Is a MOTU worth buying for a windows user??

[kingshighway77]

Hi everyone,

I am really looking into buying an 8pre or the 896mk3. My issue is that I am afraid it will not run smoothly on my computer. I have vista 64 bit and it seems that people are having a ton of problems with MOTU products on windows systems. So is it worth buying a MOTU interface or should I try and get a presonus. What issues can I expect to run into? Also, are there problems with plugging the firewire in on some systems? Something about they don't work well on certain firewire chipsets. I don't know what kind of chipset goes along with my firewire port and im not sure how to find out.

Can someone confirm if the drivers are up to date and working well. I will be using sonar 6 to do my recording. Some help would be appreciated as I need to buy an interface soon. I want the quality of the MOTU but I really need it to actually work smoothly.

Thanks everyone!

[kingshighway77]

I just want to add that I have a brand new top of the line HP desktop. 12GB of Ram, 2.93Ghz I7 quad core, and a VIA 1394 firewire,

I am really having trouble finding an 8 pre amp interface that will work well with windows. From what I understand MOTU probably won't work. But I don't know how new the information is. It seems M-audio is friendly with 64 bit. My Keyrig49 plugged and played without me installing any drivers. It's working like a dream in Sonar.

I really need the help everyone, I need to get something quick.

Thanks again.

[orchetect]

I've had a lot of showstopping problems on PCs including 64 bit Windows - on many different systems. Personally I would say to stay away. MOTU is fab on Macs, but PCs are a real gamble.

[kingshighway77]

I decided to go with M-audio. It had very similar features but no complaints about running with windows. So that is what I need. Thanks for the advice to stay away from MOTU for windows. I would have liked to have their interface but I don't need the headaches.

[the5count]

My answer is yes and no- not to be too ambivalent. I've used an 828 Mkii, MTP/AV,MIDI Express and Traveler (Original). All were on 32-bit machines running WinXP Pro. The only problem I have had is with the Traveler dropping out of the system with no apparent reason. I can always restore the com by going into Devices, disabling the 1394 driver, then re-enabling it and am back in business. This happens on all three of my PCs but never on my Macs. Same thing goes for my Intel Mac- perfect on the Mac side, but the driver inexplicably disappears from time to time when running in PC mode. I put up with it because of the absolutely clean pre-amps on the Traveler. Before we jump on MOTU too much though, remember that the Macs usually play by the rules and MOTU REALLY knows those rules. However, in the PC world anything goes- and usually does. If you're going to use an audio interface to make money, you better use what works all the time.

Richard

[srenity_sam]

See My Equipment Below: A Traveler / WinXP Home / SONAR 6.2PE or above, and using MOTU ASIO drivers works pretty well. BUT, and this BUT is HUGE...

MOTU's service of defective gear is TERRIBLE. I'm on my 2nd DEFECTIVE TRAVELER, and RONAN in Tech Support will not honor their original quote of $75.99 to fix it! He won't forward me to supervision, and is stonewalling me for $100 now, even though he promised to honor the original trouble ticket when it first occurred. Did you know MOTU only has a 90 DAY WARRANTY?!? Is that sick & wrong, or what? Do yourself a favor, and buy RME, Edirol, Presonus, etc.

I now have a $750 Traveler paperweight, with Ana-input 1 producing digi-distortion well below red-line...Ana-input 2 developed an intermittent hiss/crackle...so 2 of the 4 mic inputs are USELESS now...AND the front display dimmed out so badly I can barely see it. But MOTU DOES NOT CARE. They'd rather have bad PR like this than to honor their service tickets, and keep a customer happy.

DON'T BUY MOTU

[studioguy457]

I had terrible luck with a 896 III on a Windows system, never ending squeals and clicks. I tried all all the advise here and none of it helped.
I returned it to GC and got a RME Multiface and have had zero problems on the same system. Another friend has a 896 III on a similar system with much less problems but still has squeals so your mileage may vary.

