MOTU Audio Express USB / FireWire Audio Interface Reviews

I used different interfaces like the MBox Pro, Steinberg and Avid, but this little beast blow me away everyday. Sound quality is excellent, drivers are great (now working on Sierra) and the design is amazing, put 4 wheels under it and you have a tank! :-)

Only minor is a second headphone output like the MBox Pro. Further it's just a great interface!

I was in the market for something that had firewire and usb connectivity and it had to sound clean. I don't do music I'm a VO guy so I didn't want anything that "colored" the sound. For my purposes the Motu Audio Express fit the bill perfectly. In use it's been flawless. Running it on two systems Windows 7 and Windows XP. Installation was simple and didn't have a bit of problem.

This is my first experience with an audio interface, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I am very impressed by the MOTU Audio Express.

First, it's very solidly built, with a thick metal chassis. In fact, it's so solid that if I were to ever stop making music (HA! fat chance), I could use it as a jack stand for my SUV in a pinch without a second thought! The buttons are all tight, no wiggling or feeling like they might pop off and all inputs grab nicely. Overall great quality look and feel.

From a setup perspective, loading drivers and having my DAW see all its inputs and outputs was a breeze, although never having used an audio interface before, I did have to consult the manual in order to understand a few basic concepts, nothing major though. It's a plus that it can connect via either USB (2.0) or Firewire.

The sound is amazing and being able to record audio (vocals or instruments) with latency so close to zero it's not even worth mentioning was what blew me away! The line input sound is very clean and uncolored. The mic pre-amps also are extremely clean and I'm sure they are neither adding nor removing anything tonally. Just crisp and clear and noticeably better than recording into my 24-track hard disk recorder with the same mics.

Now, the controls are minimalist by design, meaning the few buttons have several functions depending on what mode you're in and if you've pushed any of the buttons (they are both rotary and pushable). Because of that, this baby can do more than it may seem just from looking at it. It's a bit confusing at first, but the learning curve is pretty steep (contrary to popular usage, a STEEP learning curve actually means something is EASY to learn).

As I said, I have never used an audio interface before, but if some negative fate were to befall this one, I don't think I would hesitate to buy the same thing again, unless at that time I needed more inputs or something. You can certainly get less expensive interfaces, but I doubt they'd match the quality and performance of this one, and I think you'd lay a LOT more to get quality and performance that would be noticeably better.

The Motu Audio Express is a great value . It is built like a tank and the sound quality beats everything I have owned . It's made in the US! I use Presonus Studio One Pro with no issues. I loaded the Audio Desk software that came with it and it seems to be a good software,again the quality was crystal clear and the plug-ins were a nice add on. I have not tried the USB but the Firewire works great for me.
I am using a new Imac desktop.I have been playing music for 46 years and recording my own music for 10 years. I'm now 54 years old
This product was not on my radar but thanks to the pros at Sweetwater I have a great product that sounds amazing.
My Rep not only did he email me but he called to make sure everything was good! Why would you buy anywhere else when you get free support and service second to none?.WOW! and they are hear in the US not in a another country reading from a card! OUTSTANDING!

First, let me say this is the second one of these interfaces I've bought. The first one I purchased 8 years ago, and it's still going string. I bought the second one so I could keep one in my studio and one in my live rack. So, obviously, I like this product enough to own 2 of them.

My only gripe is about the physical manufacturing. I had read 8 years ago some people were having problems with the rack ears, but had no issue with my purchase. This time around... well, apparently MOTU hasn't rectified this issue in 8 years! The screw holes in the ears don't line up with the holes in the chassis. We're not talking about by much. I used a 5/32 drill bit to widen the holes in the ears and that was enough play to get the screws in there. But, seriously... How hard is it to manufacture rack ears in the right size?

I use this unit for everything - portable virtual keyboard, interface for portable recording, running YouTube videos through pro speakers, and playing virtual drum and bass tracks through a sound system for rehearsals. I jump the SPDIF jacks together to run Komplete patches through Guitar Rig with no signal loss. You can work it as hard as you please - you're only limited by your imagination. There's not much to dislike - it does exactly what it is supposed to and does it well. My only complaints - 1) The knobs and labels on the front are small and hard to deal with. 2) The power supply is the only part of the unit that is not built like a tank, so it gets beat up faster. Neither is a dealbreaker for an otherwise impressive piece of gear.

Ive only had it for a few weeks. Its got a ton of features, great functionality, and profesional grade sound quality (minus tube preamps of course). My only gripe is that the interface controls are a bit awkward, but thats to be expected from such a small unit with so few physical knobs and buttons. Other than that, its probabaly the best audio gear purchase Ive made to date.

Purchased the MOTU Audio Express to replace a Presonus AudioBox that I and Presonus could never get to work on my i7 Windows 7 laptop. I own a MOTU 828mkIII that I use on a i7 Desktop so I know MOTU makes great products and drivers. The Audio Express drivers installed perfectly and the Audio Express worked flawlessly in both USB2 and Firewire modes from the begining. Sorry Presonus your drivers are junk. Congratulations MOTU your entire product line is supreme.

