Motu 1248 AVB, 16A AVB, 8m AVB, AVB Switch User manual

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Page 1

1248

16A

MOTU AVB Switch

User Guide

™

Title Page

1280 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

Business voice: (617) 576-2760

Business fax: (617) 576-3609

Web site: www.motu.com

Tech support: www.motu.com/support

Page 2

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 1248, 8M, 16A, and MOTU AVB SWITCH (“PRODUCT”)

CAUTION! READ THIS SAFETY GUIDE BEFORE YOU BEGIN INSTALLATION OR OPERATION. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS COULD RESULT IN BODILY INJURY OR EQUIPMENT DAMAGE.

HAZARDOUS VOLAGES: CONTACT MAY CAUSE ELECTRIC SHOCK OR BURN. TURN OFF UNIT BEFORE SERVICING.

WARNING: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NOT EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE TO RAIN OR OTHER MOISTURE.

CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NOT REMOVE COVER. NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL.

WARNING: DO NOT PERMIT FINGERS TO TOUCH THE TERMINALS OF PLUGS WHEN INSTALLING OR REMOVING THE PLUG TO OR FROM THE OUTLET.

WARNING: IF NOT PROPERLY GROUNDED THE MOTU PRODUCT COULD CAUSE AN ELECTRICAL SHOCK.

The MOTU product is equipped with a three-conductor cord and grounding type plug which has a grounding prong, approved by Underwriters' Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association. This plug requires a mating three-conductor grounded type outlet as shown in Figure A below. If the outlet you are planning to use for the MOTU product is of the two prong type, DO NOT REMOVE OR ALTER THE GROUNDING PRONG IN ANY MANNER. Use an adapter as shown below and always connect the grounding lug to a known ground. It is recommended that you have a qualiﬁed electrician replace the TWO prong outlet with a properly grounded THREE prong outlet. An adapter as illustrated below in Figure B is available for connecting plugs to two-prong receptacles.

Figure A Figure B

Grounding lug

Screw

3-prong plug

Grounding prong

Properly grounded 3-prong outlet

3-prong plug

Mak e sur e th is i s con nec ted to a known ground.

Adapter

Two-prong receptacle

WARNING: THE GREEN GROUNDING LUG EXTENDING FROM THE ADAPTER MUST BE CONNECTED TO A PERMANENT GROUND SUCH AS TO A PROPERLY GROUNDED OUTLET BOX. NOT ALL OUTLET BOXES ARE PROPERLY GROUNDED.

If you are not sure that your outlet box is properly grounded, have it checked by a qualiﬁed electrician. NOTE: The adapter illustrated is for use only if you already have a properly grounded two-prong receptacle. Adapter is not allowed in Canada by the Canadian Electrical Code. Use only three wire extension cords which have three-prong grounding type plugs and three-prong receptacles which will accept the MOTU product plug.

IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS

1. Read these instructions. All the safety and operating instructions should be read before operating the product.

2. Keep these instructions. These safety instructions and the product owner’s manual should be retained for future reference.

3. Heed all warnings. All warnings on the product and in the owner’s manual should be adhered to.

4. Follow all Instructions. All operating and use instructions should be followed.

5. Do not use the product near water.

6. Cleaning - Unplug the product from the computer and clean only with a dry cloth. Do not use liquid or aerosol cleaners.

7. Ventilation - Do not block any ventilation openings. Install in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

8. Heat - Do not install the product near any heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or another apparatus (including an ampliﬁer) that produces heat.

9. Overloading - Do not overload wall outlets and extension cords as this can result in a risk of ﬁre or electrical shock.

10. Grounding - Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or grounding-type plug. A polarized plug has two blades with one wider than the other. A grounding-type plug has two blades and a third grounding prong. The wide blade or the third prong are provided for your safety. If the provided plug does not ﬁt into your outlet, consult and electrician for replacement of the obsolete outlet.

11. Power cord - Protect the product power cord from being walked on or pinched by items placed upon or against them. Pay particular attention to cords and plugs, convenience receptacles, and the point where they exit from the unit.

12. Power switch - Install the product so that the power switch can be accessed and operated at all times.

13. Disconnect - The main plug is considered to be the disconnect device for the product and shall remain readily operable.

14. Accessories - Only use attachments/accessories speciﬁed by the manufacturer.

15. Placement - Use only with the cart, stand, tripod, bracket or table speciﬁed by the manufacturer, or sold with the product. When a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart/apparatus combination to avoid injury from tip-over.

16. Surge protection - Unplug the product during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time.

17. Servicing - Refer all servicing to qualiﬁed service personnel. Servicing is required when the product has been damaged in any way, such as when a power-supply cord or plug is damaged, liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the product, the product has been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has been dropped.

18. Power Sources - Refer to the manufacturer’s operating instructions for power requirements. Be advised that different operating voltages may require the use of a different line cord and/or attachment plug.

19. Installation - Do not install the product in an unventilated rack, or directly above heat-producing equipment such as power ampliﬁers. Observe the maximum ambient operating temperature listed below.

20. Power ampliﬁers- Never attach audio power ampliﬁer outputs directly to any of the unit’s connectors.

21. Replacement Parts - When replacement parts are required, be sure the service technician has used replacement parts speciﬁed by the manufacturer or have the same characteristics as the original part. Unauthorized substitutions may result in ﬁre, electric shock or other hazards.

22. Safety Check - Upon completion of any service or repairs to this MOTU product, ask the service technician to perform safety checks to determine that the product is in safe operating conditions.

ENVIRONMENT, HEAT AND VENTILATION

Operating Temperature: 10°C to 40°C (50°F to 104°). The product should be situated away from heat sources or other equipment that produces heat. When installing the product in a rack or any other location, be sure there is adequate space around the product to ensure proper ventilation. Improper ventilation will cause overheating and can damage the unit.

TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK OR FIRE

Do not handle the power cord with wet hands. Do not pull on the power cord when disconnecting it from an AC wall outlet. Grasp it by the plug. Do not expose this apparatus to rain or moisture. Do not place objects containing liquids on it.

AC INPUT

100 - 240VAC ~ • 50 / 60Hz • 0.5A max

Page 3

Contents

Part 1: Getting Started

Quick Start Guide

1248 Front Panel

1248 Rear Panel

8M Front Panel

8M Rear Panel

16A Front Panel

16A Rear Panel

MOTU AVB Switch

MOTU AVB Control Web App

About Your MOTU AVB Audio Interface

Packing List and System Requirements

Software Installation

Hardware Installation

Part 2: Using your MOTU interface

Presets

The Front Panel LCD

Working with Host Audio Software

Mixer Effects

Networking

Part 3: Appendices

Troubleshooting

Audio Specifications

Mixer Schematics

Updating Firmware

OSC Support

101

103

Index

III

Page 4

About the Mark of the Unicorn License Agreement and Limited Warranty on Software

TO PERSONS WHO PURCHASE OR USE THIS PRODUCT: carefully read all the terms and conditions of the “click-wrap” license agreement presented to you when you install the software. Using the software or this documentation indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions of that license agreement.

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. (“MOTU”) owns both this program and its documentation. Both the program and the documentation are protected under applicable copyright, trademark, and trade-secret laws. Your right to use the program and the documentation are limited to the terms and conditions described in the license agreement.

Reminder of the terms of your license

This summary is not your license agreement, just a reminder of its terms. The actual license can be read and printed by running the installation program for the software. That license agreement is a contract, and clicking “Accept” binds you and MOTU to all its terms and conditions. In the event anything contained in this summary is incomplete or in conﬂict with the actual click-wrap license agreement, the terms of the click-wrap agreement prevail.

YOU MAY: (a) use the enclosed program on a single computer; (b) physically transfer the program from one computer to another provided that the program is used on only one computer at a time and that you remove any copies of the program from the computer from which the program is being transferred; (c) make copies of the program solely for backup purposes. You must reproduce and include the copyright notice on a label on any backup copy.

YOU MAY NOT: (a) distribute copies of the program or the documentation to others; (b) rent, lease or grant sublicenses or other rights to the program; (c) provide use of the program in a computer service business, network, time-sharing, multiple CPU or multiple user arrangement without the prior written consent of MOTU; (d) translate, adapt, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise alter the program or related documentation without the prior written consent of MOTU.

MOTU warrants to the original licensee that the disk(s) on which the program is recorded be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. If failure of the disk has resulted from accident, abuse or misapplication of the product, then MOTU shall have no responsibility to replace the disk(s) under this Limited Warranty.

THIS LIMITED WARRANTY AND RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT IS IN LIEU OF, AND YOU HEREBY WAIVE, ANY AND ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, BOTH EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE LIABILITY OF MOTU PURSUANT TO THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE REPLACEMENT OF THE DEFECTIVE DISK(S), AND IN NO EVENT SHALL MOTU OR ITS SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE, OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PARTIES EVEN IF MOTU HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS WHICH MAY VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Update Policy

In order to be eligible to obtain updates of the program, you must complete and return the attached Mark of the Unicorn Purchaser Registration Card to MOTU.

Copyright © 2015, 2014 by Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means whatsoever, without express written permission of Mark of the Unicorn, Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, U.S.A.

Limited Warranty on Hardware

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. and S&S Research (“MOTU/S&S”) warrant this equipment against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of TWO (2) YEARS from the date of original retail purchase. This warranty applies only to hardware products; MOTU software is licensed and warranted pursuant to separate written statements.

If you discover a defect, ﬁrst write or call Mark of the Unicorn at (617) 576-2760 to obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization Number. No service will be performed on any product returned without prior authorization. MOTU will, at its option, repair or replace the product at no charge to you, provided you return it during the warranty period, with transportation charges prepaid, to Mark of the Unicorn, Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, MA 02138. You must use the product’s original packing material for in shipment, and insure the shipment for the value of the product. Please include your name, address, telephone number, a description of the problem, and the original, dated bill of sale with the returned unit and print the Return Merchandise Authorization Number on the outside of the box below the shipping address.

This warranty does not apply if the equipment has been damaged by accident, abuse, misuse, or misapplication; has been modiﬁed without the written permission of MOTU, or if the product serial number has been removed or defaced.

ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE LIMITED IN DURATION TO TWO (2) YEARS FROM THE DATE OF THE ORIGINAL RETAIL PURCHASE OF THIS PRODUCT.

THE WARRANTY AND REMEDIES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE EXCLUSIVE AND IN LIEU OF ALL OTHERS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. No MOTU/S&S dealer, agent, or employee is authorized to make any modiﬁcation, extension, or addition to this warranty.

MOTU/S&S ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY BREACH OF WARRANTY, OR UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, DOWNTIME, GOODWILL, DAMAGE OR REPLACEMENT OF EQUIPMENT AND PROPERTY AND COST OF RECOVERING REPROGRAMMING, OR REPRODUCING ANY PROGRAM OR DATA STORED IN OR USED WITH MOTU/S&S PRODUCTS.

Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties or liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty gives you speciﬁc legal rights, and you may have other rights which vary from state to state.

MOTU, AudioDesk, Mark of the Unicorn and the unicorn silhouette logo are trademarks of Mark of the Unicorn, Inc.

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

This equipment has been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television equipment reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by any combination of the following measures:

• Relocate or reorient the receiving antenna

• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver

• Plug the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected

If necessary, you can consult a dealer or experienced radio/television technician for additional assistance.

PLEASE NOTE: only equipment certiﬁed to comply with Class B (computer input/output devices, terminals, printers, etc.) should be attached to this equipment, and it must have shielded interface cables in order to comply with the Class B FCC limits on RF emissions.

WARNING: changes or modiﬁcations to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user's authority to operate the equipment.

Page 5

Part 1

Getting Started

Page 6

Page 7

Quick Start Guide

CHAPTER

Thank you for purchasing a MOTU AVB interface! Follow these easy steps to get started quickly.

Download and run the

MOTU AVB USB Installer.exe

MOTU AVB Installer

found here:

http://www.motu.com/avb

(Optional) For access to your MOTU interface from your iPad or iPhone, download the MOTU AVB Discovery app from the Apple App Store.

Your iPhone and iPad must be on the same

☛

WiFi network as your computer.

Connect your MOTU interface to your computer with a USB cable (included) or Thunderbolt cable (sold separately). If you have a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac running OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later, you can alternately connect your MOTU interface to the Mac’s Ethernet port with a standard CAT-5e or CAT-6 Ethernet cable (sold separately).

Switch on your MOTU interface.

From your iPad or iPhone, launch the MOTU

■

AVB Discovery app, and tap your interface.

■

You should now see the

MOTU AVB Control

web app in your browser, as shown on page 18. If not, visit Appendix A, “Troubleshooting” (page 87).

■

For advanced network options, and device discovery from any modern browser, see chapter 9, “Networking” (page 79).

Choose a preset from the Quick Setup.

Preset Application

Audio interface Operate as a standard audio interface.

Open the

MOTU AVB Control

web app by doing

one of the following:

If you have a Mac, choose your MOTU interface

■

from the MOTU AVB Discovery app menu.

MOTU AVB Discovery app menu

■

If you have a PC, launch the

shortcut found on the Windows desktop or

Setup

Start menu> All Programs> MOTU

MOTU AVB WebUI

Stand-alone mixer Operate as a stand-alone mixer, where all

Interface + mixer A combination of the above two presets.

Live recording with monitor mixing

Stage I/O Route audio inputs from one AVB interface

Studio Input Expander

Studio Output Expander

Optical Converter Multi-channel analog-to-digital converter

inputs are mixed to the main outs and monitor outs.

Record a live concert or recording session, with a full monitor mix.

to another, through Ethernet cabling.

Routes expansion unit’s physical inputs to main system using AVB network streams

Routes main systems’s AVB network streams to physical outputs on expansion unit.

Page 8

Page 9

1065431 2 7 8 9 11

scroll through menu options. Push again to descend

into the submenus, if applicable. To choose the current

setting, push SELECT a third time. Push BACK to return

to the previous menu level, and do so repeatedly to exit

the menu altogether.

including its IP address.

numerically displays gain settings for eight channels at

a time. Use the front panel knobs to adjust each

channel, from left to right, starting with the MAIN

all inputs and outputs. It can also show device settings

12. The multi-purpose backlit LCD displays level meters for

volume knob.

and network information, using the knobs to the left.

13. Push SELECT to enter the LCD menu. Turn SELECT to

121314

kHz), there are sixteen channels of input and output. At

2x (88.2 or 96 kHz), there are eight channels.

9. ADAT OPTICAL METERS. At 1x sample rates (44.1 or 48

sample rate and clock mode (source) for the unit.

10. The CLOCK section displays the current operating

14. Push ID to display network settings for the device,

15. Push TRIM to enter trim mode. In this mode, the LCD

and-play” protocols. That means you can turn the 1248

off and back on without restarting your computer.

11. POWER SWITCH: Thunderbolt, AVB, and USB are “plug-

1248 Front Panel

power, and optional -20 dB pad switches for each mic

input. The Precision Digital Trim™ knob provides 63 dB

of preamp gain. Turn the knob to see the gain adjust-

ments on a large-scale, horizontal meter.

guitar inputs, and eight balanced (TRS) quarter-inch

inputs on the rear panel.

impedance guitar inputs that provide authentic guitar

4. GUITAR INPUTS with volume control. These are high-

quarter-inch outputs, main outs, and monitor outs.

7. ANALOG OUTPUT METERS for the eight balanced (TRS)

amp volume response and feel.

8. S/PDIF DIGITAL METERS (stereo input and output).

5. MIC INPUT preamp gain, switchable 48V phantom

front panel settings, can also be adjusted from the

MOTU AVB Control web app.

1. MAIN OUT volume control. This setting, along with all

6. ANALOG INPUT METERS for the four mic inputs, two

2. MONITOR OUT volume control.

3. PHONE OUTPUTS with volume control.

Page 10

1248 Rear Panel

802.1 network connectivity to other network devices.

Examples include:

11. This AVB ethernet port provides industry standard IEEE

inch connectors that can also accept an unbalanced plug.

Use with line level signals up to +24 dBu, including

8. These eight analog inputs are balanced (TRS) quarter-

Another 1248 or any other MOTU AVB-equipped audio

interface, such as the 1248, 8M, 16A, 24Ai, 24Ao, 112D,

Monitor 8, etc. ■A standard ethernet hub or Wi-Fi router (for internet

■

synthesizers, drum machines, effects processors, etc.

These inputs are also equipped with the 1248’s Precision

Digital Trim™ feature: digitally controlled analog trims

that let you adjust input level in 1 dB increments from

the included MOTU AVB Control web app software.

connection and communication with the MOTU AVB

Control web app software).■A standard AVB Ethernet switch for high-speed, low-

provides individual preamp gain (63 dB), switchable 48V

phantom power, and an optional -20 dB pad.

9. Connect up to four microphones here. Each input

latency, high-capacity audio connectivity to an AVB

audio network.■A recent-generation Mac (any Mac with a Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt or USB 2.0, using a standard Thunderbolt or

USB cable. For details, see “Setup for multiple Thunder-

bolt and USB interfaces” on page 42.

10. Connect the 1248 to the computer here via either

port) running OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later. This

allows you to operate the 1248 as an audio interface

over Ethernet.

output for secondary studio monitors, or any other

desired destination. These connectors are balanced (TRS)

quarter-inch connectors that can also accept an unbal-

anced plug (with the ring disconnected). Control volume

from the MOTU AVB Control web app or from the front

panel volume control.

primary (powered) studio monitors or PA speakers, or

any other desired destination. These connectors are

balanced (TRS) quarter-inch connectors that can also

accept an unbalanced plug (with the ring disconnected).

Control volume from the web app or from the front panel

volume control.

quarter-inch connectors that can also accept an unbal-

anced plug (with the ring disconnected). The output trim

can be adjusted from the Output Setting section of the

5. The MONITOR OUT pair provides auxiliary stereo analog

6. The MAIN OUT pair provides stereo analog output for

7. The 1248’s eight analog outputs are balanced (TRS)

Device Tab in the MOTU AVB Control web app software.

11 10

2 3 7 8 94 5 6

tional power supply.

tions, such as digital transfers with devices that cannot

slave to the clock supplied by their digital I/O connection

with the 1248.

of 24-bit ADAT optical digital I/O at 1x sample rates (44.1

or 48 kHz) and 8 channels at 2x sample rates (88.2 or 96

kHz). They are disabled at higher sample rates. The IN

and OUT ports on the right provide channels 1-8 (or 1-4

at 2x sample rates), and the left-hand ports provide

channels 9-16 (or 5-8 at 2x sample rates).

and output at all supported sample rates (up to 96 kHz).

The input provides sample rate conversion, as explained

1. The 1248 is equipped with an auto-switching interna-

2. BNC word clock jacks. Use them for a variety of applica-

3. These ADAT optical “lightpipe” jacks provide 16 channels

in “S/PDIF with sample rate conversion” on page 46.

4. These jacks provide stereo, 24-bit S/PDIF digital input

Page 11

632

numerically displays gain settings for eight channels at a

time. Use the front panel knobs to adjust each channel.

11. Push TRIM to enter trim mode. In this mode, the LCD

8M Front Panel

4 5

all inputs and outputs. It can also show device settings

and network information, using the knobs to the left.

8. The multi-purpose backlit LCD displays level meters for

outputs.

4. OUTPUT METERS for the eight balanced TRS analog

through menu options. Push again to descend into the

submenus, if applicable. To choose the current setting,

9. Push SELECT to enter the LCD menu. Turn SELECT to scroll

rates (44.1 or 48 kHz), there are sixteen channels of input

and output. At 2x (88.2 or 96 kHz), there are eight

channels.

5. ADAT OPTICAL input and output metering. At 1x sample

push SELECT a third time. Push BACK to return to the

previous menu level, and do so repeatedly to exit the

menu altogether.

rate and clock mode (source) for the unit.

6. The CLOCK section displays the current operating sample

including its IP address.

10. Push ID to display network settings for the device,

and-play” protocols. That means you can turn the 8M off

and back on without restarting your computer.

