MOTU Audio Express Firewire/USB 2.0 audio interface

Main Features

• 6-input, 6-output audio interface for Mac and Windows
• Hybrid FireWire/USB 2.0 connectivity - connect to your Mac or PC via either bus-powered Firewire or hi-speed USB2
• Two mic/guitar combo jacks - provide hi-Z 1/4 inch guitar input or XLR mic input with phantom power, 20 dB pad, Precision Digital Trim™, and plenty of gain
• 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
• Stand-alone operation - bring the Audio Express to your gig, with or without a computer. Just plug in the included power adapter and you are ready to go. Need to tweak the mix? Just turn the front-panel knobs
• Includes native 32- and 64-bit drivers for Mac OS X and Windows 7/Vista, including ASIO, WDM, Wave, Core Audio, and Core MIDI. Supports all popular Mac and Windows audio software
• Stereo headphone output on quarter-inch jack with independent volume control

Thanks to MOTU's Hybrid interface technology, the Audio Express connects to any current Mac or PC via FireWire or high-speed USB 2.0. Connect your mic, guitar, keyboard, and digital input, and you are ready to make pro-quality recordings in your personal studio.


Hybrid Firewire/USB 2.0 connectivity
FireWire has long been recognised as a reliable, high-performance connectivity standard for professional audio interfaces. Meanwhile, high-speed USB 2.0 has also developed into a widely adopted standard for connecting audio devices to personal computers.

To fully support both formats, the Audio Express hybrid audio interface is equipped with a FireWire jack (400 Mbit/sec) and a high-speed USB 2.0 jack (480 Mbit/sec). This gives you maximum flexibility and compatibility when connecting to today's ever-expanding universe of Mac and Windows computers.

If your computer doesn't have FireWire, you can use USB. If it has both, then the choice is yours and may depend mostly on other peripherals you have.

Mic/guitar inputs
The Audio Express combo mic/guitar inputs are equipped with pristine, transparent preamps and offer individually adjustable 48V phantom power and -20 dB pad. The quarter-inch guitar jack provides high-impedance load characteristics suitable for passive and active pickups alike.

Digitally controlled analogue trim
The Audio Express's analogue trim circuits deliver clean sound, combined with the precision of digital control. Trim is adjusted at the input, before the mixer, so it applies to all mixes. Mix levels are controlled separately from trim, so you never sacrifice sound quality for a balanced mix.

MIDI I/O
The Audio Express provides MIDI input and output featuring sample-accurate timing with supporting software. Connect a MIDI keyboard, sound module or control surface, and you are ready to go. The FireWire or USB connection to the computer carries both MIDI and audio so you don't need to connect an additional USB cable for MIDI.

Foot switch
Connect any standard momentary foot switch to trigger hands-free punch-ins during recording. Or map the foot switch to any keystrokes you wish in your host audio software.

SMPTE time code sync
You can resolve the Audio Express directly to SMPTE time code, without a dedicated synchroniser, via any analogue input. The Audio Express provides a DSP-driven phase-lock engine with sophisticated filtering that provides fast lockup times and sub-frame accuracy. This technology represents the very latest in extremely high-performance, yet cost-effective digital audio clocking. DDS also allows the Audio Express to maintain an extremely stable clock while resolved to incoming clock sources that have substantially more jitter than the Audio Express itself.

SMPTE Console software
The included MOTU SMPTE Console™ software (for Mac OS X and Windows) provides a complete set of tools to generate SMPTE for striping, regenerating or slaving other devices to the computer. Like CueMix FX, the synchronisation features are cross-platform and compatible with all audio sequencer software that supports the ASIO2 sample-accurate sync protocol.

MOTU Audio Express Additional Features

• 6 x 8 physical input/output channels — all channels are available simultaneously and operate independently.
• 8-bus digital mixer — routes and mixes all six inputs to any output pair.
• Four separate mixes — each output pair (main outs, line outs, S/PDIF out, and phones) can have a completely different mix of all six inputs, with or without computer tracks.
• Stereo analogue inputs — on line-level, balanced TRS quarter-inch jacks. Great for keyboards or other line level-input signals.
• Stereo main outs — on balanced TRS quarter-inch jacks. Connect directly to powered speakers (or other line-level analogue destination).
• Stereo 24-bit 96kHz S/PDIF digital in/out.
• Support for standard sample rates up to 96 kHz.
• Front-panel mixing and control — each input has its own dedicated volume knob.
• Control multiple mixes with clear feedback from front panel LEDs and metering.
• 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.
• Includes AudioDesk full-featured sample-accurate workstation software for the Mac with recording, editing, mixing, real-time 32-bit effects processing & sample-accurate sync.
• Bus-powered FireWire operation. No need for external power when operating as a FireWire interface connected to a computer. A power supply is included for stand-alone operation.

MOTU Audio Express System Requirements

Mac OS X
PowerPC G4 CPU 1 GHz or faster (including PowerPC G5 CPUs and all Intel processor Macs)
Mac OS X version 10.5 or 10.6, v10.5.8 or later required
1 GB RAM, 2 GB or more recommended
Available FireWire or USB2 port
Large hard disk drive (preferably at least 100 GB)

Windows
Pentium 4 CPU (or equivalent) 1 GHz or faster
Windows 7 or Vista, 32- or 64-bit. Vista SP 2 or later required
1 GB RAM, 2 GB or more recommended
Available FireWire or USB2 port
Large hard disk drive (preferably at least 100 GB)