Considering 896mk3 Hybrid and a 8pre

[Yummay]

Hello Motu nation!

For my first post here, I would just like to check up some quick topics with you about the 896mk3 and the 8 pre interfaces. Since it seems that firewire support is slowly being dropped on WINDOWS' side of things, it looks like I need to modify my setup for the near future and consider connecting hardware to DAWS using USB only...

I am currently using a Yamaha 01v96 v2 digital mixer, patched through ADAT to a M-audio profire lightbridge firewire interface. When recording, the mixer does the monitoring job for musicians (without latency) and tracks are recorded in the DAW via ADAT DIRECT OUTS. My problem is that firewire connectivity is getting harder to find on new PC laptops... I'm therefore considering a USB, MOTU-only, hardware setup (for many reasons).

Here are my questions:

AUDIO questions:

1- Can CUEMIX mixing software can be used when the unit is being used by a DAW? (I am assuming it can). More importantly, can musicians use the CUEMIX monitoring setup to monitor themselves when tracking, without latency problems? (I'm not Joe Satriani, but I can sure notice latency that is over 9 ms... and it annoys the hell out of me!!)

2- Can we still monitor the data being recorded to the DAW without impacting CUEMIX's performance? (I believe we can).

3- MOTU hardware have onboard DSP, but other posts in this forum are talking about CUEMIX draining resources from the DAW's processor. Is that true, or is that only a temporary problem related to drivers?

MIDI QUESTIONS:

I'm considering the 8pre as well because it also offers a MIDI port. Would I be able to use MIDI using the following connections? The 8pre is daisy-chaned to the 896mk3 using FIREWIRE. Then, the 896mk3 is connected to my laptop using USB??

CONTROL SURFACE question:

Can I use a control surface to control CUEMIX? Even when doing live multi-track recording in a DAW (using only ONE computer to manage both CUEMIX and a DAW like SONAR)?

Thanks very much!

[4stripes]

1. CueMix controls the MOTU internal mixer. It is independent of the DAW, but may affect the audio levels of what the DAW sends/receives.

I don't know what you mean by the question of monitoring. CueMix, by my knowledge, can only run on the machine connected to the MOTU. So you can't have 3 different people running their own CueMix app on their own PC if that's what you mean.

Adding a MOTU unit does not necessarily change anything that you are doing now--you can still do the cue mix off your console.

2. See number one above.

3. Some older Windows machines have a hardware/software issue that results in the use of 50% CPU when CueMix is visible. The solution is to minimize, or find the culprit. There are many threads on this phenomenon in the Windows forum.

MIDI - Read the manual regarding Firewire linking or contact MOTU directly. The website says this: Adding more I/O to your 828mk3 system
As with other MOTU FireWire/USB interfaces, the 828mk3 supplies two FireWire jacks and one USB2 jack so it can be daisy-chained with additional MOTU FireWire audio interfaces or other devices.

Control surface - Yes. Read the CueMix control surfaces section of the manual.

[Yummay]

Thanks very much for your answer!

Reading more on the forum and on products specs, I am also more aware now that motu products can be used with ... hubs?? I'm a little surprised about that one, as I thought that hubs were not recommended for audio interfaces.

My question about cue mix is more about latency. I can understand that when the unit is on stand alone mode, latency is almost non-existent. I'm just wondering if its performance is the same when the unit is used as audio interface with a DAW. Is the "direct monitoring" from cuemix as fast as when on standalone, or is the DAW adding latency? (I know there will be latency when monitoring the DAW's returns though)

About DAISY CHAINING, I was wondering if the AUDIO / MIDI signals from the 8 pre could "jump" from FIREWIRE to USB without any problem when transferring to the laptop. Meaning that the 8pre would be connected to the 896Mk3 using firewire BUT the 896mk3 would be connected to my laptop using USB... (I would still prefer these kinds of connections to the possibility of using a USB hub)... Am I clearer now?

Thanks very much!