MOTU Traveler Vs. Digi 002R

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Sat May 20, 2006 4:13 am

Hi!

I'm considering buying one of those cute babies and, as I read on both, things are getting more and more confusing at the time of taking a final decission.

My set-up is a soft-synth based one (Reaktor5, Kontakt2...) with Live as my sequencer and a masterkeyboard/Trigger Finger as controllers. For this reason zero latency is a must regarding MIDI and audio. Guitars come from my VOX Tonelab SE Floorboard.

Obviously, sound quality i/o does matter, Pro Tools may not be as essential as people say, may it be?

Taking all this into consideration, I'm eager to know your views!

Thanks for your input!

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:15 am

I'm not sure what you mean by zero latency.....so sorry I can't help you there.

a. Are you talking about the rackmount 002? I'll have to assume so since there a fader version is almost triple the price of the traveler.

b. I have a traveler. It sounds great, although I have heard some complain about the preamps.

c. If you are using live, protools might "get in the way", unless you are tracking live instuments allot. That is what PT is best at....

d. Digi hardware has never been recommended for anything other than protools.......that's just a fact........

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Sat May 20, 2006 3:16 pm

eyeknow wrote:I'm not sure what you mean by zero latency.....so sorry I can't help you there.

Thanks first of all.

By "zero latency" I meant that awful delay between the hitting of a key and the sound being audible.

As you guessed, I referred to the rack version, I don't need sliders having my Trigger Finger!

Would you mind comenting on those pre-amp problems of the MOTU?

Thanks again!

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Sat May 20, 2006 6:26 pm

d. Digi hardware has never been recommended for anything other than protools.......that's just a fact........

please quote your source, or provide a link..

D K · Post by **D K** » Sat May 20, 2006 6:53 pm

i used a digi002r as my interface w/ableton on a 23-date tour, it performed flawlessly
and never once let me down. it's main fault is it's size. a few interfaces later i now use a motu ultralite, it sounds just as good if not better than the digi and has a much better latency.
there is no zero latency interface, but it's possible to get it down to a usable
amount for instrument throughput. the ultalite can get up to a little less than 3ms in/ 3ms out at 48k on my powerbook. the digi was about 5ms in/ 5ms out.
apparently the rme cardslot interfaces can get down to around 3ms total, but are a quite a bit more expensive than the ultralite.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Sat May 20, 2006 9:12 pm

I'm trying to point out that if you are not going to use PT specifically.......there is no incentive that I can see to buy digi hardware.

It seems to me that the post addressed very little interest in PT.......why would an 002 be of any real interest at 2500 dollars?

maybe the motorized faders? I certainly can see that...all in one and all. But the traveler AND a mackie controller would be less money......very stable and proven so, and maybe more versitle to boot?

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sat May 20, 2006 9:35 pm

Very true, with that same money you could get 2 or 3 Tascam FW-1884. They have very similar I/O capabilities and IMO look and feel way nicer. Wame with the rack 002, you can get way better interfaces for far less if you don't need ProTools.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat May 20, 2006 9:38 pm

"zero" latency usually refers to being able to monitor off the inputs directly

mannikin · Post by **mannikin** » Sun May 21, 2006 5:36 am

Never thought of the 002R as a cute baby..

Anwyays, I'm currently using an 002R as my main audio interface. I used to own a Motu 828mkII, which I loved! I decided to invest and learn Pro Tools, so I sold my Motu and picked up the 002. UNLESS you plan on using Pro Tools, I wouldn't even recommend getting the 002. Why would you? Motu rocks, and their stuff is rock solid. The 002 premaps are complete shit compared to Motu!! I would go with the Motu, or even try looking into the RME Fireface 400. However, if you do go the 002 route, it works great with other software like Live. As for latency, never had any complaints.

J.

stranger wrote:Hi!

I'm considering buying one of those cute babies and, as I read on both, things are getting more and more confusing at the time of taking a final decission.