7. POWER SWITCH: Thunderbolt, AVB, and USB are “plug-

power, and optional -20 dB pad for each mic input. The

Precision Digital Trim™ knob provides 53 dB of preamp

gain. Turn the knob to see the gain adjustments on a

large-scale, horizontal meter.

V-Limit™ feature is engaged for a mic input, and V-Limit

kicks in, you’ll see a compression meter extend

downwards from the top right of the meter, as shown on

channels 1 and 6 in the illustration above. For more

information, see “8M mic/guitar input meters with

V-Limit™ compressor” on page 61. Also see “Soft Clip™”

1. HEADPHONE JACK with volume control.

2. MIC INPUT preamp gain, switchable 48V phantom

3. INPUT METERS for the eight mic inputs. If the 8M’s

on page 45.

Page 12

802.1 network connectivity to other network devices.

Examples include:

7. This AVB ethernet port provides industry standard IEEE

Another 8M or any other MOTU AVB-equipped audio

interface, such as the 1248, 8M, 16A, 24Ai, 24Ao, 112D,

Monitor 8, etc. ■A standard ethernet hub or Wi-Fi router (for internet

■

connection and communication with the MOTU AVB

Control web app software).■A standard AVB Ethernet switch for high-speed, low-

latency, high-capacity audio connectivity to an AVB

audio network.■A recent-generation Mac (any Mac with a Thunderbolt

port) running OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later. This

allows you to operate the 8M as an audio interface over

Ethernet.

8M Rear Panel

4 51 2 3

inch connectors that can also accept an unbalanced plug

(with the ring disconnected). They are equipped with

4. The 8M’s eight analog outputs are balanced TRS quarter-

very high quality 24-bit 192 kHz converters. The output

trim can be adjusted from the Output Setting section of

the Device Tab in the MOTU AVB Control web app

software.

5. These XLR/TRS combo jacks accept either a mic cable or a

quarter-inch cable, balanced or unbalanced, from a

guitar or line input. Use the front panel controls to adjust

individual preamp gain, 48V phantom power, and an

optional -20 dB pad for each mic input. The quarter-inch

plug is equipped with a high-impedance circuit for

guitar input.

Thunderbolt or USB 2.0, using a standard Thunderbolt or

USB cable. For details, see “Setup for multiple Thunder-

6. Connect the 8M to the computer here via either

bolt and USB interfaces” on page 42.

7 6

tional power supply.

tions, such as digital transfers with devices that cannot

slave to the clock supplied by their digital I/O connection

with the 8M.

of 24-bit ADAT optical digital I/O at 1x sample rates (44.1

or 48 kHz) and 8 channels at 2x sample rates (88.2 or 96

kHz). They are disabled at higher sample rates. The IN

and OUT ports on the right provide channels 1-8 (or 1-4),

1. The 8M is equipped with an auto-switching interna-

2. BNC word clock jacks. Use them for a variety of applica-

3. These ADAT optical “lightpipe” jacks provide 16 channels

and the left-hand ports provide channels 9-16 (or 5-8).

Page 13

431 52

ARROW buttons to scroll through menu options. Push

again to descend into the submenus, if applicable. To

choose the current setting, push SELECT a third time.

Push BACK to return to the previous menu level, and do

so repeatedly to exit the menu altogether.

6. Push SEL (select) to enter the LCD menu. Push the

including its IP address.

7. Push ID to display network settings for the device,

16A Front Panel

rate and clock mode (source) for the unit.

4. The CLOCK section displays the current operating sample

quarter-inch inputs.

1. ANALOG INPUT METERS for the sixteen balanced (TRS)

and-play” protocols. That means you can turn the 16A off

and back on without restarting your computer.

5. POWER SWITCH: Thunderbolt, AVB, and USB are “plug-

quarter-inch outputs.

rates (44.1 or 48 kHz), there are sixteen channels of input

2. ANALOG OUTPUT METERS for the sixteen balanced (TRS)

3. ADAT OPTICAL input and output metering. At 1x sample

and output. At 2x (88.2 or 96 kHz), there are eight

channels.

Page 14

16A Rear Panel

Another 16A or any other MOTU AVB-equipped audio

interface, such as the 1248, 8M, 16A, 24Ai, 24Ao, 112D,

Monitor 8, etc. ■A standard ethernet hub or Wi-Fi router (for internet

connection and communication with the MOTU AVB

Control web app software).■A standard AVB Ethernet switch for high-speed, low-

latency, high-capacity audio connectivity to an AVB

audio network.■A recent-generation Mac (any Mac with a Thunderbolt

port) running OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later. This

allows you to operate the 16A as an audio interface

802.1 network connectivity to other network devices.

Examples include:

7. This AVB ethernet port provides industry standard IEEE

■

over Ethernet.

41 2 3

quarter-inch connectors that can also accept an unbal-

anced plug (with the ring disconnected). The output trim

can be adjusted from the Output Setting section of the

Device Tab in the MOTU AVB Control web app software.

inch connectors that can also accept an unbalanced plug.

Use with line level signals up to +24 dBu, including

synthesizers, drum machines, effects processors, etc.

These inputs are also equipped with the 16A’s Precision

Digital Trim™ feature: digitally controlled analog trims

that let you adjust input level in 1 dB increments from

the included MOTU AVB Control web app software.

Thunderbolt or USB 2.0, using a standard Thunderbolt or

USB cable. For details, see “Setup for multiple Thunder-

4. The 16A’s sixteen analog outputs are balanced TRS

5. These sixteen analog inputs are balanced TRS quarter-

bolt and USB interfaces” on page 42.

6. Connect the 16A to the computer here via either

7 6

tional power supply.

tions, such as digital transfers with devices that cannot

slave to the clock supplied by their digital I/O connection

with the 16A.

of 24-bit ADAT optical digital I/O at 1x sample rates (44.1

or 48 kHz) and 8 channels at 2x sample rates (88.2 or 96

kHz). They are disabled at higher sample rates. The IN

and OUT ports on the right provide channels 1-8 (or 1-4),

1. The 16A is equipped with an auto-switching interna-

2. BNC word clock jacks. Use them for a variety of applica-

3. These ADAT optical “lightpipe” jacks provide 16 channels

and the left-hand ports provide channels 9-16 (or 5-8).

Page 15

MOTU AVB Switch

MOTU AVB interfaces (1248, 8M and 16A)■Another MOTU AVB Switch (to extend the network)■A 3rd-party AVB switch■An Ethernet device, Wi-Fi router or Ethernet network■A third-party AVB device

■

1. Use these 1 gigabit AVB NETWORK ports to connect any of the following:

21 3

device, Wi-Fi router or Ethernet network. DO NOT connect AVB devices to this port; it does

2. This standard Ethernet port can be used to connect a standard 10/100/1Gb Ethernet

not support AVB.

supply that conforms to the indicated speciﬁcations.

connected to a port , the 1 Gb LED illuminates.

3. Connect the included 15V DC power supply here. Alternately, you can use any power

4. The front panel LEDs indicate signal activity for each port. When a 1 gigabit device is

NOTE: When making network connections, use shielded CAT-5e or CAT-6 cables (a higher

grade cable). For local connections, patch cables can be used, but will reduce the maximum

total cable run length.

No conﬁguration is necessary. The switch conﬁgures itself and manages all device

discovery, conﬁguration, and system resource allocation.■The switch establishes and maintains extremely accurate timing and synchronization

among all connected devices.■The switch negotiates audio routing throughout the network and guarantees that audio

■

The MOTU AVB Switch provides deep functionality that goes beyond

a standard Ethernet switch.

integrity is maintained, regardless of external (non AVB) network trafﬁc.■The switch consolidates audio, synchronization, and control together.

For more information, see chapter 9, “Net working” (page 79).

Page 16

Page 17

MOTU AVB Control Web App

CHAPTER

OVERVIEW

MOTU AVB Control

comp lete cont rol over your MOTU aud io inter face. If you have several MOTU AVB interfaces networked together, such as the 1248, 16A and 8M, you can control them all. If you are working with a large-scale network of many MOTU AVB interfaces, you can access and control any device on the network.

is a web app that gives you

IT’S NOT ON YOUR HARD DRIVE

The MOTU AVB Control web app is served from the MOTU interface hardware itself, therefore it is not an application on your computer’s hard drive. Instead, access it by using the

Discovery Setup

by typing your MOTU device’s IP Address.

app for Mac, the

for Windows or through your web browser

MOTU AVB

MOTU AVB WebUI

USE YOUR FAVORITE WEB BROWSER

The MOTU AVB Control web app runs in any modern web browser on any device connected to your MOTU interface, either directly or wirelessly through a WiFi network. You can use any device you w ish: a desktop computer, laptop, iPad, tablet, iPhone or smar t phone. If it can r un a web browser, it can run the web app. You can use any browser you prefer: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE 11 etc. The latest versions are strongly recommended.

CONTROL FROM MULTIPLE DEVICES

You can run the web app on multiple host devices simultaneously.

RUN THE INSTALLER, GET THE APP

Visit www.motu.com/avb to get the latest MOTU AVB installer and run it on your computer to install

MOTU AVB Discovery

the

AVB WebUI Setup

elements. Visit the Apple App Store to download the discovery app onto your iPad or iPhone.

app (Mac) or

(Windows) and other software

MOTU

MAKE HARDWARE AND NETWORK CONNECTIONS

Connect your MOTU interface to your computer or laptop with a Thunderbolt or USB cable. Make sure your iPad, iPhone, tablet or smartphone is connected to the same WiFi network as your computer or device. You can use any network connection scenario explained in “Setup for web app control” on page 43.

LAUNCHING THE WEB APP

To launch the web app, do any of the following:

■

If you have a Mac, choose your MOTU interface from the MOTU AVB Discovery app menu, as shown below. If you are on Windows, launch the

MOTU AVB WebUI Setup

desktop or in

■

From your iPad or iPhone, launch the MOTU AVB Discovery app.

■

In your favorite web browser, type this URL:

localhost:1280.

or USB connection to your MOTU interface.)

■

If the Ethernet port on your interface is connected to your Ethernet or Wi-Fi network, type the unit’s IP address (see below) into your browser.

You should now see the MOTU AVB Control web app in your browser, as shown on page 18. If not visit Appendix A, “Troubleshooting” page (87).

Obtaining your MOTU device’s IP address

On the front panel of the interface, push the ID knob or button once. The LCD now displays the unit’s I P add ress , which sh ould lo ok some thing like this:

“IP Address: 192.168.1.209”.

Start menu> All Programs> MOTU

(This URL requires a Thunderbolt

sh ort cut o n th e Wind ows

Page 18

DEVICE TAB

5 4

3 2

1. If you have two or more MOTU AVB interfaces, the Device list lets you choose the one you are currently controlling with the web app.

2. The Aux Mixing tab lets you view each Aux bus in the mixer, by itself.

3. The Mixing tab gives you access to the mixing and DSP in the interface.

4. The Routing tab displays a grid matrix, where you can make direct connections between inputs and outputs, your computer, the mixer, and network audio streams, if networked interfaces are connected.

5. The Device tab has settings for the hardware itself, such as mic input phantom power and preamp gain.

6. Expands and collapses the sidebar.

7. Lets you create, save, recall and manage presets for your MOTU AVB interface. These presets capture and recall the complete state of the device (all settings in all tabs).

8. Choose the desired sample rate.

9. The Quick Setup button prompts factory presets used to conﬁgure your interface for a speciﬁc application. See Chapter 6 for details.

10. Click to rename the interface. To restore the default name, delete the current name.

11. Click this device ID button to identify the unit you are currently viewing and controlling with the web app software. The front panel LCD on the hardware itself will ﬂash the name of the device, and its name will also ﬂash in the Device list (1).

12. If an update is available for your device, and the computer you are viewing it from is connected to the internet, you’ll be notiﬁed here. Click More Info to learn what’s new and start the update process. Firmware updating requires a network connection. See Appendix D, “Updating Firmware” page (99).

13. Choose the clock source from the Clock Mode menu. Your MOTU device will resolve its digital clock to this master source. See “Synchronization” on page 51 and other clockrelated topics on pages 52-53.

14. Indicates that the current device (1) is successfully resolved to its chosen Clock Mode source (13). If it cannot lock for some reason, this icon ﬂashes red. Check your chosen clock source, cables, etc.

15. The Word Clock output on the your MOTU interface can operate as an OUT or a THRU. In addition, at higher sample rates, it can either follow the system clock or operate at the corresponding 1x sample rate. For details, see “Daisy-chaining word clock” on page 53.

16. If you have multiple MOTU AVB interfaces, one of them may serve as a master clock source for the

network. Click this button to choose the current interface (1) as the master clock source.

17. The Input Settings section provides gain settings for inputs, plus phase invert for mic and guitar inputs, if any. You can also toggle the 48V phantom power and -20 dB pad for the mic inputs.

18. The Output Settings section lets you adjust the trim for any output or output pair which supports it. Phones, Main, and Monitor outputs provide full volume control. Analog outputs provide calibration control (-24 to 0 dB).

19. The 8M mic inputs have these additional input settings. See “8M mic/guitar input meters with V-Limit™ compressor” on page 61 and “Soft Clip™” on page 45.

Page 19

DEVICE TAB (CONTINUED)

Scroll down to view these additional Device tab settings.

19. In the Input/Output Banks sec tions, you can disable banks that you are not using. This hides them from the routing tab and mixer to simplify operation and conserve DSP power.

20. AV B is IEEE’s Audio Video Bridging Ethernet standard for highbandwidth, low-latency audio streaming over Ethernet. If your 1248, 8M or 16A is connected to a 2nd MOTU AVB interface through its network port, or to an AVB switch for access to an extended AVB network, you can stream audio channels to other destinations on the network. See chapter 9, “Networking” (page 79).

21. If you have AVB network input streams enabled, connect them to the output streams of other devices on the network here.

22. In the Computer Setup section, you can specify how many audio channels you would like to be able to stream to and from your computer, up to 128 channels each way, simultaneously. For example, the 1248 has 32 physical inputs and 34 outputs, so to be able to access them all individually, you should conﬁgure these two settings for 32 and 34, respectively. Map them as desired in the Routing tab (page 20). You can specify a higher number of audio channels if you will be streaming additional channels to and from the AVB network or the mixer.

23. The Computer Volume Controls setting is only available when your MOTU interface is connected to a Mac using Thunderbolt. When enabled, this option allows you to control the volume of From Computer channels 1-2 using the volume controls on your Mac’s keyboard.

24. Use these buttons to manually check for and install updates for your MOTU AVB device. For complete details, see Appendix D, “Updating Firmware” page (99). Updating from a ﬁle can be done ofﬂine from your computer, using an update you’ve obtained through MOTU’s web site. The Check For Updates button requires that the computer (or device) you are using to view your

MOTU AVB interface is connected to the internet through a local network or WiFi.

25. Use these buttons to restart the device or restore its factory presets.

26. In the Optical Setup section, you can choose between 8-channel ADAT or stereo TOSLink formats for bank A input and output, independently. At

882. or 96 kHz, the ADAT setting supports 4-channel SMUX format. See “Optical” on page 46.

27. The digital mixer in your MOTU AVB interface supports up to 48 channels. If you don’t need that many inputs, you can lower the number here to simplify mixer and routing operation and conserve DSP bandwidth for effects processing.

Page 20

ROUTING TAB

The Routing Tab lets you route inputs to outputs. Outputs are listed by row on the left; inputs are listed in columns across the top. Simply click in the grid to make a single connection. Click and drag to make multiple connections in one gesture. To route a single input to multiple outputs, make multiple connections vertically in the same column below the input. To mix multiple inputs to the same output, you’ll need to use the mixer (page 21) and the Mix In bank in the routing tab (16).

1. In its collapsed form, (shown here), the sidebar displays icons for each tab.

2. Click this icon to view the Routing tab, shown on this page.

3. Click here to show or hide the sidebar.

4. Create, save, recall and manage routing presets.

5. Outputs are listed in rows on the left.

54 7

6. When you make a connection, the source (input) signal is listed by name here in the Source column, just to the right of the output it is being routed to.

7. Inputs are listed in columns across the top of the grid, starting with the physical inputs on the hardware itself. In this example, each 1248 input bank is expanded to reveal individual input channels, except for the 8-channel ADAT A and B banks, which are currently collapsed.

8. The From Computer input bank lets you route audio channels from your host audio software to any output, including AVB network streams or the mixer. In this example, the column is collapsed to save space. Use the Device tab to choose how many computer channels are available.

9. AVB streams are 8-channel banks that let you route audio to or from other devices on the AVB network (if any are connected) to local hardware outputs. Use the Device

tab (page 19) to conﬁgure how many AVB streams you wish to work with. If you aren’t working with network audio, you can set the number of streams to zero.

10. These input streams are busses that originate from the mixer, which supply the main mix bus, monitor mix bus, seven stereo aux busses, three stereo group busses, a reverb return bus and postFX channel sends (for sending processed inputs to the computer or elsewhere). You can route these mixer busses to any outputs you wish (5), including physical outputs, host software on your computer, other devices on the AVB network, or even back in to the mixer (beware of feedback loops!)

11. Use these triangles to expand or collapse groups of inputs. For example, it might be convenient to collapse banks that you are not using at the moment.

12. Click a channel label to rename it.

13. Audio activit y indicators.

8 9

14. Click the grid to make a connection.

15. In this example, analog inputs 7-8

16. The Mix In group lets you route audio

17. These AVB output streams let you

18. The To Computer output bank routes

19. Use these triangles to expand or

20. These are the physical outputs on

Click a connection to remove it. Click and drag to make or break multiple connections in one gesture.

are being routed directly to analog outputs 5-6. Also, hardware inputs and outputs are being routed to and from the computer channels, which are shown collapsed in this example.

to the 48-channel mixer.

route any audio to other devices on the AVB network.

any input to host audio software running on your computer. Use the Device tab to choose how many computer channels are available.

collapse groups of outputs.

the interface itself.

Page 21

MIXING TAB

6 7 8 10 11 12

4 5

93 13 14

The Mixing tab gives you full access to the 48-channel mixer in your MOTU AVB interface, which provides a main mix bus, monitor bus, three group busses, seven aux busses, and a dedicated reverb bus. Use the Device tab to conﬁgure how many inputs you wish to work with (up to 48). Use the Routing tab (page 20) to route channels to the mixer inputs. Channels can come from any source, such as the physical inputs on the interface, channels coming from the computer, or channels coming from the AVB net work .

1. Shows and hides the Mixer Setup sidebar (3), which lets you show and hide channels, channel strip settings, effects, and the Legend (6).

2. The Mixing tab selects the mixer.

3. Use the Mixer Setup sidebar to show and hide elements in the mixer.

4. Shows and hides all elements in the section with one click.

5. Create, save, recall and manage mixer presets.

6. This column is the Legend. It provides labels and controls for channel strip sections. The menu at the top lets you create, name, save and manage entire mixer presets.

7. Mixer input channels.

8. This input channel has its Gate and Compressor enabled. Disabled effects are grayed out.

9. This is Group bus 1-2. You can send inputs to this group with their Group send fader (24). Groups are sent to the Main Mix with its Main send fader (24) or aux busses (19).

10. Group buses, the main mix bus, and the reverb return bus are equipped with the Leveler, a vintage compressor modeled after the Teletronix LA-2A leveling ampliﬁer.

11. The reverb channel strip provides controls for the reverb processor. Use the reverb send on individual inputs or groups to route them to the reverb bus, which can then be mixed

in with the main mix or aux busses. Disable the reverb processor to use it as an extra group.

12. The Monitor Bus can mirror the output of any other bus, or it can act as a separate Solo bus. See page 24.

13. The Main Mix bus is the master fader for the entire mixer. You can add EQ and Leveler compression.

14. You can adjust Aux bus output levels here, or in the Aux Mixing tab shown on page 22.

15. Click a name to change it, except for the Main Mix, Monitor, and Reverb busses, which cannot be changed.

16. Stereo toggle to switch channel pairs between mono or stereo. Use the other menus to manage channel strip presets and to choose audio sources and destinations for mixer inputs and bus outputs.

