THREE NEW AUDIO INTERFACES FROM MOTU

MOTU has announced three new Thunderbolt audio interfaces with I/O configurations, A/D/A conversion with high dynamic range, 48-channel mixing, DSP effects and AVB Ethernet audio networking for system expansion.

“The culmination of years of R&D, these exciting new products from MOTU usher in a new era in audio interface technology,” said Jim Cooper, Director of Marketing at MOTU. “The new 1248, 8M and 16A audio interfaces offer a breakthrough combination of superb audio quality, large-scale mixing, powerful DSP and system expansion through the IEEE’s new AVB Ethernet audio networking standard.”

Based on a new, shared technology platform, the 1248, 8M and 16A differ only in their analog I/O configurations and are equipped with the latest-generation ESS Sabre32 Ultra converters.

Configurations

• 1248 (flagship) offers 8 x 12 balanced TRS analog I/O, four mic inputs with digitally-controlled individual preamps, two front-panel hi-Z guitar inputs, two independent phone outs and stereo RCA S/PDIF digital I/O.
• 8M provides eight balanced TRS analog outputs, plus eight mic/line/instrument “combo” style inputs individually equipped with digitally controlled preamps, 48V phantom power, pad and MOTU’s hardware-based V-Limit™ overload protection.
• 16A is packed with 32 balanced TRS analog connections (16 inputs and 16 outputs). All three units provide two banks of optical digital I/O, word clock I/O and computer connectivity through either audio class compliant USB 2.0 or Thunderbolt (1 and 2 compatible).

The balanced TRS analog outputs provide a measured dynamic range of 123 dB (A-weighted, 20 Hz to 20 kHz). Analog I/O latency is low, with round trip performance of only 32 samples (0.66 ms) at 48 kHz. In addition, each unit provides comprehensive metering for all inputs and outputs on a backlit LCD.

48-channel mixing with 12 stereo busses

The 1248, 8M and 16A are equipped with latest-generation DSPs that drive a 48-channel mixer designed after large format mixing consoles. With 32-bit floating point precision, the mixer’s 48 inputs can take signal from the physical inputs on the interface itself, audio channels from host software on the computer, audio network streams and mixer outputs. The mixer provides 7 stereo aux busses, 3 groups, a reverb bus that can alternately serve as a 4th group, a Main Mix bus and a separate Monitor bus that doubles a solo bus. Effects include classic reverb, 4-band modeled analog EQ, modeled vintage compression and gating. A flexible matrix routing grid makes it easy for users to route audio to and from the mixer, the computer and audio network streams, including the ability to split a single input (or input pair) to multiple destinations.

All three interfaces are equipped with a single AVB Ethernet network port, which allows users to daisy-chain additional MOTU interfaces to their system using either a simple CAT-5e Ethernet cable or build a system of three to five interfaces connected to the five-port, 1-Gigabit MOTU AVB Switch (sold separately). Multiple computers can be connected throughout the AVB network and  can simultaneously send and receive 128 channels of network audio I/O.

A MOTU AVB network supports over 512 audio channels, and point-to-point network latency is fixed at only 30 samples (0.625 ms) and provides system-wide, precision clocking and synchronization. Users can simply click the “Become Clock Master” button in the control software to immediately resolve all devices on the network to the chosen master device.

In addition. any available network port, including the extra (6th) Ethernet port on the MOTU AVB Switch, can be connected to a standard Wi-Fi router to allow access to the browser based control software on their laptop, iPad, tablet, and smartphone.

Availability

All three interfaces, plus the MOTU AVB Switch, are now shipping. Price for each interface is Au$2199 inc GST. Price for the MOTU AVB Switch is AU$449 inc GST.

Excerpts from Press Release