My set-up is a soft-synth based one (Reaktor5, Kontakt2...) with Live as my sequencer and a masterkeyboard/Trigger Finger as controllers. For this reason zero latency is a must regarding MIDI and audio. Guitars come from my VOX Tonelab SE Floorboard.

Obviously, sound quality i/o does matter, Pro Tools may not be as essential as people say, may it be?

Taking all this into consideration, I'm eager to know your views!

Thanks for your input!

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Sun May 21, 2006 5:55 am

exactly.

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:51 pm

Thanks everyone!

I'm not crazy at Pro Tools, that's why I asked about some other highlight of the Digi.

MOTU seems to have kicked Digi out of the contest, those providing info on gig use have been also decissive for me. I'd like to set-up a rig with a laptop running softsynths and my MIDI controllers (very Depeche Mode-like), so I'll take your experience into consideration.

Let's keep on debating!

glu · Post by **glu** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:19 pm

as far as i know, digi soundcards have single client drivers, meaning you can't have soundforge and Live play audio simultaneously through the mbox, and you have to close the first program opened to hear the second one.... THAT SUCKS! I know for a fact this is the case for my mbox, i would imagine its the same for the 002r, could someone confirm?

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:59 am

glu wrote:as far as i know, digi soundcards have single client drivers, meaning you can't have soundforge and Live play audio simultaneously through the mbox, and you have to close the first program opened to hear the second one.... THAT SUCKS! I know for a fact this is the case for my mbox, i would imagine its the same for the 002r, could someone confirm?

True, forgot about that. Most.annoying.thing.ever.period.

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:37 am

i would love to trade my digi 002r for a motu traveler

and i had a 001 for years
and know protools quite well

D K · Post by **D K** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:46 am

mannikin wrote:Never thought of the 002R as a cute baby..

Anwyays, I'm currently using an 002R as my main audio interface. I used to own a Motu 828mkII, which I loved! I decided to invest and learn Pro Tools, so I sold my Motu and picked up the 002. UNLESS you plan on using Pro Tools, I wouldn't even recommend getting the 002. Why would you? Motu rocks, and their stuff is rock solid. The 002 premaps are complete shit compared to Motu!! I would go with the Motu, or even try looking into the RME Fireface 400. However, if you do go the 002 route, it works great with other software like Live. As for latency, never had any complaints.

just curious, what is your current latency and settings?
when i had my 002r i was running drivers/firmware from the last verson of pt6...
i would like to know if it's gotten any better in the recent version.
i think pro tools is great software, btw...
i just use logic now for portability reasons.
it's all useful.
stranger- are you planning on running the guitar through live for vst/fx/looping?
i do this with my upright bass.
most interfaces these days do come with a zero-latency-monitoring option, but that of course does not accelerare processing throughput....
it allows you to mix in the input signal before it is routed to the computer.
so, when you add the processed signal to the clean, it will be a delayed the length of your latency....this can be problematic in that it causes phasing between the signals which can thin the low end.. if there is enough latency it can sounds like a very quick chorus effect or doubler.
this is one way i've dealt with this (for fx)
using said zero-latency(clean input) as the main signal:
first, i set an audio channel up in live to recieve input from the bass
then assign the output of the bass channel to "sends only"
then assign midi pedals (ex: behringer fcb1010) to control the send levels on the bass channel.
i insert fx into the return track for each send, all set to 100% wet.
with this setup, i can use my foot control to add in fx only when needed, with minimal latency issues due to minimizing as much processed clean sound as possible...
this setup can allow up to 8 separate fx loops in live. another bonus is by fading the send in and out to the fx they dont get cut off when you stop sending signal(ex: delays trail away as opposed to abruptly stopping.)
just thought i'd share....

MOTU Traveler Vs. Digi 002R

MOTU Traveler Vs. Digi 002R

Re: MOTU Traveler Vs. Digi 002R