17. Gate processing for inputs.

18. The Dynamics sec tion provides a conventional compressor for inputs and the Leveler for output busses.

22 23

19. Reverb and aux sends.

20. Solo and mute. On the Monitor bus, the SC button clears all solos.

21. Channel faders.

22. Choose the source for the Monitor bus from this menu. It can mirror any output bus or the Solo Bus.

23. When Follow Solo is enabled, the Monitor bus temporarily switches to the solo bus when any channel is soloed.

24. Group sends.

25. ‘S’ lets you solo the group. ‘PRE’ toggles the sends between pre- and post-fader routing, i.e. before or after the channel fader.

26. Show and hide output busses here.

27. Show/hide all busses with one click.

28. S ame as (25) above.

29. Show and hide inputs here.

30. Show/hide all inputs with one click.

Page 22

AUX MIXING TAB

The Aux Mixing tab provides quick access to your MOTU AVB interface’s mix busses (aux busses, groups and reverb bus), viewed one at a time. Choose a bus in the Aux Mix Target section and then use the faders to directly mix the send levels from all mixer inputs, groups, and the reverb bus.

1. Shows and hides the Mixer Setup sidebar (3), which lets you show and hide channels.

2. The Aux Mixing tab (shown on this page) gives you access to the Aux busses and groups in the mixer.

3. Use the Aux Mix Target sidebar to control which aux bus or group you are currently viewing. You can also show/hide inputs and group sends.

4. Click the aux bus or group you wish to view in the window. In this example, Aux bus 1-2 is being displayed.

5. These are mixer inputs (aux sends from each mixer channel). To include an input in the aux bus mix, simply bring up its fader.

6. These are group bus faders.

7. This is the mixer’s reverb bus fader.

8. This is the master fader for the current aux bus being viewed (4).

9. Indicates if the input or group is stereo or mono. Each channel’s mono/stereo status cannot be toggled (unlike MIXING page).

10. Solo and mute for the aux bus master fader.

11. When Prefader is enabled, all send levels to the aux bus are independent of the main fader for each channel. In other words, changing an individual channel’s main fader in the Mixing tab won’t affect its send level to the aux bus.

12. Click the View Personal Mix button to open a new web page that displays only that speciﬁc Aux Mix or Group.

13. Show and hide mix groups and the reverb bus here.

14. Use the Groups button here to show or hide all groups with one click.

15. Show and hide mixer inputs (channel sends) here.

16. Show and hide all mixer inputs with one click here.

Page 23

MIXER INPUT CHANNEL STRIPS

2 3 4 5

To access a mixer input channel strip, go to the Mixing tab (page 21), reveal the side bar (item #3 on page 21), and then show the input channel you want in the Mixer Inputs section (29).

To show and hide sections of the channel strip, such as EQ or the compressor, use the Contro ls section of the side bar (item #3 in the Mixing tab on page 21).

1. Click the input channel name to change it. Delete the current name to restore the default name.

2. Provides hardware settings for the input. For example, if the input is a mic input, you’ll see settings for preamp gain, 48V phantom power and so on.

3. Choose the source for the input channel. You can also make this setting directly on the Routing grid (page 20).

4. Create, name, save and recall channel strip presets.

5. Toggles the input between mono and a stereo pair.

6. High Pass Filter with cutoff frequency.

7. Each effect in the channel strip (High Pass Filter, Gate, EQ, etc.) has an on/ off button (on the left) and a preset menu on the right, for managing presets that apply only to that processing module. For example, you can create your own EQ presets for the EQ modules.

8. The Gate processor provides standard attack, threshold and release controls.

9. The Gate indicator turns red when the gate is engaged.

10. The EQ section provides four bands of parametric EQ, each with standard Gain, Frequency, and Bandwidth settings.

11. The High and Low EQ bands provide a Shelf ﬁlter button for standard high and low shelf ﬁltering.

12. The Compressor provides standard controls for Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release and Gain. Normally, the compressor operates in Peak mode, where signal peaks determine the

input level. Engage the RMS button to uses RMS values (a computational method for determining overall loudness) to measure the input level.

13. Input level and gain reduction meters for the compressor.

14. Aux and reverb sends.

15. Solo/Mute. Mute affects all sends as well as the main channel. Pre-fader sends are not affected by Mute.

16. Move the fader to adjust level. Double-click to return to zero (unity gain) or -∞.

17. Click the dB scale numbers to make the fader jump exactly to that level. Click and drag horizontally to jump consecutive faders to the same level.

18. Click to type in an exact dB level.

19. Channel pan. For mono inputs, double-click to center.

20. Main Mix Slider is used to feed signal to the Main Mix. Slider is set to 0 dB by default, so all channel strips are pre-routed to the Main Mix bus. If a channel is being sent to a Group (which will eventually be fed to the Main Mix), drag the slider to -∞ so it is not sent to Main Mix directly.

21. Group sends.

22. ‘S’ lets you solo the group. ‘PRE’ toggles the sends between pre- and post-fader routing, i.e. before or after the channel fader.

23. Clears all solos.

24. ‘S’ lets you solo the Aux bus. ‘PRE’ toggles the sends between pre- and post-fader routing, i.e. before or after the channel fader. The dots let you toggle the Aux bus between mono and stereo.

25. This side bar, with the section labels in it, can be shown or hidden using the Legend switch in the Control s section of the side bar (item #3 in the Mixing tab on page 21).

26. Shows how much DSP power is being used by the mixer hardware. To free up DSP bandwidth, try reducing the number of mixer ins, disabling channel effects, reverb, etc. See “DSP Usage” on page 78 for more info.

Page 24

MAIN MIX AND MONITOR CHANNEL STRIPS

3 4 5 6

3 4

To access the Main Mix and Monitor channel strips, go to the Mixing tab (page 21) and scroll the display to the right, beyond the inputs and groups.

To show and hide sections of the channel strip, such as EQ or the Leveler, use the Contro ls section of the side bar (item #3 in the Mixing tab on page 21).

1. By default, the Monitor bus ser ves as a solo bus. However, it can be set to mirror the main mix bus, or any other aux bus, group, or the reverb bus, in addition to monitoring solo. Make this choice in the source menu (12). Use the Routing grid (page 20) to specify the output for the Monitor bus.

2. The Main Mix bus is the primary stereo mix.

3. Provides hardware settings for any assigned outputs that have them. For example, if the Main Out bus is assigned to the Phones and Main Outs (physical outputs on the interface), you’ll see trim settings for both pairs. Grayed out if there are no settings for output.

4. Use this output assignment widget to choose the destination — or multiple destinations — for the bus. You can also make this setting directly on the Routing grid (page 20).

5. Use the preset menus to create save, recall, and otherwise manage channel strip presets for the Monitor bus and Main Mix bus.

6. Indicates that the bus is stereo.

7. The four-band parametric EQ for the

8. The Leveler provides specialized gain

9. Mutes for the Main Mix bus and

10. Master faders for the Main Mix bus

11. When Follow Solo is enabled, the

12. Choose the source for the Monitor bus

13. The SC button clears all solos.

14. This mid-band EQ is currently

Main Mix bus operates the same as described for input channels (items 10 and 11 on page 23), including High and Low Shelf ﬁlter options.

reduction modeled after the legendary Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Ampliﬁer. For complete details, see “Leveler” on page 76.

Monitor bus.

and Monitor bus. Use the same techniques described for input channel faders (items 16, 17 and 18 on page 23).

Monitor bus switches to the solo bus when any channel is soloed. NOTE: if an aux bus is soloed, then the Monitor bus carries only the soloed aux bus (any current channel solos are excluded).

from this menu. It can mirror the main mix, any aux bus, group, the reverb bus, or it can serve only as a Solo bus.

disabled (and therefore grayed out).

Page 25

AUX BUS CHANNEL STRIPS

Aux busses can be used to create sub-mixes. An aux bus can be assigned to any output in

the Routing grid (page 20).

To access an Aux bus channel strip, go to the Mixing tab (page 21), reveal the side bar (item #3 on page 21), and then show the aux busses you want in the Mixer Outputs section (26).

To show and hide the four-band EQ section of the channel strip, use the Cont rols section of the side bar (item #3 in the Mixing tab on page 21).

1. A stereo aux bus.

2. A mono aux bus.

3. Click this dot to toggle an aux bus between mono and stereo.

4. The four-band parametric EQ module for Aux busses operates the same as described for input channels (items 10 and 11 on page 23), including High and Low Shelf ﬁlter options.

5. Aux bus solo and mute.

6. Aux bus master fader.

7. Click to type speciﬁc value manually.

8. Click the dB scale numbers to make the fader jump exactly to that level. Click and drag horizontally to jump consecutive faders to the same level.

9. A disabled EQ band.

10. Use these menus (hardware settings, output assignment, and presets) in a similar fashion as described for the Main Out bus (items 3-5 on page 24).

Page 26

GROUP AND REVERB CHANNEL STRIPS

Group busses can be used to create a mix subgroup, which is a set of inputs you wish to control together as a group. Groups differ from aux busses in that they have aux sends, a reverb send, as well as a main mix send. In addition, group busses are equipped with the Leveler.

The Reverb bus is a special group bus that

provides a reverb processor. If you disable the reverb, the reverb bus functions as a (fourth) regular group bus.

To access the Group and Reverb bus channel strips, go to the Mixing tab (page 21), reveal the side bar (item #3 on page 21), and then show the desired Group busses or Reverb bus in the Mixer Outputs section (26).

To show and hide the four-band EQ section of the channel strip, use the Cont rols section of the side bar (item #3 in the Mixing tab on page 21).

1. A Group bus channel strip. Click the name to rename it. Delete the current name to return to its default.

2. The Reverb bus. If you disable the Reverb processor, it can be used as a fourth Group bus. The Reverb channel strip is twice as wide as other mixer channel strips to accommodate the Reverb processor controls.

3. Group busses and the Reverb bus are always stereo.

4. The four-band parametric EQ module for Group busses and the Reverb bus operates the same as described for input channels (items 10 and 11 on page 23), including High and Low Shelf ﬁlter options.

5. The Reverb processor. For complete information, see “Reverb” on page 77.

6. Main Mix sends.

7. Master faders for the Group and Reverb busses.

8. Mute and Solo.

9. Use these menus (hardware settings, output assignment, and presets) in a similar fashion as described for the Main Out bus (items 3-5 on page 24).

Page 27

CHAPTER

1 About Your MOTU AVB Audio

Interface

The 1248, 8M, and 16A are hybrid Thunderbolt™/ USB2 audio interfaces with 48-channel digital mixers and AVB Ethernet networking capability. They can operate as audio interfaces for a computer, as stand-alone digital mixers, as gateways to an expanded studio system, as components of an extended AVB audio network, or as capable hybrid devices performing all of these roles simultaneously.

Together, they are designed to be a central component of a modern, high performance recording studio or live mixing platform. The following sections provide a brief overview of their main features and characteristics.

State-of-the-art A/D and D/A conversion

The analog section of each interface employs stateof-the-art 24-bit DACs and ADCs, which deliver analog recording and playback with remarkably high dynamic range at sample rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz.

Complementary I/O conﬁgurations

Each interface delivers an exceptional array of analog and digital audio. In addition, the interfaces are designed to complement one another in terms of delivering a wide range of I/O options; you can mix and match several interfaces and operate them as a uniﬁed I/O and mixing system. The following sections provide a bird’s-eye glance of the I/O conﬁgurations offered by each interface in the MOTU AVB family.

Each interface provides a variety of analog and digital interconnects, all active simultaneously, designed to provide everything you need for a wellequipped recording studio.

1248

66 simultaneous audio channels

Connection Input Output

Quarter-inch analog on bal/unbal TRS 8 12

Mic inputs with individual preamps on XLR 4 -

Hi-Z guitar inputs 2 -

Headphone output - 2 x stereo

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 16 16

RCA S/PDIF digital up to 96 kHz with SRC stereo stereo

Total 32 34

50 simultaneous audio channels

Connection Input Output

Quarter-inch analog on bal/unbal TRS - 8

Mic/guitar inputs on combo XLR/TRS 8 -

Headphone output - stereo

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 16 16

Total 24 26

16A

64 simultaneous audio channels

Connection Input Output

Quarter-inch analog on bal/unbal TRS 16 16

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 16 16

Total 32 32

Network I/O

Each interface is also capable of handling 128 channels of network audio input and output for an additional 256 simultaneous audio channels.

Page 28

Other MOTU AVB interfaces

The 1248, 8M and 16A are part of a larger family of audio interfaces, summarized below, with complementary I/O conﬁgurations.

24Ai

72 simultaneous audio channels

Connection Input Output

Balanced analog on 3x D-sub or 6x Phoenix 24 -

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 24 24

Total 48 24

24Ao

72 simultaneous audio channels;

Connection Input Output

Balanced analog on 3x D-sub or 6x Phoenix - 24

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 24 24

Total 24 48

Monitor 8

40 simultaneous audio channels (54 connections)

Universal connectivity

The 1248, 16A, and 8M can connect to a computer with Thunderbolt or high-speed USB 2.0 (which is compatible with USB 3.0). They are USB audio class-compliant, which means that they are iPad compatible (with a camera connection kit) and do not require driver installation for USB connection to a computer. Industry standard audio drivers for both Thunderbolt and USB operation provide universal compatibility with any audio software.

Alternately, the 1248, 16A, and 8M can be connected to the Ethernet port on a recentgeneration Mac (any Mac with Thunderbolt on it) running Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later for audio interface operation through AVB Ethernet.

On-board DSP with mixing and effects

Each interface is equipped with a powerful DSP engi ne that drives both a n ext ensive routing m atri x and a 48-input digital mixer with 12 stereo busses and effects. The mixer offers familiar operation modeled after large format mixing consoles.

Connection Input Output

Quarter-inch analog on bal/unbal TRS 8

XLR main out - 2

Summed mono quarter-inch out - 6

Headphone outs - 12

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48 kHz) 16 -

Total I/O connections 24 30

Total I/O channels (discrete channels) 24 16

112D

224 simultaneous audio channels

Connection Input Output

ADAT optical digital (up to 96 kHz) 24

AES/EBU on 8-ch DB25 D-sub 24 24

MADI on coaxial BNC 64 64

Total I/O connections 112 112

32-bit ﬂoating point processing

All of the mixing and effects processing in the DSP engine is handled with 32-bit ﬂoating point calculations, to maintain and deliver virtually unlimited headroom and the utmost in sound quality.

Modeled vintage effects processing

Effects include “classic” reverb, compression modeled after the legendary Teletronix LA-2A compressor, and 4-band EQ modeled after British analog console EQs.

AVB system expansion and audio networking

AV B stands for the IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging Ethernet standard for high-bandwidth,

low-latency audio streaming over Ethernet. The AVB Ethernet network port on each MOTU interface lets you add a second AVB-equipped MOTU interface using any standard CAT-5e

ABOUT YOUR MOTU AVB AUDIO INTERFACE

Page 29

Ethernet cable. You can network up to ﬁve MOTU interfaces together using a MOTU AVB Switch™ (sold separately), and then run them as a standalone network or as an extended bank of I/Os for your computer-based production system (or both). You can even connect multiple computers, each with full access to all devices on the network (including the other computers).

With additional standard AVB switches (from MOTU or other brands) and standard Ethernet cabling, you can build an extensive AVB audio network. The entire network operates with nearzero network latency, even over very long cable runs. MOTU’s AVB implementation allows you to stream hundreds of audio channels among devices and computers on the network with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), prioritizing audio streams over less important trafﬁc.

Matrix routing and multing

Each MOTU interface provides completely ﬂexible matrix-style audio routing and multing. You can route any analog or digital input, computer channel, or network stream to any other output, computer, or network device. You can also mult any single input to unlimited multiple output destinations.

256 channels of network audio I/O for your host computer

The 1248, 8M, and 16A interfaces let you stream up to 128 audio channels in and out, simultaneously, through their Thunderbolt connection to a host computer. Sources and destinations can include inputs and outputs on the device, inputs and outputs on other interfaces on the network, and even audio software apps running on other computers connected to other devices on the network.

Web app control

You can control on-board DSP, mixing, device settings, clock/sync settings, and network audio routing from the MOTU AVB Control web app software running in your favorite browser on a laptop, tablet or smart phone connected to your MOTU interface directly, or through your local WiFi network. Multiple devices can be used simultaneously to access any audio interface settings on the network.

Stand-alone mixing with wireless control

If you connect your MOTU interface to an Apple Airport or other WiFi router with a standard Ethernet cable, you can control its powerful mixing and DSP effects from your smart phone or tablet, without a computer — great for live sound mixing from your iPad, tablet, or other wireless device.

ADAT digital I/O

The 1248, 8M and 16A interfaces each provide two 8-channel banks of optical digital I/O. Connect outboard digital processors, digital mixers or other gear: 16 channels at 44.1/48 kHz or 8 channels at

88.2/96 kHz.

S/PDIF digital I/O with SRC

The 1248 provides S/PDIF digital input and output on standard RCA “coax” connectors. The input is equipped with Sample Rate Conversion (SRC), allowing you to input a digital signal running at a different sample rate than the 1248. See “S/PDIF with sample rate conversion” on page 46.

Word clock

Each MOTU interface supports standard word clock synchronization at any supported sample rate. When the interface is operating at 96 kHz, it can generate word clock output at either 96 or 48 kHz; the 1x equivalence is available as an option for word clock output when running at high sample rates (from 88.2 to 192 kHz). The word clock OUT port can alternately be used as a THRU

ABOUT YOUR MOTU AVB AUDIO INTERFACE

Page 30

port for word clock daisy-chaining. To conﬁgure, use the LCD menu to navigate to Settings -> Word Clock Thru Mode.

mic inputs and guitar inputs can be adjusted from the knobs on the front panel. You can save your trim conﬁgurations as a preset for instant recall.

Comprehensive metering

The large backlit LCD displays all signal activity at a glance with detailed metering for all analog and digital I/O. You can access many hardware settings directly from the front panel.

Headphone outputs

The 1248 front panel provides two independent headphone jacks with separate volume controls. You can program the outputs to mirror another set of 1248 outputs or act as their own independent outputs. The 8M also offers a single headphone output.

Precision Digital Trim™

On each interface, all of the analog inputs are equipped with digitally controlled analog trims, adjustable in 1 dB increments. The input trims for

Rack mount or desktop operation

Each interface is housed in a sturdy, metal-alloy, 19-inch, rack-mountable unit. The rack mounting brackets can be removed using a 7/64” hex wrench for desktop operation.

AudioDesk

AudioDesk is a full-featured audio workstation software package for Mac and Windows that is available as a free download for you as a 1248, 8M or 16A owner. Visit motu.com/avb to obtain your copy. AudioDesk provides multi-channel waveform editing, automated virtual mixing, graphic editing of ramp automation, real-time effects plug-ins with crossfades, support for many third-party audio plug-ins, sample-accurate editing and placement of audio, and more.

ABOUT YOUR MOTU AVB AUDIO INTERFACE

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CHAPTER

2 Packing List and

System Requirements

PACKING LIST

Your MOTU interface ships with the items listed below. If any of these items are not present in the box when you ﬁrst open it, please immediately contact your dealer or MOTU.

■ One audio interface

■ One USB cable

■ One power cord

■ One manual

■ Product registration card

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

■ A 1 GHz Intel-based Mac or Pentium-based PC

(or compatible). Faster CPUs are recommended for best performance.

■ 2 GB RAM; 4 GB or more recommended.

■ OS X 10.8 or later; Windows 7 or later; for

operation as an AVB Ethernet audio interface, Mac OS X 10.10 or later is required, running on a recent-generation Mac (any Mac with a Thunderbolt port on it).

PLEASE REGISTER TODAY!

