Black Lion MOTU Interface Modifications

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:33 pm

http://www.blacklionaudio.com/index.html

After I pickup my second 828mkii in the coming weeks, I'm goign to send my first one back to MOTU to fix. Then I am planning on getting the analog and clock mod on one of them (and if I like it, on both of them).

Has anyone done this and can you pass on any good news? Some good news over at TapeOp, but this is MOTU-land. Figured someone has this modification.

Jeff

motumacman · Post by **motumacman** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:45 am

thanks for the link....

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:12 am

Awaiting return emails so I can send in my 2408Mk3 and possibly 24i...Let em fix it while I am on tour. I wont miss it. LOL

Improved electronics should really make these puppies shine. That and my lavry A/D will be complete enuff for me.

mrosso · Post by **mrosso** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:52 am

I'm aware of the Blacklion audio analog section mod, but what is the clock mod you are talking about?

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:11 pm

Check their website. They are replacing the clock chip which specs out at 120ppm to one that specs out at 10ppm

Much finer clocking detail, much lower jitter...

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:19 pm

I meant to ask this when the topic came up before regarding the Black Lion mods, but do these mods make the 828 mk II an appropriate digital format converter, or is that still best done with something dedicated to the task, such as the uber-expensive Bias Peak Pro (which I cannot afford)?

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:04 pm

Somehow I think you may be confused..
Peak, is audio editing software..
The 828 is a hardware audio interface..

Peak does nothing the 828 does and vice versa..

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:26 pm

No, I think you are confused. It is supposed to be possible to run the MOTU 828 mk II in standalone mode as a digital format converter. Or perhaps via DP as the front-end, routing the result back to a new audio track. I cannot verify this as I have not tried it; mostly because I heard the results are nothing to write home about.

I could have sworn that one of the things people buy Bias Peak Pro (and other dedicated audio editing programs) for is to do digital format conversion on their final mastered audio files. But my pile of comparison charts is at home.

There was an earlier topic or two in one of the Unicornation forums on format conversion, and several people provided links to various websites that published performance and result comparisons using a variety of tools, including DSP Quattro and also every major DAW.

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:05 pm

It is supposed to be possible to run the MOTU 828 mk II in standalone mode as a digital format converter.

Are you referring to the act of taking an AIFF file and converting it to a WAV, MP3, etc? Or sample rate / bit rate conversion?

Confused.

Jeff

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:08 pm

mhschmieder,

They're probably referring to file format conversion (changing bit depth/rate, or the "type" of audio file format). It's sort of a black art, which is why you might see people arguing about what does the better job. Most of the DAW and editor packages have some form of it built in for dithering and changing sample rates, and some algorithms are better than others.

Peak probably has a bunch. If you look up WaveConvert Pro, Apogee's UV22,etc., you'll hear some of the brags about who's is best. That's all "offline" file conversion though (not sure about UV22). The interface is more or less changing one type of output stream to another on-the-fly, with the same rate settings and all, so theoretically, the data should be the same. The exception might be with devices which can receive higher bit depths than they can work with, and they knock off the lesser significant bits (not very scientific). There's also expensive outboard processors, which can do certain conversions in realtime, but you'd really have to need something like that to make it worth the purchase.

Take Care,

George

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:18 pm

mhschmieder wrote:No, I think you are confused. It is supposed to be possible to run the MOTU 828 mk II in standalone mode as a digital format converter. Or perhaps via DP as the front-end, routing the result back to a new audio track. I cannot verify this as I have not tried it; mostly because I heard the results are nothing to write home about.

Digital format = Spdif to AES those are formats. Sample rate and Bit Dpeth are not formats....

TDIF is a format....

ADAT Optical is a Format

AES/EBU is a format

SPDIF is a format

TosLink Is a format....

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:19 pm

I'm still confused about the 828mkii running as a digital file converter. You have to set the 828 as 96K, 48K, 44.1K. You can't send audio out of analog 1-2 and back in 3-4 and convert it.

Bit rate is done within Peak, DP, etc. The WAVES dithering engine, the engine in Peak, and the engine in Ozone3 are the three that I own that I would consider using. But I'm not talking about sample rate conversion, just dithering from 24bit to 16bit. this is done in the software, not the hardware.

Jeff

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:20 pm

Back on the Black Lions stuff - I'm ready to send my 828 in for this mod! It sounds awesome. Anyone know what their warranty/guarantee policy is? It doesn't say on the website - i.e. do they guarantee that if they hose up your unit, they will replace it, 'cuz I'm 100% absolutely sure this will void your MOTU warranty!.....but it sounds awesome!!

Next question - any opinions if it would be better to do this mod, or invest in a RME fireface for example?

tingkumajique · Post by **tingkumajique** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:01 am

looks good this Black Lion thingy... do let us know how it sounds once it's done...

MOTU's warranty is only 90 days so it doesn't really matter personally.

but the question is what if one day your MOTU hardware goes blink... who do you send it to? MOTU normally takes back faulty products and replaces them with new ones...

would you use your mods?

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:35 am

I am shipping my 2408Mk3 in for their upgrade....

MOTUnation.com

Black Lion MOTU Interface Modifications

Black Lion MOTU Interface Modifications

Clock mod?