Success Using Multiple MOTU 8Pre Firewire Interfaces

[Worship Maestro]

After days of frustration, I found a combination of factors that gave me success with my 4 8Pre's today! Here's what I had to do to make it happen:

MOTU said they didn't support WinXP SP2, but did support multiple interfaces with SP1. I found an old WinXP install disk that was SP1, and did a fresh format and clean install. I plugged into the motherboard firewire port and experienced the same problem I have the past week: more than 1 interface would not maintain clock, indicated by blinking front panel LED's and random sound glitches. I was totally frustrated and ready to ship everything back to Sweetwater. About that time I received the firewire PCI card I ordered last week from NewEgg, hoping it would be the solution. Even though WinXP SP1 didn't seem to do the trick, I thought, "what the heck, I'll try one last thing," and put the card in, booted the computer back up, and turned on the first 8Pre. It seemed to lock up quicker, but I wondered if that was just wishful thinking. I plugged the second 8Pre into the 2nd firewire port on the card, and it locked right up! Booted up Cubase, the front of the interfaces blinked briefly, then stayed locked.

I decided to cut to the chase and daisy chained all 4 8Pre's to one firewire port, booted Cubase back up and they locked up. I set the control panel to 88.2 kHz, 24 bit and recorded 32 tracks simultaneously for 2 and 1/2 hours to an internal RAID array. Nary a burble or glitch, and the front panel LED's stayed solid green, indicating a stable lock.

I hope this helps someone who would like to use more than one MOTU firewire interface at once. BTW, the PCI card was $7.99, and had an AGERE controller chip.