Ableton Forum

Right now I have a freshly dropped audio kontrol 6. The bass was vibrating the stage at my last show so heavily, it bounced my sound card off onto the floor at the worst time possible- 1 song in, right after I took over the booth from DJ Dan.

The Audio kontrol 6 was okay for gigging. Several audiophile friends said that it did not have good quality DA converters.
At home it was alright, but at gigs I found myself having to gain it all the way up to reach decent line level, and it never sounded good cranked all the way up.

I am considering the Motu Microbook2 and the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

Anyone know which of those two is better, purely for outputting Ableton live at live shows?

Im not really concerned with the input quality from mic and guitar- only the D/A converters for output.

I was able to find very detailed specs on the scarlett, but the Motu specs are much more generic- they don't give detailed resistances, or freq ranges.

Or, should I pony up good money and get something else that sounds great?


I'd love to hear your opinions.

here are the links if you want to look at the specs yourself.

http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/ ... specs.html

http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio ... fications/

Tough choice. Both brands make good hardware. Both have good software mix panels.

Focusrite Advantage - comes with scarlet plugin suite (but I already have plugins to meet those needs).

Motu Advantage - digital out, precision audio monitoring software


Which of those advantages matter most to you?

I have only one thing I am looking at- the quality of the built in Digital to Audio converters on the sound output.

I want to buy the sound card that sounds the best for performing at live shows.

Both appear to have decent build quality. Focusrite is better at preamp technology.

I emailed Motu and asked for specs- and heres what I got:
Thank you for your interest.

The MicroBook II has the same sonic quality as other MOTU interfaces.

dynamic range - 112db (A-weighted RMS)
headroom - 14db (18dbv FS)
available pre amp mic gain - 51db
sampling rate - 44.1khz-96khz
frequency response at 96khz sampling rate 20hz - 48khz +/- .05db
THD+N .001% or better
outputs under 100 ohms
TRS Inputs 10k ohms
XLR inputs 2k ohms
guitar input 220k ohms

The MicroBook has internal processing for EQ and dynamics for each channel of input and output. This will allow you to get a very powerful sound in a live setting.

I look forward to answering all your technical questions.

If I can be of further service, please let me know.

Dave Roberts - MOTU