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terça-feira, 28 de novembro de 2017

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN - MOTU 828 MkII

Some time ago I got a MOTU 828 MkII that I intended to keep as my spare sound card...


Since then, I have understood that there was no way I was going to use it rather than my RME Fireface 800, unless the RME would stop working...


And since the RME seems to be pretty healthy still, I decided it was a better idea for me to sell the MOTU 828 MkII rather than keeping it and wait for that to happen...

It is not that I didn't like the MOTU, but overall, the RME seems to me to be a better option, despite I felt the MOTU ended up giving you a much better deal for the money!


In terms of sound, I don't think the difference was abysmal or anything close to that.
And to show this, I have recorded a simple demo comparing it with my RME Fireface 800!

MOTU 828 MkII vs RME Fireface 800

In this short demo, there are 5 different sounds (produced by the Clavia Nord Modular G2) being played, each of them recorded 3 times!

First, I recorded it using the front inputs of the MOTU 828 MkII, followed by the back inputs of this same sound card.
The third time, the sound was recorded using the back inputs from the RME Fireface 800.

And of course, to make this a fair contest, I normalised the volume in Ableton Live 9!


Personally, I feel that the difference in sound is not significant to justify the big price difference between the two sound cards...


However, the drives available make the RME a much nicer machine!

I might have not done a proper research on what is available for the MOTU, since I was quite happy already with the RME, so what I say afterwards might be a bit flawed...

Still, the impression I got, using the MOTU 828 MkII with the standard drivers made available at MOTU's own website, is that it is a better machine to use without rather than with a computer.

On its own, you can easily use the MOTU as a mixer, since you can easily configure the routing of the different channels using the front panel.
This is a task that is impossible to do with the RME Fireface 800, since it doesn't even feature a control panel.

However, if you want to use it with the computer, the RME takes the lead, as it is much easier to route your signals using the amazing Fireface Mixer software available for it, rather than having to delve into a series of menus to configure the basic routing of your outputs.

If you want to do everything with your DAW, the difference might not be big, but I still feel the RME Fireface 800 ends up having the edge on this one!


Despite I still think the RME Fireface 800 is the better machine, it is impossible to deny that the MOTU 828 MkII is still a really nice machine, and in my opinion a much better deal nowadays!

Since I wanted to keep just one, the RME Fireface 800 was the obvious choice.

But if I had MOTU 828 MkII and decided to try both together in order to evaluate a possible upgrade to the RME Fireface 800, I am doubtful I would actually bother upgrading...

However, I am not needing the extra ADAT inputs and outputs (2 instead of 1) or preamps (4 rather than 2) that the RME has to offer...
If I was, my opinion on this would likely be considerably different!


So...
If you are looking for a nice sound card on a budget, be sure to check the MOTU 828 MkII, cause it is definitely worth it! ;)

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