops and clicks out of nowhere, even if I was not playing any audio. Once they started, they'd never go away until I restarted the soundcard. Also, the soundcard got very hot to the point that it was almost impossible to touch. The problems remained upon testing it on 3 different pc's. I have tried everything, from resetting the soundcard to changing computers and cables...older..newer drivers...etc.

After some thinking, I bought a new one. Three months after , I am facing the same problems...

I have communicated extensively with the tech support at motu but without luck. They don't seem to understand what the problems are, and they keep telling me this is an unusual problem.

Has anybody experienced these problems ?

Thank you.

Hi!

Same problem here with Motu 828mk3 FireWire!

I have this issue 5 months now and I can't find a solution!

Hi Theo,

I'm sorry to hear that. And you're on Mac! I thought that maybe the drivers were crap (which in most cases they are, on Windows).

I don't know if our soundcards have some common components. I got refused when I requested an internal scheme of my card.

I think it is a hardware problem after all. Your's is still in warranty ?

May be two different issues.

With the Track 16, bus power or power supply? There are many reports that these run hotter on bus power.

On the Mac, reset the NV RAM / PRAM. This restores the FW bus to defaults if it's been corrupted (which can happen).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

I don't know if it will work but it's worth a try and something to eliminate if it doesn't.

The first Track 16 got hot no matter what, all the time, bus powered or not. The second one is powered with the adapter, and it gets hot randomly. This time I wanted to make sure , and bought a laptop cooler pad. Even with this cooler, sometimes I put my hand on it and it is pretty warm.

My T16 heat issues and pops went away when I started using external power and the breakout cable. Since moving to El Cap the device (I'm not sure why people call it a card - that's so 20th Century... Lol) drops out and is not listed in available audio devices.


I'm connected to FW going to a TB adaptor into a Mac Pro trashcan. Again, until El Cap was installed it was fine. I'm blaming an incompatibility with the OS and MOTU driver, which still makes it MOTU's circus to herd in the monkeys.

I've experienced bad drivers on windows with other motu interfaces in the past, but only heard good things about the ones on mac osx....

My main concern is that if I return it for the warranty (bought on Thomann) they will say that nothing is wrong with it...The problems I am facing are intermittent and are only acounted for Windows.

That being said, I thought my firewire card (TI Chipset) was faulty, but I tested another firewire interface and was rock solid, no "squeal" sound or disconnecting.

I'm not a programmer so my comments may be way off base, but from what I read here, what a learn from talking to other DP and MOTU power users, and from personal experience, it seems MOTU audio and MIDI drivers need some serious work to be compatible with both Mac and PC platforms. If that is the situation then yes, the device may not be defective. It's just like trying to fit a 16" tire on an 18" rim.

Since the Track16 supports both protocols and Intel supports only one, why FireWire and not USB nowadays?

It can't be the superiority of FW800 since MOTU has said many times that all of their FW units are FW400 even though later devices have the same Type 2 connectors found on FW800 devices. That it can be used on a G4 confirms this.

I'm not arguing for a second that MOTU needs to get the drivers fixed. I don't let my iMac go to sleep when my 828mkII is plugged in because of the issues I've read about.

So what am I missing?

I get pops and clicks w/USB as well as drop outs.

Maybe you did it already, but I have to ask. Have you tried older drivers, and test the device on another computer ? What did Motu support told you ? I was really annoyed when in the last motu techlink they told me that what I am experiencing is an "unusual problem"....