Seriously considering a Mobile I/O, but I've heard of problems... 1) Lightpipe: This unit would replace my current MOTU 2408 Mk II. I use Lightpipe for digital I/O between it and Yamaha 01v. I've read extensively about problems with Lightpipe performance. Any Mobile I/O owners care to comment please? 2) Firewire performance (versus that via PCI). Regulary run up to 24 tracks in Logic with many plugins. Have a Firewire HD on the Firewire bus. How will performance compare to that from PCI-based A/D converter? Thanks in advance.

> Seriously considering a Mobile I/O, but I've heard of problems... > 1) Lightpipe: > This unit would replace my current MOTU 2408 Mk II. I use > Lightpipe for digital I/O between it and Yamaha 01v. I've read > extensively about problems with Lightpipe performance. > Any Mobile I/O owners care to comment please? > 2) Firewire performance (versus that via PCI). Regulary run up > to 24 tracks in Logic with many plugins. Have a Firewire HD on > the Firewire bus. > How will performance compare to that from PCI-based A/D converter? just read an article in EM saying the litepipe in has problems-not with the out though. check out RME too sam

Try posting your questing to the Metric MIO group: http://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/mobileio There are lots of discussions about lightpipe performance.. For what it is worth. I ordered 5 interfaces, including the MOTU 828, returning them all. I will keep the MIO, it is great and will only improve in time. Metric Halo is addressing problems with the light pipe.

I had indeed posted on the Metric Halo list, but didn't get alot of feedback. It seems after more research that the Lightpipe problems are known issues, and that Metric Halo says they'll address them in future software releases. Was looking here for a Logic User's perspective... It seems to be that everyone loves the sound of the Mobile I/O, and is willing to hang out while ADAT resolution and DSP+ software becomes a reality. Is that your experience? Are the Mic preamps so noisy as to be unuseable? I'm also concerned about playback performance -- usually run all 24 tracks with tons o' plugins (this on an 867 single processor mac with 1 gig RAM), with another Firewire HD on that chain. Thanks in advance for any comments.

Hi, On Friday, February 28, 2003, at 08:49 PM, fatef_er <hcs@...> wrote: > I had indeed posted on the Metric Halo list, but didn't get alot of > feedback. > It seems after more research that the Lightpipe problems are > known issues, and that Metric Halo says they'll address them in future > software > releases. I was looking into a Metric Halo Mobile I/O box for awhile myself. The Lightpipe problems have been around for a long time now. If they are known issues, they should fix them. But, how long should it take? To me, it is a feature that is advertised and doesn't work. I use lightpipe all of the time and need it for my daily work. This is something that I could not justify to myself when spending that kind of money. FWIW, I decided to get a MOTU 896 instead. I don't have it yet but it is what I decided on. Great sound as well (didn't compare between the two boxes so I cannot comment on which one sounds better to me) and, from most of the reports that I have read, it works well. If you need lightpipe, I would recommend that you take a good long hard look at the current situation and make sure that it does what you need it to. Fernstudio

> I had indeed posted on the Metric Halo list, but didn't get alot of feedback. > It seems after more research that the Lightpipe problems are > known issues, and that Metric Halo says they'll address them in future software > releases. > > Was looking here for a Logic User's perspective... > > It seems to be that everyone loves the sound of > the Mobile I/O, and is willing to hang out while ADAT resolution and DSP+ > software becomes a reality. > > Is that your experience? Are the Mic preamps so noisy as to be unuseable? > I'm also concerned about playback performance -- usually > run all 24 tracks with tons o' plugins (this on an 867 single > processor mac with 1 gig RAM), with another Firewire HD on that chain. > > Thanks in advance for any comments. I use Mobile I/O with Logic 6. Are the mics preamp so noisy as to be unuseable? I'm not sure where you got this impression, but the answer is no. The mic preamps sound quite good, and with any quality condenser mic there is no issue about the noise at all. I have noise issues only when use dynamic mics, which require more gain. I record with dynamics all the time and the higher noise floor is only rarely (as when the source is quite low in volume) a concern at all. The MIO preamps don't offer much gain though (only 45 db), so this can be a limitation. As for playback, the major limitation will probably come from the speed of your hard drive and the speed of your processor. I'm quite happy with my MIO. I would like to see the DSP software released already, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the features that are already there. I have no doubt that it is, even now, the best firewire interface on the market.

--- In logic-users@yahoogroups.com, "kreisman" <kreisman@y...> wrote: > > It seems to be that everyone loves the sound of > > the Mobile I/O, and is willing to hang out while ADAT resolution and DSP+ > > software becomes a reality. > > Is that your experience? Are the Mic preamps so noisy as to be unuseable? > I use Mobile I/O with Logic 6. Are the mics preamp so noisy as to be unuseable? > I'm not sure where you got this impression, but the answer is no. The mic preamps > sound quite good, and with any quality condenser mic there is no issue about the > noise at all. I have noise issues only when use dynamic mics, which require more > gain. I record with dynamics all the time and the higher noise floor is only rarely (as > when the source is quite low in volume) a concern at all. The MIO preamps don't > offer much gain though (only 45 db), so this can be a limitation. I second that, the MIO pre-amps are good. I use it with dynamic mics, and it seems there is a little bit of noise if the gain is pushed high, i.e. more than about 35, while trying to record quiet instruments (for the time being, I am struggling a bit to get a good recording of an East African mbira thumb piano, I should probably try to get one of those condensator mics as suggested above), but appart from that I think it sounds very good. For recording acoustic music, I think this box is much more useful than for instance the Motu828, because there are pre-amps on all 8 channels. Good luck. Bjorn