Video review of new MOTU 16A posted by Sweetwater

[James Steele]

This looks pretty interesting. Some good information here and I envy the new CueMix software. Would be awesome if this was able to work with my older 828es and 24Ai, but not holding my breath.

EDIT: Just now was reminded of the video thumbnail. They had to include the word "overlooked." Sigh. Wish they didn't do that, but seems like that's the moniker assigned to anything MOTU these days.

[nk_e]

Wow. Since I had them repaired, my 16As have performed pretty well, not perfectly but good enough to make it difficult to justify upgrading. But I’d be willing to pay some real cash just to be able to get access to CueMix Pro for my existing 16A’s. Pretty sure that isn’t going to happen though.

I much prefer the new version of CueMix. One small observation: It’s a shame they couldn’t retain the matrix view even if it just provided an all-in-one non-editable bird’s eye view.

[mikehalloran]

Mitch certainly reads copy well, I’ll give him that. Not a slam, I truly admire his ability to communicate what the manufacturers want us to know about whatever it is that Sweetwater is pushing.

Sure nice to know that it’s the only TB4 interface and now supports USB4 — well, other than the TB3 interfaces out there since they also support USB4. What was not in his copy is that what TB4 brings to the table is the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 additional units—but only if the 16A is plugged into a TB4 port — TB3 boxes can only have one or two additional units in the chain, again depending on the host. The 16A cannot bring TB4 to a TB3 Mac.

All versions of CueMix are baked into the hardware—the drivers/apps only provide the GUI. By my reckoning, a firmware update should be able to bring the new CueMix to the older units. Of course, as someone like to say, Everything’s easy for the person not doing it (oh wait, that’s me). Anyway, I know that I would be flooding MOTU’s suggestion box if I owned one of those older AVB units.

[HCMarkus]

It’s a shame they couldn’t retain the matrix view even if it just provided an all-in-one non-editable bird’s eye view.

I read somewhere that MOTU is going to add the Matrix View.

[James Steele]

It’s a shame they couldn’t retain the matrix view even if it just provided an all-in-one non-editable bird’s eye view.

I read somewhere that MOTU is going to add the Matrix View.

I think that’s mentioned in the video also? I just wish that I could use this new software with my older units and ditch the current web browser approach. I found it to be unreliable in that buttons don’t always reflect the actual state of the mixer etc. It’s been flaky for me.

[HCMarkus]

I just wish that I could use this new software with my older units and ditch the current web browser approach. I found it to be unreliable in that buttons don’t always reflect the actual state of the mixer etc. It’s been flaky for me.

Although the AVB Web Browser Mixer is certainly far from perfect, using an iPad to access and control it has worked consistently for me. In my setup, the iPad focus is always on the Mixer and my computer is focused on DP or other apps as I desire. It is possible that this approach allows the Browser Mixer to stay consistent on state display.

[James Steele]

I just wish that I could use this new software with my older units and ditch the current web browser approach. I found it to be unreliable in that buttons don’t always reflect the actual state of the mixer etc. It’s been flaky for me.

Although the AVB Web Browser Mixer is certainly far from perfect, using an iPad to access and control it has worked consistently for me. In my setup, the iPad focus is always on the Mixer and my computer is focused on DP or other apps as I desire. It is possible that this approach allows the Browser Mixer to stay consistent on state display.

True enough. I'm often using my iPad to run Avid Control in tandem with my Avid S3. I don't really leave it parked on that the AVB Mixer although I could. I've also played around with using a small, low footprint browsers called Pipper that will stay on top when I switch back to DP. I guess my big complaint is that I've found that you can't always trust that clicking a button on the AVB Mixer has actually registered. This is both on Mac-based browsers and my iPad. Not sure why that's happening to me, but it does from time to time.

[James Steele]

FWIW, MOTU just posted a new video about the new 16A yesterday: