Advice needed before I buy MOTU interface

[Bobben]

Hi !

I have been using Presonus audiointerface card which do not provide hardware mixing or DSP effects like compressor,limiter etc.
This is a feature I wery much would like to have in addition to the possibility of using it as a DAW interface.
That's why I have been looking at the MOTU cards. I hope I can get some help here as I am a bit confused at the moment

I will be using Win Xp 32 and Sonar8 as DAW. Don't think thats a problem.

I come over a used MOTU 896HD. It has got 8 mic preamp inputs but I would like more inputs than my current Presonus card provide.

Then my question is if 896Hd can be used as expansion for another MOTU card and have both units controlled via the CueMix software ?

It is possible to feed another MOTU card with ADAT but as I understand it is limited to 4 channels
at 96kHz but perhaps a fifth channel can be added via AES/EBU ? I would like to find a new MOTU
card that has got on board DSP effects. Don't think 896HD got SDP effects ? Only DSP mixer ?

I would also like to set the analog input levels from the computer. Is this possible on 896HD and other MOTU cards ?

Seems like its pssible to buy used MOTU 828mk2 or mk3 at reduced price (I even found some other cards). With mk3 I
should be able to add DSP effects for all channels including those from 896HD expansion ?

Can I daisy chain via firewire and still be able to use DSP effects pr. channel in the mixing unit or must all channels be transferred via ADAT ?

Anyway I guess 400Mbps firewire is capable of less than 10 channels at 24bit/96kHz ? Then MOTU PCI card
will be needed for more than 8 channels recording simultanously at 24bit/96kHz ?

What will the limitation be in number of channels at 96kHz when using 896HD as expansion for MOTU 828mk3 ?
Is there any other combination that will be more sensible than 896HD->MOTU 828mk3 when I want to record more than 8 channels at 24/96
and be using DSP mixer and the DSP effects ?

Is there any big drawbacks with an old 896HD and what will the value be compared to new price ? 50% , 30% , 10% ?

Unfortunatly I could not find any usermanual for the 896HD or for the CueMix software. Seems like you only can buy the manuals.

Is MOTU mk4 cards just around the corner ? ( that will probably make more used mk3's available...)

[Mark S]

I have the 896hd and an 8pre. I use Sonar8. The software isn't a problem. Daisy chaining via firewire is. Microsoft broke the firewire driver with XP Sp2 so that two units will not sync. I don't think this has been fixed with Vista. I have heard nothing of this with Windows7. There is a third party driver that fixes this for me but others have not been so lucky. There is a long thread in this forum for this issue that outlines a rollback to the sp1 firewire driver or links to the AVT driver(third party driver). Rolling back to Sp1 driver is not recommended if you have multiple processors.

Also: even though I use the same driver for both units, Motu sees this as two different drivers so you cannot use asio mode under this configuration though WDM works fine.

400 mpbs firewire is capable of way more than 10 channels, at least I do it. An 800 pci firewire card would be in order (and cheap) if you're concerned. Be sure to get one with a TI chipset.

Yes, you can only buy the manuals from the Motu store

As you have found on the 896 hd, if you wish to get 88/96 k via adat you lose 4 channels which is a drawback if you want to link this was. The benefit though is you only need one screen in Cuemix.

My system works well now with months of tweaking (more than a year). If I had to do it all over what I'd do is only buy units that have dual adat i/o. You could get the full samplerate on every channel and link the whole system via adat, only using one firewire connection for connecting the computer. It would have saved an incredible amount of headache and overcome driver limitations both by Microsoft and Motu and asio.

Either that or a rack mount computer case and a full pci based system.

Not having dsp effects I cannot comment directly but would assume they'd work in an adat set up.

hth

[Bobben]

Thank you for your answer. If I buy the 896HD it would work great as long as I do not try to daisy chainin via firewire ?

Anyway I would be able to feed 4 channels at 24/96kHz via ADAT and 8 channels
from another used MOTU will bring the number up to 12 channels. That will serve me well. Btw, can a additional 24/96kHz channel be feed to a second unit via AES/EBU ?

If I buy the 896HD I might look for a used MOTU that is capable of DSP effects. Its only a hobby and thats why I'm looking a
used equipent as I think I can get higher quality hardware for the same price as buying new equipment.

The 896HD is priced 60% of new price. I think the price is a bit high (it could be more than 6 years old). I would probably buy it if I can obtain
the price I'm looking for. One switch for +4 and -10 input is broken according to seller. Hopefully not a big problem.

Do you get the real time signal analysis,oscilloscope,X-Y Plot,Phase analysis to work with the CueMix for 896HD or is this only available from later MOTU products ?
http://www.motu.com/products/cuemix-fx/overview.html

I also calculated wery wrong bitrates for 24/96k. Will be 24*96000bit/s pr. channel or 2.304Mbit/s with some additional overhead
added I guess. Should be almost unlimited bandwidth. I guess firewire 400Mbps will be capable of more than 80 channels of 24/192k .

[hswin]

Hey Guys,

I have 3 MOTU 896HD's and one MOTU Ultralite and I daisy chain all four at one time. Now, these are not the newer MKx series. I use the external hard drives in a USB port, and not in the FW chain if I am recording more than 16 tracks at one time. This has created dropout problems in the past if inserted in the FW chain since the hard drive writes data every 5 seconds or so. I also use the AVT1394 FW driver with great success <http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/download ... ckage.html>. I have a separate login on my laptop just for recording with limited programs running. I turn off my wireless access, and any other scheduling programs and automatic updates. It seems to work well for me especially in a portable arrangement.