be carefull buying MOTU products for use with windows

DanE62 · Post by **DanE62** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 4:03 pm

I have to agree. I bought an AMD last weekend for my family. Although, like in my previous post, individuals need to do their homework on their specs.

landoblues · Post by **landoblues** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:22 pm

DanE62 wrote:In my opinion, I still do not trust AMD processors to be as compatible with a lot of the audio hardware on the market. From my observation, many individuals who have problems seem to have AMD processors. Yes, I know there are many more possible varialbles, but I believe this is one snag.

I have used a PC with AMD and an 896HD to record, mix and master 7 full length cd's with no issues. There are a lot of layers to this puzzle, but the processor being AMD or INTEL is the least of the worries.

DanE62 wrote: I should also add, I have e-mailed MOTU a few times for technical support and they have replied within 24 hours. Although, I have to admit their firmware update/s lack info. regarding fixes or increased performance. Their manuals also need to be improved.

Now, for you potential buyers, make sure you do your homework and review your sytem specs. and compatability requirements and you should be okay.

Unfortunately I have had a different experience with emailing MOTU support. I have had an issue with Tech support for almost a month now, and support has left me hanging for a week or more without responding on several occaisions. After several weeks of trying every little tweak and driver possible, we have to return a new defective unit for repair/replacement. Most of the suggestions made by the MOTU tech were, go to a website (not a motu site someone else's) and try these things. The most helpful site I found on the problem (not mentioned to me by the tech) was Motu's competitor RME who thoroughly documented and presented solutions to the XP firewire problem.

We did our homework, reviewed system specs, and compatibility requirements, and ended up with a $1000 anchor. Hopefully the return/replace procedure will go quickly, but I have my doubts.

All that being said, I love the one Motu unit that we have that is working, it does everything it should and sounds great. Motu's support and drivers are definitely questionable.

schnelsr · Post by **schnelsr** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:28 pm

I've had nothing but good luck with MOTU support. If you think MOTU is bad, try M-Audio - they have a support portal that never seemed to work - all I could ever do was add a new issue, never check on an existing one.

There were some troubles on start-up that they couldn't answer but then again RME, M-Audio nor any of the other manufacturers had any information that pertained to the particular issue I ran into.

Also, I broke a knob on my Ultralite and they just sent me a new one at no charge. Now THAT'S SERVICE...

DanE62 · Post by **DanE62** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:40 am

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I have had six responses from technical support during the last five days (not counting the weekend). I am using the Ultralite and updated the firmware to 1.1.5 and I have not run into any problems.

Originally the problem I did have was within Sonar 5.2, but other than that the product is working great.

Dan

arth · Post by **arth** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:24 am

schnelsr wrote:Also, I broke a knob on my Ultralite and they just sent me a new one at no charge. Now THAT'S SERVICE...

Judging from other posts here, the knobs breaking appears to be a common problem with the Ultralite, and that they send out new knobs for free then isn't service, it's damage control. It would have helped more if they had publicly admitted the problem and issued a knob recall. Because sooner or later a faulty knob is going to break for someone on stage, or in near the end of a perfect studio mix, and ruin someone's work.
(Or someone in California calls in the class action vultures.)

I was turning the main outs knob when half the headphone knob (which I wasn't even touching) fell off with a clean break. I just superglued it back together. Others may not be so lucky.

DanE62 · Post by **DanE62** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:05 pm

I guess I better be extra careful turning the knobs.

schnelsr · Post by **schnelsr** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:46 am

The knobs are OK. I have been bashing my unit around in my laptop case with fifty pounds of cables and mics and god knows what else. If it were mounted in a rack or sitting on my desk it would have been fine...

DanE62 · Post by **DanE62** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:13 am

I am using MOTU's Ultralite and an ADS Pyro 64 firewire card in a PCI slot. The Ultralite is working great. My specs. are as follows -

Windows XP PRO SP2
Intel P4 3.06 GHz
2x SATA hard drives
1x external 7200 USB hard drive
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 video card
4 GIG RAM
Ultralite firmware 1.15

Sonar Producer 5.2
EastWest Symphonic Orchestra Gold XP
EastWest Colossus
EastWest Stormdrum
Submersible Drumcore (re-wire)
Finale 2006
Steinberg Wavelab
Garritan Personal Orchestra

I originally was using Aardvark's DirectPro 24/96, but due the company going out of business, drivers have become an issue. Also, I noticed an improvement on sound quality comparing the DirectPro 24/96 and the Ultralite.

