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My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)
- Thread starter silky smoove
- Start date
There was certainly a lot of trial and error on my part, learning how to use MOTU's routing app with my UltraLite-mk4.
I didn't find a whole lot in the way of "how to" videos or documentation specifically about that. It seemed like MOTU assumed users are already conversant with different setup schemes for different needs.
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It took me a minute to get it figured out. I think (heavy emphasis on "think" rather than "know") I have it all sorted. The only input I've used thus far are the ones coming from the computer via Thunderbolt. My patchbays are scheduled to arrive tomorrow which will then allow me to check the analog inputs. I also haven't tried the ADAT out to my monitor controller just yet and am currently sending it via analog outs 1-2. So much still to do.
Speaking of "so much still to do," I'm going to completely un-cable and re-cable EVERYTHING on the front wall of my studio. It's a cable spaghetti nightmare right now. I can do better but need a clean slate to do it properly. Once the patchbays arrive I'll get to that. This coming Sunday will be an immense cabling project
MOTU has a video series on their YouTube page. It's helpful, but it's done for their entire AVB line rather than an individual unit. I found some of the menus looked a little different than I was expecting relative to what they were showing. It's still a helpful reference all the same.
I did a comparison of routing the output from the MOTU 16A to the Audient Nero via analog outputs 1 and 2 versus using the ADAT. After a little confusion regarding optical versus coax I got it working. The 16A doesn't have an SPDIF/Toslink/Coax output, only ADAT optical. The Nero allows for both SDPIF/Toslink/Coax and ADAT Optical cables at input. The kicker is that internally it's all SPDIF regardless of what you do. Fortunately the 16A's ADAT Optical output can be configured to transmit as coax which is then compatible with the Nero's optical setting for the alternate input. A little convoluted, but both devices were capable of communicating with each other digitally.
Cable and setting convolutions not withstanding things got decidedly more interesting than I was expecting. My expectations going in were that the super nice and decidedly high end DA converters in the 16A were going to win out over what I expected to be lower quality DA conversion in the Nero. My thought was that the higher quality conversion, even after passing through 5' of TRS cable (ProCo Excellines) would still outperform remaining digital until the Nero's conversion. I was wrong. Dead wrong. This leads me to believe one of two things, or possibly a combination of both:
Here's where I am with the resultant MOTU routing grid setup. I'm sure it will continue to evolve.
Cable and setting convolutions not withstanding things got decidedly more interesting than I was expecting. My expectations going in were that the super nice and decidedly high end DA converters in the 16A were going to win out over what I expected to be lower quality DA conversion in the Nero. My thought was that the higher quality conversion, even after passing through 5' of TRS cable (ProCo Excellines) would still outperform remaining digital until the Nero's conversion. I was wrong. Dead wrong. This leads me to believe one of two things, or possibly a combination of both:
- The converters in the Nero are nicer than I had expected.
- The loss when transmitting in the analog domain to a monitor controller which is then further connected to monitors in the analog domain was greater than I had expected.
Here's where I am with the resultant MOTU routing grid setup. I'm sure it will continue to evolve.
More MOTU ramblings... I thought I was going to dislike the routing application for the 16A being a web app. It runs inside of whatever your computer's default internet browser is (Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.). I'm so used to dedicated applications that this seemed clunky to me. Once again my assumptions were wrong. It's nice not having additional pieces of software cluttering up my system or things to keep updated. The MOTU Discovery button lives at the top of my screen next to some other permanent system tools. You click the Pro Audio link on it and Safari pops open with everything I need. As long as the 16A is powered on it's nearly instantaneous. I continue to appreciate this setup.
@TheEmptyCell, I was thinking about your earlier comment to try and level off these two units. I think if I rip a board the length of the Console 1 to match the exposed edge of the Nero where I’ve highlighted, I will end up with a level surface between the two units. I’m not sure if it will help or hurt the ergonomics of the Console 1, but it would certainly look nicer on the desk. It’s a low cost experiment that I should be able to implement on my own, provided I can match everything perfectly with the saws I have on-hand.
Assuming that the Console is where your hands will spend most of their time, I guess you'll like to keep it low. The looks doesn't bother me at all.
Yeah, I had that same thought. It’s a cheap experiment. Trace out the cuts on a piece of paper, transcribe them onto a scrap board from my shed, rip it and see if I like it. If I do I can paint the board black and be done with it. If not, it goes in the bin.
Silky, on a completely unrelated note, thanks for turning me on to Ripe's Joy in the Wild Unknown. Not too shabby!!! Not too shabby at all!
That could be said for just about any record. I haven't listened to it all yet but what I heard sounded quite good. Maybe because of those production values.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled studio production.
Every time I turn around I realize that I forgot some cables from my Sweetwater order. This new setup will work better, but having dedicated components rather than a packaged interface sure leads to a MOUNTAIN of cables. 
