Quick tip: Setting up MOTU M4 loopback recording in Bitwig

[Yokai]

Two pictures worth 1000 words:

M4Loopback1.png

M4Loopback2.png

[pinki]

I had a MicrobookIIc- a complete nightmare (also had loopback-if you could figure it out) . How is the M4?

[Yokai]

I had a MicrobookIIc- a complete nightmare (also had loopback-if you could figure it out) . How is the M4?

I've had an Apogee duet (back when I started with Live 6 and had a Macbook Pro), then later I switched to Windows and desktop rigs for production and have now used a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, an Audient iD14, and now a MOTU M4.

Out of all of them, the M4 is absolutely the best in overall features and sound, and tied with the iD14 for build quality and good, solid-feeling knobs. I was very unhappy with the Scarlett.... its headphone knob started having grainy crackles within 6 months, the knobs and meters were all pretty barebones and cheap, and the ASIO drivers for Windows were pretty flaky in many ways.

The iD14 had solid ASIO drivers and was built like a tank, but the led meters were... meh. And it was a PITA to constantly be pressing two buttons to go back and forth between monitor volume and headphone volume. And finally, the headphone amp wasn't that powerful. It could drive my 300 ohm HD 650s just barely, and if I used Sonarworks headphone correction with a -6.1 dB "safe headroom", then the iD14 just wasn't loud enough and I needed a separate headphone amp.

By comparison, the M4 has a seriously loud headphone amp and there's zero need for an extra headphone amp. The meters are very crisp and useful. The knobs are solid and smooth as butter.
And the loopback channels are awesomely useful for recording streams from *anything* straight into the DAW (lossless reference tracks recorded straight from Tidal HIFI, anyone? Like you see in the second screenshot above?), or for capturing my DAW in OBS with no fuss, no muss. Love it.

[pinki]

Hey thanks for this full review and comparison Yokai, much appreciated..

Does the M4 still use the Motu software CueFX? I really did not like it!

[Yokai]

Hey thanks for this full review and comparison Yokai, much appreciated..

Does the M4 still use the Motu software CueFX? I really did not like it!

It's pretty barebones. Hardware only and one small utility for setting the sample rate and buffer size. No mixer software or anything like that. Also no "safety buffer" setting like some earlier MOTU interfaces.

TL;DR - If your DAW doesn't have the ability to set up and route a cue mix to the 3/4 outs, then you're not getting a cue mix from the M4. Fortunately for us, Bitwig can easily set up a dedicated cue mix and send it to outs 3/4.

And of course the M2 has no hope of a separate cue mix, because it has only one pair of stereo outs.

[pinki]

Good..No software is better for me. I had an 828 mk1 for many years and it was plug and play and them Motu introduced CueFx for later interfaces and I never got on with it. So glad to see the M2/4 are back to basics.

[Kung VU]

I also just good it and am loving it. This thing has CV Outs So I can use the Bitwig CV Tools to modulate my analog synth. Its just 2 CV Outs but still very appreciated.
What is actually the difference between the two Stereo Loopback Channels? I played around with that and they both just catch system audio or am I missing something?

[Yokai]

I also just good it and am loving it. This thing has CV Outs So I can use the Bitwig CV Tools to modulate my analog synth. Its just 2 CV Outs but still very appreciated.
What is actually the difference between the two Stereo Loopback Channels? I played around with that and they both just catch system audio or am I missing something?

From the perspective of being *inside your DAW, when in ASIO mode*, the "Loopback" channel is *just* whatever non-ASIO "system sound" is playing on your system (YouTube, Tidal, Spotify, SoundCloud, a game, whatever). The "Loopback Mix" is *both* those non-ASIO things PLUS your ASIO DAW output

From the perspective of being *outside your DAW*, it's kinda reversed. For example, OBS only hears "Windows system audio"--it cannot hear the ASIO stuff at all by default. So if you're in OBS and tell one of the Aux input channels in OBS to use the "Loopback" channel, then you can play your DAW output (still using ASIO) into OBS and record it alongside your mic input and any other system inputs that OBS can normally hear.

[Kung VU]

Ahh thanks for the clarification

[Spring Goose]

for capturing my DAW in OBS with no fuss, no muss.

Hi, hopefully you're still here.

I just received my M4 but (above) is one thing i haven't been able to figure out. Can you explain it please?

edit: it's ok i figured it out. Put cable between out 3/4 to in 3/4, turn the input/playback knob to the right and turn the monitor 3/4 on, and choose out 3/4 for Windows output.

edit2: Now i changed it to do something else, and when i went back to it i can't reproduce it.
I have a cable going from out 3/4 to in 3/4 . I can see that in 3/4 is receiving the signal. But in OBS i have Mic/aux 1 set to in 3/4 but it doesn't show a signal. Can anybody help please?