Motu 828x Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt™ connectivity

Take full advantage of all that Thunderbolt has to offer. Compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2.

Don't have Thunderbolt yet?

Connect to any Mac or PC using High-speed USB 2.0 (compatible with USB 3.0).

28 inputs / 30 outputs (at 44.1/48 kHz)

There's no channel sharing in the 828x; the mic inputs, S/PDIF I/O, headphone out and main outs all operate as separate channels.

CueMix FX™

Flexible 28 input/16 bus mixer with on-board DSP effects, including reverb with sends/returns, plus EQ and compression on every input and output.

Front-panel control

Access any setting in your entire 828x mix directly from the front panel.

Stand-alone operation

Program your mixes at the studio and then bring the 828x to your gig — no computer needed. Need to tweak the mix? Do it on site using the back-lit LCD and front-panel controls.

Multiple CueMix FX mixes

Create different monitor mixes for the main outs, headphones, or any other output pair. Or add send/return loops for outboard gear — with no latency. Up to 8 separate mixes are supported.

Flexible mic/guitar inputs with preamps

Two front panel combo jacks provide hi-Z 1/4” guitar input or XLR mic input with phantom power, pad and plenty of gain.

Mic/guitar instrument sends

Add your favorite outboard EQ, preamp, reverb or other processor to the two mic/guitar inputs, before the signal goes digital.

V-Limit™ overload protection

Mic/guitar input limiter prevents digital clipping and distortion from overloaded signal levels up to +12 dB over zero.

Plentiful analog I/O

Eight 24-bit 192kHz analog inputs and outputs on balanced/unbalanced 1/4" TRS jacks.

Precision Digital Trim™

Digitally controlled analog trim on all analog inputs (mic/guitar inputs + quarter-inch TRS inputs) provides accurate adjustments in 1 dB increments. Fine-tune the balance of your analog inputs and then save/recall trim configurations.

Flexible optical I/O

16 channels of ADAT lightpipe, 8 channels of SMUX (96 kHz) or two pairs of stereo TOSLink. Mix and match formats between the two banks.

Sample-accurate MIDI

Connect a MIDI controller and/or sound module with no separate interface needed. MIDI I/O is sample-accurate with supporting software.

Foot switch input

Connect a standard foot pedal switch (sold separately) for hands-free punch-in and punch-out while recording. Or map the pedal to any keystroke function in your host software.

Expandable

Add additional interfaces for more I/O as your needs grow.

Separate main outs

Connect your primary powered studio monitors to separate XLR main outs. Add additional monitor pairs connected to balanced TRS outputs. Control volume of all monitor pairs with the front panel MAIN VOL knob or your software.

Two headphone outs

One phone jack is assignable: operate as an independent output or mirror any other output pair. The 2nd phone jack always mirrors the main outs. Both have front-panel volume control.

S/PDIF I/O

Independent 24-bit RCA S/PDIF in/out at sample rates up to 96 kHz.

Word clock I/O

Resolve to external word clock sources at sample rates up to 192 kHz. Output word clock that matches current rate, or corresponding 1x rate when operating at 2x or 4x.

Direct Digital Synthesis™ (DDS)

DSP-driven phase lock engine and internal clock source produces imperceptibly low jitter characteristics (below the noise floor), even when the 828x is resolved to an external clock source via SMPTE time code.

SMPTE time code in/out

Dedicated Longitudinal TIme Code (LTC) input and output. Resolve to time code with fast lockup times and sub-frame accuracy.

DC-coupled TRS outputs

Use the 828x with Volta™ (sold separately) to manipulate and sequence voltage-controlled modular synthesizers from a host DAW.

CueMix™ FX cross-platform mixing software

Attractive on-screen graphic mixing with an instrument tuner and audio analysis tools including real-time FFT display, spectrogram "waterfall" display, oscilloscope, X-Y plot and linear or polar phase analysis.

Universal compatibility

Includes 32- and 64-bit native drivers for Mac OS X and Windows 10/8/7/Vista, including ASIO, WDM, Wave, Core Audio, and Core MIDI. Supports all popular Mac and Windows audio software.

AudioDesk

Full-featured workstation software for Mac with recording, editing, mixing, real-time 32-bit effects processing and sample-accurate sync.

Plug and play operation

Connect to your Mac or PC with Thunderbolt (1 or 2 compatible) or high-speed USB 2.0 (3.0 compatible).

Front panel volume control

Control stereo, Quad, 6.1, 7.1 or user-defined surround monitoring configurations.

Comprehensive metering

Front panel meters or activity LEDs for all analog, digital and MIDI I/O, plus SMPTE sync tach and lock LEDs.

Auto-switching power

International 100-240V, 50-60 Hz autoswitching power supply.

Chassis dimensions and measurements

Excluding rack ears and front and back panel knobs and connectors: 19 × 7 × 1.75 inches (48.26 × 17.78 × 4.45 cm). Knobs and connectors extend up to 0.5 inch (1.27 cm) from front and back panels, adding 1 inch (2.54 cm) to depth. With rack ears attached, fits standard 19 inch (48.26 cm) rack at 1U high.