896HD looks bad, Am I wrong????

[rockitcity]

Shanabit,

Looks like you have some time and experience with MOTU hardware, are you going to believe every rant you read? Although I have no personal experience with the 896HD a friend has one, with no expressed complaints. Just curious why you'd want to buy two to link together, considering your existing setup. Do you need more inputs/outputs? Why not an 8 pre or another 828? Maybe you want 192k sampling? (I think this is just a novelty without much real-world benefit at this time).

I don't know, but I can't believe that the 896HD would be any worse on avereage than other lines of MOTU hardware.

Bob

[ester]

i've had my 896HD for about 6 months. never had any trouble with it and really love the sound that i'm getting. when i need more inputs i'll really consider getting another.

[hklam]

Looking at a lot of posts here it appears that the 896HD has a crappy build quality, doesnt sync to other 896HD's well, Inputs going bad, random screetching sounds. Sounds like its junk to me. Correct me if Im wrong. I was thinking about getting a pair and linking them up. Your thoughts???

Shanabit

I had my 896HD for a long while and getting fantastic result with every project. As with most of us in the Forum, when we expand our system to include another MOTU we have to go through a bit of pain to get it right.

I was having some problems trying to sync my 896HD with the Traveler, and finally got it right after replacing the Windows XP SP2's Firewire drivers with SP1 drivers. To be fair, Microsoft should release a patch which will permanently fix this problem and they should allow for backward compatibility to their SP1 Firewire drivers. This is just not a problem with MOTU but with other brand of interfaces and also video cameras.

[edwardb]

shanabit

I would advise you to stay away from the dual motu 896hd running under the windows platform. That is my current setup. The windows driver model is not up to scratch and MOTU cannot seem to fix it. Sync is a definite issue that i have been working on for several months and still have problems with it. MOTU suggests that (4) 896 hd units can be connected together on a single firewire but i do not believe it is possible..I would like for someone to prove me wrong..And yes there is a need for more analog inputs in my opinion, my goal was 32 analog inputs (4 896 hd units) to eliminate the need for other devices/converters etc...
Why can't MOTU or some other company make a single unit that resembles the 896 hd but even say with 16 or even 24 analog inputs that are the universal type with onboard pre-amps/phantom power etc...
And not the digidesign/protools $20k version..something that the average joe can afford.....

[hklam]

shanabit

I would advise you to stay away from the dual motu 896hd running under the windows platform. That is my current setup. The windows driver model is not up to scratch and MOTU cannot seem to fix it. Sync is a definite issue that i have been working on for several months and still have problems with it. MOTU suggests that (4) 896 hd units can be connected together on a single firewire but i do not believe it is possible..I would like for someone to prove me wrong..And yes there is a need for more analog inputs in my opinion, my goal was 32 analog inputs (4 896 hd units) to eliminate the need for other devices/converters etc...
Why can't MOTU or some other company make a single unit that resembles the 896 hd but even say with 16 or even 24 analog inputs that are the universal type with onboard pre-amps/phantom power etc...
And not the digidesign/protools $20k version..something that the average joe can afford.....

I am just putting myself in MOTU's shoes, if I were to manufacture a 24 or 32 analog inputs interface to run at 192kHz or even 96kHz, then the product will be simply too expensive for the mass market. It will need to have a powerful DSP circuit. The modular packaging now is perfect for us home/project studio, we can upgrade or add more unit as outgrow our capacity. For a big studio (which is a dying breed), which need a lot more inputs, the equipment will be in a different class altogether. In my opinion, I don't think MOTU want to be in that market segment or plan to design something for that category of equipment.

Shanabit, Trust your intuition, go for it. There are many in the Forum who has daisychained the 896HD.

Looks like I am doing a hard sell for MOTU, I hope I will get a free T-shirt one day.

[edwardb]

shanabit

I would advise you to stay away from the dual motu 896hd running under the windows platform. That is my current setup. The windows driver model is not up to scratch and MOTU cannot seem to fix it. Sync is a definite issue that i have been working on for several months and still have problems with it. MOTU suggests that (4) 896 hd units can be connected together on a single firewire but i do not believe it is possible..I would like for someone to prove me wrong..And yes there is a need for more analog inputs in my opinion, my goal was 32 analog inputs (4 896 hd units) to eliminate the need for other devices/converters etc...
Why can't MOTU or some other company make a single unit that resembles the 896 hd but even say with 16 or even 24 analog inputs that are the universal type with onboard pre-amps/phantom power etc...
And not the digidesign/protools $20k version..something that the average joe can afford.....

I am just putting myself in MOTU's shoes, if I were to manufacture a 24 or 32 analog inputs interface to run at 192kHz or even 96kHz, then the product will be simply too expensive for the mass market. It will need to have a powerful DSP circuit. The modular packaging now is perfect for us home/project studio, we can upgrade or add more unit as outgrow our capacity. For a big studio (which is a dying breed), which need a lot more inputs, the equipment will be in a different class altogether. In my opinion, I don't think MOTU want to be in that market segment or plan to design something for that category of equipment.

Shanabit, Trust your intuition, go for it. There are many in the Forum who has daisychained the 896HD.

Looks like I am doing a hard sell for MOTU, I hope I will get a free T-shirt one day.

Hklam.....I agree with your statements regarding hardware and cost....but....Motu should still try to make their current hardware work as their manuals say they can. I like the 896HD alot..i just want it to work correctly, right now a lot of their hardware does not work correctly under the windows platform, but they do support it, and i do not want to go out and buy a MAC.........not yet anyway.....I would suggest to new buyers to stick with a single Motu interface until the driver model gets fixed..