Please register your MOTU interface today. There are two ways to register.

■ Visit www.motu.com/register

■ Fill out and mail the included product

registration card

As a registered user, you will be eligible to receive technical support and announcements about product enhancements as soon as they become available. Only registered users receive these special update notices, so please register today.

Thank you for taking the time to register your new MOTU products!

■ Available Thunderbolt or high-speed USB 2.0

(or 3.0) port

■ A large hard drive (preferably at least 500 GB)

Page 32

PACKING LIST AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Page 33

CHAPTER

3 Software Installation

OVERVIEW

USB 2.0 class-compliant operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Operation as an AVB Ethernet audio interface . . . . . . . 33

Software installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Audio drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

MOTU AVB Discovery app for Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

MOTU AVB WebUI Setup for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

MOTU AVB USB Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

AudioDesk workstation software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Working with host audio software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

USB 2.0 CLASS-COMPLIANT OPERATION

Your MOTU interface is a USB 2.0 audio classcompliant device. This means that you can connect it to your Mac with a USB cable and use it without installing any software drivers. The Mac recognizes your MOTU interface as a USB audio device and makes its inputs and outputs available to your host audio software. Basic settings, such as the hardware’s sample rate, are made in either your host software (Mac) or your system settings (Windows).

☛ In this scenario, your MOTU interface

provides basic audio input and output, and no software driver installation is necessary.

As explained earlier in this guide, the MOTU AVB Control web app provides full access to all settings in the device, including the extensive on-board routing, mixing, and effects processing features. Since the web app is served from the audio interface hardware itself, it does not require any software installation on your computer; all it requires is a network connection between your computer and your MOTU interface with a standard Ethernet cable, Ethernet hub, or shared Wi-Fi network. For details about accessing the web app through the network port, see “MOTU AVB Control Web App” on page 17.

OPERATION AS AN AVB ETHERNET AUDIO INTERFACE

To use your MOTU interface as an audio interface over AVB Ethernet, all you need is a recent Mac (any Mac that has a Thunderbolt port on it) with Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later installed. Connect the network port on your MOTU interface to the Ethernet port on the Mac using a standard, high-grade (CAT-5e or CAT-6) network cable up to 100 meters in length. You can then use your MOTU interface as a standard, low-latency multi-channel audio interface with any Core Audio compatible host software running on the Mac.

☛ In this scenario, your MOTU interface

provides basic audio input and output, and no software driver installation is necessary.

For details about accessing device settings in the web app through a network port connection, see “MOTU AVB Control Web App” on page 17.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Software installation is required for any of the following scenarios:

■ You are using a PC running Windows 7 or later.

■ You will use your MOTU interface as a

Thunderbolt audio interface with your laptop or desktop computer.

■ You will use your MOTU interface as a USB

audio interface, and you want to access the web app without using the network port.

■ You will be using multiple MOTU interfaces.

Page 34

If none of the above scenarios apply to you, then you can skip software installation if you wish, and proceed to details about accessing the web app through the network port, see “MOTU AVB Control Web App” on page 17.

Download and run the MOTU AVB Audio Installer

To download the latest MOTU AVB audio installer for Mac or Windows, visit www.motu.com/avb. Follow the directions that the installer gives you.

or on your network, and displays them in a list. Choose an interface to access its settings through the web app (“MOTU AVB Control Web App” on page 17).

MOTU AVB WEBUI SETUP FOR WINDOWS

On Windows, the installer provides a MOTU AVB WebUI Setup shortcut found on the Windows

desktop or in Start menu> All Programs> MOTU. Use this shortcut to access the MOTU AVB Control web app directly in your favorite web browser.

☛ We recommend that you run the software

installer before you connect your MOTU interface to your computer and power it on. This ensures that all driver components are properly installed in your system.

AUDIO DRIVERS

On the Mac, the installer provides a Core Audio driver for Thunderbolt operation. (USB audio operation is handled by Mac OS X.) On Windows, the installer provides USB ASIO and Wave drivers.

MOTU AVB USB ASIO Driver

On Windows, to enable your MOTU interface in your ASIO host software, choose the MOTU AVB USB ASIO driver.

Figure 3-1: Choosing the MOTU AVB ASIO driver in Cubase.

MOTU AVB DISCOVERY APP FOR MAC

On the Mac, the MOTU AVB Discovery app is installed in your Mac’s applications folder; a shortcut is installed for it, too (as shown on page page 7). It locates all MOTU AVB interfaces connected to the Mac, either directly through USB

MOTU AVB USB CONTROL PANEL

On Windows, the MOTU AVB USB Control Panel (Start menu> All Programs> MOTU) provides three tabs: Status, Buffer Settings and Info. The Buffer Settings tab provides several basic settings for the AVB USB driver.

Figure 3-2: The MOTU AVB USB Audio Control Panel Buffer Settings tab.

USB Streaming Mode

USB Streaming Mode (Figure 3-2) determines how frequently the USB driver transfers audio. Smaller settings reduce latency. This setting determines the latency for standard Windows audio applications (such as Media Player). For further information about Latency, refer to “Reducing monitoring latency” on page 69.

ASIO Buffer Size

ASIO Buf fer Size (Figure 3-2) determine how much delay you hear when monitoring live inputs through your audio software: larger buffers

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Page 35

produce more delay; smaller buffers produce less. For complete information about this setting, see “Working with Host Audio Software” on page 65.

AUDIODESK WORKSTATION SOFTWARE

AudioDesk is an advanced workstation software package for Mac and Windows that lets you record, edit, mix, process, bounce and master multi-track digital audio recording projects. Advanced features include real-time effects processing, recording, and much more.

See the AudioDesk User Guide, available on your computer hard drive as a PDF document.

Figure 3-3: AudioDesk.

WORKING WITH HOST AUDIO SOFTWARE

For further information about using your MOTU interface with host audio software, see “Working with Host Audio Software” on page 65.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Page 36

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Page 37

CHAPTER

4 Hardware Installation

OVERVIEW

Rack installation and heat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Thunderbolt audio interface setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

USB audio interface setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

AVB Ethernet audio interface setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Setup for two interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Setup for three to ﬁve interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Setup for a multi-switch network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Setup for multiple Thunderbolt and USB interfaces . 42

Setup for web app control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Audio connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

A typical 1248 setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

A typical 8M setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

A typical 16A setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Syncing S/PDIF devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Syncing word clock devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Syncing an AVB network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Syncing multiple AVB audio interfaces connected to a Mac . . . . 54

RACK INSTALLATION AND HEAT

When installing your MOTU audio interface in a 19-inch rack, leave extra space above, below, behind and on either side of the unit to provide adequate ventilation and heat dispersion. Do not install it near other gear that generates excessive heat.

THUNDERBOLT AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

Use this setup if you want to use your MOTU device as an audio interface, and your computer has Thunderbolt™.

■ Use a standard Thunderbolt cable.

■ Place it at the end of the Thunderbolt chain (up

to six devices in the chain, not including the computer).

■ See “Software installation” on page 33.

Page 38

USB AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

AVB ETHERNET AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

Use this setup if you want to use your MOTU device as an audio interface, and your computer doesn’t have Thunderbolt.

■ Use a standard USB cable.

■ Connect to any USB port (USB2.0 or 3.0).

■ See “USB2.0 class-compliant operation” on

page 33.

■ No driver installation is necessary, (unless you

want to use the web app).

As an alternative to Thunderbolt or USB, use this setup if you want to use the your MOTU interface as an AVB Ethernet audio interface for a recentgeneration Mac (i.e. any Mac with a Thunderbolt port on it). Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later is also required for AVB audio I/O.

■ Use a standard CAT-5e or CAT-6 cable.

■ Connect to the computer’s Ethernet port.

■ See “Operation as an AVB Ethernet audio

interface” on page 33.

■ No driver installation is necessary.

■ Enable at least one AVB stream (item #20 on

page 19).

■ Launch the Mac’s Audio MIDI Setup utility to

enable your MOTU AVB interface and set the clock source and sample rate.

■ The number of AVB audio channels that OS X

can handle depends on the speed of your Mac.

■ If applicable, see “Syncing multiple AVB audio

interfaces connected to a Mac” on page 54.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Page 39

SETUP FOR TWO INTERFACES

Use this setup if you want to connect two MOTU interfaces to your computer.

■ The connection to the computer should be

Thunderbolt, if possible, to support all the I/O for the networked interfaces.

About CAT-5e cables

Use shielded CAT-5e or CAT-6 cables, which are a

higher grade version of a standard Ethernet patch cable. They are available wherever network cables are sold.

■ Use a standard Thunderbolt cable. Place it at the

end of the Thunderbolt chain.

■ Use any standard CAT-5e Ethernet network

cable to connect the two interfaces together using their NETWORK ports.

■ As an alternative, see “Setup for multiple

Thunderbolt and USB interfaces” on page 42.

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SETUP FOR THREE TO FIVE INTERFACES

Use this setup if you want to connect three to ﬁve MOTU interfaces to your computer using a MOTU AVB Switch™ (sold separately).

■ The connection to the computer should be

Thunderbolt, to support a large number of audio streams to and from the networked interfaces. A single Thunderbolt connection supports 128 channels in and out, simultaneously. If you need more channels, and your computer has a second available Thunderbolt port, you can make a second connection to another interface on the network, with full access to the network from both ports (128 I/O channels each).

■ Use a standard Thunderbolt cable. Place it at the

end of the Thunderbolt chain.

Additional computers are optional. All computers and interfaces have full access to each other on the network.

■ Use standard CAT-5e Ethernet network cables to

connect the interfaces to the MOTU AVB Switch using their NETWORK ports.

■ Use the ﬁve AVB NETWORK ports on the switch

(not the Ethernet port).

■ Network cable lengths can be long: 100 meters

with standard copper wire cables; much longer with ﬁber-optic network cables.

■ See “About CAT-5e cables” on page 39.

■ As an alternative, see “Setup for multiple

Thunderbolt and USB interfaces” on page 42.

■ To add more computers to the network, connect

them to any interface, as shown. All computers and interfaces have full access to each other.

■ See chapter 9, “Networking” (page 79).

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SETUP FOR A MULTI-SWITCH NETWORK

Use thi s se tup if you wan t to conn ect m ore th an ﬁ ve MOTU interfaces to an extended network that employs multiple AVB switches. AVB Ethernet is an industry standard, so you can use MOTU AVB Switches or 3rd-party AVB switches.

Switch A

■ You can daisy-chain switches in serial fashion,

but don’t create loops. For example, switches A, B, and C below are chained properly, but don’t connect C back to A. Alternately, you could connect both Switches B and C to Switch A.

■ For further information, see chapter 9,

“Networking” (page 79).

Additional switches,

interfaces, and

computers.

Switch C

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Switch B

Page 42

SETUP FOR MULTIPLE THUNDERBOLT AND USB INTERFACES

It is possible to connect multiple MOTU interfaces directly to your host computer through multiple Thunderbolt and USB ports. Alternately, you can connect multiple interfaces, operating as AVB Ethernet audio interfaces, using an AVB switch connected directly to the Mac. However, there are several disadvantages to using any of these direct connection schemes:

■ The audio interfaces will not be clocked to one

another and may be susceptible to drift, unless you use external word clock connections (if available). You are better off using the AVB network connections shown on pages 39-41. In this setup, the interfaces are very tightly synchronized with each other (measured in pico seconds) through their network connections.

Multiple interfaces and USB

When connected through USB, your MOTU interface operates as a USB 2.0 device, even when connected to a USB 3.0 port. USB 2.0 provides enough bus speed for several USB 2.0 devices, but due to your MOTU interface’s high-performance requirements for real-time operation and low latency timing, we recommend the following:

■ Do not connect more than two units to your

computer’s USB 2.0 or 3.0 port(s).

■ When two units are connected with USB 2.0,

don’t connect other USB 2.0 or 3. 0 devices, such as external hard drives.

■ For best results, establish clock synchronization

with other interfaces connected to the same computer. You can use word clock, S/PDIF, optical, or AVB to achieve clock synchronization.

■ You will not be able to route audio directly from

one audio interface to another. You are better off using the AVB network connections shown on pages 39-41, which allows you to route audio streams (hundreds at a time) directly among interfaces with near-zero latency.

Connecting multiple interfaces using Thunderbolt

If you have multiple MOTU AVB interfaces with Thunderbolt connectivity (1248, 8M, 16A or 112D) and your host computer has two or more Thunderbolt ports, you can connect one interface to each port, either directly or at the end of a Thunderbolt daisy chain (on either port or both ports).

Connecting multiple interfaces using Thunderbolt and USB

Another way to operate multiple interfaces on the same host computer is to connect the ﬁrst interface to a Thunderbolt port and the second to a USB 2.0 (or 3.0) port.

Multiple AVB Ethernet audio interfaces

When operating as an AVB Ethernet audio interface (“AVB Ethernet audio interface setup” on page 38), multiple AVB audio interfaces can be connected using a MOTU AVB Switch (or any 3rdparty AVB switch), and the Mac can see all of them through their AVB connection. For example, you could connect an Avid S3 console to the Mac, and then connect a MOTU interface to the S3’s extra network port (which is a built-in switch). The Mac can see both for audio I/O. However, OS X takes over each device for exclusive use, so they can only stream audio to and from the Mac, not each other. The same is true for all AVB devices connected to the Mac. See “Syncing multiple AVB audio interfaces connected to a Mac” on page 54.

Mixing and matching audio interfaces

In the scenarios just discussed for connecting multiple interfaces, you can mix and match the interface with other MOTU audio interface models. For example, you could connect a 1248 through Thunderbolt and another MOTU audio interface, such as a 24Ao, through USB 2.0.

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SETUP FOR WEB APP CONTROL

The MOTU AVB Control web app gives you access to all settings, routing, mixing, and effects processing in your audio interface, and each interface on the AVB network, if applicable. For more info, see “MOTU AVB Control Web App” on page 17.

Mixing and matching web app control scenarios

The web app connection scenarios shown in the following sections are not exclusive from one another. You can set up as many web app connections as you wish and control your MOTU device from many web app hosts simultaneously.

The web app is a web application served by the hardware. All you need to run it is a web browser running on a device that has a connection to your audio interface through Thunderbolt, USB or a shared network.

Web app in

your browser

Web app

Figure 4-1: The web app is served from the hardware, and accessed through any web browser on any device connected to the interface.

Web app control can be set up independently of audio connections

The connections in this section, especially the network scenarios, can be set up independently of USB, Thunderbolt, or AVB networking connections you make for audio routing (as shown in the setup diagrams earlier in this chapter). In addition, connections for web app control can be made over standard Ethernet and do not require AVB Ethernet connections. Think of web app control as being separate from audio. Doing so opens up a lot of possibilities for control of your MOTU interface, independent of the connections you make for audio.

Launching the web app

Once you’ve m ade a ny of the connec tions show n in the following sections, launch the web app as explained in “Make hardware and network connections” on page 17.

Web app control over USB or Thunderbolt

If your audio interface is connected a computer with internet access through Thunderbolt or USB (as shown on page 37 and 38), you can access the web app from the computer, or any other device on the network. In this case, make sure you’ve run the software installer (page 33), which installs drivers th at a llo w you r co mput er t o pr operl y co mmuni cate with the device.

Web app control through standard Ethernet

Your MOTU interface can also be controlled by the web app running on any device that has a standard Ethernet connection to the interface, either directly with a network cable, through an Ethernet hub, or through WiFi on your local network. The sections on the opposite page show you how to set up each of these connection scenarios.

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Ethernet cable

A simple Ethernet cable connection can be used for web app control, even without a USB or Thunderbolt connection to your computer. For example, if you are using your MOTU device as a mixer or audio router, you could control the on-board routing, mixing and effects from the web app through a standard Ethernet connection.

Network port

WiFi

When using standard WiFi as shown, you can control your MOTU interface from multiple WiFi devices simultaneously.

Laptop (optional) Tablet Smart

WiFi devices

phone

Standard Ethernet cable

Network port

Figure 4-2: Web app control through a simple Ethernet cable.

Ethernet hub or network (LAN)

In this scenario, both your laptop and your MOTU device are connected to a standard Ethernet hub or home/ofﬁce network (LAN). You can run the web app on multiple computers simultaneously.

Standard Ethernet

hub or network (LAN)

Network port

Ethernet cables

Network port

Airport

Ethernet cable

Network port

Figure 4-4: Web app control through WiFi.

or any other WiFi router

Ethernet network + WiFi

You can, of course, combine the setups shown in Figure 4-3 and Figure 4-4, with WiFi connected to the Ethernet hub or network.

MOTU AVB Switch

The MOTU AVB Switch provides ﬁve AVB Ethernet ports, plus one standard Ethernet port. Use the AVB ports for MOTU audio interfaces, and use the Ethernet port for WiFi, Ethernet, etc.

MOTU AVB interfaces

WiFi router o r

Ethernet hub/network

Figure 4-3: Web app control through a standard Ethernet hub or network (LAN).

(Sold separately)

Figure 4-5: Using the Ethernet port on the MOTU AVB Switch.

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AUDIO CONNECTIONS

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you are making audio connections to your MOTU interface.

Mic inputs with preamps

Connect a microphone using a standard mic cable.

☛ Do not connect a +4 dBu (line level) signal to

the mic inputs without using the -20dB Pad. It is recommended you connect line level signals to the quarter-inch inputs instead.

Phantom power

If you are connecting a condenser microphone or another device that requires phantom power, engage the mic input’s corresponding front-panel phantom power button.

Preamp gain

The 1248’s preamp provides 63 dB of gain. Use the front panel detented trim knobs to adjust gain as needed for each input. The LCD provides visual feedback as you turn the trim knob. Preamp gain is digitally controlled, so you can make ﬁne-tuned adjustments in 1dB increments. You can also adjust preamp gain in the web app. See “Device tab” on page 18.

-20 dB pad

Each mic input (XLR jack) is equipped with a

-20 dB pad switch, to accommodate input signals that could overdrive the input.

Guitar inputs

The 1248 provides two dedicated guitar inputs on its front panel. These inputs are specially designed for guitar or bass instruments, with a highimpedance load of 1 megaohm. Use the knob to adjust input trim.

Mic/line/instrument combo inputs

The 8M provides XLR/TRS combo jacks that accept an XLR mic plug or a quarter-inch plug from a line level source or guitar. Each input

provides individual preamp gain, pad and 48V phantom power. (Phantom power is supplied to the XLR connector only.) Use these general guidelines for the 48V phantom power, pad and gain settings on these combo input jacks:

Input 48V Pad Gain

Condenser mic On As needed As needed

Dynamic mic Off As needed As needed

Guitar n/a n/a As needed

-10 dBV Line level via TRS n/a n/a As needed

-10 dBV Line level via XLR Off -20 dB +12dB

+4 dBu Line level (XLR only)

Off -20 dB Zero

V-Limit™

Each 8M mic input is individually equipped with V-Limit (page 18), which help prevent digital clipping from overloaded input signals. For details, see “8M mic/guitar input meters with V-Limit™ compressor” on page 61.

Soft Clip™

Additional or alternative protection can be applied individually to 8M mic/guitar inputs by enabling Soft Clip (page 18). When enabled, Soft Clip engages just before clipping occurs and helps further reduce perceptible distortion.

TRS quarter-inch analog inputs and outputs

Quarter-inch analog inputs and outputs are balanced (TRS) connectors that can also accept an unbalanced plug.

☛ Quarter-inch analog outputs are not

cross-coupled. Therefore, use a TRS plug with the ring disconnected. Not ﬂoating the negative terminal will short it to the sleeve ground and cause distortion.

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TRS quarter-inch analog trims

All quarter-inch analog inputs and outputs can be trimmed. This allows them to support a variety of standards, including EBU-R68, SMPTE RP-155, +4dBu, -10dBV, 2vRMS, 1vRMS.

Quarter-inch analog inputs are equipped with high-quality, digitally controlled analog trim that provides a 22dB range (+2dBu to +24dBu) in 1dB steps.