[jrwaltb]

I have to say YES with the last driver update (MK3 ultralite)..Running windows 7 32 RTM on an old turion 64 x2 HP laptop.. I am using a 3rd party PCIe firewire card and I set the PCIE FW driver to 1394 legacy AND replaced the FW cord it shipped with.. I had problems before the 3.6.8.1414. BUT 3.6.8.1414 is amazing.. Really thankful they did this for windows users.. Completely changed my mind about the company. The interface is solid and sounds really good.. Very very smart of them to keep the windows driver development. I hope they make lots of money from the PC users.. Would definitely buy another one and would definitely buy their software...I would advise to get a PC with windows 7 and forget about XP...Even this P.O.S laptop I am using runs alot better with Windows 7.. I have not tried the 64 bit vista driver on a Win 7 x64 build.. I read some posts that there are issues which I hope they fix if true (would also try changing compatibility settings during install).. I hope MOTU gets even more friendly with windows.. Win 7 is a winner and their is a shortage of cross platform Interfaces in this price range.. Cheers Motu Dev..

[srenity_sam]

Can someone confirm if the drivers are up to date and working well. I will be using sonar 6 to do my recording. Some help would be appreciated as I need to buy an interface soon. I want the quality of the MOTU but I really need it to actually work smoothly.

________________________________________________________________________

I used XPx64 with Sonar 6 and the MOTU Traveler on a small but unhappy Sonica Audio 2U rack computer. NO GO - MASS PROBLEMS. Most people said (afterwards) do NOT go MOTU with 64bit...yet. Then, I used that same software & interface with XP 32bit on a Sweetwater Creation Station Rack (AND, they installed & tested everything, then shipped me a working system...I love those guys), and everything worked fairly well (2+ years & counting), but not as bugless as a MAC...no surprise there.

SO FAR...few if any have reported HARDWARE FAILURE issues with MOTU, like I'm experiencing more than my share of. And, MOTU not sticking by their original quote until I could get the money & time to have my system down for two weeks still makes me very upset with MOTU's Tech "Service".

[IanH]

As a long time MOTU fan and user it pains me to say - No and I never will again.

I bought an 828mkII for a 64bit Vista PC. The box clearly stated that it worked with 64bit Vista. For six months I could not get a single sound out of it. MOTU's so called tech support took around a month to answer each techlink and mostly even then only after I complained to customer services.

Finally I was informed that the 828 driver has a problem with any 64 bit system with more than 2G of memory.

Well built equipment but in my experience Windows support is worse than non-existant.

[seemebreakthis]

Are the MOTU gears themselves well-built? I would definitely say no... take a look at my post: http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 14&t=38466 and you will see why.

Anyone who is even considering buying a MOTU gear should really think twice before making any decision... is this worth the risk? And with the many posts here recommending against MOTU product, I rest my case...

[newrigel]

I now have a $750 Traveler paperweight, with Ana-input 1 producing digi-distortion well below red-line...Ana-input 2 developed an intermittent hiss/crackle...so 2 of the 4 mic inputs are USELESS now...AND the front display dimmed out so badly I can barely see it. But MOTU DOES NOT CARE. They'd rather have bad PR like this than to honor their service tickets, and keep a customer happy.

DON'T BUY MOTU

There's guy's out there that do mods on interfaces...
Google Black Lion Mod and check them out... they might save your investment for the better.

But the bashing...


Lots of people buy the MOTU interfaces and have them modified... you can do this to quite a few pieces of gear. I just had an Apex 460 modified and it blows away ANYTHING in it's range (even boutique mics) so you may want to @ least try to get your return on investment.

By the way, I don't think I've ever looked at any of the interfaces I have owned front panels he he.
Oops, the DUET doesnt have a front panel...

[metalmike]

Hi,

New Motu 828mkII (bought from buddy since my m-audio lost input on left channel (I can see if getting to box but nothing to ableton for left channel)) and have issues with the 1414 and 1410 drivers (someone posted link to other build) in XP Pro SP3 32 bit (4Gb memory 3.5Gb seen) but with Vista 64 Ultimate it worked much better with very little setting up for playing clips/audio and input from my synthesizer. I ended up going back to the 3.5.x.x driver for XP Pro SP3 as that works for me at this point. I am not sure why I am having issues with the 2 latest drivers and this hardware. But at least I can work with it in Live now for any recording from my synthesizer.

