8PRe reliability

[analogfirst]

Hello all,

I'm thinking about buying an 8PRE and would like to hear from owners if it is reliable. Have you had any software troubles or tech problems with it? Thanks.

--Jerry

[Pappy725]

Mine has been rock solid. I lightpipe it into my 828mkII and get 18 analog channels in. I bought it 2 years ago and haven't had any problems with it. My 828 is 5 years old and still rockin'. The only thing I don't really like about the 8Pre is it just has the main outs whereas the 828 has main outs, and 8 analog outs plus the digital outs. If you won't be doing surround any time soon, the 8Pre should work just fine.
HTH,
Pappy

[BradLyons]

I've sold many units, and of course I've had a few here and there that were bad---that will happen with ANY product. However from the 10,000ft view like all MOTU products, in general things are perfectly fine. Sonically, it's a good box that is priced quite nice.

[you so swayze]

Just one caveat to give you: if you're using an Intel MacBook Pro, be prepared for the possibility that your signal will inexplicably dropout for a couple seconds during recording and playback. I am currently having this issue with the 8pre (and I'm not the only one http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =2&t=33647), and it is frustrating me to no end.

It is entirely possible that my unit is just one bad egg out of many good ones, but I'd figure I'd share the other side of the spectrum of experiences people have had with the 8pre.

Hope your luck is better than mine!

[INMT]

I have 2 8pre's, over two years get used at least every other day for 6 to 10 hours at a time.
Early on the firwire port went band on one , MOTU replaced it right aways and I have not a problem since.
The mini switches are sturdy, the knobs are good, the meters all work (god I hop I'm not jinxing myself LOL) all the jacks are good.
I mostly use them at home but they have taken a handful of trips to record at local venues and such.
For me the 8Pre's have been very reliable.

[omniman]

Well that's why they added the ADAT port so with a adat box (I'm using the MARIAN ADCON) you'll have 10 outs+headphones and 16 ins...Works perfect and they're all hooked up in arecording rig along with outboard pres

[you so swayze]

UPDATE:

MOTU Support did a great job working with me on this issue. I sent my unit back to them, and they've replaced it with a perfectly functioning new one. I've spent the past two nights working with it, no dropouts, great sound that I was expecting when I bought my original unit, couldn't be happier. Thank you MOTU Support!

[caryd]

I bought my first 8pre in early '07 and have had no troubles (with the exception of some weird issues when we attempted to aggregate it with a line 6 product) we got rid of the Line 6 product and have had nothing but success with my 8 pre. I just bought a slightly used one privately on sunday and daisy chained it to my original unit via lightpipe, thanks to some sound advise from this site- so time will tell how it performs but I have a very good feeling about it - I believe they're a good product.

[WelchCompositions]

I realize this is a fairly old post but curious if people who own the 8pre could answer a question for me.

Do you record vocals with it? Have you ever tried recording speaking voice? I was testing my new 8pre by speaking into a mic and found at about 4 inches from the mic I had to put the volume at about 90% to get a healthy signal. By healthy signal I mean tapping on the yellow bar on the front meters. This concerns me and makes me wonder if Im going to get hiss and such because Im turning the knob so high. Is this normal for this unit? Are the pre-amps just very quiet? I figure if you have a -20db pad your pre-amps would have some nice juice to them.


Jim