Outputs can be trimmed at the digital stage, before the DAC. Range is 16 dB.

Trim controls are most easily accessed in the web app. See “Device tab” on page 18. Trim settings can also be accessed in the LCD menu.

Optical

Your MOTU audio interface provides two banks of ADAT optical (“lightpipe”) connectors. Each bank provides an input and output connector. Together, they provide 16 channels of ADAT optical digital I/O at 44.1 or 48 kHz, or 8 channels at 88.2 or 96 kHz. The optical ports are disabled when the interface is operating at a 176.4 or 192 kHz. At the high sample rates (88.2 or 96 kHz), 4-channel SMUX operation supports two modes (item #26 on page 19):

■ Standard — for 2x optical connection to

3rd-party SMUX-compatible hardware products.

■ Type II (Legacy) — for 2x optical connection to

legacy MOTU products that are equipped with optical ports and support 2x operation.

The optical ports are disabled when the interface is operating at a 176.4 or 192 kHz.

TOSLink (optical S/PDIF)

Alternately, the optical ports can be conﬁgured for stereo TOSLink (optical S/PDIF) in the web app (item #26 on page 19). The optical IN and OUT banks can be conﬁgured independently.

Choosing a clock source for optical connections

When connecting an optical device, make sure that its digital audio clock is phase-locked (in sync with) your MOTU interface, as explained in “Synchronization” on page 51. There are two ways to do this:

A. Resolve the optical device to your MOTU interface

B. Resolve your MOTU interface to the optical device

For A, choose Internal (or anything other than ADAT A or B) as the clock source in the Device tab (page 18).

For B, choose either ADAT A or ADAT B as the clock source (page 18). Be sure to choose the optical port that the device is connected to.

Using word clock to resolve optical devices

If the optical device has word clock connectors on it, you can use them to synchronize the device with your MOTU interface. See “Syncing word clock devices” on page 52.

S/PDIF with sample rate conversion

The 1248 provides S/PDIF digital audio input and output. Be sure to review the digital audio clocking issues, as explained in “Syncing S/PDIF devices” on page 52. The S/PDIF input is also equipped with sample rate conversion, which allows you to capture digital input without digital audio sync. You can even record S/PDIF input that is running at a com plete ly dif fere nt s ampl e ra te t han the 124 8’s current sample rate.

When the 1248 clock mode (item #13 on page 18) is set to S/PDIF, the 1248 resolves to the incoming S/PDIF signal and no sample rate conversion occurs. In this scenario, an exact bit-for-bit digital audio transfer is accomplished.

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When the 1248 clock mode is set to any other source besides S/PDIF, then sample rate conversion is automatically enabled for the input, which can record any S/PDIF signal up to 96 kHz. This is not an exact bit-for-bit digital transfer, but sophisticated ﬁltering is applied to ensure the highest possible audio quality.

The S/PDIF output is not equipped with sample rate conversion, so it always outputs at the 1248’s current operational sample rate (item #13 on page 18).

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A TYPICAL 1248 SETUP

Here is a typical 1248 studio setup. This rig can be operated without an external mixer. All mixing and effects processing can be done in the 1248 itself, on the computer with audio software, or both. During

recording, you can use the 1248’s on-board mixing to listen to what you are recording via the main outs, headphone outs, or any other output pair. You can control all mixing and effects processing from your laptop, tablet, or smart phone.

1248 front

panel

1248 back

Headphones

MOTU 8pre and/or other

optical devices

panel

Ethernet cable to another MOTU AVB device, a MOTU AVB Switch,

or WiFi router, etc.

Guitar

8-channel

ADAT optical

Secondary

studio monitors

Home theater system

Bass

Other outputs (stage

S/PDIF

studio monitors

monitors, surround

monitors, etc.)

Primary

quarter-inch analog outs

Thunderbolt or USB

Mac

Compressor, reverb or

other outboard gear

Figure 4-6: A typical 1248 studio setup.

synths, samplers, effects units, etc.

quarter-inch analog outs

synthesizer

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A TYPICAL 8M SETUP

Here is a typical 8M studio setup. Like the 1248, this rig can be operated without an external mixer. All mixing and effects processing can be done in the 8M itself, on the computer with audio software, or both. During recording, you can use the 8M’s

8M front

panel

Headphones

MOTU 8pre and/or

other optical devices

Secondary

studio monitors

on-board mixer to listen to what you are recording via the headphone out or any output pair. You can control all mixing and effects processing from your laptop, tablet or smart phone.

Primary

studio monitors or

8-channel

ADAT optical

8M back

panel

Ethernet cable to another MOTU AVB device, a MOTU AVB Switch,

or WiFi router, etc.

Mac

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Other outputs (stage

monitors, surround

monitors, etc.)

Thunderbolt or USB

Figure 4-7: A typical 8M studio setup.

Bass

Guitar 1

Guitar 2

Page 50

A TYPICAL 16A SETUP

Here is a typical 16A studio setup, although the 16A is certainly ﬂexible and supports many operational conﬁgurations not shown here. This diagram is meant to give you just a few ideas of

Secondary

studio monitors

what is possible. The 16A can be used as an audio interface, mixer, effects processor, or even as a patch bay. You can control all mixing, effects process ing, and routi ng from your laptop, tablet or smart phone.

5.1 or 7.1 surround monitoring

MOTU 8pre and/or

other optical devices

16A back

panel

Ethernet cable to another MOTU AVB device, a MOTU AVB Switch,

or WiFi router, etc.

Thunderbolt or USB

Mac

8-channel

ADAT optical

Other

outputs

(send/return loop)

Compressor, reverb or

other outboard gear

quarter-inch analog outs

synthesizer

quarter-inch analog outs

synths, samplers, effects units, etc.

quarter-inch analog outs

synthesizer

Figure 4-8: A typical 16A studio setup.

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SYNCHRONIZATION

If you connect devices digitally to your MOTU device, or if you need to synchronize your MOTU device with an outside time reference such as word clock, you must pay careful attention to the synchronization connections and clock source issues discussed in the next few sections.

Do you need to sync?

If you will be using only your MOTU device’s analog inputs and outputs (and none of its digital I/O), and you don’t need to resolve your system to external word clock, you don’t need to make any sync connections. You can skip this section.

Situations that require synchronization

There are two general cases in which you will need to resolve you MOTU device with other devices:

■ Synchronizing w ith other digital audio devices

so that their digital audio clocks are phase-locked (as shown in Figure 4-9)

■ Resolving your MOTU device to an external

clock source

■ Networking multiple MOTU AVB interfaces

together

Synchronization is critical for clean digital I/O

Synchronization is critical in any audio system, but it is especially important when you are transferring audio between digital audio devices. Your success in using the digital I/O features on your MOTU device depends almost entirely on proper synchronization. The following sections guide you through several recommended scenarios.

Not phase-locked Phase-locked

Device A

Device B

Figure 4-9: When transferring audio, two devices must have phaselocked audio clocks to prevent clicks, pops or other artifacts.

There are two ways to achieve phase lock: slave one device to the other, or slave both devices to a third master clock. If you have three or more digital audio devices, you need to slave them all to a single master audio clock.

Master

Slave

Figure 4-10: To keep the your MOTU interface phased-locked with other digital audio devices connected to it, choose a clock master.

Master

Slave Slave

Also remember that audio phase lock can be achieved independently of timecode (location). For example, one device can be the timecode master while another is the audio clock master, but only one device can be the audio clock master. If you set things up with this rule in mind, you’ll have trouble-free audio transfers with your MOTU hardware.

Be sure to choose a digital audio clock master

When you transfer digital audio between two devices, their audio clocks must be in phase with one another — or phase-locked. Other wise, you’l l hear clicks, pops, and distortion in the audio — or perhaps no audio at all.

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SYNCING S/PDIF DEVICES

The 1248 provides RCA (coax) S/PDIF digital input and output. Your 1248 and the other S/PDIF dev ice wi ll sync to each other by way of the S/PDIF connection itself. One device is the master, and the other device is the slave.

Syncing the 1248 to its S/PDIF input

When you transfer audio from the S/PDIF device into the 1248, choose S/PDIF as the clock source (item #13 on page 18) to resolve the 1248 to its S/PDIF input.

For A, choose Internal (or anything other than Optical) as the clock mode in the Device tab (item #13 on page 18). Then conﬁgure the other device to resolve to its optical input.

For B, choose Optical as the clock mode (item #13 on page 18), and conﬁgure the other device to resolve to its own internal clock.

For C, choose Wo rd Cl o ck as the clock mode for the 24Ai or 24Ao (item #13 on page 18), and resolve the other device to its word clock input.

S/PDIF input with sample rate conversion

The 1248 S/PDIF input provides sample rate conversion, which allows you to record any S/PDIF signal up to 96 kHz, even when the 1248 is resolved to other clock sources besides S/PDIF. See “S/PDIF with sample rate conversion” on page 46 for more information.

Syncing another S/PDIF device to the 1248

When transferring audio from the 1248 to another S/PDIF device, set the 1248’s clock mode (item #13 on page 18) to any source other than S/PDIF. Doing so makes the 1248 the clock master. When the other device records (or receives) S/PDIF audio (from the 1248), it will simply synchronize to the clock provided by the 1248 S/PDIF signal.

SYNCING OPTICAL DEVICES

There are several ways to sync an optical device with your MOTU interface:

A. Resolve the other device to your MOTU interface

B. Resolve your MOTU interface to the other device

SYNCING WORD CLOCK DEVICES

The word clock connectors on your MOTU device allow you to synchronize it with a wide variety of other word clock-equipped devices.

For standard word clock sync, you need to choose an audio clock master (as explained in “Be sure to choose a digital audio clock master” on page 51). In the simplest case, you have two devices and one is the word clock master and the other is the slave as shown below in Figure 4-11 and Figure 4-12.

Master

Word clock OUT

Word clock IN

Slave

Figure 4-11: Slav ing an other digit al aud io device to your M OTU device (a 1248 in this example) via word clock. For the 1248 clock source, choose any source besides word clock, as it is not advisable to chain word clock.

Audio

clock

Master

Word clock master device

Word clock OUT

1248

Other device

C. Resolve both devices to a word clock source

Word clock IN

Slave

Figure 4-12: Slaving your MOTU device (a 1248 in this example) to word clock. For the 1248 clock source, choose ‘Word Clock In’.

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1248

Page 53

Daisy-chaining word clock

If necessary, you can daisy-chain several word clock devices together. When doing so, connect WORD CLOCK OUT from the ﬁrst (master) device to the WORD CLOCK IN on the second device. Then connect its WORD CLOCK THRU port to the next device’s WORD CLOCK IN port, and so on. On your MOTU interface, use its WORD CLOCK OUT port and change its operation from OUT to THRU in the Device tab of the MOTU AVB Control web app (item #15 on 18).

If you have more than four word clock devices that you need to synchronize, avoid chaining their word clock connections. Instead, use a word clock distribution device of some kind.

Word clock is not needed for AVB networking

When working with multiple MOTU AVB interfaces on an AVB network, synchronization is handled by AVB, so no word clock connections are necessary. See the next section for details.

SYNCING AN AVB NETWORK

The AVB protocol provides sophisticated and accurate timing, synchronization, and clocking features for AVB device networks of any size as shown on pages 40-41, including:

■ Low latency

■ Network-wide time base

■ Better-than-sample-accurate phase lock across

all connected devices

■ Timing accuracy down to the nanosecond

Choosing a master clock

The web app provides an easy way to choose one device as the master clock for your whole MOTU AVB network.

1 Go to the Devices tab (page 18).

2 In the device list (item #1 on page 18), choose

the MOTU interface you wish to use as the clock master.

3 Click the Become Clock Master button below the Clock Mode menu.

Now, all other MOTU AVB devices on the network are resolved to this device.

Figure 4-13: Choosing a clock master.

Alternately, you can go to the clock mode menu for each individual device separately and choose the master clock device by hand. For example, you may be in a situation where at least one MOTU device on the network must remain resolved to its own clock (or another clock source). Just know that in this case, audio cannot be streamed between MOTU AVB devices that don’t share the same master clock.

Resolving the master clock device to an external clock source

The MOTU device you’ve speciﬁed as the AVB network clock master can itself be resolved to an external time base such as word clock or optical. Just choose the desired clock source from its Clock

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Page 54

Mode menu (in the Device tab). Doing so effectively resolves the entire AVB network to the external clock source.

SYNCING MULTIPLE AVB AUDIO INTERFACES CONNECTED TO A MAC

There are several options for clocking multiple AVB audio devices connected to the Mac:

■ You can resolve them to an external clock source

(like word clock, if available).

■ You can create an aggregate device, as usual. The

aggregate device setup panel has a check box called Drift Correction, which sample-rate converts devices that are not synchronized.

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Page 55

Part 2

Using your

MOTU interface

Page 56

Page 57

CHAPTER

5 Presets

OVERVIEW

Because of its advanced, extensive feature set, your MOTU AVB interface can be used for many different purposes. This chapter discusses common use cases and their corresponding device presets, to help you use the hardware for your needs.

Preset menu

The preset menu (item #7 on page 18) contains a number of presets speciﬁcally designed for common use cases. By loading the corresponding preset, your MOTU AVB interface routing tab and mixer will be reconﬁgured accordingly. You can visit the Routing and Mixing tabs to inspect settings and adjust them as needed.

Audio interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Stand-alone mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Interface + mixer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Live recording with monitor mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Stage I/O. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Studio Input expander. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Studio Output expander. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Optical converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

AUDIO INTERFACE

Choose the Audio Interface preset to use your MOTU AVB device as a standard USB or Thunderbolt audio interface.

audio connections to audio gear

Figure 5-1: Using your MOTU AVB device as an audio interface.

Create your own presets

You can create presets to suit your speciﬁc needs. Your MOTU device is highly capable and conﬁgurable, allowing it to perform many tasks simultaneously.

Video tutorials

To view several excellent video tutorials for the presets described in this chapter, visit:

www.motu.com/avb

Page 58

STAND-ALONE MIXER

Choose the Stand-alone mixer preset to use your MOTU AVB device as a mixer. Doing so routes all physical inputs to the mixer with the mixer main out and monitor out going to two hardware output pairs.

To control the mixer (with the AVB Control web app), you have several options. You can connect a computer to your MOTU AVB device using USB, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi, as explained in “Setup for web app control” on page 43. Figure 5-2 below shows the WiFi scenario. Note that you can control the mix from multiple WiFi devices.

INTERFACE + MIXER

Choose the Interface + Mixer preset to use your MOTU AVB device as both an audio interface and mixer, simultaneously. Doing so routes all physical inputs and outputs to and from the computer, connected through USB or Thunderbolt. In addition, all MOTU AVB device inputs are routed to the mixer, which mixes them to the Main Mix bus. The Monitor bus is set up as a solo bus.

In this scenario, you would control the mixer from the MOTU AVB Control web app running on the computer. You can also run the web app from wireless devices on the same WiFi network as the laptop.

Laptop (optional) Tablet Smart

WiFi devices

Aux

Mix 1

Aux

Mix 2

Ethernet

cable

Main

Mix

Audio inputs from stage, etc.

Figure 5-2: Using your MOTU AVB device as a stand-alone mixer. This example demonstrates how you can control the mixer from several Wi-Fi devices.

phone

Airport

or any other WiFi router

Laptop

Aux

Mix 1

Aux

Mix 2

Main

Figure 5-3: Using your MOTU AVB device as an audio interface and mixer, simultaneously.

Mix

Audio inputs from stage, studio, etc.

PRESETS

Page 59

LIVE RECORDING WITH MONITOR MIXING

Choose the Live recording with monitor mixing preset when you are tracking in the studio. The setup is pretty much the same as for the “Interface + mixer” preset discussed in the previous section, shown in Figure 5-3 on page 58. All physical inputs on the interface are routed to both the computer (for recording) and the Main Mix and Monitor busses in the mixer (for near-zero latency monitoring).

STAGE I/O

Use the Stage I/O preset when you want to route audio inputs from musicians and instruments on stage to another location over Ethernet cabling. This preset routes all inputs and outputs on the MOTU AVB interface to 8-channel AVB network streams in the routing grid, which are then broadcast to any/all other devices on the same AVB Ethernet network.

Single AVB Ethernet “snake”

For example, you could have a single Ethernet cable running from the unit on stage to a 2nd unit at the Front of House (FOH) mixer.

Stage I/O to network

As another example, you could run an Ethernet cable from the stage unit to a MOTU AVB Switch, with a host of other MOTU AVB interfaces and computers on a multi-device network.

Audio inputs from musicians on stage

Stage area

Audio inputs from musicians on stage

Stage area

Ethernet cable

Figure 5-4: Use the Stage I/O preset to connect audio inputs and outputs to other AVB devices on the rest of the network.

PRESETS

FOH mix position

Laptop (optional)

Switch A

Figure 5-5: Use the Stage I/O preset to connect audio inputs and outputs to other AVB devices on the rest of the network.

STUDIO INPUT EXPANDER

Use the Studio Input Expander preset when you already have a main system set up, but you want to add additional inputs. This preset routes all physical inputs on the expansion MOTU AVB interface to AVB network streams. You can connect to these expansion streams in AVB Stream Connections section of the Device tab of the main MOTU AVB interface.

Page 60

STUDIO OUTPUT EXPANDER

Use the Studio Output Expander preset when you already have a main system set up, but you want to add additional outputs. This preset routes AVB network streams to all physical outputs on the expansion MOTU AVB interface. You must choose which network streams are used in the AVB Stream Connections section of the Device tab of the expansion MOTU AVB interface.

Audio inputs

1248 interface

OPTICAL CONVERTER

Choose the Optical converter preset if you would like your MOTU AVB device to serve as a multichannel analog-to-digital converter connected to another device equipped with an ADAT optical port.

For example, if you have a 1248, you could connect the 1248 optical output to the optical input on another non-AVB MOTU audio interface, such as an 828mk3 or 896mk3. The 1248 then serves as a multi-channel expander that adds additional mic, analog TRS and digital inputs to your setup. The beneﬁt of connecting the 1248 optically is that you can seamlessly integrate the 1248’s inputs into the on-board no-latency monitor mixing in the other device, such as the CueMix mixing environment in MOTU mk3 interfaces.

Optical cable

Other optical device

Figure 5-6: Use the Optical converter preset to connect additional audio inputs and outputs to another optical device. This example shows 1248 interface inputs being routed to the other optical device, but you could also do the same thing for outputs, even simultaneously.

PRESETS

Page 61

CHAPTER

6 The Front Panel LCD

OVERVIEW

The front panel LCD displays level meters for all inputs and outputs (except the phones). On the 1248 and 8M, the LCD also provides horizontal “long-throw” input metering when adjusting preamp gain.

On all models, the LCD provides several navigable menus that provide status information and basic hardware settings.

Level meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Push-button Knobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

16A buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Automatic channel focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Trim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Menu Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Device menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Network menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Settings menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Presets menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Version menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

ADAT SMUX Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Stand-alone operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

LEVEL METERS

In its default state when the unit is ﬁrst powered on, the LCD displays level meter activity for all physical audio inputs and outputs on the device. Inputs and outputs are labeled by channel number or left/right stereo conﬁguration, if applicable.

The meters display from -42dBFS to 0dBFS, as shown by the labels to the left of the LCD display (Figure 6-1).

8M mic/guitar input meters with V-Limit™ compressor

On the 8M interface, all eight mic/line/instrument inputs are individually equipped with V-Limit™ (page 18), a hardware limiter that helps prevent digital clipping from overloaded input signals.

With the limiter turned off, signals that hit 0dBFS or above will clip (a hard digital clip). However, with V-Limit turned on, signals can go as high as +9 dBFS with no distortion due to digital clipping. If the signal goes above +9 dBFS, it will clip, even with V-Limit engaged. The small downward meter to the right of the channel’s meter indicates how much V-Limit is limiting the signal. Lookahead (page 18) enhances performance by anticipating peaks, but adds compensated delay (16 samples) to all inputs. Also see “Soft Clip™” on page 45.

