MOTU 828 Mk III Hybrid Reviews

Sturdy interface. Still going after 6+ years

Great audio interface

I use this audio interface in the studio and live performances ,Windows and OS X. In my live performances ,the integrated DSP, made my life very easy. It has a nice EQ, a convolution reverb which is nice and 2 very good types of compressors.

It has 2 mic preamps and the quality of my recordings is very good.

Pros:

Great DSP useful in live performances, great mic preamps

Cons:

Nothing bad about it. I am very satisfied

Nice performance for the money

I bought this unit to get a good amount of base inputs. Low latency and the ability to connect with both usb or firewire is very handy too (most stable with usb). I later added inputs by connecting other devices to it which is also very easy to do. The quality of the inputs are descent and is enough for the most common recording situations and instruments.

Cuemix sucks!

Love my MOTU's channel count, 192kHz capability, midi, lightpipes,

VERY disappointed with Cuemix(MOTU's proprietary software for controlling the onboard DSP etc.):

In the studio I should be able to set up a mix for the talent with the on-board compressor, eq, and maybe some reverb so they're happy to perform... who in their right mind wants to record those tracks with the eq and comp? No option to record raw is frankly pathetic.

Live the interface is impossible to control without a nervous breakdown as you can't open different parameters all in one screen.. Why no option to open channel sections for eq, dynamics, sends? I use a mac 27", wow it would obviate the need for a mixer..

No midi mapping of parameters either..

Frankly I expect more for my investment, or at least a software update every few years.

High end

Not much to say it does what it says, in my case it was a bit picky with wich USB slot it would work on, and it really did not like any other hardware on the same bus, but that could differ on other system i'll guess. Otherwise I'm really happy with this and the preamps sounds really good with my bass guitar, I haven't use them for anything else for now but I think they will do magic stuff with other sources as well.

The mixer software is easy to use but a bit awkward workflow in my case, but nothing impossible to work with but then I only use it if I need some eq or compressor/limiting when recording or maybe doing mixes and return them in to the computer for further editing etc, and the price was for the quality really good I think.

Great Kit Highly recommended!

This I/O Audio interface has a really great sound. I have tried many other interfaces some being a lot more expensive. However, this one has been by far the best I have owned. A good number of inputs and outputs too. I use it with a pair of Alesis active speakers which I also purchased from you. I also use Sonar X2 Producer runnung on Windows 7 64-bit and there have been no driver issues whatsoever. How refreshing is that! I would highly recommend this interface!