Presonus or MOTU?

  • Thread starter Thread starter elenore19
  • Start date Start date

Which one?

  • MOTU 8PRE 16x12 FireWire Audio Interface

    Votes: 39 48.8%

  • Presonus FP10 10x10 FireWire Recording Interface

    Votes: 24 30.0%

  • Neither. Choose this one that I'll suggest...

    Votes: 17 21.3%
  • Total voters
    80
elenore19

elenore19

Slowing becoming un-noob.
Looking at a mixerless approach...
Should I go with the MOTU 8PRE 16x12 FireWire Audio Interface?
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MTU8PRE
Should I go with the Presonus FP10 10x10 FireWire Recording Interface?
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--PRSFP10

Any explanation why to choose whichever one is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Elliot

I'm leaning towards the MOTU for some reason.

ALSO: Do those jacks really take XLR as well as TRS cables? They are weird combo jacks. I don't need an adapter do I?(yes. noob question. Sorry.)
 
Really? No one has anything to say? Or even vote on either one?
 
I'm about to get an Ultralite by MOTU myself, and i've been told nothing but good about the MOTU stuff.
 
I've been running an 828mkII daisy-chained to a Glyph firewire drive for a couple of years on my XP laptop.

Solid as a rock, zero problems. I'd buy another Motu again in a heartbeat.
 
I have the Motu 8pre. Good for what it is. Haven't had much problems with getting it working the way I want. The only regret I have now is that it doesn't have the outs I'd want. Luckily you only want the main outs or whatever, no mixer ... so it should be right up your alley. Another note, the pre's are good until you're putting a lot of gain on something. You then hear the pre's and a little noise (at least in my experience). There is also a jump in gain, it is not completely linear. Somewhere higher up, the amount of gain seems to boost while turning the knob. Though it doesn't prevent you from getting the right sound I figured I would mention it.

Now I need to find something to connect the adat outs to. I have no idea what to get, it's all so expensive. But I WANT to mix with a mixer!
 
Motu

MOTU is first of much more professionally excepted than presonus right now and thats not to say that presonus makes bad stuff there stuff is fine but if you want to run the same stuff as the pros go MOTU. i run a motu ultralight, similar unit but with only 2 xlr jacks. the motu has more built in than the presonus. in my experience the sound is better and the work flow is much more efficient. i also use DP so the motu units agree with it nicely. Go motu it is clearly the way to go the units are also much better built and mad durable.
 
Who cares how many people use it or pros use it?

The point is the MOTU drivers are measurably better and the units fail less frequently.

The MOTU Firewire devices contain no hidden "safety' buffer that is anything but "safe". Not only is its theoretical latency lower, but it is far more stable at any given latency, and using far less cpu at any given latency.

Compare the throughput latency reported by the Centrance Latency test Utility

MOTU 896/8Pre/Ultralight @44.1khz
256 samples: 13.95msec

128 samples: 8.14 msec

64 samples: 5.24 msec

Presonus Firestudio/Firestudio Project @44.1khz
256 samples: 24.54msec

128 samples: 15.46 msec (good luck getting more than 8 channels going at 128 )

64 samples: 12.56 msec (good luck getting even two channels stable)
 
pipelineaudio said:
Who cares how many people use it or pros use it?

The point is the MOTU drivers are measurably better and the units fail less frequently.

The MOTU Firewire devices contain no hidden "safety' buffer that is anything but "safe". Not only is its theoretical latency lower, but it is far more stable at any given latency, and using far less cpu at any given latency.

Compare the throughput latency reported by the Centrance Latency test Utility

MOTU 896/8Pre/Ultralight @44.1khz
256 samples: 13.95msec

128 samples: 8.14 msec

64 samples: 5.24 msec

Presonus Firestudio/Firestudio Project @44.1khz
256 samples: 24.54msec

128 samples: 15.46 msec (good luck getting more than 8 channels going at 128 )

64 samples: 12.56 msec (good luck getting even two channels stable)
Click to expand...

Wow, the MOTU blows them out of the universe. I'm an Apogee fan but owned an 828MKII FW that was super stable for me (coming to that from Tascam hell).
 
I've been the M-audio and then Motu route. M-audio was reliable but I wanted a step up so I went with Motu. Motu had lots of driver and compatability issues with my system. Now I use an RME Multi-face II and it's rock solid and sounds wonderful. Do yourself a favor and go with an RME product.
 
RME is going to be your most hassle free route. The newest motu drivers are very strange.

Dont use them...if you are on Motu I'd strongly suggest 3.6.7.4 drivers

MOTU will get you 2.3 iota's lower latency than RME, but the RME will almost certainly be less trouble.
 
sailr322 said:
if you want to run the same stuff as the pros go MOTU
Click to expand...

um...no. Entirely incorrect. If you want to run the same stuff as the pros you'll buy neither, and spend most of your time on internet forums slagging BOTH Presonus and MOTU products.
 
Centrance's Latency Test Utility (free download at http://www.centrance.com/products/ltu/ ) is an excellent way to see what you are really getting from your interface.

A lot of devices out there have a hidden "safety" buffer which can a ton of time to the driver's claimed buffer size. Chances are high that any card with these "safety" buffers has poorly written, dropout prone drivers. Picking good ASIO drivers not only ensures low latency performance, but also more stable performance (and usually lower CPU cost) at any latency.
 
Just to provide a contrasting view, I've been using a Presonus Firepod for a couple of years now. It was dead easy to install and has run faultlessly since then. Latency has not been an issue, nor has quality of sound.
 
gecko zzed said:
Just to provide a contrasting view, I've been using a Presonus Firepod for a couple of years now. It was dead easy to install and has run faultlessly since then. Latency has not been an issue, nor has quality of sound.
Click to expand...

Second this, only good things, no breakdowns:cool:
 
I have a Motu Ultralite, Traveler and 828mk3. All running on a non-mac desktop pc, a macbook and a Sony VAIO notebook. Everything A-OK. Love them.
 
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