M4 issues

[Auriel]

I am about ready to jump ship from Windows 10 and a PC...I have had nothing but headaches trying to get back into recording into my PC's DAW, Presonus Studio One Artist....Because my input guitar amp has USB output, I prefer to use that, as it sounds great as is no fuss, no muss. However, the limiations of Windows and the DAW software means I have use ASIO4ALL to try to pull off having aggregate Input and Output interfaces...So I have ASIO4ALL running and select my amp as the input and my relatively new MOTU M4 as the output (it has it's own issues I'm trying to resolve with MOTU support , but I digress...) . I FINALLY get a track armed and something recorded, but about 1 minute into the track playing back , I get horrible , continuous distortion over the tracks....My system is fairly robust...Asus MOBO with 16 gig of DD4 memory, AMD Ryzen 2700X CPU, Windows 10 64 bit, Radeon video card, the MOTU M4...I just don't understand it. The other bummer is it is literally a crap shoot weather coming back to a saved tune if it's going to play half the time. I spend 30 minutes or more trying to track down why I'm not hearing sound when it worked fine yesterday, etc...MAJOR bummer....

I'll save the issues with the MOTU M4 for another thread...suffice it to say, the issue is with output levels on 1 and 2 (extremely anemic, even with everything triple checked in windows,etc) , so I've been using 3 and 4's outputs, which , if you didn't know , are NOT controllable at all by the unit itself...it's wide open volume, and you have to control it with whatever audio software your using. I have NO idea how engineers thought this was ever going to be a useable thing...

Major, major buzzkill...it's just zapping my desire to get back into recording and making me consider taking a long look at a MAC...

[stubbsonic]

What are you connecting the outputs to?

I don't think "anemic outputs" is on the short list of complaints we've heard (though I might just not be remembering).

Are you getting good levels from the headphones? May be some big knob setting that needs to get boosted?

[mikehalloran]

Many complaints on many support forums about audio issues and latency involving ASIO4ALL.

[Auriel]

What are you connecting the outputs to?

I don't think "anemic outputs" is on the short list of complaints we've heard (though I might just not be remembering).

Are you getting good levels from the headphones? May be some big knob setting that needs to get boosted?

well ok, I'll go thru it all...for background, I've had the Layla G3 , an M-Audio 2 input audio interface, a Focusrite Forte, and a Focusrite Scarlett in the past..I got the MOTU M4 about 3 months ago...I first noticed a specific issue , thru both phones and thru my monitors on outputs 1 and 2. Music files played back in Windows media player, VLC and other were incredibly compressed sounding. I mean like cranking a compressor up to max setting. Just MAJOR squeezing of the sound. So I started trying to figure out why...I noticed too that the ouput thru 1 and 2 was indeed 'anemic'....I had to crank the monitor knob to about 2 to 3 o'clock just to get a similar volume level that I got around 9 o'clock on the other interfaces. I triple checked all windows settings for the M4, all possible volume sliders are maxed. For comparison, I hooked up outputs 3 and 4 and HOLY MOLY,....THERE was all that glorious power and sound I had been missing! .....BUT...and this is simply an incredible caveat imo....outputs 3 and 4 ARE NOT CONTROLLABLE AT ALL VIA THE HARDWARE MOTU BOX!!!....how on EARTH did the MOTU engineers decide that was ever a useable scenario?!...As it is, the output from 3 and 4 is 100% volume WIDE open. And the ONLY way to control it, is with your software media player or recording software. Completely unuseable! You can't expect to be able to mix when you have to pull the master so far down to avoid blowing your eardrums out , that it's like -48db's , just to be at a comfortably loud playback level. What were they thinking making 3/4 outputs uncontrollable by the unit??...Anyway, I have tried to re-create this massive compression occuring by looping ouputs 1 and 2 back into 1 and 2 and recording it, but strangely enough, it doesn't get at all captured in the recording. I am so completely perplexed , because the sound out of 3 and 4 , even though I have to cut it way way down, is gloriously loud, punchy ...all the things you'd expect outputs 1 and 2 to perform like, without having to turn the monitor knob 3/4's the way up and even then still not as big, powerful and punchy as outputs 3/4. Totally, totally flummoxed with that issue and the random, horrific screeching distortion that seems to randomly occur one second, I stop the transport , move a window and poof, it's completely gone! Just absolutely nuts! No apparent rhyme or reason, no explanation...I've tried ASIO4ALL buffer sizes of 512 , 256 and made sure they matched Studio One's settings...just utterly bizarre. I've invested so much in my system and did not anticipate these issue, so can't really ditch everything and start over with new gear. BUMMED..

[Auriel]

I did it. Decades of Windows use..just got the amazing little Mac mini M1 and I can't believe the performance of this little box! I'm still learning the Mac OS but the audio just works, no fuss no muss, no 3rd party driver. Very, very pleased with that! All sorts of cool MAC tweaks that Windows either doesn't have or does differently. This is fun.

[mikehalloran]

I did it. Decades of Windows use..just got the amazing little Mac mini M1 and I can't believe the performance of this little box! I'm still learning the Mac OS but the audio just works, no fuss no muss, no 3rd party driver. Very, very pleased with that! All sorts of cool MAC tweaks that Windows either doesn't have or does differently. This is fun.

Great!

The only reason to install the Mac driver is to enable Loopback. Otherwise, the decreased RT latency is about the same as moving your ears 12” closer to your speakers.