what's a MOTU 2408 worth/sound card question

[Chuck E. Jesus]

i've been looking for a MOTU 2408 MK2 interface to use with my Emu card via lightpipe, but they seem to go for a little too much than i'm willing to pay...i may be able to get an original 2408, but they are unbalanced/-10/16 bit, and i'm not willing to pay much, not even sure if it's worth buying tbh...the other option is to just get something like this: M Audio Delta 66 but i'm not sure if i can still use my Emu card at the same time (i'd need it as a dongle to run Emu X2, in VST only i suppose, i could sample in standalone), not sure of problems running two drivers and audio cards on the same machine...

the idea is to get 4-6 audio i/o channels at the same time and use my little mackie mixer, i'm looking to simplify my setup but still use X2 sampler...and not spend a fortune


any insight welcome, i know this is where you guys shine

[jupiter8]

I'm not sure why you're after the 2408. Sounds to me like it has a lot of features you don't need. So simple logic tells me you can get something similar for less dough. And you can't use the Delta 66 at the same time as the EMU AFAIK.

Sounds to me like you just need an external IO box with ADAT connectors. They range from 200 $ to about 15000$ and there's plenty of them. The cheapest one i know of is the Behringer ADA 8000 which i'm sure someone is going to tell us it's crap and you're a bad person if you buy one. I've never tried one however unless you're superprescious about your sound i suspect they'll be just fine.

Any particular features you're after like mic pres,not being Behringer,balanced IO etc ?

[Chuck E. Jesus]

i'm a little weird about behringer, although i have the BCR2000 midi controller and it works great...i have a Yamaha AW4416 with a Waves card/adat i/o that i'm using, but i just want to use my little mackie mixer along with a rack mic pre and patch bay to get signals in and out...i figure i can't use the Emu card at the same time, but i was hoping i could still use the X2 sampler in vst mode (have to use Emu hardware as a donglea at least to run it)...i'm aware the Motu card is overkill, but there's lots of them floating aound and it should do the job as a standalong convertor...i should look at the behringer again, but i really don't need or want additional pres, just the ability to get signals i/o as clean as possible...

[jupiter8]

I had a look around and it seems like Behringer killed of the budget market. You have the Alesis AI3 but they're like ancient. First ever ADAT interface IIRC. You have the odd german ones Marion,Creamware,Frontier Design (dunno if they're German but WTF).

Could'nt find that many budget ones i'm afraid. If you worry the micpres in the Behringer will add uneceassarily to the cost don't.They're really cheap.

Did'nt EMU ditch the "Must have one of our cards to run our soft" policy a while back or am i just dreaming ?

[Chuck E. Jesus]

they now sell the X2 sampler with a midi interface dongle thing...afaik, you just need some piece of Emu hardware, but not sure if the X2 will run with the Emu driver disabled..i might just have to call them and ask, i just figured someone would know..plus i'm sure Emu would wash their hands of it anyway...i might just find out what MF's return policy is and try it myself

[Chuck E. Jesus]

i may be able to simply keep the original card i the PC, or another option may be to purchase the Emu 50 dollar midi interface and get rid of the card...guess i gotta call Emu