Got my Line Audio 8MP hooked up to the 16A. In front of it is an ART P16 XLR patch bay. I tried the preamp with and without the patchbay in front of it and couldn't tell any appreciable difference, so I'm considering the patchbay to be adequately transparent.
The Line Audio 8MP sounds fantastic. A noticeable jump up in quality from the Apogee Element preamps which were already very nice. It's a very clean, "what goes in is what comes out" type of sound, but with an impressive amount of weight despite its cleanliness. Sometimes clean preamps sound a little thin and clinical, but this thing sounds a lot more like what the signal feels like in the room when it gets recorded. I'm very happy with it. Not a ton of gain (65db), but it's 100% clean until the absolute top of the range when a tiny bit of self noise becomes apparent. At 50% I was able to drive the converters to -5dbfs with my Jazz bass, which tells me they're adequately hot for the sensitivity of these 16A converters. Seems like a good match. Better than I expected in fact.
The Line Audio 8MP sounds fantastic. A noticeable jump up in quality from the Apogee Element preamps which were already very nice. It's a very clean, "what goes in is what comes out" type of sound, but with an impressive amount of weight despite its cleanliness. Sometimes clean preamps sound a little thin and clinical, but this thing sounds a lot more like what the signal feels like in the room when it gets recorded. I'm very happy with it. Not a ton of gain (65db), but it's 100% clean until the absolute top of the range when a tiny bit of self noise becomes apparent. At 50% I was able to drive the converters to -5dbfs with my Jazz bass, which tells me they're adequately hot for the sensitivity of these 16A converters. Seems like a good match. Better than I expected in fact.
@Carl Hillman and @Highroler79
Have either of you come up with a routing grid setting that allows both the analog inputs and the 'from computer' setting to be routed to a pair of outputs simultaneously? I'm sure it's a matter of setting up the mixer accordingly, but I'm struggling with it. I've emailed MOTU customer service (Ryan has been really quick at getting back to me), but I thought I'd ask some users as well in case the solution was painfully obvious and I'm an idiot. Okay... I know I'm an idiot, but that notwithstanding I'm hoping there's a simple solution
Have either of you come up with a routing grid setting that allows both the analog inputs and the 'from computer' setting to be routed to a pair of outputs simultaneously? I'm sure it's a matter of setting up the mixer accordingly, but I'm struggling with it. I've emailed MOTU customer service (Ryan has been really quick at getting back to me), but I thought I'd ask some users as well in case the solution was painfully obvious and I'm an idiot. Okay... I know I'm an idiot, but that notwithstanding I'm hoping there's a simple solution
Sorry, but I'm not going to be much help. My setup is as basic as can be - mk4 into computer. I've never recorded more than one thing at a time into my DAW.@Carl Hillman and @Highroler79
Have either of you come up with a routing grid setting that allows both the analog inputs and the 'from computer' setting to be routed to a pair of outputs simultaneously? I'm sure it's a matter of setting up the mixer accordingly, but I'm struggling with it. I've emailed MOTU customer service (Ryan has been really quick at getting back to me), but I thought I'd ask some users as well in case the solution was painfully obvious and I'm an idiot. Okay... I know I'm an idiot, but that notwithstanding I'm hoping there's a simple solution
I'd think you should be able to merge analog inputs and 'from computer' to a single Mix or Aux buss, but maybe that's not what you're wanting to do.
If you're an idiot, silky, I'm a sub-idiot.
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@Carl Hillman and @Highroler79
Have either of you come up with a routing grid setting that allows both the analog inputs and the 'from computer' setting to be routed to a pair of outputs simultaneously? I'm sure it's a matter of setting up the mixer accordingly, but I'm struggling with it. I've emailed MOTU customer service (Ryan has been really quick at getting back to me), but I thought I'd ask some users as well in case the solution was painfully obvious and I'm an idiot. Okay... I know I'm an idiot, but that notwithstanding I'm hoping there's a simple solution
Hi Silky, this should help you out what we do is we do a live stream where we rout everything from our Motu into one PC to track and record our tracks then we send a 2 bus mix along with our analog into to the second PC to live stream.
Here is our routing
This is just our inputs and outputs all selected to go to two output, (to computer and mix in)
Then we create Aux Mixes for our live stream feed, IEM etc and we set up each mix individually for each mix, select your AUX mixes and send them to the outputs you want to utilize
you just have to send the AUX mix back into the Motu if you record that or you can send that aux mix to as many outputs as you want to.
If there is anything else just let me know
Thanks. I’ll try and dig into that. I feel like we’re setting up different things, but I’ll know more when I’m back at the studio.
I’m mixing a bunch of tunes for some friends’ upcoming duets album (two vocals, uke and upright bass). They’re doing a kickstarter, so to help them out I shot a video of my first mix pass of a tune (their take on Cyndi Lauper’s version of True Colors). Check it out if you’re so inclined. I think they have a few more parts of the total 45 minute video on their channel as well.