Figure 6-1: V-Limit compressor on the 8M interface.

Page 62

PUSH-BUTTON KNOBS

On the 1248 and 8M, the knobs (Figure 6-2) are push-button digital rotary encoders. Push the knob for the function labeled in blue.

Figure 6-2: Push the knob to activate the functions labeled in blue.

16A BUTTONS

Instead of knobs, the 16A interface has equivalent buttons. Use the up/down arrow buttons to scroll through menus or settings.

Figure 6-3: Buttons on the 16A front panel.

AUTOMATIC CHANNEL FOCUS

When turning the knobs (on the 1248 or 8M) to adjust the preamp gain on a mic channel, the display switches to a larger, horizontal meter with numeric readouts for precise setup. A few seconds after you stop turning the knob, the display returns to the default view.

to show the horizontal meter until the active channel’s knob is pushed again. Switch directly to another channel’s horizontal meter by pushing or turning its knob. Push the selected channel’s knob again to unpin.

TRI M

On the 1248 and 8M, push TRIM (Figure 6-2) to display the preamp gain settings for all mic inputs simultaneously, instead of viewing only the channel you are adjusting. You can then use the channel knobs to adjust each channel while viewing its setting relative to the other channels being displayed.

Push ID (Figure 6-2) to immediately view the device’s network information, including its IP Address. Push back to return to the meters.

MENU NAVIGATION

Push SELECT (or SEL) to access the main menu, which provides settings and status information.

Main Menu

On the 1248 or 8M, turn the SELECT knob to scroll through the menu settings on the left side of the LCD. On the 16A, push the up/down arrow buttons to scroll through the equivalent menus and settings.

Push SELECT (or SEL) to enter the selected submenu (column of options to the right) or to select the currently highlighted parameter.

Push BACK to go to the parent menu.

To exit the menu entirely, push BACK repeatedly until the menu disappears from the display.

“PIN” CHANNEL FOCUS

When viewing a channel’s horizontal meter, push its knob (on the 1248 or 8M) to “pin” the LCD’s focus on the large meter view. The view is “pinned”

Device menu

The Device menu provides information about the device, such as its name and connection mode (Thunderbolt, USB, or AVB).

THE FRONT PANEL LCD

Page 63

Network menu

The Network menu displays the following network-related information:

Version menu

The Version menu displays ﬁrmware version information.

Setting Explanation

Serial/UID Unique AVB network identifier that can be

IP address The unique network address for the unit.

AVB Indicates whether AVB networking is cur-

used for troubleshooting.

Type this address into your web browser to access the unit’s settings in the MOTU AVB Control web app.

rently enabled or disabled. For example, AVB could be disabled because a non-AVB switch is being used. When AVB is disabled, audio streaming over the network is disabled.

Settings menu

The Settings menu provides access to basic hardware settings, such as Clock Mode, Sample Rate, and so on.

Setting What it does

Clock Mode Sets the digital audio clock source for the

Sample Rate Sets the sample rate for the device.

Word Clock Thru Sets the word clock output to OUT or

Word Clock Thru Mode

Optical Specifies the SMUX format when operat-

Configure IP Chooses between DHCP and a manually

LCD Contrast Adjusts the contrast of the LCD.

Factory Defaults Restores factory default settings.

device.

THRU

Toggles the Word Clock Output between OUT and THRU.

ing at 88.2 or 96 kHz. See “ADAT SMUX Type” on page 63.

assigned IP Address.

CLOCK

The Clock section of the LCD displays the sample rate at which the unit is currently operating, and the current Clock Mode setting (item #13 in the Devices tab on page 18). The Clock Mode setting can also be found (and changed) in the Settings Menu.

ADAT SMUX TYPE

When your MOTU interface is operating at either

88.2 or 96 kHz, the Settings menu > Optical setting lets you conﬁgure ADAT SMUX type. There are two choices:

■ Type I — interoperation with 3rd-party SMUX-

compatible hardware products

■ Type II — interoperation with compatible

MOTU products

STAND-ALONE OPERATION

All settings, including mix settings and device settings, are saved in your MOTU interface’s memory. They remain in effect even when the interface is not connected to a computer. This allows you to use your MOTU device as a standalone mixer. You can make adjustments to any setting at any time from the web app running on a device that has a network connection to your MOTU interface, as explained in “Setup for web app control” on page 43.

Presets menu

The Presets menu lets you recall settings that have been saved as a device preset. Use the web app to create and save presets (item #7 in the “Device tab” on page 18).

THE FRONT PANEL LCD

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THE FRONT PANEL LCD

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CHAPTER

7 Working with Host Audio Software

OVERVIEW

Your MOTU interface provides multi-channel audio input and output for Core Audio compatible audio applications on the Mac and ASIO or Wave compatible applications on Windows, including MOTU’s Digital Performer and AudioDesk, Apple’s Logic Pro and GarageBand, and other third-party software applications such as Ableton Live, Avid Pro Tools, Cockos Reaper, Propellerhead Reason and Record, Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, Cakewalk SONAR, PreSonus Studio One, Bitwig, and others.

AudioDesk is available as a free download for MOTU interface owners at motu.com/avb. For complete information about all of AudioDesk’s powerful workstation features, refer to the AudioDesk User Guide.pdf included in the AudioDesk applic ation.

Digital Performer, MOTU’s state-of-the-art digital audio workstation software, is available separately; for details about upgrading from AudioDesk to Digital Performer, talk to your authorized MOTU dealer or visit motu.com.

Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Run the web app. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Choosing the MOTU Audio driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Reducing monitoring latency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Working with on-board mixing and effects . . . . . . . . . . 71

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

PREPARATION

Install your host audio software ﬁrst if you haven’t already done so, and complete these chapters before proceeding:

■ chapter 3, “Software Installation” (page 33)

RUN THE WEB APP

Before you run your host audio software, launch the web app to conﬁgure your MOTU hardware.

The web app lets you conﬁgure important settings in your audio interface, enable the desired inputs and outputs, and set up audio streams to and from the computer.

Sample rate

Choose the desired sample rate for your interface and your host audio software. Newly recorded audio will have this sample rate.

Clock Mode

This setting is important because it determines the master digital audio clock for your system.

If you do not have any digital audio connections to your MOTU device (you are using the analog inputs and outputs only), and you will not be resolving your host software to word clock or another external clock source, choose Inter nal.

If you have devices connected to the optical ports, see “Choosing a clock source for optical connections” on page 46.

If you are slaving your MOTU device and your host software to word clock, follow the directions in “Syncing word clock devices” on page 52.

Enabling and disabling input/output banks

In the web app Device tab (page 19), enable all input and outp ut ban ks on your MOTU dev ice th at you wish to make available to your host audio software. Disable banks you are not using to simplify operation.

■ chapter 4, “Hardware Installation” (page 37)

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Specifying the number of computer channels

In the web app Device tab (page 19), in the Computer Setup section, specify the number of computer channels for streaming audio to and from your host audio software. You might want enough channels to cover the following:

■ Any audio streams going to and from the AVB

network, if you have multiple networked MOTU AVB devices

If you aren’t sure how many channels you’ll need, visit the Routing tab, as explained below.

■ Physical inputs you want to record on your

computer.

■ The physical outputs you want to send audio

playback to.

■ Any audio streams going to and from the

on-board mixer in your MOTU device

Making inputs and outputs available to your host software

In the web app, use the Routing tab (page 20) to map inputs and outputs to computer channels, as demonstrated in Figure 7-1 and Figure 7-2.

Figure 7-1: An example of routing computer channels (from host audio software) to physical outputs on a 1248. The two headphone outs are mirroring the main outs (channels 1-2 from the computer). In this example, 30 channels are being used for streaming from the host computer, but more can be added for streaming to the AVB network or the on-board 48-channel mixer in the 1248.

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Conﬁguration presets

The presets menu (item #7 in the Devices tab on page 18) provides many useful presets for various host routing scenarios. These presets are a convenient shortcut for the routing grid setups discussed in the next few sections.

Naming computer input and output channels

Click on any compute r input or output name in the routing gr id (Fig ure 7- 1) to change i ts name. These names appear in your host audio software (but only if your MOTU interface is connected to the computer with Thunderbolt, and only if your host software supports audio channel names).

Streaming computer audio to and from the on-board mixer

In Figure 7-1, you’ll see “mix” inputs across the top of the grid (Main, Monitor, Aux, etc.) These are output busses from the your interface’s on-board mixer. To route one of these mix busses to your host computer software, click the grid at the intersection of the mix column and desired computer channel row. Now, the mix bus output will be routed to the computer via the channel you selected.

Figure 7-2: An example of routing physical inputs on the 1248 to computer channels (for host audio software). In this example, S/PDIF input is on channels 23-24 going to the computer, and 24 channels total are being used for streaming to the host computer, but more can be added for other inputs from the mixer or AVB network, if any.

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Conversely, you can stream audio from the computer into the mixer. Channels coming from the computer are represented across the top of the routing g rid as inputs. To route a computer channel to the mixer, click the grid at the intersection of the computer channel column and the desired mix input row. Now, that computer channel will be routed to the mixer input.

Working with AVB network streams

Audio channels going to networked AVB interfaces can be streamed to and from your host audio software through the MOTU interface connected directly to the computer. For information about how to set this up, see “Mapping computer channels to network streams” on page 83.

Mirroring computer channels to multiple outputs

Figure 7-1 shows an example of mirroring one stereo audio stream from your host audio software to several outputs. In the example, computer channels 1-2 are being sent to the main outs, plus phones 1-2 and phones 3-4. To route an input to multiple outputs, click multiple boxes in its column, (see computer channels 1-2 in Figure 7-1).

CHOOSING THE MOTU AUDIO DRIVER

Once you’ve made the preparations described so far in this chapter, you’re ready to run your audio software and enable the MOTU AVB audio driver, which allows your host software to use your MOTU interface.

For Mac OS X audio software

For audio software running under Mac OS X, go to the menu item or preference where you choose the audio device (Core Audio driver) you wish to use, and then select your MOTU interface by name.

For Windows audio software

For audio software running under Windows, go to the menu item or preference where you choose the ASIO driver you wish to use, and then choose MOTU AVB USB ASIO. If your host audio software doesn’t support ASIO, choose the MOTU AVB USB AU D I O Wave dr ive r i ns tea d.

Combining multiple inputs to one output

To merge (mix) any channels in the grid (computer streams or otherwise), route them to mixer inputs and then use the on-board mixer (“Mixing tab” on page 21).

Routing grid tutorials

For further information about using the routing grid, including many useful tips and techniques, visit:

www.motu.com/techsupport/technotes/avbrouting

Figure 7-3: Choosing the MOTU AVB ASIO driver in Cubase.

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Where to go in popular audio hosts

Here is the location for this setting in various popular audio software host applications:

Host software Location for choosing your MOTU interface

Digital Performer and AudioDesk

Setup menu > Configure Audio System > Configure Hardware Driver

feature and instead use the digital mixer in your MOTU interface to route the input directly to your outputs. For details, see “Mixing tab” on page 21. The mixer in your MOTU interface even provides zero latency effects processing (EQ, compression and reverb), which can be applied to the signal.

Pro Tools 9 or later Setup menu > Playback Engine or Current

Logic Pro Preferences > Audio tab > Devices tab >

Garage Band Garage Band menu > Preferences > Audio/

Cubase and Nuendo

Live Preferences > Audio tab

Reason Preferences > Audio preferences

Reaper Preferences > Audio prefs > Devices

Engine

Core Audio tab

MIDI > Audio Output/Input menus

Device Setup > Devices list > VST Audio System menu

Other audio software

Consult your software’s manual for further information.

REDUCING MONITORING LATENCY

Monitoring latency is a slight delay caused by running an input signal through your host audio software and back out. For example, you might hear it when you drive a live guitar input signal through an amp modeling plug-in running in your audio sequencer.

This delay is caused by the amount of time it takes for audio to make the entire round trip through your computer, from when it ﬁrst enters an input on your MOTU interface, passes through the interface hardware into the computer, through your host audio software, and then back out to an output.

Monitoring through your MOTU interface

If you don’t need to process a live input with plug-ins, the easiest way to avoid monitoring latency is to disable your DAW’s live monitoring

Direct hardware playthrough / Direct ASIO monitoring

When managing your live monitor mix through your MOTU interface mixer, remember to disable your DAW’s live monitoring features, so that you won’t hear record-enabled tracks in your DAW. Also note that your MOTU AVB interface does not support Direct Hardware Playthrough in Digital Performer, or the Direct ASIO Monitoring feature (or similar) offered and other DAWs, which lets you control no-latency hardware monitoring from within the host application. Instead, you can use the MOTU AVB Control web app mixer (“Mixing tab” on page 21) to make these live monitoring connections manually.

If you don’t require any effects processing on the input signal (no reverb or compression, for example), all this takes is one click in the routing grid to route the input being recorded to the output you are using for monitoring.

If you are recording a mono input that you’d like to monitor in stereo, or if you need to apply effects to the monitored signal, you can simply route the input to the mixer in your MOTU interface. This is done by opening the Mix In group in the Outputs column along the left side of the grid (Figure 7-2 on page 67), and clicking the tile at the intersection of the input’s column and the desired mixer input’s row. Once routed to the mixer, use the input channel, reverb bus, and monitor bus in the mixer to apply effects as desired, and perhaps include other channels to the mix, and then assign the monitor bus output in the routing grid to the output you are using for monitoring.

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In either case (routing directly in the grid or routing through the mixer), be sure to maintain the input’s connection to the computer as well, so the input signal can be recorded in your host software. In other words, you’ll want to make sure there are two tiles enabled in the input’s column in the grid: one tile for the connection to the computer and another tile for your monitoring output (or a mixer input, if you are using the mixer to apply effects). If you need to route the input signal to other destinations, too, you can certainly do so (you can route the input to multiple destinations).

Monitoring through your host audio software

If you do need to process a live input with host software plug-ins, or if you are playing virtual instruments live through your MOTU audio hardware, you can signiﬁcantly reduce latency by adjusting the audio buffer setting in your host audio software, as explained in the next section.

you’ll hear when monitoring live inputs or processing them with software plug-ins. Here are a few examples.

☛ It is important to note that monitoring delay

has no effect on the recording, or playback, of audio data from disk. The actual recording and playback is extremely precise, it is only the monitoring of your live input signal which may be delayed.

Adjusting your host software audio buffer

Buffers are small bundles of audio data. Your interface “speaks” to your computer in buffers, rather than one sample at a time. The size of these buffers determine how much delay you hear when monitoring live inputs through your audio software: larger buffers produce more delay; smaller buffers produce less.

Adjusting buffer size on Mac OS X

Under Mac OS X, audio I/O buffer size is handled by the host audio application (not by your MOTU interface’s Core Audio driver). Most audio software applications provide an adjustable audio buffer setting that lets you control the amount of delay

Figure 7-4: In Digital Performer and AudioDesk, choose Setup menu> Conﬁgure Audio System> Conﬁgure Hardware Driver to open the dialog shown above and access the Buffer Size setting. Refer to your Digital Performer or AudioDesk manual for information about the Host Buffer Multiplier setting.

Figure 7-5: In Cubase or Nuendo, choose Devices menu > Device Setup. Select your interface (1248, 8M or 16A), then click the Control Panel button to access the window above and the Buffer Size setting.

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Figure 7-6: In Logic Pro, go to the Audio Driver preferences to access the Buffer Size option shown above.

Adjusting buffer size on Windows

To adjust buffer size on Windows, visit the MOTU AVB USB Control Panel. See “MOTU AVB USB Control Panel” on page 34.

Lower latency versus higher CPU overhead

Buffer size has a large impact on the following:

■ Monitoring latency

■ The load on your computer’s CPU

■ Responsiveness of transport controls and effect

knobs in AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other audio software.

■ Real -time VI latency.

Figure 7-7: When adjusting the buffer size to reduce monitoring latency, watch the ‘processor’ meter in Digital Performer or AudioDesk’s Performance Monitor. If you hear distortion, or if the Performance meter is peaking, try raising the buffer size.

If you a re at a point i n you r rec ordi ng proj ect whe re you are not currently working with live, patchedthru material (e.g. you’re not recording vocals), or if you have a way of externally processing inputs, choose a higher buffer size. Depending on your computer’s CPU speed, you might ﬁnd that settings in the middle work best (256 to 1024).

Transport responsiveness

Buffer size also impacts how quickly your audio software will respond when you begin playback, although not by amounts that are very noticeable. Lowering the buffer size will make your software respond faster; raising the buffer size will make it a little bit slower.

Effects processing and automated mixing

Reducing latency with the buffer size setting has another beneﬁt: it lets you route live inputs through the real-time effects processing and mix automation of your audio software.

The buffer setting presents you with a trade-off between the processing power of your computer and the delay of live audio as it is being patched through your software. If you reduce the size, you reduce monitoring latency, but signiﬁcantly increase the overall processing load on your computer, leaving less CPU bandwidth for things like real-time effects processing. On the other hand, if you increase the buffer size, you reduce the load on your computer, freeing up bandwidth for effects, mixing and other real-time operations.

WORKING WITH HOST AUDIO SOFTWARE

WORKING WITH ON-BOARD MIXING AND EFFECTS

Your MOTU interface provides powerful mixing, EQ, compression and reverb, which can oper ate hand-in-hand with your host’s mixing environment. For example, your MOTU interface can serve as a monitor mixer, routing channels to musicians, or it can serve as an integrated extension of your host’s mixing environment. You

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can even save a particular mixing conﬁguration as a preset for future recall. For details, see “Mixing tab” on page 21.

SYNCHRONIZATION

You may encounter situations in which you need to synchronize your audio software and your MOTU interface to other components of your system. For details, see “Synchronization” on page 51.

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CHAPTER

8 Mixer Effects

OVERVIEW

This chapter provides further information about the effects processors available in the DSP mixer in your MOTU AVB interface. For basic mixer operation, see:

Mixing tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Aux Mixing tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Mixer input channel strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Main Mix and Monitor channel strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Aux bus channel strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Group and Reverb channel strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Powerful DSP-driven mixing and effects

The m ixer is dr iven by a powe rfu l DSP that delivers 32-bit ﬂoating point precision and plenty of processing bandwidth for no-latency effects, including parametric EQ, dynamics, and reverb. Effects can be applied when operating as an audio interface or as a stand-alone mixer without a computer. Input signals to the computer can be recorded wet and/or dry, or recorded dry while a real-time wet monitor mix is sent to musicians. Effects include:

High Pass Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

A conventional high pass ﬁlter

Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

A standard gate with threshold/attack/release controls

Four-band parametric EQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Multi-band parametric EQ modeled after British analog consoles

Leveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

The Leveler™, an accurate model of the legendary LA-2A optical compressor, which provides vintage, musical automatic gain control

Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Classic reverb with tail lengths up to 60 seconds

Advantages over host-based mixing and processing

The hardware mixer in your MOTU AVB interface provides several major advantages over mixing and processing in your host audio software:

■ No buffer latency. The DSP-mixer provides the

same near-zero latency throughput performance as a conventional digital mixer. Effects processing doesn’t impact your computer’s CPU.

■ DSP mixing and routing can be maintained

independently of individual software applications or projects.

■ DSP-driven mixing can function without the

computer, allowing your MOTU AVB device to operate as a portable, stand-alone mixer with effects.

☛ Effects are disabled when operating at 4x

sample rates (176.4 or 192 kHz).

HIGH PASS FILTER

All input channel strips provide a 12 dB per octave high pass ﬁlter. High Pass ﬁlters are often used to remove unwanted mic rumble, for example.

Compressor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

A standard compressor with threshold/ratio/ attack/release/gain controls

Figure 9-1: The High Pass Filter

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GATE

All input channel strips provide a Gate module.

Figure 8-1: The Gate module.

