MOTU 16a/24ai etc AVB series..

[Michael Dow]

Hey all, long time no post here. I hope everyone is very well

Does anybody have any insider info on if these units will ever come back into production? I know they stopped due to COVID and the chip shortage/factory burn down (or so i've read) but that's now 5 years ago. And nowhere has any of these units in stock still.

They've obviously released the new 828 in this time. Did they just give up on AVB because Dante won the war?

I'm STILL on a pci-e 2408mk3 (and two mk2s) system, but i'm now getting crashes and freezes in my DAW. I thought it was my Motu Midi express 128 as the DAW would close when i unplugged it (or i'd get a BSOD) but since switching off all the 2408 units and using my M4 instead, i haven't had any hangs or crashes.

The AVB system is the ONLY other system that allows similar inputs/outputs. Nothing else comes close.

What's going on with them?? Apolgies if this has been asked recently, i did a search but didn't find anything similar for some reason

Michael

[Erik Hedin]

Hi Michael,

One year ago I asked the MOTU support that question and got this answer:
“We are still actively developing for AVB. It has not been discontinued.”
There was an update of the drivers of the AVB-range in oktober 2024.
So there are some activity. I don’t know if any AVB hardware from MOTU will be available again.
Dante and MADI is commonly used. I hardly ever see people use AVB these days.

Best wishes, Erik

[Michael Dow]

Hi Michael,

One year ago I asked the MOTU support that question and got this answer:
“We are still actively developing for AVB. It has not been discontinued.”
There was an update of the drivers of the AVB-range in oktober 2024.
So there are some activity. I don’t know if any AVB hardware from MOTU will be available again.
Dante and MADI is commonly used. I hardly ever see people use AVB these days.

Best wishes, Erik

Thanks Erik. This is a shame. There is no other interface with enough inputs. 8 analog ins and two adats is not enough.

And MADI is far too expensive for a home project studio.

Guess i'll have to go for one of the 8 ins and 2 adats and just make use of the patchbay/get another one. Sure i'm not ever recording that many pieces of gear at once, but it is great to almost never have to plug in anything ot switch things around. Everything is just in and ready when you need it, the patchbay is just for occasional routing to something or other.

[Michael Dow]

Also i'd imagine now they will just "develop" ie, make new drivers, until legally they don't have to... If the product has failed that bad.

I literally never see any on the second hand market anywhere let alone new in a store or online, and thats rare for an audio interface. It seems like very few people must have bought them.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Guess i'll have to go for one of the 8 ins and 2 adats and just make use of the patchbay/get another one. Sure i'm not ever recording that many pieces of gear at once, but it is great to almost never have to plug in anything ot switch things around. Everything is just in and ready when you need it, the patchbay is just for occasional routing to something or other.

I'm not sure of your exact requirements, but if I needed up to 32 ins and outs with excellent longevity, reliability and performance, I'd get an RME Digiface USB, and a couple of Ferrofish ADAT converters....

[Michael Dow]

Guess i'll have to go for one of the 8 ins and 2 adats and just make use of the patchbay/get another one. Sure i'm not ever recording that many pieces of gear at once, but it is great to almost never have to plug in anything ot switch things around. Everything is just in and ready when you need it, the patchbay is just for occasional routing to something or other.

I'm not sure of your exact requirements, but if I needed up to 32 ins and outs with excellent longevity, reliability and performance, I'd get an RME Digiface USB, and a couple of Ferrofish ADAT converters....

Hi Hugh thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes i have recently come across that route... it's out of my price range though too. Thats $5000 AUD or more all in. These days i'm writing library/production musicalmost solely, and that's a hefty old investment for what is still building in terms of return.

Althogh having said that maybe worth getting the RME first as we know that's going to be stable for years to come, and just using the MOTU's as standalone converters and perhaps build towards the Ferrofish pulse 16's....

ferrofishy food for thought

[Sam Inglis]

It is sadly discontinued, but if you have Thunderbolt, you could look out for a PreSonus Quantum 4848. The other "relatively affordable but with tons of line level I/O" option I see a lot is the Antelope Orion.

[James Perrett]

Hi Hugh thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes i have recently come across that route... it's out of my price range though too. Thats $5000 AUD or more all in.

You don't have to use the Ferrofish convertors. The cheapest solution would be to use 4 ADA8200s with the Digiface USB but there are lots of old Firewire audio interfaces around which are useless with modern computers but can still be used in stand-alone mode as 8 channels of A/D and D/A. There are also quite a few used Focusrite Octopres and similar budget 8 channel convertors around.

[Michael Dow]

Thanks for all the input guys, i think i will go the way of the RME finally and choose the ADAT USB. Seems to be the closest thing to what i need and then i really can mix and match my gear.

Although clocking will be an issue i need to address i guess!

[ajay_m]

Another possibility might be the Wing Rack, which'll give you 24 Midas preamps and 8 analogue outs, with a low cost stagebox you can expand that easily. Has 48:48 USB but only at 48KHz. I'd argue that's fine; the only reason to go to higher sample rates is that potentially for things like softsynths you can get latency down even further.
One poster here https://behringer.world/viewtopic.php?t=1391 has said they get around 4.3ms round-trip latency.

These modern digital mixers have pretty good preamps now - they aren't quite going to be mastering grade but you can expect 100dB dynamic range as far as I can see and they will handle mic or line inputs with full digital gain trim. We've come a long, long way from those noisy semi-pro analogue mixers of a few decades ago.

The live sound professionals are very pleased with the Wing products, it's a very demanding environment and despite scepticism, Behringer's live sound products have proven to be both reliable and good quality. I can't see why they wouldn't also work in a studio environment and they are certainly cost-effective.
The ergonomics would be quite nice too - a high quality touchscreen that allows you to set up routing and gain etc, without faffing around on the computer.

SOS folks. Look, you're gonna have to review this product at some point. I get the issue with Behringer not supplying product to reviewers but if you don't review these, then the magazine just degenerates to endless weird boutique compressors and yet another Chinese copy of a vintage mic. Surely someone can lend you one?.

[Michael Dow]

Thanks Ajay, thats an intersting product for sure. Lots of options and looks flexible.

I do however enjoy that i currenrly have DC coupled TRS outputs on the MOTU which allows me to control the modular setup nicely, when i want to. It's rare but it is very much handy for sure. I guess it would be easy enough to switch that to midi controllers i guess.

Food for thought, thanks!

[Erik Hedin]

BIG NEWS!!
We have a new MOTU 16A with AVB looking at us now!
https://motu.com/en-us/news/introducing-the-16a/

[Michael Dow]

BIG NEWS!!
We have a new MOTU 16A with AVB looking at us now!
https://motu.com/en-us/news/introducing-the-16a/

Yes just saw this! This is very up my street. The RME is still a contender though, as i need to spend less... but i'll be stuck with the OLD motu units as converters, which have servedme very well and nobody has ever said... oh that track was cool but i wish you used different converters.....

Anyway, it's definitely something to think about!

I'll wait a little while and let other people be guinea pigs for me... these things usually have some teething problems. I'll wait for some reviews and videos!