My MOTU Ultralite Mk3 Review(-ish)

willdahbe · Post by **willdahbe** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:43 am

I just picked up my motu ultralite mk3 two days ago and man was i missing out. I don't know how i got along without it before. For example, when playing songs in itunes or ableton at loud volumes my krk v4's would clip and distort. now with the ultralite it just gets louder with no distortion. i must say though that i dont usually jam out all crazy loud, only in short bursts very rarely... Another great thing is it's much easier to hear what is going on in a mix, and to hear other things in songs not noticed before. I really like the cuemix software also for just adding eq or dynamics to apps that dont allow it like youtube, recordings on the interwebs, and completely disregarding the itunes eq... I havent recorded into it yet so i'm not sure how the preamps are, but i'm sure they are better then anything i've used before. overall i have nothing bad to say about it now. i've been spending quite a lot of money on gear lately and i have to say this is by far the best purchase of the lot, well along with the sub too...

Robert Henke · Post by **Robert Henke** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:23 am

i own the first Ultralite version, and I had problems with MIDI. Under heavy CPU load, MIDI messages to the physical MIDI output were skipped / wrong bytes were sent. I had to use a different MIDI interface. I wonder if this has been improved? ( Maybe I should look at the Motu FAQ first, but I had no coffee yet )

Cheers, Robert

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:47 pm

Robert Henke wrote:i own the first Ultralite version, and I had problems with MIDI. Under heavy CPU load, MIDI messages to the physical MIDI output were skipped / wrong bytes were sent. I had to use a different MIDI interface. I wonder if this has been improved? ( Maybe I should look at the Motu FAQ first, but I had no coffee yet )

Cheers, Robert

I almost said that sounds more like a DAW issue than a hardware one, then I saw who the poster was

tundravisions · Post by **tundravisions** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:02 am

if all is well, mine will be delivered today, after waiting 2 months because of an empty stock @ motu!

VERY VERY curious!

If i have it, i can FINALLY use 5 stereo-outputs with LivePA's

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:45 pm

mine arrived a day early and i'm looking at it on my desk at work now, yay. it's more sturdy/solid than i expected.

BassTooth · Post by **BassTooth** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:15 pm

misteron wrote:Point to note:
the photos of UL Mk3 are not accurate.
They show it with rounded corners, but in fact, set slightly behind this are squared "shoulders" holding hex screws onto which the rack ears can be fixed.

MOTU were even kind enough the appropriate Alan Key (HexKey) and a pile of extra Hex screws and some PhillipsHeads too.

Also, (what seems to be) optional rubber feet and connectord for attaching several ULs side by side.

is it possible to rack-mount the MK3 in a 1U or 1/2U rack space?

machinedelmorte · Post by **machinedelmorte** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:33 am

so far so good with mine. I went through hell with the M-Audio and other interfaces. Cue FX very easy to use.

NativeOps · Post by **NativeOps** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:04 am

good to hear decent results from the ultralite mkIII. I bought the 828 MKIII, and it was a total piece of junk. The specs and features sounded great, but the thing didn't work. All kinds of problems with the sound quality. Not to mention the ear screeching squeal it would randomly make and almost blow my headphones and monitors out. I tried troubleshooting for 3 weeks before I returned it, buying new cables, updating firmware, updating OS, eliminating other software and VST's, etc. NO GO! EVEN RECORDING MONO TRACKS FROM THE GUITAR SOUNDED LIKE THEY WERE OUT OF PHASE, WHEN IT'S A MONO TRACK! HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE? Is the Jitter really that bad?

MOTU kinda lost me as a customer, only because I'm afraid of using their gear live, and risking making hundreds of people deaf, while simultaneously destroying the venues PA, and most importantly, my reputation as a performer and engineer.
Sorry MOTU, you guys burned me once. And never did anything to help besides blame Ableton. Maybe If I hear enough good responses from MOTU users, would I ever consider buying another MOTU product. Very unlikely tho, seriously bad taste in the back of my mouth now. SERIOUSLY!!!

yoshitosser · Post by **yoshitosser** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:11 am

zeitgeist

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:16 am

does the ultralite have multi client drivers?

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:55 am

NativeOps wrote:good to hear decent results from the ultralite mkIII. I bought the 828 MKIII, and it was a total piece of junk. The specs and features sounded great, but the thing didn't work. All kinds of problems with the sound quality. Not to mention the ear screeching squeal it would randomly make and almost blow my headphones and monitors out. I tried troubleshooting for 3 weeks before I returned it, buying new cables, updating firmware, updating OS, eliminating other software and VST's, etc. NO GO! EVEN RECORDING MONO TRACKS FROM THE GUITAR SOUNDED LIKE THEY WERE OUT OF PHASE, WHEN IT'S A MONO TRACK! HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE? Is the Jitter really that bad?

MOTU kinda lost me as a customer, only because I'm afraid of using their gear live, and risking making hundreds of people deaf, while simultaneously destroying the venues PA, and most importantly, my reputation as a performer and engineer.
Sorry MOTU, you guys burned me once. And never did anything to help besides blame Ableton. Maybe If I hear enough good responses from MOTU users, would I ever consider buying another MOTU product. Very unlikely tho, seriously bad taste in the back of my mouth now. SERIOUSLY!!!

really? there are soooo many people using the ultralite and having no issues ...

sublimelobc · Post by **sublimelobc** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:12 am

I have had no issues with the 828 MKIII, updating with each new release of Live and OS X. I don't have experience with a ton of different interfaces, but on mac my Ultralite (first gen) has worked well also...the only annoyance being the "pop" when it's powered up.

NativeOps- you must have had one seriously fubared unit....I've never heard a single other complaint of screeches like you describe on the MKIII. Actually, I lie....one guy was complaining of a screech, but determined it was a feedback loop/user error issue. I think we've all nearly gone deaf a time or two creating a mean feedback loop on accident. If you found something else that works for you well, that's great....but I'm guessing you just had bad luck and had a defective unit.

The Ultralite on the other gave me a few issues with PC, but still was a great unit that was totally usable...unlike some other interfaces I tried from M-Audio for example.

NativeOps · Post by **NativeOps** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:12 am

well, that's the ultralite, I had the 828 mk3

machinedelmorte · Post by **machinedelmorte** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:36 pm

When I first got my Motu I was getting some bad audio drop outs and high pitch sqeels. I realized that it had to do something with the 1394 Net Adapter in the Device Manager. At first i thought it was the Braodcom WLAN. I disabled everything and the Motu worked fine. I could not access the internet or stream any audio. Then I noticed that I had two 1394 Net Adapter loaded. I disabled it and everything worked fine.

blaugruen7 · Post by **blaugruen7** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:23 am

i am interested into the ultralite mkIII, too.
some questions:

- i am using it with a g4 ibook and a g4 powermac. could i expect around 13ms latency and zero audio dropouts? i am sick of my konnekt. it its cpu.

- is there an improvement in the sound dpartment comparing to the mkII? how would the sound compare to a apogee duet?

- are the preamps "balanced" sounding and quiet enough for recording low sounds with normal small diaphram condensors?

question over questions.
i am soooo much looking forward for a stable and clean interface i cant tell you.

My MOTU Ultralite Mk3 Review(-ish)

Motu High pitch squeeeeeels