The gate silences the signal when the input signal’s level drops below the Threshold.

The rate at which the gate responds, (opens to let signal through) is determined by the Att ack parameter. With a short Attack time, the gate will open as soon as the signal crosses the Threshold; with longer Attack times, the gate will gradually open, much like a fade-in.

When the input level falls back below the Threshold, the time it takes for the gate to close (how quickly the signal is attenuated), is determined by the Release parameter. Short Release times will close the gate quickly, abruptly attenuating your signal, versus longer release times, which will gradually attenuate your signal, like a natural fade-out.

FOUR-BAND PARAMETRIC EQ

All mixer channel strips, (except for the Monitor bus), provide modeled, four-band parametric EQ.

Enabling EQ

Each band has an enable/disable button (Figure 8-2), allowing you to enable as few or as many bands as needed for the channel strip.

Enable/disable

Disabled band

Figure 8-2: The Four-band parametric EQ module.

EQ ﬁlter controls

The EQ ﬁlters have three controls:

Control unit range

Gain dB -20.00 to +20.00

Vintage EQ

Inspired by legendary British large console EQs, the EQ section (Figure 8-2) models the sound of the most sought-after classic equalizers. Four bands of center frequency parametric EQ ﬁltering are provided, each with a bandwidth control. The High and Low bands include a shelf ﬁltering option. With 32-bit ﬂoating point precision, the vintage EQ has been carefully crafted and meticulously engineered to produce musical results in a wide variety of applications.

Frequency Hertz 20 to 20,000

Bandwidth Octaves 0.01 to 3.00

Double-click a knob to return to its default position.

EQ ﬁlter characteristics

EQ is one of the most widely used processing tools and can be applied to many different situations, from minor corrective tasks to creative tone sculpting. The four-band EQ has been designed to

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be ﬂexible enough to cover a broad range of applications. By adjusting Gain and Bandwidth together, you can emulate the smooth and musical character of classic analog EQ circuits, in which the Gain/Bandwidth dependency was dictated by the actual circuit design and electrical components used.

Low and high shelf ﬁlters

The Low and High bands offer a shelf option that is similar to those found in most conventional parametric EQs.

follows a loud passage. Short Release times may cause the attenuation to “pump”, a term used to describe the sound of the compressor when the average input level quickly ﬂuctuates above and below the Threshold. These types of issues can be addressed by adjusting the compressor’s parameters, or applying the Leveler instead. Gain adjusts the overall output level of the compressor, post processing. The Level meter (Figure 8-3) shows the level of the input signal entering the compressor. It shows either the Peak envelope or the RMS level, if enabled.

COMPRESSOR

All mixer input channel strips provide a compressor module.

Figure 8-3: The Compressor module.

The Compressor (Figure 8-3) lowers the level of the input when amplitude of the signal is above the Threshold. The amount of attenuation is determined by the Ratio and the input level. For example, if the input is 6 dB above the Threshold and the Ratio is 3:1, the compressor will attenuate the signal to 2 dB above the Threshold. When the input level goes above the threshold, the attenuation is added gradually to reduce distortion. The rate at which the attenuation is added is determined by the Attac k parameter. Likewise, when the input level falls below the Threshold, the attenuation is removed gradually. The rate at which the attenuation is removed is determined by the Release parameter. Long Release times may cause the audio to drop out brieﬂy when a soft passage

Gain reduction meter

The Gain reduction meter (Figure 8-3) displays the current amount of attenuation applied by the compressor, before the makeup gain stage.

RMS mode

By default, the compressor operates in Peak mode, which uses signal peaks to determine the input level. In RMS mode, the compressor measures the input signal’s loudness, using the root-meansquare computational method. When RMS is disabled, RMS mode will let brief peaks through because the detector sidechain is only looking at the average signal level. By contrast, peak mode wi ll catch those brief peaks. Peak mode is generally used for drums, percussion and other source material with strong transients, while RMS mode is mostly used for everything else.

The level meter shows either the peak level or the RMS level, depending on the mode.

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LEVELER

The Leveler™ (Figure 8-4) provides an accurate model of the legendary Teletronix™ LA-2A® optical compressor, known for its unique and highly sought-after Automatic Gain Control (AGC) characteristics.

Figure 8-4The Leveler module.

The Leveler is available on the Main Mix bus and all Group busses, including the Reverb bus.

A model of an optical compressor

An optical leveling ampliﬁer works by shining a light on a photoresistor. The intensity of the light source is proportional to the audio signal, and the resistance of the photoresistor is in turn inversely proportional to the intensity of the light. Photoresistors respond quite quickly to increases in light intensity, yet return to their dark resistance very slowly. Thus, incorporation of the photoresistor into an attenuator followed by an ampliﬁer which provides make-up gain produces a signal which maintains a constant overall loudness.

Automatic gain control using light

The AGC circuit of the LA-2A uses a vintage optocoupler known by its model number T4. The T4 contains an electroluminescent-panel (ELP) and photoresistor mounted so that the emission of the panel modulates the resistance. An ELP consists of a thin layer of phosphorescent material sandwiched between two insulated electrodes to

form a capacitor. Making one of the electrodes transparent allows the light to escape. These devices are essentially glow-in-the-dark paint on a piece of foil covered by metalized glass or plastic, and are the same devices used in low-power night lights. Unfortunately, these devices need high voltages to operate, and are best driven by tube circuits which can supply voltage swings of several hundred volts.

Response characteristics

Once the light has faded away, the photoresistor then decays back to its dark state. The shape of the decay curve varies depending on how bright the light was, and how long the light lasted. A general rule of thumb is that the louder the program, the slower the release. Typically, the release can take up to and over one minute. One thing to keep in mind when using these types of devices is that the typical concepts of compression ratio, attack, release, and threshold do not apply. The light intensity is determined by the highly non-linear interactions of the input signal, AGC circuit, and ELP, and thus exhibit a strong program dependence that is impossible to describe without the mind-numbing mathematics of statistical mechanics. The actual results, however, can be almost mystical: even when you feed the same material (a loop perhaps) through the Leveler twice, you’ll often see a new response the second time through a loop, complete with unique attack times, release times and compression ratios. Furthermore, two different input signals with the same RMS levels may be leveled in a drastically different manner.

It is precisely this self-adjusting behavior that makes optical compressors the tool of choice for smoothing out vocals, bass guitar and fullprogram mixes without destroying perceived dynamics.

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Enabling or disabling the Leveler

The Leveler models the LA-2A so closely, it also models the time it takes for an actual LA-2A to “warm up” after it is turned on. Therefore, when you enable the Leveler, give it a moment to “settle” before you begin processing signals with it.

Gain Reduction

Gain Reduction (Figure 8-4) sets the strength of the signal sent to the AGC model.

Makeup Gain

Makeup gain (Figure 8-4) ampliﬁes the output signal to make up for gain reduction.

Limit button

The Limit button (Figure 8-4) models the original LA-2A Limit/Compress mode switch. The effect is very subtle, with the Limit option behaving only slightly more like a limiter than a compressor. The switch increases the level of the input to the AGC model and runs the attenuator at a slightly lower level. The Leveler then responds more strongly to transients, but otherwise still behaves like a leveling ampliﬁer.

REVERB

Use the enable/disable button (Figure 8-5) to turn the reverb processor on or off. Since reverb uses considerable DSP resources, it is best to leave it off when you are not using it.

Routing inputs and groups to the reverb processor

The reverb processor is a single, independent unit that provides stereo reverb. You can route any input channel or Group bus to the Reverb processor w ith the Reverb send on its channel strip. All incoming signals to the reverb processor are merged and processed together. The resulting stereo output from the reverb can then be merged into the Main Mix bus with the Main send on the Reverb channel strip (item #6 on page 26).

Reverb Time

Reverb time (Figure 8-5) determines the length of decay, or tail, of the reverb. The knob’s range is from 100 milliseconds to 60 seconds.

Predelay

Predelay is the amount of time before the acoustic energy from the source returns to the listener, after reﬂecting off the surfaces of the listening space. The very ﬁrst reﬂections helps you perceive information about the listening space, (size, distance, surface type, etc.). In large rooms, it takes a while (on the order of milliseconds) before the ﬁrst reﬂections return to the listener. Predelay is useful for adding clarity, as it delays these reﬂections, before the onset of full reverberation. For example, with pre-delay added to vocals, the reﬂections won’t start until after the initial sound of a word has been sung.

Figure 8-5: The Reverb processor.

MIXER EFFECTS

Spread

Spread controls stereo imaging. A position of 12 o’clock produces essentially a mono image. Turning the control all the way to the left completely swaps the stereo image.

High and Mid frequency bands

The High and Mid frequency bands let you independently control the reverb time for separate frequency bands, relative to the low frequency reverb time. The High setting represents the bottom frequency of the High band; the Mid

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setting represents the bottom frequency of the Mid band. The Ratio determines the length for each band speciﬁed in a percentage of the low frequency reverb time.

DSP USAGE

The DSP Usage meter (item #26 on page 23) shows how much of the available DSP processing power is currently being used by the mixer for the mix and for effects processing. If there aren’t enough DSP resources for all effects to be enabled on a channel, effects are disabled for that channel and all subsequent channels.

☛ Unlike other effects, HPF and EQ on a stereo

channel requires approximately twice the DSP resources as on a mono channel.

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CHAPTER

9 Networking

OVERVIEW

The Audio Video Bridging (AVB) network port on your MOTU interface opens up a world of possibilities for creating expanded, customized audio network systems.

About AVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

MOTU’s AVB implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Networking examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

A quick guide to networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Setting up a MOTU AVB interface for networking. . . . 83

Mapping audio to network streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Mapping computer channels to network streams . . . 83

Bridging to Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

The MOTU AVB Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

ABOUT AVB

Audio Video Bridging (AVB) is an extension of the Ethernet standard developed by the IEEE (802.1 standards committee) speciﬁcally to add highperformance audio and video networking. AVB brings together the worlds of networking technology and high-end audio. Here is a brief summary of some of the immediate beneﬁts of AVB for you, as a MOTU AVB interface user:

■ An open industry standard — AVB has been

developed by the IEEE as an international standard speciﬁcation. It is not proprietary or controlled by one company.

■ High channel counts — AVB provides hundreds

of network channels.

■ Extremely low latency — AVB guarantees low-

latency, real-time performance.

■ Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) — AVB’s

Stream Reservation Protocol provides Guaranteed Quality of Service for each and every audio stream. If the network cannot continuously maintain every

bit of every sample in the audio stream, it will not allow you to make the network connection in the ﬁrst place. AVB streams are prioritized over other network trafﬁc to ensure high performance.

■ Network-wide clocking and sync — AVB

devices all clock together over your network for better-than-sample-accurate phase lock across all connected dev ices. Timing accuracy is down to the nanosecond.

■ True plug-and-play operation — AVB has been

designed from the ground up to provide automatic device discovery, enumeration, and connection management. Just plug your MOTU AVB interfaces into a standard AVB switch and go. If you wish to make stream connections and have the ability to select media clock, you must use the web app, or some other AVB controller. You don’t need an IT professional to conﬁgure the network. AVB is a self-managing network protocol.

■ Bridging to standard Ethernet — AVB

cooperates with standard Ethernet networks, for connecting traditional Ethernet devices like wireless routers, switches, or any other non-AVBaware device.

■ Support for existing network infrastructure —

Replace your existing switches with standard AVBcompatible switches, and your CAT-5e or CAT-6 wired infrastructure now supports AVB.

■ Long cable runs — a single AVB network

connection can run up to 100 meters with a standard copper wire CAT-5e or CAT-6 cable. Fiber-optic cable runs can be much longer. With multiple switches, you can create a network that covers very large distances, if necessary. You can use up to seven “hops” (switch-to-switch connections).

Page 80

■ AVB is already shipping on current Macs —

Apple supports AVB on all current shipping Macs, and your MOTU interface can operate as a standard AVB audio interface when connected to your Mac’s AVB-equipped Ethernet port.

MOTU’S AVB IMPLEMENTATION

MOTU engineering has faithfully implemented the IEEE 802.1 AVB standard for the MOTU AVB products. This means that MOTU devices are fully interoperable with any 3rd party AVB-compatible device. In addition, MOTU has ﬁne-tuned AVB operation among MOTU AVB devices for optimum performance, within the AVB speciﬁcation. Here is a brief summary of advantages you will enjoy when using MOTU AVB devices together in a network:

■ 256 channels of host I/O — MOTU AVB

interfaces equipped with Thunderbolt (the 1248, 8M, 16A and 112D) support 256 simultaneous channels of audio I/O (128 in, 128 out) to and from the entire network.

■ Support for multiple computer hosts — All

computers and all network devices run in sync with each other, resolved to the network’s master clock.

■ Gigabit Ethernet — The MOTU AVB Switch

delivers 1 Gbit Ethernet performance, which provides substantially higher bandwidth than 100 Mbit Ethernet. This allows you to have many more devices on the AVB network.

■ Over 500 channels of network audio — MOTU’s

AVB network can stream over 500 channels of audio throughout the network. Depending on the model, some MOTU AVB devices can broadcast sixteen 8-channel network streams and simultaneously listen to sixteen 8-channel network streams.

■ Exceptionally low network latency — Standard

AVB network latency is 2 ms. MOTU AVB network latency is an astonishing 0.6 ms, even over seven “hops” (switches) and hundreds of meters of cable. By comparison, other commercially available, proprietary audio network protocols have variable (unpredictable) network latency in the range of 2-5 ms.

■ Star conﬁguration — MOTU AVB supports a

star network conﬁguration, which is much more ﬂexible than daisy-chain scenarios, which depends on all devices in the chain.

■ Web interface — MOTU AVB devices can be

controlled from the MOTU AVB Control web app, which runs within any web browser on any networked laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Although the web app shares the network with AVB, AVB audio streams are never compromised because AVB streams over the network trafﬁc.

■ Bridging to standard Ethernet — the MOTU

AVB Switch provides an extra standard Ethernet port for bridging to your local Ethernet network, Wi-Fi, etc. for command and control, internet access, and other standard network trafﬁc. All ports allow connection to standard (non-AVB) network devices, however, the “Ethernet” port is suggested because it does not support AVB.

NETWORKING EXAMPLES

Networking comes into play as soon as you hook up a second MOTU interface to your ﬁrst one, as explained in “Setup for two interfaces” on page 39, to add more I/O to your studio. Here are just a few examples of what is possible.

Personal studio expansion

Let’s say you have a 1248 mounted in a rack next to your computer. You could add an 8M interface and position it across the room, near your drum kit, for placing up to 8 mics on the drums. All the mic cabling is kept near the drums, and you have one simple, clean network cable running back to your

NETWORKING

Page 81

computer system. Despite the distance, the two interfaces operate as a seamless system, controlled from your computer or iPad.

Studio installation

A studio installation of three to ﬁve interfaces can be handled with a single MOTU AVB Switch. See “Setup for three to ﬁve interfaces” on page 40.

Networking is ideal for studio installation because you can position interfaces at strategic locations. Running cables becomes much simpler and more cost effective. Not only does a setup like this give you access to all I/O from your computer, even multiple computers, you can also route audio from any input to any output across devices with near zero latency. You can also route audio from one computer to another with very low latency. As a simple example, you could deploy several interfaces in a studio as follows:

Interface Location Purpose

1248 Control room General I/O in control room, out-

1248 Iso booth Local mic and instrument

1248 Studio room General purpose I/O for studio A

8M Studio room More mic inputs, or additional

8M Studio room

16A Machine room Analog I/O and patch bay for rack

drum kit

puts to main speakers, etc.

I/O in the iso booth.

mic inputs for drum kit

8 more mics on the drum kit

mounted gear

Large studio facility

In a larger studio facility, you could build audio network neighborhoods similar to the studio installation described earlier in multiple rooms, even multiple ﬂoors, with multiple computers and WiFi control from anywhere in the facility. All computers and devices can see each other and you can stream audio anywhere on the network with near-zero latency, as if any two devices were connected directly to each other.

Concert systems

Concert systems must be ﬂexible so they can adapt to each new venue while on tour. Because of its modular nature, AVB networking allows you to design systems that are scalable and easy to adapt to each venue. You can easily bring devices on and ofﬂine, rerouting audio stems as needed.

Because MOTU AVB networking employs a star conﬁguration, instead of daisy-chaining, you can set up backup computer playback systems on a shared network. For example, in a concert setting, if one computer system goes down, the backup system can be brought on line instantly through the same network infrastructure.

Traditionally, live performance setups often have separate domains for front of house mixing, monitor mixing, computer backline, and other systems. With MOTU AVB networking, these systems can be uniﬁed on the same network, opening up many possibilities for shared resources and mixing/routing responsibilities, especially from multiple sources (laptops, iPads, tablets, etc.) MOTU AVB networking handles audio in convenient 8-channel stems, making large-scale network management more manageable. MOTU AVB’s very low latency makes it particularly suitable for line arrays and sound reinforcement.

Large-scale venues

With long cable runs and industry standard networking infrastructure, MOTU AVB systems are well-suited for large-scale commercial installations such as arenas, stadiums, theme parks, clubs, casinos, houses of worship, broadcast facilities, schools, universities, and so on. Audio streams can travel long distances with submillisecond latency through as many as seven switches. Audio can be distributed from a centralized location to anywhere in the venue.

NETWORKING

Page 82

A QUICK GUIDE TO NETWORKING

MOTU AVB networking has been designed to be powerful, yet straightforward to set up and use. Here are a few things that are useful to know.

Networking basics

■ Before proceeding below, review the networking

connection diagrams on pages 39-41.

■ To make network connections, use shielded

CAT-5e or CAT-6 cables (a higher grade cable).

■ Network cable lengths can be long: 100 meters

with standard copper wire cables; much longer with ﬁber-optic network cables.

Working with AVB switches

■ Networks of three or more interfaces require an

AVB-compatible switch. You can use any standard AVB switch on the market. MOTU offers the ﬁveport MOTU AVB Switch™ (sold separately).

☛ A non-AVB compatible switch will not work.

■ You can daisy-chain switches in serial fashion,

but don’t create loops. For example, in the network below, do not make any additional connections between any two switches.

■ AVB audio can’t pass through more than seven

switches. However, you can daisy-chain more than seven switches and route audio freely among them. You just won’t be able to create point-to-point connects that span more than seven switches.

■ Connect MOTU AVB interfaces to any AVB

Switch using their NETWORK ports.

■ On the MOTU AVB Switch, connect MOTU

interfaces to the ﬁve AVB NETWORK ports (not the Ethernet port). Connect the Ethernet port to a WiFi router, your Local Area Network (LAN) or your computer (for running web app only).

MOTU AVB interfaces or

other AVB switches

WiFi router, Ethernet

hub/network, or

computer

(Sold separately)

■ Expand the network by adding more switches.

Make a single connection from one switch to the other. On MOTU AVB Switches, use their AVB NETWORK ports, NOT the Ethernet port.

Working with computers on a network

■ Computers are not required for network

operation, as you can control the network from iPads, tablets and smart phones.

■ To add computers to the network, connect them

to any interface using Thunderbolt (which offers the highest possible channel counts). If Thunderbolt is not available, use USB.

■ A computer can be connected to the network

through its Ethernet port, but only for the purposes of running the web app on the computer for command and control over the network. (In this scenar io, you won’t be able to st ream audio to/ from the network from the computer.)

■ All computers and interfaces on the network

have full access to each other.

■ MOTU employs a 1 Gbit AVB implementation in

the MOTU AVB Switch. The switch allows routing of many audio channels on the network.

NETWORKING

Page 83

SETTING UP A MOTU AVB INTERFACE FOR NETWORKING

Depending on the model, MOTU AVB interfaces have the ability to broadcast up to sixteen 8-channel streams to the rest of the network. Conversely, it can “listen” to as many as sixteen 8-channel streams from anywhere else in the network. The speciﬁc number of streams supported depends on the model.

