new drivers

[majdid]

when are we going to get new drivers from motu? look at a company like line6 for expl, they support each and every one of their products, they already released win xp64/vista 64 drivers for many of their products. no i am not the PR manager for line6, i only have a podxt and i never ever had to speak to the support for anything. in fact they even sent me FOR FREE a PSU that matches 220v power socket that im using, because i got it from the us.

the motu site seems like it hasent been updated for ages, i am really wondering what these guys are doing? anyway, if somebody have some news about new drivers/firmware release for the firewire devices, please post the info..

[acidrecords]

please also write some mails to them with text from your post. seems that they don`t read this forum

[strat96]

Yeah I too am disappointed with MOTU. I have a Pocket Express, and Win 2000 and XP. I am now trying to use the SMPTE feature and after weeks I finally got a response from support saying XP doesn't support SMPTE but 2000 does - he also suggested I buy a new Motu MIDI Time Piece if I want to use SMPTE in XP. I can't get it to work on 2000 either(the driver they have for 2000 is the same for XP, which only includes the MIDI in/outs no SMPTE) nor do I believe that it's XP's fault that SMPTE isn't compatible, I just think they refuse to make new drivers. And what's with them not posting manuals in PDF, I can get manuals for any other device I have from the manufacture with the click of a button, including a 1980's Fostex Reel to Reel!

[muranyia]

Not to doubt that you have reviewed all the current downloads, just to make sure: Vista (32 and 64 bit) drivers for Firewire devices are available, they are dated 2008/06/30 which means they are less than 2 months old. Which driver are you looking for?

[billruys]

While it's true that MOTU are a little slow with their Windows drivers, particularly for the PCIX/PCIe range (which are now over a year old), spare a thought for M-Audio Delta users who have only recently got 32-bit Vista drivers and are still waiting for 64-bit drivers.

[majdid]

vista, xp and 64 versions drivers are available, yes. we need stable drivers, we need to get answers from support after 1-2 working days, not 1 month, we need motu to stop blaming everything on ricoh fw chipsets and windows xp/vista, other stuff like rme/m-audio/focusrite works, and it works well, and you get at least a decent support even when you buy a 50$ MIDI interface from them. and as for calling them to get proper and immediate support, this is why e-mail support exists, otherwise they should stop selling their stuff worldwide and just restrict to the us. c'mon, motu doesnt even have a hosted forum in their web site, and btw, WHEN their site works, just like their hardware!

[billruys]

vista, xp and 64 versions drivers are available, yes. we need stable drivers, we need to get answers from support after 1-2 working days, not 1 month, we need motu to stop blaming everything on ricoh fw chipsets and windows xp/vista, other stuff like rme/m-audio/focusrite works, and it works well, and you get at least a decent support even when you buy a 50$ MIDI interface from them. and as for calling them to get proper and immediate support, this is why e-mail support exists, otherwise they should stop selling their stuff worldwide and just restrict to the us. c'mon, motu doesnt even have a hosted forum in their web site, and btw, WHEN their site works, just like their hardware!

Agreed. Lately it would seem that 90% of problems reported here relate to F/W interfaces. This is one area MOTU haven't got right on the PC. I'm told those same F/W interfaces work just fine on the Mac. And as you mention, MOTU's competitors seem to be able to make their interfaces work on the PC platform. My own humble opinion is that MOTU are still very Mac-centric, and stability on Windows is a secondary issue for them.

As for MOTU tech support, it is a complete failure. They either need to fix it, or farm it out. Poor customer support can and has been the undoing of many a company that otherwise offered good products. The fact that they have a troublesome set of F/W products (on Windows) and almost non-existent customer support puts them in a precarious position.

[acidrecords]

maybe we should contact sound on sound and other magazines about the poor support situation!!

[majdid]

magazines get paid to advertise x or y product or company, they get paid to review stuff and say good things and "forget" or minimize the real issues... instead of saying that this thing works only as it is supposed to under very tight conditions (fw chip, os, firmware, drivers, ...) they put a small note that says "please be careful choosing your fw chipset, users reported some issues when using x fw chip with y product". i think that motu needs a new ceo or maybe it would be great if apple buys motu, at least we will get a better support.

[acidrecords]

new ceo, maybe yes. apple buys motu > no no no please no!
(there was the same with emagic years ago. apple bought emagic. > they closed emagic and also they killed the windows support! so there never will be drivers for emagic MIDI interfaces with win 64bit support!!!!! grrrrrrrr)

regarding the mags. they should do a big techsupport column with many audiogear vendors.
("inofficial" send the vendors some standard issues, and then write down the responsetimes, and so on)

because most customers buy gear because of good review results but the support quality also should be a high priority decision when buying technical gear.

[billruys]

Majdid is right. Magazines rely too much on vendor sponsorship to speak out about a manufacturer. It would be like the Dixie Chicks criticising George Bush

The thing to do is to get the word out ourselves. As much as I really like MOTU hardware (I'm in the PCIe camp with the 2408 Mk3 & 24i/o), I could not recommend it to anyone right now, mainly due to the rubbish tech support. So keep speaking up in your respective communities (online forums, etc).

I really hope MOTU can fix themselves. I actually believed in them as a company. When the first 2408 came out, there was nothing like it anywhere - they were true innovators. But then, I have seen innovators hit the wall before. Opcode comes to mind... I have a personal stake in MOTU succeeding and staying on the Windows platform.