This box has been in the market for a number of years and there is good reason for it's longevity....it's just solid. Build quality is excellent and drivers are incredibly solid. The interface took me a while getting used to because there are so many options with the mixer capabilities. Honestly, I wanted the new M4 which is sold out but I am glad I got the Audio Express! I use it primarily for voice tracks in a radio broadcast application-news, weather, sports, and producing commercials. This box more that meets the challenge! I like the dedicated line inputs AND the fact that both line and mic inputs are on the back of the box which keeps my workspace a little more clutter free. Included in the box are two sets of rack ears for professionally mounting the box. This is a good buy of a quality product!

Solid audio interface here. I went from the 2nd Generation Mbox 2 Pro to this thinking that this was going to be a lateral move, but to my surprise this was a great upgrade. Reasonable price and the sound that comes out of here is great. For a small home studio setup like I got this works!

First things first, the audio quality on this interface is Professional Grade. I would have no reservations about using this to record a professional album.

The drivers for Mac are solid, it is solidly built, and it boasts a great selection of I/O options for such a small device

It does have a couple small drawbacks - I wish the meters were more accurate in the display of trim/volume settings, and sometimes you have to power the thing on twice for the computer to see it - but those are relatively small issues when you account for the price point and overall quality of the product.

In the end, the most important factor is sound quality, and this interface is a slam dunk in that regard. Great job by the folks at MOTU.

Typical MOTU. The hardware is solid. The routing is brilliant. But the important thing for me about EVERYTHING MOTU is the drivers. MOTU provides great support so, as your OS inevitably changes, you can keep using the hardware. Don't worry about paying a little more. It's about the value.

It's so nice when something just works! Got the unit, installed the drivers, plugged it in (using the USB 2.0 option) and it just worked (Win 7 64 bit, Cubase 7.0.1).

Very rugged construction, and great metering on the front. Knobs are a bit small, but all of the options are supposed to be able to be controlled from the included software as well (I haven't actually tried it yet).

The reason I only gave four stars is that it seems a tad pricey. But then, my experience with cheaper units with comparable features was not good at all. So maybe this is the price necessary for something to just freekin' work when you plug it in.

I'll start with the bad points: the small knobs on the front are somewhat difficult to use, not only because they are too close to each other, but the incremental way in which they adjust exacerbates the closeness. Not ideal, but i guess that's what you trade for portability.
Secondly, i have had software trouble. In their defense, we've all just switched over to the fort knox of all OS systems, mac 10.8 and MOTU is no doubt struggling to fix problems. It has trouble switching from internal audio to external and crashes my brand new computer. However, after a firmwire upgrade it is much better, but not perfect.
It takes some reading to use. It's not terribly intuitive, but it made sense after I got the hang of it. It is a small unit, so they have to do something to squeeze all those features into a half rack mount.
Okay, now some good points:
MIDI
lots of ins and outs for a portable device. Sounds fine to me. I do wonder what the apogee sounds like, but i just cant afford that.
96k capability
firewire OR usb (only works of buss power from firewire. Check your type of firewire. I needed a 6pin to 9 pin. it comes with 6 to 6.

I bought my MOTU Audio Express about six years ago or so. At first it worked great but then with each upgrade version of Windows it started snapping crackling and popping om playback. Usually an restart would fix it, but at time it's required a reset to default. Occasionally only a computer re-start would cure it. I went back and forth with the MOTU support people but they were unable to determine the problem. I tried other units (not from MOTU and they worked fine.) MOTU has not supplied an updated driver in years and I suspect that is the problem. I am fed up with having to re-start in the middle of a project. I won't be buying another MOTU product.

I have been using MOTU software and gear since the 1990s. This is the first piece of hardware that I've purchased and have been disappointed with. My primary issue lies with the front panel interface. I find the knobs to be too closely set together and cumbersome to work with. The a/d converters are solid as is the overall construction.

Decided to finally write a review for this unit. Have had many issues and did all the updates of drivers and tried multiple settings. It is a great unit in theory, but it constantly crashes and makes distorted sounds through the speakers. It happens randomly too, can work well for a while, but then what happens is the audio distorts and the only fix is to turn off the interface, sometimes you even have to turn off the computer, then the device and restart, so it became totally useless for live performances. The other problem is sometimes it will make a high pitch noise and crash. Then other times it doesnt make any sound and you have to turn it on and off several times to get it to work. Then other times it works. Have tried it on windows 7 and windows 10. Mostly stable on 7, but with the same crashes. On windows 10, it is much worse. Constantly makes the high pitched noise, happened during live performances and have stopped bringing it out, very disappointing. Have had it now for some time, but never found a solution and these problems have occurred almost from the beginning, kept it as i was hopeful for a decent update that fixes these issues, but never happened. Real pity as it is a good interface, but too many bugs for live performance.

Software is very 'buggy' on a Windows 7 machine. Not Compatible with Amplifi TT, and the push button volume selector is extremely annoying!
When an artist is inspired to write music the last thing they want to do is have to tinker with a fussy audio interface.
I tried to give it a chance but I like writing music, I can't even imagine an audio engineer liking this unit.