For each device on the network, set it up for network operation as follows:

1 In the MOTU AVB Control web app, choose the device (item #1 on page 18).

2 Go to the Device tab (item #5 on page 18), go to the AV B S t r e a m S e tu p section (item #27 on page 19), and type in the number of 8-channel input and output streams you want for that device.

3 Go to the AV B S t r e a m C o n n e c t i o n s section (item #9 on page 19), and choose the network stream you want the device to listen to for each bank.

4 Use the Routing tab to map speciﬁc I/O channels within each MOTU AVB interface to its network input and output streams, as explained in the next section.

MAPPING AUDIO TO NETWORK STREAMS

Once you’ve conﬁgured a device’s AVB streams, as explained above, use the Routing tab (page 20) to map audio channels to network input and output streams.

Input streams (coming from the rest of the network) are listed across the top of the routing grid. Expand the stream and click on the grid to map incoming network channels to local destinations, including physical outputs on the device, computer channels (to a connected computer), or mixer channels.

Output streams being broadcast to the rest of the network are listed in rows along the left side of the grid. Expand each stream bank and map individual network output channels to local sources, such as physical inputs on the interface, channels coming from the computer, or channels coming from the device’s mixer.

MAPPING COMPUTER CHANNELS TO NETWORK STREAMS

If a host computer is connected to an interface (through Thunderbolt or USB), mapping network input and output streams is accomplished as described in the previous two sections. Simply enable AVB streams as desired, and map them to computer channels in the Routing grid.

If, while mapping, you run out of computer channels, enable more in the Computer Setup section of the Device tab (item #22 on page 19). If the computer is connected with Thunderbolt, you can enable a maximum of 128 channels in and out. If the computer is connected with USB, performance will vary, depending on the sample rate and other factors.

BRIDGING TO ETHERNET

The Ethernet port on the MOTU AVB Switch allows you to connect standard network devices, such as:

■ A WiFi router

■ An Ethernet hub or switch connected to a local

home, studio, or ofﬁce network

■ Any other standard networking device

THE MOTU AVB SWITCH

The heart of a MOTU AVB network is the MOTU AVB Switch (sold separately). For a brief overview of the switch and its features, see “MOTU AVB Switch” on page 15.

NETWORKING

Page 84

NETWORKING

Page 85

Part 3

Appendices

Page 86

Page 87

APPENDIX

A Troubleshooting

Some or all of my MOTU interface inputs and outputs are not available in my host audio software.

Make sure that the inputs and outputs are enabled in the Device tab (“Device tab” on page 18) and routed to and from the computer in the Routing tab (“Routing tab” on page 20). For details, see “Making inputs and outputs available to your host software” on page 66.

I have absolutely no audio input or output happening to or from my interface. Why?

Make s ure th at th e unit has a s table samp le rate (th e sample rate will ﬂash if the clock hasn’t settled yet). Tr y s et ti ng t he uni t’s cl ock so ur ce to Internal if you can’t sync to any external clock sources. Check that audio is working with Internal sync, and if so, then work on establishing a stable external clock.

I can't hear computer audio output through my MOTU AVB interface.

In the Sound panel of System Preferences, your MOTU AVB interface should be selected as the output device. Almost all applications will use just the ﬁrst two output channels, so make sure that From Computer 1 and From Computer 2 are routed to the physical outputs that you are listening to in the Routing tab (e.g. Phones 1-2 or Analog 1-2).

How do I monitor live inputs?

Please refer to the documentation for the audio application that you are using. If your application does not support input monitoring, you will need to use the mixer in your MOTU interface. Please see “Monitoring through your MOTU interface” on page 69.

How do I control monitoring latency?

See “Reducing monitoring latency” on page 69.

The Routing tab (page 20) doesn’t display some of the inputs or outputs on my interface.

The Routing tab only displays input and output banks that are enabled in the Device tab (page 18), so be sure any banks you wish to work with are enabled there. However, to conserve DSP resources and help consolidate screen-space in the other tabs, it is efﬁcient practice to disable unused input or output banks (optical banks, for example, when only working with analog banks, or all output banks when only working with Phones).

I'm getting a “Could not enable this effect because DSP is overloaded” error. What should I do?

Disable other effects or reduce the number of mixer inpu ts to c onser ve D SP r esour ces. If the re a re au dio input and output banks on your interface that you are not using (such as the optical banks), disable them in the Device tab (page 18).

I accidentally deleted my factory presets. How do I restore them?

In the Device tab (page 18), click the Restore Factory Presets button to restore all factory presets.

How do I factory reset my device?

Push the SELECT knob/button to enter the main menu. Navigate to Settings > Factory Default and push the SELECT knob/button twice to reset.

I can’t authenticate AudioDesk.

When authenticating AudioDesk, the OK button does not become active until you have entered in your name and a valid keycode. Your name must contain at least three characters, and you must enter the keycode exactly as it appears (on the jacket of your AudioDesk installer disc). If you continue to have difﬁculties, try repairing Mac OS X disk permissions using Disk Utility.

Page 88

I hear clicks and pops under word clock sync.

Many problems result from incorrect word clocking. It is essential that all digital devices in the system be word locked. Consult “Synchronization” on page 51 for detailed information on how to word clock your gear. Whenever there is any unexpected noise or distortion, suspect incorrect word lock.

Clicks and pops due to hard drive problems...

If you have checked your clock settings and you are still getting clicks and pops in your audio, you may have a drive related problem. Set your Clock Source to Inter nal and try recording just using the analog inputs and outputs on your MOTU interface. If you encounter the same artifacts you may want try using another drive in your computer. Clicks and pops can also occur when the drive is severely fragmented or there are other drive-related issues.

Connecting or powering gear during operation...

It is not recommended that you connect/ disconnect, or power on/off devices connected to your MOTU interface while recording or playing back audio. Doing so may cause a brief glitch in the audio.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

We are happy to provide complimentary customer support to our registered users. If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to register online at MOTU.com, or ﬁll out and mail the included registration card. Doing so entitles you to technical support and notices about new products and software updates.

TECHNICAL SUPPO R T

If you are unable, with your dealer’s help, to solve problems you encounter with your MOTU device, you may contact our technical support department in one of the following ways:

■ Tech support hotline: (617) 576-3066 (Monday

through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST)

■ Online support: www.motu.com/support

Please provide the following information to help us solve your problem as quickly as possible:

■ The ser ial numb er of your MOTU devi ce. Thi s is

printed on a label placed on the bottom of the rack unit. You must be able to supply this number to receive technical support.

■ A brief explanation of the problem, including the

exact sequence of actions which cause it, and the co ntent s of any er ror mes sage s whi ch a ppe ar on t he screen.

■ The pages in the manual that refer to the features

or operation of your MOTU AVB Device or AudioDesk with which you are having trouble.

■ The version of your computer’s operating

system.

We’re not able to solve every problem immediately, but a quick call to us may yield a suggestion for a problem which you might otherwise spend hours trying to track down.

If you have features or ideas you would like to see implemented, we’d like to hear from you. Please write to the Development Team, MOTU Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, or use our online suggestion box at www.motu.com/ suggestions.

APPENDIX A: TROUBLESHOOTING

Page 89

APPENDIX

B Audio Speciﬁcations

1248

Line Out

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Balanced, tip hot

Output Impedance 100 ohm Per leg

Dynamic Range 123 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted, 1 kHz

Frequency Response +0, -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level Out +20 dBu

Trim Range 24 dB -4 dBu to +20 dBu in 1 dB steps

Guitar In

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TS Unbalanced

Impedance 1 megohm

Dynamic Range 103 dB A-weighted

THD+N -93 dB -1 dBFS, Unweighted

Frequency Response +0.05, -0.1 dB Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level In -2 dBu with trim down, +10 dBu with trim up 0.615v to 2.45v

Trim Range 12dB -2 dBu to +10 dBu in 1 dB steps

Line In

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Balanced/unbalanced, Tip hot

Specification Complies with EBU-R68 / SMPTE RP-155

Impedance Load 10 k ohm

Dynamic Range 117 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted

Frequency Response +0, -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level In +24 dBu

Trim Range 22 dB +2 dBu to +24 dBu in 1 dB steps

MIC In

Connector Type XLR Male, Balanced Pin 2 hot

Impedance Load 3k ohm, 4.5k with Pad

Pad -20 dB, Switchable per channel

Phantom Power +48v, Switchable per channel DIN 45596 / IEC 61938-P48

EIN -128 dBu, 20 – 20 kHz Rs = 150 ohm

Dynamic Range 117 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted, 1 kHz

Frequency Response +0, -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level In +24 dBu With pad

Trim Range 63 dB 0 to +63 dB in 1dB steps

Page 90

S/PDIF

Connector Type RCA

Termination 75 ohm I/O

Lock Range 44.1k/48k, +/- 0.5% 1x, 2x

Input Voltage Range 0.2 Vpp/1Vpp With termination

Output Drive 0.5.0 Vpp With termination DC coupled

THD+N In (SRC) -122 dB Unweighted, With SRC

Specification IEC-958/60968-3

Includes Sample Rate Conversion (SRC) on input

Phones

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Stereo Tip Left, Ring Right

Dynamic Range 108 dB A-Weighted

THD+N -100 dB Unweighted

Frequency Response +0 -0.15 dB, 22 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Drive Max. 80 mw 16/32/55 ohms

Trim Range 128 dB 0 to -128 dB (muted) in 1 dB steps

Word Clock In/Out/Thru

Specification AES-11 2009 Annex B

Connector Type BNC

Termination 75 ohm (in/out) THRU is unterminated

Lock Range 44.1 kHz / 48kHz, +- 0.5% x1/x2/x4

Input 1 vpp to 3 v p-p (with termination) AC coupled

Output 5.0 vpp, (2.5 v p-p terminated) DC coupled

Jitter complies with AES3-4-2009 < 0.025 UI

Power Supply

Connector Type IEC 3-conductor receptacle For AC mains connection

Configuration Internal, Universal

Power Input 100 V to 240 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz

Power Usage 35 watts

APPENDIX B: AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS

Page 91

Line Out

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Balanced, Tip hot

Output Impedance 100 ohm Per leg

Dynamic Range 123 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted, 1 kHz

Frequency Response +0 -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level Out +20 dBu

Trim Range 24 dB in 1 dB steps -4 dBu to +20 dBu

MIC in

Connector Type Combo-style, XLR / TRS Pin 2 hot, tip hot

XLR

Impedance load 3 k ohm, 4.5 k with Pad

Pad -20 dB, Switchable per channel

Phantom power +48 v, switchable per channel DIN 45596 / IEC 61938-P48

EIN -128 dBu XLR Terminated

Dynamic Range 112 dB A-weighted

THD+N -104 dB Unweighted

Frequency Response +0 -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level In with Pad +24 dBu V-Limit starts at 17 dBu

Max Level In without Pad +5 dBu V-Limit starts at 4 dBu

Trim range 0 to +53 dB in 1 dB steps

TRS

Description Balanced or single ended Suitable for line or instrument (guitar)

Impedance Load 1 meg ohm differential

Pad -20 dB, Switchable per channel

Phantom power No

Dynamic Range 112 dB A-weighted

THD+N -102 dB -1 dBFS, Unweighted

Frequency Response +0 -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level in with Pad +17 dBu V-Limit starts at +7 dBu

Max Level in without Pad +5 dBu V-Limit starts at -3 dBu

Trim range 0 to +53 dB in 1 dB steps

V-Limit Compressor Range 9 dB

Phones

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Stereo Tip Left, Ring Right

Dynamic Range 102 dB A-Weighted

THD+N -92 dB Unweighted

Drive Max. 80 mw 16/32/55 ohms

Frequency Response +0 -0.27 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Trim Range -128 dB (muted) to 0, in 1 dB steps

APPENDIX B: AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS

Page 92

Word Clock In/Out/Thru

Specification AES-11 2009 Annex B

Jack Type BNC

Termination 75 ohm (in/out) THRU is unterminated

Lock Range 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz, +- 0.5% x1/x2/x4

In p u t 1 v pp t o 3 v p- p ( wi t h t e r mi n at i on ) A C c o up l e d

Output 5.0 vpp, (2.5 v p-p terminated) DC coupled

Jitter Complies with AES3-4-2009 < 0.025UI

Power Supply

Configuration Internal, universal

Power Input 100 V to 240 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz

Connector Type IEC 3-conductor receptacle For AC mains connection

Power Usage 35 watts

APPENDIX B: AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS

Page 93

16A

Line Out

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Balanced, Tip hot

Output Impedance 100 ohm Per leg

Dynamic Range 123 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted, 1 kHz

Frequency Response +0 -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level Out +20 dBu

Trim Range 16 dB in 1 dB steps +4 dBu to +20 dBu

Line In

Specification Complies with EBU-R68 / SMPTE RP-155

Connector Type 1/4” Female, TRS Balanced/Unbalanced, Tip hot

Impedance Load 10 k ohm

Dynamic Range 117 dB A-weighted

THD+N -110 dB (0.0003%) -1 dBFS, Unweighted, 1 kHz

Frequency Response +0 -0.1 dB, 20 Hz/20 kHz Ref. 1 kHz

Max Level In +24 dBu

Trim Range 22 dB (+2 dBu to +24 dBu) in 1 dB steps Compatible with: EBU-R68 , SMPTE RP-155

Word Clock In/Out/Thru

Specification Complies with AES-11 2009 Annex B

Jack Type BNC

Termination 75 ohm (in/out) THRU is unterminated

Lock Range 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz, +- 0.5% x1/x2/x4

In p u t 1 v pp t o 3 v p- p ( wi t h t e r mi n at i on ) A C c o up l e d

Output 5.0 vpp, (2.5 v p-p terminated) DC coupled

Jitter complies with AES3-4-2009 < 0.025UI

, +4 , -10 , 2vRMS , 1vRMS

Power supply

Configuration Internal, universal

Power input 100 V to 240 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz

Connector Type IEC 3-conductor receptacle For AC mains connection

Power usage 35 watts

APPENDIX B: AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS

Page 94

APPENDIX B: AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS

Page 95

APPENDIX

MONO INPUT CHANNEL

C Mixer Schematics

Page 96

STEREO INPUT CHANNEL

APPENDIX C: MIXER SCHEMATICS

Page 97

GROUP BUS

APPENDIX C: MIXER SCHEMATICS

Page 98

MONITOR BUS

APPENDIX C: MIXER SCHEMATICS

Page 99

APPENDIX

D Updating Firmware

MOTU periodically posts ﬁrmware updates for your MOTU AVB interface. These updates may include bug ﬁxes, enhancements, and new features.

Updates are posted on MOTU’s servers. If your computer or Wi-Fi device has access to the internet, the MOTU AVB Control app notiﬁes you as soon as an update is made available. Otherwise, you can check motu.com/avb periodically for the latest ﬁrmware update.

A network cable connection is required

Firmware updating requires a network cable connection, so before you begin, connect a standard CAT-5 or CAT-6 network cable from the network port on your MOTU interface to one of the following:

■ Your computer’s network port (or a

Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter)

■ Your home, studio, or ofﬁce network (with

internet access)

■ An AVB port on a MOTU AVB switch

(connected to your ofﬁce network through the Ethernet port)

Updating with internet access

You are now ready to update:

1 Launch the MOTU AVB Control web app on your computer, iPad, or iPhone, as usual.

2 Go to the Device tab.

3 In the New Update Available banner

(Figure D-1), click More Info.

4 After reviewing the list of enhancements, click OK to start the update.

5 Wait a few moments for the update to ﬁnish, then click OK to return to the Device tab.

6 IMPORTANT: disconnect the Ethernet cable from your MOTU interface after you complete the update, unless it is connected to a MOTU AVB switch or other AVB-aware switch. If so, you can leave it connected.

Figure D-1: The ﬁrmware update banner appears automatically at the top of the Device tab when your web host has internet access and MOTU posts an update.

Page 100

Updating off-line, without internet access

If your MOTU AVB interface (and the computer it is connected to) has no internet access, you can download a ﬁrmware update ﬁle from another computer that does have internet, and then use the ﬁle to update your MOTU interface, as follows:

1 Download the ﬁrmware ﬁle.

2 Transfer the ﬁle to a computer with a network

cable connection to your MOTU interface.

3 Launch the MOTU AVB Control web app on the computer, as usual.

4 Go to the Device tab.

5 Scroll down to the bottom and click Update

from File.

6 Locate the ﬁle on your hard drive and click OK to start the update.

7 Wait a few moments for the update to ﬁnish, then click OK to return to the Device tab.

Viewing the latest ﬁrmware version information

You can conﬁrm the ﬁrmware version at the bottom of the Device tab (Figure D-2).

Why does the ﬁrmware update require a network cable?

Firmware updating was designed to use ethernet mostly for convenience. If you have lots of networked devices, you can upgrade them all from a d ist ance (ev en o ver Wi- Fi) w ith out havin g to plu g in directly and without having to download or run an updater application.

This approach was also taken for engineering reasons, with reliability foremost in mind. When installing an update, the device reboots into a stripped-down recovery partition to guarantee that the update process can always be completed, even if the power goes out mid-update. Since updates can also affect the Thunderbolt or USB chips, they cannot be used during the update.

8 IMPORTANT: disconnect the Ethernet cable from your MOTU interface after you complete the update, unless it's connected to a MOTU AVB switch or other AVB-aware switch. If so, you can leave it connected.

Figure D-2: The currently installed ﬁrmware version is displayed at the bottom of the Device tab.

100

APPENDIX D: UPDATING FIRMWARE

Motu 1248 AVB, 16A AVB, 8m AVB, AVB Switch User manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Title Page

Quick Start Guide

1248 Front Panel

1248 Rear Panel

8M Front Panel

8M Rear Panel

16A Front Panel

16A Rear Panel

MOTU AVB Switch

MOTU AVB Control Web App

OVERVIEW

IT’S NOT ON YOUR HARD DRIVE

USE YOUR FAVORITE WEB BROWSER

CONTROL FROM MULTIPLE DEVICES

RUN THE INSTALLER, GET THE APP

MAKE HARDWARE AND NETWORK CONNECTIONS

LAUNCHING THE WEB APP

Obtaining your MOTU device’s IP address

DEVICE TAB

DEVICE TAB (CONTINUED)

ROUTING TAB

MIXING TAB

AUX MIXING TAB

MIXER INPUT CHANNEL STRIPS

MAIN MIX AND MONITOR CHANNEL STRIPS

AUX BUS CHANNEL STRIPS

GROUP AND REVERB CHANNEL STRIPS

State-of-the-art A/D and D/A conversion

1248

Network I/O

Other MOTU AVB interfaces

24Ai

24Ao

Monitor 8

Universal connectivity

On-board DSP with mixing and effects

112D

Modeled vintage effects processing

AVB system expansion and audio networking

Matrix routing and multing

256 channels of network audio I/O for your host computer

Web app control

Stand-alone mixing with wireless control

ADAT digital I/O

S/PDIF digital I/O with SRC

Word clock

Comprehensive metering

Headphone outputs

Precision Digital Trim™

Rack mount or desktop operation

AudioDesk

System Requirements

PACKING LIST

PLEASE REGISTER TODAY!

3 Software Installation

OVERVIEW

USB 2.0 CLASS-COMPLIANT OPERATION

OPERATION AS AN AVB ETHERNET AUDIO INTERFACE

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Download and run the MOTU AVB Audio Installer

MOTU AVB WEBUI SETUP FOR WINDOWS

AUDIO DRIVERS

MOTU AVB USB ASIO Driver

MOTU AVB DISCOVERY APP FOR MAC

MOTU AVB USB CONTROL PANEL

USB Streaming Mode

ASIO Buffer Size

AUDIODESK WORKSTATION SOFTWARE

WORKING WITH HOST AUDIO SOFTWARE

4 Hardware Installation

OVERVIEW

RACK INSTALLATION AND HEAT

THUNDERBOLT AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

USB AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

AVB ETHERNET AUDIO INTERFACE SETUP

SETUP FOR TWO INTERFACES