motu ultralite vs rme ff400 converters,

stale bread · Post by **stale bread** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:41 pm

but how do you compare the motu ultralite to the emu 1616m

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp ... duct=15189

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:18 am

from Emu 1616m has been said that they got the same converters as the digi001 (CYrus i believe), but the circuitry is different i think, The emu1616m, or the 1818m tends to sound quite dull in the high frequencies. Not my taste of sound, i think the emu m series is more in the lines of echo's converters.

Motu is a step up from the emu m series

D K · Post by **D K** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 2:05 am

stale bread wrote:but how do you compare the motu ultralite to the emu 1616m

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp ... duct=15189

not a consideration for some(me), i use a 12" powerbook(no cardslot)
otherwise, it would've been a contender for sure....
the capability of small cardbuss 1/8"or larger breakout box is brilliant.

Komplex · Post by **Komplex** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:59 am

To be honest, I compare my Ultralite to the M-audio 410 with obvious differences such as amount of inputs, balanced ins/outs and that sort of thing...

Soundwise, they aren't THAT different! (do an a/b if you don't beleive me. Ultralite sounds a touch better in some way that I can't really describe... cleaner?)

The 410 has better drivers and MIDI thru (which I really miss on the Ultralite)

Now if I could go back and choose between Ultralite and Fireface, I'd choose the Fireface. 2 reasons:

1. RME is solid on pc, MOTU IS NOT. (there have been many many problems with MOTU drivers, and mine does some weird shit too)

2. It has a better clock

However you just can't go past the low price of an Ultralite and its cool stealth look.

So what it really comes down to is how much money you are prepared to blow and whether you will make ful use of the RME.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:03 am

Something to consider with these boxes as well as sound quality is the quality/stability of the MIDI drivers. If you are someone who plays, tweaks, jams MIDI frequently (especially live) this is a serious consideration, and all Firewire interfaces are definately not equal in this regard.

RME have traditionally had reliable/robust drivers, whereas my ozonic keeps losing the plot as regards MIDI on OSX (it's def. the ozonic! I have 3 other MIDI interfaces that work fine)

Being able to handle a ton of MIDI on stage is very critical to me, I'm looking at getting a FF400 soon as a replacement for my Multiface. I've loved the reliability of the Multiface's MIDI on PCMCIA, and i hope RME can do as well with the MIDI drivers on the FF400 on Firewire.

Are any of you cats jamming MIDI hard on either the MOTU or the RME? Good / bad?

D K · Post by **D K** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:00 am

not super heavy input use, but here's the current setup:
i use the motu midi output to send midi clip/envelope info to a second computer
running modul8. i use the midi input port with an fcb1010 foot controller.
the output gets much more intense use with up to 4 simultaneous channels of midi info from channels 1 and 7-16. the input is always midi channel 2 with the fcb.
i use a bcr2000 via usb in, but i use certain controls to send bcr midi info (ch.1) out. so far with showcase length sets(45-60 min.) i haven't had any problems.

vexkon · Post by **vexkon** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:46 pm

I have the fireface400, and still have my ol' motu 828. The fireface is just plain stable, just like all RME stuff. If you never want to think about crashes than RME is only choice for PC.

filarion · Post by **filarion** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:02 pm

I replaced my Multiface with a Fireface 400 as well - it's a fantastic unit. The preamps are very usable and MIDI is a joy too, especially since it's got 2 ports. I send out MIDI clock from Ableton to my Nord Modular G2, Machinedrum and Evolver and especially the G2 sends out a lot of midi data in return and so far it's been very solid. great buy, I was afraid when going from Cardbus to Firewire, but so far it's been _smooth_ . No problems running this thing on bus-power either, even though I use the ac adapter when at the studio.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:06 pm

thank you filarion, you're pushing me over the edge!

Komplex · Post by **Komplex** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:42 am

does the fireface 400 have midi through, so u can jam your hardware through a mster keyboard even when the unit is off or when u dont have ableton loaded up?

filarion · Post by **filarion** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:32 am

afraid not, that's something I'd like to see as well. there's a system tray freeware app that allows routing midi through your computer without a real host present (JH MIDI THRU on windows), but yeah, on my Mac I usually fire up something like Rax or Live.

2bad · Post by **2bad** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:15 am

Does anybody know how the RME 400 compare to the 800? I know the 400 is a newer unit with a newer clock etc but for the price difference the 800 is better value for me - but only if I'm not compromising on performance.

filarion · Post by **filarion** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:19 am

the RME newsgroup has a big thread on this. in a nutshell.. the ff800 has separate ad and da converters, the ff400 has an ad/da converter on the same chip because of available space in the unit. according to rme that will not impact performance (noticeably??). they didn't try to cut costs by using different converters, it was a design decision to fit everything in. the mic preamps in the ff400 are better than the ones in the ff800. i have no personal direct comparisons.. i think i notice an improvement compared to my multiface rev1 though.

frisbeedisk · Post by **frisbeedisk** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:35 am

Thumbs up from me!!!!!!

2bad · Post by **2bad** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:24 am

filarion wrote:the RME newsgroup has a big thread on this. in a nutshell.. the ff800 has separate ad and da converters, the ff400 has an ad/da converter on the same chip because of available space in the unit. according to rme that will not impact performance (noticeably??). they didn't try to cut costs by using different converters, it was a design decision to fit everything in. the mic preamps in the ff400 are better than the ones in the ff800. i have no personal direct comparisons.. i think i notice an improvement compared to my multiface rev1 though.

Thanks, you don't happen to have a copy of the thread you could paste up do you??