Thinking about ditching my Samson 4-buss mixer for my little home
recording rack and going directly to a multi-input audio interface.
The MOTU 828mkII looks like it could fit the bill.

Would be using with SONAR 3.0 and WinXP. Some msgs found via Google
hint at "lemon" units, which would steer me towards getting one at a
retailer just to mitigate possible issues. But what are the issues
that people have had?

There have also been hints of incompatibility with certain 1394
interfaces and inability to extend the 1394 bus even though the unit
has an extra connector just for this purpose. Anecdotes?

Also out of curiosity what is the diff between the original unit and
mkII?

The Firestation looks a little less feature rich, also I already have
2 outboard mic preamps so I don't really need more.

Any comments from anyone who's used both?

Thanks!

Gary wrote:


There have also been hints of incompatibility with certain 1394
interfaces and inability to extend the 1394 bus even though the unit
has an extra connector just for this purpose. Anecdotes?

The 2408mkII has nothing to do with IEEE-1394 (Firewire), except that
they use the same kind of cable. It sounds like there's some really
wild misinformation out there. Go to www.motu.com and read up.

I don't know much about the original 2408 (mine is a mk3, and I've had a
mkII), but the original was 16-bit whereas the mkII is 24-bit and the
mk3 is 96 kHz.

These come with a PCI card (the mkII is a PCI-324 and the mk3 is a
PCI-424). These have 3 or 4 AudioWire connectors (that fit that cable)
and you can have 3 or 4 2408s connected respectively.

Although I prefer to deal locally, MotU is very good at cross-shipping
replacement parts, so "lemon" is not a problem. I had to do this with
my PCI-424 that came with my mk3. The tech support guy, Danny Gold,
burned the replacement in and tested it thoroughly before he shipped it.

If you're buying new, get the mk3 since all future support will be for that.

If you want to add analog inputs and/or outputs (they come with 8 each),
you can use the ADAT or TDIF inputs to coonnect 8 channels at a time, up
to 24 per 2408 (therefore up to 96 per PCI-424).

He was asking about the MOTU 828MkII not the 2408MkII! ;-)
http://www.motu.com/english/motuaudio/828/body.html

He also asked about the PreSonus FireStation :
http://www.presonus.com/html/products/firestation.html

Both units use actual IEEE-1394 (Firewire) interfaces.

John L Rice


"S O'Neill" wrote in message
...
Gary wrote:


There have also been hints of incompatibility with certain 1394
interfaces and inability to extend the 1394 bus even though the unit
has an extra connector just for this purpose. Anecdotes?

The 2408mkII has nothing to do with IEEE-1394 (Firewire), except that
they use the same kind of cable. It sounds like there's some really
wild misinformation out there. Go to www.motu.com and read up.

I don't know much about the original 2408 (mine is a mk3, and I've had a
mkII), but the original was 16-bit whereas the mkII is 24-bit and the
mk3 is 96 kHz.

These come with a PCI card (the mkII is a PCI-324 and the mk3 is a
PCI-424). These have 3 or 4 AudioWire connectors (that fit that cable)
and you can have 3 or 4 2408s connected respectively.

Although I prefer to deal locally, MotU is very good at cross-shipping
replacement parts, so "lemon" is not a problem. I had to do this with
my PCI-424 that came with my mk3. The tech support guy, Danny Gold,
burned the replacement in and tested it thoroughly before he shipped it.

If you're buying new, get the mk3 since all future support will be for
that.

If you want to add analog inputs and/or outputs (they come with 8 each),
you can use the ADAT or TDIF inputs to coonnect 8 channels at a time, up
to 24 per 2408 (therefore up to 96 per PCI-424).

OK here's another question - looks like the 828mkII LCD uses an EL
backlight based on its blue green color. These inevitably dim after a
thousand hours of use +/- however much. It's hard to believe anyone
uses them any more. Can anyone confirm/deny this is an EL backlight?

btw I do have an e-mail in to MOTU sales on this.

Thanks,

GW

(Gary) wrote in message . com...

The Firestation looks a little less feature rich, also I already have
2 outboard mic preamps so I don't really need more.

Any comments from anyone who's used both?

I did find this:
http://www.geocities.com/phileosopho...ngforward.html

Slams the 828 mkII pretty hard along with MOTU tech support.

John L Rice wrote:
He was asking about the MOTU 828MkII not the 2408MkII! ;-)

Can a brain-fart be fatal?

Guess I shoulda marked it OT...sorry.

"S O'Neill" wrote in message
...
John L Rice wrote:
He was asking about the MOTU 828MkII not the 2408MkII! ;-)

Can a brain-fart be fatal?

Guess I shoulda marked it OT...sorry.


Heh. No biggie. The positive credit you get for taking the time to write a
nicely detailed reply out weighs the negative credit for talking about the
wrong piece of gear. ;-)

John L Rice

i don't know what "el" is, but my understanding that the motu 828mkII
display is based on flourescent lighting, a-la adat.

(xy) wrote in
om:

i don't know what "el" is, but my understanding that the motu 828mkII
display is based on flourescent lighting, a-la adat.

EL = Electro-luminescent, like those green flat night-lights you get at the
grocery store. They wear out after awhile and become useless. Thanks for
your response.

In article ,
xy wrote:
i don't know what "el" is, but my understanding that the motu 828mkII
display is based on flourescent lighting, a-la adat.

EL is Electroluminescent display material. It's sort of the opposite of
vacuum fluorescent stuff and doesn't require as big and noisy a power supply.
It's the same technology used for those colored "neon" ropes the custom car
guys like.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."