Never the less, the MOTU PCI-e gear had some of the very best Windows low latency performance in the industry.
 
 

My only real concern with getting a MOTU unit would be future support. Windows 8.2, or 9, or whatever they call it will be out soon. Things should work fine with that, it is still NT 6 kernel (NT 6.4 in particular). However the next version may make major changes. At that point, new drivers will be needed, and I'd bet a dollar MOTU won't release them.
 
Maybe not a big deal if you like sticking on older versions of Windows, but there's something to be said for keeping up to date (8.1 is pretty brilliant when it comes to audio performance, and a $5 program fixes the start menu idiocy). Plus if you want to keep you system online it needs to be reasonably up to date since running versions of Windows which are out of support (and thus unpatched) is very risky for an Internet connected computer.
 
Hence why you might consider the Multiface II option. Twice the price, $3k, and it is also older hardware but RME seems to be real serious about supporting their stuff for a long time. Have to check on the latency but I imagine it'd be great since they are known to have low latency stuff and that hangs off the PCIe bus directly.
 
On the other hand you can always get the cheapest option that'll work for you today, and hold out hope that in a few years when you wish to upgrade there will be something more suitable. Spend less now so you can upgrade later and not be tied to a given solution for so long.

well, i had my sight set on a motu setup..
 
now i will not purchase motu.
 
i use an older PCI card now, and have been very happy with it.
 
why would i NOT want better latency?

Personally, I'm not too worried about it. My 2408 still works fine and when it craps out I'm going to go with SSL & Madi or RedNet & Dante. Either way it'll be an upgrade. :)

the PICe units have been MIA for almost 2 yrs now. I was able to get like 6-10 in that time
out of stock the majority. while Apple may have had a small amount to do with it it really had to do with inability to get the product made (could not source chips for PCB)
 
willing to bet the TB units will work on windows just like the Apollo does even though they say no.

Hey Mike,
have you looked at Lynx AES with Aurora or SSL PCIe with converters
RME UFX and converters
the converters on the 24 I/o were never that good..

jcschild
the PICe units have been MIA for almost 2 yrs now. I was able to get like 6-10 in that time
out of stock the majority. while Apple may have had a small amount to do with it it really had to do with inability to get the product made (could not source chips for PCB)

 
I have trouble believing that. If that's what they claim it is likely a lame excuse. I mean if the chip was a custom chip, there are no lack of fabs that'll make it for you. TSMC, Global Foundries, Samsung, etc all will happily fab you chips. You design them, they'll make them. However my bet is that it is just an FPGA. I'm not sure, as all the pictures of their PCI card have a sticker over the chip, but that'd be my bet based on the HDX-SDI I bought from them. When I opened it up, it was naught but some converters and a Xilinx FPGA chip on board. Not uncommon for specialty interfaces. Ok well Xilinx FPGAs are easy as hell to get. They are extremely popular, used in all kinds of devices.
 
Also it should be noted that I'm not blaming Apple as in Apple called MOTU and said "Hey, no more with the PCI express!" what I'm saying is that MOTU is one of those companies that is fairly enthralled with Apple and thus follows their lead without thinking much about it.
 
Like take their video interfaces. There's a big market in Windows systems with video interfaces because of things like Twitch.tv. Some of the higher end streamers will use a secondary capture/encoding/streaming system with video capture hardware in it running Xsplit. Pro events will do it too, use Flash Media encoder or the like for streaming on the 'net, and just hook in the capture hardware into their mixer. Well for that, you need Video For Windows support. With that, everything works. Blackmagic Design and Matrox both support that, and advertise how you can use their product with everything popular, including things like Xsplit. MOTU? Nope. Their stuff works with FCP, Premiere, and only more recently Media Composer.
 
It's not like implementing a VFW driver would be difficult, in fact it is less work than the individual interface stuff for each of those programs. However they haven't done it, despite requests for years, whereas their competitors did from the word go.
 
It's not like an activist "We are going to support Apple!" stance, rather it is just a cultural thing of being Mac fans. They look at Apple the The Big Thing, and Windows as an afterthought.

Thanks for the info Scott,
 
I guess i assumed that. just because the stuff was still in catalogs that it was actually for sale.
 
I was thinking about the Lynx 16, but I already have 16 I/O that work ok so I really want to go to 24 (or more) and two Lynx 16s take me to a place where I'll feel foolish business wise. I love dumping money in great analog gear... I hate wasting money on digital gear that turns into waste bin stuff so quickly.
 
The RME 32 in 16 out and MADI card is even more expensive.
 
I can't figure out, how companies can dump recent technologies but cling to the ADAT format. I have a love/sneer relationship with it. I find it hard to believe that people have loads of ADAT tapes that they can't transfer with analog rather than ADAT. I do understand why there are so many small format I/O devices but I get frustrated looking at so many hi channel count units that only have 8 analog I/O. Once you sift through the choices there aren't many affordable choices left. A pair of MOTU 192HD with the XLR connections would have made a great replacement for my pair of 896HDs... but of course they have a reputation for the noisy fans. :-) Oh Well. It looks like I'm going to need a mess of cable modifications when/if I do anything.
 
If Lynx had a 24 I/O in one box I would probably do that.
 
The SSL 32 I/O with MADI seems like the next likely contender for me.
 
I'm going to want to find out what the actual measured round trip latency on something like that is before I get too serious. I assume it's good, but I have learned the hard way that you can not assume anything. :-)
 
Thanks again for your insights.
 

Thanks Jesse.

also look at Ferrofish for converters if you want some help and answers on lactency converter quality ping me (at work not here)