Mike

[casedawg]

I decided to go with M-audio. It had very similar features but no complaints about running with windows. So that is what I need. Thanks for the advice to stay away from MOTU for windows. I would have liked to have their interface but I don't need the headaches.

Fail. The MOTU unit is higher quality all around and the M-Audio unit is by no means guaranteed to be headache free. I've heard of many more people having problems with M-Audio gear than MOTU gear. Yes, many of the active members in this sub-forum have had problems with MOTU gear and Windows, but that's why they're active here. People who don't have problems or who have trivial problems that were easy to fix don't tend to come here or stick around after their problems have been fixed. The anti-MOTU people in this thread are a very small percentage of Windows MOTU users.

Personally, my Ultralite mk3 has worked great with Windows 7 x64 since I first installed a pre-release version of Windows 7. I know there are many people with non-MOTU interfaces that cannot say the same thing about their Windows 7 experience.

Prior to Windows 7, I used XP x32. Initially, I had an issue with frequent dropouts and high pitched noises, but after adjusting BIOS settings and optimizing Windows for audio the problems went away and everything ran great (there was 1 random BIOS setting that seemed to fix everything). The problem was a with my setup, rather than MOTU's drivers. I believe a lot of the problems people have stem from BIOS/OS level settings or hardware problems rather than drivers. High quality interfaces are sensitive to conflicts or congestion on the PCI bus or Southbridge, and I think some chipsets just aren't designed with that in mind (some VIA and nForce chipsets have reputations for not being the most stable).

People in this situation are going to have problems no matter what interface they choose. When I was experiencing dropouts and high pitched noises with my Ultralite, I borrowed a friend's Presonus Firebox to see if the issue was with my MOTU unit or my computer. The Presonus unit had the same problem my Ultralite had, only less pronounced. The dropouts seemed slightly shorter and were not accompanied by the high pitched noise. The MOTU unit is more sensitive to configuration problems (which could be because the Ultralite has much more I/O than the Firebox, as well as DSP), but the problem was definitely not caused by anything MOTU related.

I don't mean to imply that MOTU is perfect and any issues with MOTU products are not MOTU's fault, just that MOTU/Windows is not nearly as bad of a combination as you might think after reading this forum. Plenty of people are satisfied with their MOTU/Window experience.

I hope the M-Audio unit ends up working out for you, but it was unwise to make that decision based on a couple posts on a forum that attracts people having issues with MOTU products. There are just as many M-Audio (or ex-M-Audio) users out there that will say the same thing about M-Audio products (or fill in the blank with another interface manufacturer).

[dingebre]

Hi everyone,

I am really looking into buying an 8pre or the 896mk3. My issue is that I am afraid it will not run smoothly on my computer. I have vista 64 bit and it seems that people are having a ton of problems with MOTU products on windows systems. So is it worth buying a MOTU interface or should I try and get a presonus. What issues can I expect to run into? Also, are there problems with plugging the firewire in on some systems? Something about they don't work well on certain firewire chipsets. I don't know what kind of chipset goes along with my firewire port and im not sure how to find out.

Can someone confirm if the drivers are up to date and working well. I will be using sonar 6 to do my recording. Some help would be appreciated as I need to buy an interface soon. I want the quality of the MOTU but I really need it to actually work smoothly.

Thanks everyone!

For my part, I first bought a Presonus and returned it the next day because it wouldn't work. I bought the 828mk3 and have not looked back. it works fine on my Vista 64 machine with Sonar 8.5.

Most (all) firewire systems require specific chipsets. Just make sure your card has it. In general (double check) firewire cards which also have USB ports have the wrong chipset. Ones that just have the firewire connections are probably OK. Be especially careful with Laptop interfaces. (Check the tech notes for the details.)

I would recommend upgrading to Sonar 8.5. Cakewalk has made some big improvements.