MOTU M4 Reviews

Good interface, low latency

Very well made interface, good and useful controls from the front panel and the display level indicator is very accurate and responsive. A peak memory indicator would be nice in a future firmware upgrade. The monitor mix potentiometer lacks a very useful center detent. Unfortunately lots of products have gained a 10/15% price increase lately which is now considered normal… but this is a no-frill simple audio interface and there is no rocket science inside to justify completely its price against its real value. I appreciate that it works straight away on MacOS and the driver are very fast (starting from 96kHz SR and more) and they don’t come with bloatware. MOTU seems to me very serious about respecting artists and they offer bloatware in form of plugins loops and demo software, but if you are already covered, just steer away from it and don’t waste time, make music instead!

Flawless sound and build quality, awful screen.

A lot of people complained about issues on Windows, on 11 edition I have encountered no problems whatsoever. Pretty good device, but the screen angles are awful. If you have to rely on interface's meters I do not recommend MOTU. Build and sound quality are flawless.

Great quality for the price!

Great build quality. I like the knobs and the meters looks great. The best in this price range I guess. The sound quality is the main reason I got this one and I am not let down at all. Great sound quality in the output and the headphones preamp also. It worked great plug’n’play straight from the box with my macbook pro, and it seems to be working fine in windows also till now.

Excellent Desktop Interface

The MOTU M4 finds a good balance between portability and durability. Nice solid metal casing with enough ins and outs for location work. The lights on the digital display and on the physical switches allow you to see what functions are enabled at any time. Excellent quality in this price range.

Glitches in Audio

For studio use its amazing, however, in some situations the interface delivers glitchy sound to the computer when other devices are connected via USB (such as a USB microphone or webcam). Seems to be a driver issue. Has ruined a few livestreams and made it difficult to use the device with Discord. So be careful and test for driver issues before hosting anything that matters.

Nothing better in the price range

So much better than my old Steinberg UR22mkII and anything else in this price-range.

I use it for mics and guitars.

I can't recommend it high enough.

Better than some audiophile DACs that cost thousands...

This audio card is a great solution also in case one needs a four channels DAC and its measures are excellent.

unusable drivers for Mac M1

I get crackles and clicks when recording. Tried all possible remedies to no avail.

Very solid , for its price. Thank you

1 year later, Still Amazing

The m4 is definitely worth its price.

Build quality is really good, Encoders feel smooth, buttons clicky and responsive.

The connections aren't wiggly and usb c is perfect.

The outputs are solid too especially have 1/4" jacks for both 1&2 and 3&4 outputs.

Inputs are crisp and low latency, good enough for me to play guitar.

The screens are helpful and the headphone jack drives my headphones very well.

The asio is simple to use as well as the loopback feature.

To use this for music production/podcasts is a no brainer this fits the bill across the board.

My only issue is that loopback, line in (3&4) monitoring, volume knob and headphones all only work through 1&2 output channels. If you use your computer for a multitude of tasks, I imagine gaming or DJing would be under it- I like to route my game audio through my speakers and have voice chat through my headphones and would furthermore like to use my headphone output for cueing when Djing. However you can't have the headphones use 3&4 output channels. I have instead been using 3&4 outputs as my main audio from my computer. This basically means I can't use the volume knob which becomes another unneeded issue to make sure all my software is turned down as, again, I can't control the incoming volume on the m4. It would be good is motu allows users to pick which outputs channels are for monitoring and headphones.

All in all this device is still one of the audio interfaces out there at the moment in its price range and would recommend to anyone.

IMO Rolls Royce of audio interfaces

Only audio card I could find with a choice between phono or balanced TRS for outputs, which makes it really versatile.

Generally I really like the features: clear vu-meter, extra loopbacks with MOTU's driver, super low latency, solid build, direct monitoring, volume knob...

These features make that audio interface very versatile: can do instrument recording but also DJing, podcasting, audiophile playback, MIDI interface and more.

The audio quality is pristine as far as I can tell for what I do with it.

The price seems good value for the quality and the breadth of what can be done with it.

Windows issues / unusable

Search on youtube and internet something like "windows drivers problem MOTU". Sound popping, crackling, distorting on playback no matter of buffer size, settings, USB Windows settings in device manager (power options, disabling drivers and kepp ASIO only etc)...

Tried on multiple computers. And this is well known problem. Be aware if you planning to use it on Windows, MOTU drivers are junk.... And you can tell that it is computer or Windows problems - connected another USB to the same computer, same port, same settings - no any issues. No any issues whatever with integrated sound card. With MOTU it's like back to stone age...

Very disappointed, bought because of overhelmed positive reviews (assume most on Mac users). And even if some people do not have problems on their PC on Windows, it is not appropriated that device is working 50/50, like you are gambling...

Amazing audio interface in the price range

Bought this to replace my old 2in/out roland quad-capture

Easy to install and works without any problem. (PC, WIN10)

The latency is incredible: input:1.2ms / ouput:4.5ms

(DAW: Cubase 10 -48KHz /24 bit - buffer size = 64)

The large and bright monitor is a big plus for recording.

Volume is loud enough and very clear ( beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 250 )

Headphones only monitor 1-2

It is really disappointing that the headphone socket on the front only monitors outputs 1-2 and there is no hardware option to monitor outputs 3-4 so really this interface isn’t particularly flexible for live situations. Cable supplied was usb A to usb C, so again a bit frustrating would have preferred c-c as the interface outputs on c. Sounds good though. So a game of two halves.

Great quality and easy to use

Essential to recordvanything into youvDAWcand this little box feels, and looks quality,?with the accurate volume colour meter on the front it looks classy and sounds great, with easy operation and things like monitoring sounds that are input is just a buttonpush away from monitoring the souns theough thw m4’s output channels, so for listening to what you are recording,or just being ablwct hear yourseld playing, oe in my case MIDI then this is for you

Great Sound for the price

Absolutely amazed by the sound and build quality.

Have already for a year+ and no complaints.

Am using it with Yamahas HS5 and upgrading to Dynaudio LYD 7

Amazing for this price

Pros. Check Julian Krause on youtube and your questions will be answered.

Cons. 3 and 4 inputs are not powered enough. I was willing to insert there synth, and use the front ones for instruments recording, however it is imposible to use these inputs for this kind of purpose, I don't know for what purpose they made these inputs.

Good home studio interface

In my opinion of best in terms of features/price interfaces. Has good converter. Monitor mix is nice feature. Recording sound from internal programs (Youtube in browser) is cool. Very handy and portable.

I gave 1 star less for features: it would be great to have 2 headphone outputs. Would require more space , but would be very useful to record somebody's else vocals.

one of the best choices in this price range

Very good for home studios. After driver update soundcard works correctly.