motu 8pre WTF!!! i'm pissed...

[xconnyx]

i'm really pissed right now.

today i connected 3 motu 8pre to my pc and i found out that there seems to be a general problem with the 8pre and pcs. io bought 1 8pre and i wanted to buy 2 more after my next production, which starts tomorrow...

so i lent 2 8pres for a friend to do the production with 3 8pre cascaded via firewire daisy chain and i ran into big f00king trouble.

1. driver can't really decide which interface is 1,2 or 3.
2. driver can't recall adat i/o settings and choses random which 8pre has adat enabled and which doesn't
3. interfaces are losing khz sync, always switching from 48khz back to 44.1 and then back to 48khz without any cause. btw, this switching causes heavy cracking, very very loud and this happens every 30seconds from a single crack to 10seconds cracking.
4. sometimes the cubase click is going to be pushed away when the interfaces are losing their internal sync.

there is no working possible at all.

one interface is working perfect, but if you connect a second one via fire wire the doors to hell are breaking and satan is going to be released.

i read in some german recording forum that this seams so be a general problem with motu 8pres when cascaded with firewire on pcs.

i'm really pissed right now, because i planed to buy 3 of these units and i already have one for the purpose that i wanted to buy 2 more next month.

actually i won't buy a mac just for the fact that these unit are not working like they are supposed to be with a pc.

please could someone prove that this is not working on a pc.

my system specs are:

intel core 2 dou 2x2133mhz
windows xp sp2
cubase 4.5.2
4 gb kingston ram (yeah actually recognized by windows it's 3 gb ram
asus pw5dh delux mainboard (i'm unsing the onboard fw400 bus)
there is no software installed besides cubase and some plugins, it's a pure DAW system.

maybe someone of you uses more then one 8pre (cascaded by fw not adat) on a pc system. maybe i have to switch to vista or something...

would be great if someone could help me out some how.

conny

 

[MetalJonesy]

got in touch with motu directly, they have some ace customer support!

as far as your issue goes, i have the 8pre, its a great unit, but have never used the daisy chaining feature, i thought theres a limit at how many you can chain, have you tried just 2 to see if they work (not using adat, just firewire?)

 

[xconnyx]

yeah it is a great unit if i use it single or with one adat extension....

i like its possibility and everything but i need to have at least 24ins. 3 motus at least. btw, you can chain up to 4 units.

i tried to use 2 in fw chain and it was not as worse as with 3 units, but still it was not a situation where you can put a paying customer in. imagine the drummer not hearing the click for one note, or cubase skipping the sync from 44.1 to 48khz and back, or even an artist ripping of his headphone because he is about to get his ears burned by some cracking noise. cant do that, no go.

of course i will get in touch with motu, that is for sure, but i was thinking that this would work as good in 3 unit mode as it does in 1 unit mode. i was wrong and got taught the "don't touch a running system (even if it's the old one)" thing again.

i read something about setting the sync via smpte (in theory the units can't lose the sync because it is give by the motu sync application and sended through analog i/o, the units are basically slaves then and are not worink with the internal clock) but i don't have the time to test this anymore, my next production is about to start in 10hours and i'm at home right now. if you guys have a hint, say it right away.

 

[Psych05]

I don't own the 8pre myself but I remember once conisdering it because of the two ADAT in/outs and its standalone operation capability. So have you tried running one of them via firewire and connecting the other two via ADAT just as if they were normal standalone Mic Pres with digital outs? Could imagine it's easier to manage for the driver because there's only one interface and no daisy-chaining going on. Anyway, best of luck to you.

 

[Ola Englund]

That sucks man. I daisy chained three 896 couple of years ago with my mac and it worked fine. Strange they haven't found a working solution for it. Hope it works out for you before the recordin session.

 

[xconnyx]

I don't own the 8pre myself but I remember once conisdering it because of the two ADAT in/outs and its standalone operation capability. So have you tried running one of them via firewire and connecting the other two via ADAT just as if they were normal standalone Mic Pres with digital outs? Could imagine it's easier to manage for the driver because there's only one interface and no daisy-chaining going on. Anyway, best of luck to you.

actually i'm doing this right now. one is master and another one works in converter mode conected via adat. but at this point i only have 16 tracks to work with since afaik the to adat i/o on the back are only 8 channels in on bus (but not each bus) or 4 channels each bus with up to 96khz in double channel mode. so i can't use 16 adat channels with one 8pre connected, i need to get the fw chain working.

so i'm going to do this production with 16 tracks only, sure this will work out fine in the end but i wanted to capture some extra room mics, trigger spikes and stuff like that which is all gone now.

 

[Psych05]

Strange that the two ADAT connectors will only give you eight inputs, even when using a lower sample rate. On all the RME stuff one ADAT connector always gives you 8 channels at 44/48khz OR 4 channels at 88/96khz.

 

[xconnyx]

i think it is limited software wise

 

[ßlackwater]

i think it is limited software wise

this

 

[xconnyx]

i have finished day one of recording today with 16ins, results are good but since the fact that i cant do the session like i wanted to i'm a little... distrubed...

but anyways, i found this http://www.motu.com/techsupport/tec...ire-interface-under-windows-xp-service-pack-2

and i will test this after the recording is finished, which will be in 8-9 days.

 

[xconnyx]

the motu sopport told me to install a ms hotfix, doesnt work at all.

anyone wants to buy a brand new motu 8pre, it works as long as you use only one unit on a pc system, mac works perfect. i have to record 32channels on a pc system so it is useless for me, if you need only up to 16channels, adat included, go for it, it works perfect for 16channels.