MOTU 24Ai USB / AVB / iOS Interface Reviews
Whether you're recording in the studio, taking direct output feeds off of an analog mixer, or capturing audio onstage, the MOTU 24Ai USB 2.0 audio interface gives you the high channel count and low latency you need. Like the rest of MOTU's popular AVB-equipped audio interfaces, the 24Ai lets you send a ton of audio across a standard network. The internal mixer also includes all kinds of DSP processing, summing, and routing options too, and between its high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity and additional 24 channels of ADAT optical I/O, you can easily expand the capabilities of your MOTU 24Ai.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Excellent value for 24 channels of input.
I use two of these and 2 x 16A to give me 80 channels of input and 32 channels of output using Thunderbolt 2 to my PC and AVB between the interfaces. Read the instructions and you'll have a rock solid setup.
MOTU 24Ai USB/AVB/iOS Interface
We are using the MOTU 24Ai sound cards as well as 24Ao for our measurement system. The big plus it the routing table which we can customize for our system requirements.
Onces we flash the presets in interface setup it could work as a standalone card. System works stable and its very flexible and solid.
Doorstop
When it worked, it actually worked very well. After three years of use, it just died on me. MOTU tech support was polite but useless. Since it wouldn't boot up, I couldn't try a firmware update, so there was nothing they could do. Since it was out of warranty, they wouldn't repair it - even at cost. They also wouldn't replace it (MOTU used to have a flat rate replacement charge, back when they stood by their products). They literally left me hanging with no options other than to throw the broken interface away.
A serious design flaw that I realized it had along the way - you have to have the interface running, connected to your computer via ethernet cable, and the MOTU Discovery software has to recognize the unit before you can update the firmware. If any of that cannot happen for some reason, you're out of luck. There's no way to apply an update via e.g. SD card or USB drive.
Before it gave up the ghost, the 24Ai did what I needed it to in the studio. I had it wired into my patchbay, and 24 channels of line level inputs was great for my needs. Having onboard effects and processing is great - I used the noise gate on one of my noisier synths to eliminate any nasty frequencies while it was idle.
It was a good interface until it wasn't, but I'm not willing to pay a premium only to be treated so poorly by a company. Maybe they're just used to working with studios and companies with money to burn? I don't know, but I do know that I already purchased a replacement, and it's not from MOTU.
