MOTU 828

Total fail - freezes both my pcs when plugged in. Works ok on my sister's mac.

The sound reproduction is fine with this unit. It's not the best ever, but for a cheap unit it is definitely passable in therms of sound quality.

Still have not got it working on my pcs 6 months on.

MOTU's customer support is a joke. They will not provide support for your product, other than to tell you do get a new firewire card. I bought a new pc and have the same issues.
They do not support linux, which is what I use for my studio.

I hate you MOTU. Please do yourself a favour and never buy anything from MOTU.

828 (MkI) on a Windows XP laptop with Centrino Duo 2.3 with 2 Gb RAM.

I've never had a problem that unplugging and plugging didn't fix, but I'm probably lucky in that. It has worked better than other MOTU products I've used in the past.

For a cheap consumer level product, it is only mildly bad.
Compared to something like an RME, it is laughably awful.

I do use it on gigs w/o a backup.

Never dealt with them. No Opinion.

I use it as an audio io for my laptop in my guitar rig for extended sampling and computer manipulation of my guitar signal. I do not really use it to record any serious audio. The clock is not great, and the mic preamps are not good. In fact, it's probably almost euphamistic to call them mic preamps. However, it is good enough to run an 8way surround system live or to do live smapling.

i have had no problem w/ my unit. (firmware 1.01 from factory)used to take me a while browsing through stuff figuring out the different configurations for recording/playback (defaultdevice=motu828/spdf/mix1...etc) it seems so simple/logical when i think about it now, though. works better for me w/ a mac, but i mainly use my pc. when my old pc would run slow, the motu/pc hated each other wierd stuff but very briefly very rarely. manual is pretty decent, it is robust. a control surface is a must, cuemix is much more satisfying w/ a mackie or a novation. firewire in sp2 made this unit stop functioning, fixed that(real simple) and then moved back to sp1, have not had a problem since.

my sound needs are pretty simple as i mostly produce southern rap and reggaeton and music that in general the motu is more than sufficient for. ie i am not recording an orchestra to be scrutinized by andrea bucelli, and just a few years ago 12 bit lofi was ample to produce my types of music. i still won't use the mic pres in the 828mkII although i would have a hard time telling them apart from most other non tube pres. the trim works fine for me.
the only complaint i have about the sound is that it clicks/pops when you power the unit on. i have never experienced interference in my rack w/ the motu(except for mic cabling-not motu's fault)

i have never had any of the problems i read about. nothing whatsoever for me to complain about in the reliability dept.

never needed em.
sidenote: untill recently i found the website very convenient when downloading drivers onto whatever machine i was on, cause i could just click this and that, and two mouseclicks later download the drivers w/o having to log in. i am lazy, and this made me happy, but now it won't work.

works great, they can be had for cheap. been recording since 99 protools irritated me w/ their upgrades and other stuff, so i got a motu for 700 a couple years ago. these days in 2007 it seems like you would be much better off w/ a control surface interface mic pre package like the mackie onyx, but that hadn't happened to the market yet w/ motu released it. if mine was stolen or something i would probably buy something else more expensive, but considering that 96/24 is more than i need, i would look for things like # or preamps, quality of sliders, etc. i would probably opt for something other than firewire. having said all that, i really do love my 828mkII and really appreciate stuff that works is solid and has a really decent feature set. the other thing is that i prefered alot of things about protools, but the plugins were hard for me to comeby, and regular dx vst were everywhere i looked. wink, wink, you catch my drift?

Easy to use when it worked.

Noisy, oh yes. MOTU 828 Mk I has horrible digital noise levels which you can hear if you crank up the mixer.

I could for a while. Then it became invisible to the Firewire bus. Sent it back to MOTU. They said there was nothing wrong with it, sent it back to me. Worked for a few weeks, then stopped. I tried using it with a new computer, no previous MOTU installs: MacMini G4 with latest Mac OS and latest MOTU drivers, and...*it couldn't see the interface*...the firewire cable works with others FW devices...proof that the MOTU 828 hardware was borked, and their response "there's nothing wrong with it" indicates they did something at their Massachusetts location to get it working again which they did not mention.

Awful. Do not trust anything they tell you.

Fairly easy to use, my 828 mk1 was obviously alot easier to use, but then it doesn't come with all the other fancy stuff.

Sound quality is pretty good, haven't noticed it being any better or worse than the mk1, but I have never been able to compare them side by side.

Back to the mark 1 again, mine worked for a bit over 2 years then it packed in and I got a mk2....which has never worked....

..well here we go, major problems, I think they think there customers are idiots ..after forking out more cash for a mk2, I am furious with the way I was treated. They do make out as though they are willing to help..I can honestly say that MOTU pretty much put me off doing music for the last 2 years..

