motu vs presonus

[buzby]

i ve done a bit of reading up on this .. of course opinions differ

so thought i'd ask here with people im a bit more familiar with

i ve always used motu and got a mk3 hybrid recently but the volume knob is buggered - if i turn it all the way down quickly, the it sometimes jumps the volume up

luckily the nice peeps at motu are just gonna give me a brand new one - but i need more mic inputs and would like to have a lightpipe - (so i ll soon be selling a brand new mk3 hybrid not even out of the box .. pm me if you are interested .. it ll be a couple of weeks yet )

if i had the $$ i'd try out the rme fireface but .....

.... so any feedback on traveler vs firestudio project

thanks

[buzby]

hey

i ve been given a budget for a project that im gonna be doing - so i can now afford an rme 800 or something up to that price range

so any feedback about these or something similar would be appreciated

[nuxnamon]

FF800 here and it's rock solid.. no complaints whatsoever..

[buzby]

thanks nux

that's 2 very strong recommendations for it

just out of curiousity - you on a mac or pc ?

[hacktheplanet]

RME and MOTU gear kicks ass on OSX.

[buzby]

thanks

as i mentioned im also considering the presonus firestudio - wondering if it is worth spending the extra £400 on the rme -

i would like to have more than 4 mic inputs than there is on the rme

[bicarbone]

I'd go with RME, much better build quality, great sound and features, will last longer, no need to upgrade for years. I have a Presonus Digimax FS, which is a multichannel preamp and AD/DA derived from the Firestudio, as well as a Monitor Station of the same brand. One of my Digimax channel was not working when I received it and the monitor station's headphones outputs are all miswired (left and right channels are inverted)... Bad luck maybe.

[bicarbone]

.. and btw, had the same problem as you with a motu ultralite mk3. Sent it back, got me a Metric Halo, very happy

[willdahbe]

I'd just like to say for anyone reading that i've never had a problem with my Motu Ultralite MK3. I've had it for about 5 years or so and have traveled with it quite extensively. Used with 2006 macbook and 2009 macbook pro.

[buzby]

yeah guys - thanks

i was a bit reluctant to start a "which is better thread" as i know it comes down to personal taste and things like good or bad luck when buying products

what i forgot to do was check out focusrite products but will look into them today

i ve always been happy with motu - totally stable until this vol control - a friend of mine says this can be a common problem with endless rotaries on any bit of hardware - what ever the correct tech name is

[glitchrock-buddha]

I've had presonus before and probably wouldn't go back even though they've worked alright for me. One firewire port stopped working and I found the volumes were low sometimes on inputs. I also prefer digital rotary volume that can intetgrate with OSX system volume like with rme/apogee/motu.

I've got an RME Fireface400 and it works well except that half the time it doesn't work at first when I turn on my system (macbook pro i7, power bars etc.). The RME software turns on but the system or dAW simply doesn't send sound through until I unplug it and plug the firewire back in. Drives me crazy, I never know if it will work at first.

I don't need the absolute best sound quality anyways, I was thinking of going with the Motu 4pre. I like the set up of that - 4 pre's that can be line and two can be instrument. Good combo and all cables at the back. Also has the option of firewire or usb.

[jan jeffer]

i have owned a motu ultralite for about 3 years and can offer some pros and cons

pros
small
eq on each 8 ins/outs - having 8 ins and outs is really handy - i didn't think i'd use them all but have
two compressors per channel - these are really useful when playing either acoustic or electronic music live
high quality reverb - the reverb sounds very good imo - again useful live and when recording to give performers a comfort reverb
Good adc and dac + 2 hi quality pre-amps - although more pre-amps would be a plus

cons
expensive
very fiddley to control when not connected to a computer - even the master volume is in a sub menu
cuemix software is pretty complicated to use and the manual sucks - although if you are handy on a digital mixer you should be all right
you cant use midi to control cuemix - the only control surfaces that work with the motu are the mackie ones - i think berhingers might when in mackie emulation mode but with anything else forget it - this is probably my biggest gripe as i wanted to use the ultralite for mixing ableton a hardware sampler and live instruments) - which it can do well btw - but u have to fart about with the mouse and cuemix to turn a track down! Most annoying when i have a kenton control freak.
loose firewire port - i'm not sure if its just the one i have but the firewire cable does not seem to fully connect when you plug it in, it seems very wobbly - and the connection can be lost if the unit is moved - in a live scenario this is not good

if these cons don't bother you the motu is really good at what it does but if you want ease of use and midi control look elsewhere

[buzby]

thanks jeff -

yeah - i used to have a traveler and have had the mk3 hybrid for 6 months - the firewire is also loose on mine - guy at the shop told me this seems to be the case with these

[buzby]

the focusrite liquid saffire 56 seems really nice - a choice of 10 pre-amp emulations and 8 mic ins .. etc etc

mmmm