Motu M2/M4 audio interfaces

[Al Krow]

Look well featured - be very interested if any of you have come across or used on your travels and have any views on how they compare to e.g. the well liked Audient iD14 Mk2?

 

 

The front panel metering display for both input and output looks as though it could be particularly helpful, and is a stand out feature for audio interfaces in this price bracket.

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Guessing this brand has had less reach and impact in the UK than the USA, where it's got quite a bit of a following! Some really positive online reviews - sharing this from Sound on Sound (March 2020):

 

"Conclusion

MOTU haven't just dropped a pair of decent audio interfaces into this entry-level market, they've raised the bar by quite some distance. They've gone significantly further on every aspect whether it's the individual +48V and monitoring buttons, the power switch, the low latency, the low noise, the metering, the DC coupling, the Loopback driver or the extra RCA outputs for easy connection to DJ gear; feature after feature that sets them apart from anything in their price range." 

 

Here's a link to their full review if you're interested.

[BigRedX]

MotU has a fairly substantial user-base in the UK. It's just mainly in the higher-end offerings. While I still had my big "home studio" I was using their 2408 system which was 24 channels of digital I/O and 8 channels of analogue inputs and outputs (and could be expanded up to 3 times that count with sufficient hardware).

 

One thing to be aware of, is that unless it has changed recently, their software (including the routing control panels for their audio and MIDI interfaces) uses its own unique graphical interface which bears little resemblance to either Mac or Windows GUI and can be rather alien looking and unintuitive at first.

[Dood]

Julian Krause is a superb resource for interface reviews including Motu.

[sammybee]

I had MOTU interface(s) for over 10 years, very solid, great bits of kit. Unfortunately they were no longer supported on MacOS so I had to change. I was going to buy one of these M4 interfaces as a replacement, but plumped for the Audient as it has ADAT in (giving me an additional 8 channels of inputs). If you don't have the need for the ADAT I'd say go for it. Support from MOTU is top notch if you ever run into difficulties.

[JohnR]

I bought an M4 recently and love it. I have also owned a few more costly MOTU interfaces back when I was doing this more seriously. Great bits of kit.

[Al Krow]

24 minutes ago, JohnR said:

I bought an M4 recently and love it. I have also owned a few more costly MOTU interfaces back when I was doing this more seriously. Great bits of kit.

 ...and fools seldom differ, eh John? 😁

 

This thing is surprisingly compact - certainly more so than the Focusrite 6i6 Gen 1.0 it replaces, which my guitarist has filched off me!

 

[malikosbass]

Motu will never desappoint you always solid and serious products...♡♡♡♡ 

[Guest]

On 20/03/2022 at 22:16, sammybee said:

I had MOTU interface(s) for over 10 years, very solid, great bits of kit. Unfortunately they were no longer supported on MacOS so I had to change. I was going to buy one of these M4 interfaces as a replacement, but plumped for the Audient as it has ADAT in (giving me an additional 8 channels of inputs). If you don't have the need for the ADAT I'd say go for it. Support from MOTU is top notch if you ever run into difficulties.

I cannot see any reference to MOTU no longer supporting Macs - either Digital Performer or any of their audio interfaces. Is this support that was dropped and reinstated?

[BigRedX]

Some FireWire interfaces no longer work with the more recent version of OSX. AFAIK only RME have given any assurances that they will keep their FireWire interfaces compatible for as long as is feasibly possible. 

[paul_5]

My Mk1 MOTU 828 unit still fires up through firewire on my (admittedly obsolete) late 2011 MacBook Pro. I did some multitrack recording with it just the other week and everything worked perfectly.

 

I'm still on High Sierra though (OSX 10.13.6)

[BigRedX]

FirWire support has been phased out of Mac OS from El Capitan onwards (that's ten years ago). That means no further development of the Core Audio FW driver and no technical support from Apple. Some FW devices (such as those from RME) will continue to work for as long as the company is prepared to put the time and effort into supporting them and updating any software required. However with all the recent changes to 64bit and Apple Silicon, don't expect that to last forever.

[sammybee]

On 24/05/2022 at 14:08, FDC484950 said:

I cannot see any reference to MOTU no longer supporting Macs - either Digital Performer or any of their audio interfaces. Is this support that was dropped and reinstated?

I didn't mean generally, I meant the specific interfaces I had, 2x 828mk2's and an 8Pre - support for these interfaces were finally dropped a couple of iterations of MacOS back.