My unit never worked properly from the day I got it..after 1 year of complaining and being told it was- me, my computer, firewire card, cable, software, ram..I sent it back. They supposedly thoroughly tested it- may I suggest otherwise. At first I got a call saying "yes, it's knackerd we'll send a new one"- great I thought, at last. Then I got a call the next day saying "actually that was a mistake- it works fine and were sending you it back".

So about 10 months on from that(+ the year since I bought it) My friend tested it out and within a few minutes confirmed to me the same problem.

So I called and filled the bloke in on the phone as to what the problem was. Got about 15 seconds into explaining what had gone on before and how it didn't work, and I was told- "theres no way anyone here would tell you to do that...". After all the Bull ive had to go through, I could do without being told i'm a liar. Anyway, I'm supposed to be getting a new one, we'll see.. I've heard that before. Fingers crossed this time.

Mk1 was great till it broke down, ask me next week about the mk2.

easy

sound quality has been great

I have installed MOTU828 firewire , version 2.0 drivers, but my card
keeps on crashing my computer ...
Haven't got any help from MOTU ..
I do got a Texas Instruments fire wire card .. which is compatible ..
I would like to use my MOTU Life ... so this is a big setback ..

I have send several mails .. but when it comes about firewire ..
I dont get any response

I works great but ... it can crash your computer at any moment !

(ps: i think there are sales people of motu comming on this forum
to say otherwise)

The best way I can describe this product and it's instructions are professional. That isn't necessarily good, I just think that people who are professional audio people will use this product and it's manual easier than people who are a little more novice like myself

I have found NO complaints with the sound quality of the 828 MkII.
It seems to be very clean and I would bet it's limitations are found the user or the equipment it is connected to. Motu has made this so nice a couple of adds like Eq for standalone ops as well as midi change commands for it's presets would make it a fine addition for a musician that changes instruments and settings a lot.

It is fairly new to me and I am only just figuring out all of it's true assets. I have yet to use it in a way where reliablity is important other than it better work based on the investment. That being said this device is reasonable to back up and has capabilities daisey chained.

When I make a purchase I usually go for "toys" that have manuals online. That to me is an indicator of a level of support. Motu doesn't have this though I made this choice based on friends who use it and reviews. When I have had questions I check FAQ's and then e mail from there. I have had 2 questions and Motu has responded within 24 hours, respectfully and politely.

I was handed a guitar 35 years ago because I liked Glen Campbell so much. I have experimented with many things over those years and find that the 828 does what it is sold as and does it well. I am like everyone else and I always have a little better idea though oh well. Like I said Eq and the ability to change presets via midi or something like that would be nice. If it was lost or stolen would I buy another? Probably not this industry is moving so fast by then there will be a MkIII

Once drivers are in, no problem, works rock solid

Excellent, what more do you want, apogee converters?

As reliable as they come

Never needed it because it always works

As a professional sound engineer I use this and a 828 mkII for location recording. Anyone who complains about problems with this box is either in the dark ages or using a pretend computer. Don't bitch about getting your setup to work under windows because if I cared about your opinion for starters you would have a real computer to work with. This is a great box though I don't care for the gain adjustment on inputs 3-8.

Pretty easy on a pc. It locks up nice with my Focusrite Penta. I had a couple of issues with firewire cards. I can only use the 2 lowest lateny settings. I'm not complaining.

It is dead quiet and robust. I recorded 2 albums and various other projects, jingles, etc. I also got praised for some work that I did on some vinyl to digital projects. This was all done using the 828 preamps.

2 years going strong. It is finicky about what firecard you use.

I had a major electrical spike come into my whole sytem so I had all kinds of problems with everything. For $50 they basically gave me a new unit. It turns out that I still the same problem with the system but it was'nt my 828, it was the drive in my pc.

With everything in electronics becoming obselete as soon as you buy it, I would probably look around. At the time, this was one of the better interfaces for under $1000. I wanted a MiniMe from Apogee but couldn't wing it at $1400

This unit is fairly easy to use, but the owners manual is not that great. It shows where things are, but does not provide enough examples of various wiring and setups.

Sound Quality is Excellent, but make sure that the input gain is not too high, otherwise you will hear noise and pops.

It seems to have evey indication that it is realiable

I play a variety of music. The different reverbs took some tweaking to get the same effect as my carvin mixer. The latency of the sound (even after tweaking) is a bit strange (if you want to do a run thru of a song, and then record). When you record it is fine. During my previous setup (a zoom MRS1044) I spent more time recording, now with the MOTU 828mkii I spend more time on the computer after the recording.

BEWARE IPOD USERS: If you want the MOTU 828mkii to be reliable DO NOT HAVE YOUR IPOD plugged into the firewire port. On several occasions the IPOD caused the Motu828mkii to not startup completely. Once I removed the IPOD from the firewire port all worked fine.