I am very pleased with MOTU after I did my homework. As I mentioned on other posts, you have to read between the lines and try to figure out the underlying problem with some of the complaints. I believe doing your homework and weighing in the recommendations from hardware and software providers as well as successful setup from consumers. It's true from an earlier post that a cheap computer isn't going to "cut it". - Know your hardware and current software setup.

Even after all of this is said and done, I still get nervous on my final choice, but I have to rely on the data no mater what happens.

schnelsr · Post by **schnelsr** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:31 am

Cheap computers are not the problem - pretty much a computer is a computer. The hardware is literally made in the same factory no matter who's name is on the box with few exceptions. The problems are more with the big name expensive machines - they are the ones that are big enough to get their own "custom" BIOS and integrated motherboards that can cause problems.

robertcoatesiv · Post by **robertcoatesiv** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:13 am

Anybody out there experiencing digital noises coming down thru the firewire cable from a laptop?

I am.

It isn't noticeable in the headphones, but thru my studio monitors I can hear it. As soon as I unplug the firewire cable , the noise is gone. Its not in the traveler, but its somehow being passed through to the outputs...

anybody? anybody? Bueller?

btw thanks for the 1394 networking disable tip, I was wondering about that.
Motu Traveler, Acer AMD 1.8 Ghz, 1 GB Ram, 64 MB Video Ram, TI firewire chipset, and no other problems besides this damn noise issue

DanE62 · Post by **DanE62** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:58 pm

Cheap computers for example: Slow processors, "bare bones" RAM etc. I don't think that is hard to figure out for a cheap computer.

Hard2Hear · Post by **Hard2Hear** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:09 am

schnelsr wrote:Cheap computers are not the problem - pretty much a computer is a computer. The hardware is literally made in the same factory no matter who's name is on the box with few exceptions.

This statement is absolutely, completely, absurdly, wrong.

Theres even more to it than cheap. I.E. a Striker mobo is great for fast gaming but completely awful dealing with multi track pro audio applications.

Hard2Hear · Post by **Hard2Hear** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:12 am

robert- not all firewire cables are created equal. Some have better shielding than others. This tends to come into play even more on notebooks than on desktops because on a notebook you have everything so close together and barely shielded. Try a different cable, look for the thicker cables with braided shielding.

schnelsr · Post by **schnelsr** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:33 am

You are amplifying my point. A "cheap" computer - ASUS intigrated motherboard, Intel P4 processor - may be just the ticket as a DAW machine. Add a BUNCH of RAM and HD space and it should be fine (No - a PII-300 won't cut it - I diferentiate between cheap and old - cheap will work, old will not). The game machine you mentioned or the "custom" DAW machine that someone was returning (in a previous post) because it didn't work both probably had custom BIOS - the kiss of death. A plain vanilla Phoenix BIOS and standard hardware interface are what these devices are expecting and what they were developed on. Put weird stuff optomized for another purpose and you are just asking for trouble.

landoblues · Post by **landoblues** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:32 am

schnelsr wrote:You are amplifying my point. A "cheap" computer - ASUS intigrated motherboard, Intel P4 processor - may be just the ticket as a DAW machine. Add a BUNCH of RAM and HD space and it should be fine (No - a PII-300 won't cut it - I diferentiate between cheap and old - cheap will work, old will not). The game machine you mentioned or the "custom" DAW machine that someone was returning (in a previous post) because it didn't work both probably had custom BIOS - the kiss of death. A plain vanilla Phoenix BIOS and standard hardware interface are what these devices are expecting and what they were developed on. Put weird stuff optomized for another purpose and you are just asking for trouble.

I agree, I would use the term "generic" instead of cheap. Dell, Compaq, most of the Big names use a custom bios, and sometimes even slightly modified versions of MS-Windows "customized" to their hardware. Often times these "customizations" mean trouble. I won't buy any system where I cannot use all of it's components in a comparable system, and no software that will only run on a specific brand of computer.

MOTUnation.com

be carefull buying MOTU products for use with windows

noise thru firewire cable pain in my ars