New Hands-down King of Entry-level Interfaces - MOTU M2 - Ridiculous Value!

    MOTU has nailed everything one could expect at this price point (under $200 US) and offered much more. As soon as I heard about it a few weeks ago I thought of my fellow Kemperites and have been meaning to create a thread about it.


    Forget about Steinberg, Focusrite, Behringer and all the other brands you might consider “entry-level”. This thing destroys everything out there and comes highly-recommended by yours truly. Honestly, I wouldn’t even consider it entry-level in terms of metering, latency, preamp spec’s, build quality and, well, just about everything (sorry I'm using that word so much; I can't think of an alternative).


    Class-compliant (no drivers necessary), USB-C, 32-bit floating point, 192khz sample rate, +60dB preamp gain, EIN of -129.5dBu, loopback functionality, 48v phantom power (hardware-switchable per-channel!), independent zero-latency hardware buttons per-channel and so on.


    Oh, and you get loops and samples and Ableton Live Lite and Performer Lite; there’s no other way to get your hands on the latter, which from what I can tell is all the DAW most of us realistically need and is as powerful as Digital Performer in most relevant respects. It even loads DP projects. Insane value!


    An M4 model is available for those who require more I/O. Ignore these interfaces at your peril!


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    Specs look nice (and the unit itself as well). I like these USB bus powered interfaces as they are really ready to go if you take your laptop and record somewhere/whereever.


    Had a look at M2 and M4. The metering looks really cool. Only thing I would be missing is the coax SPDIF in and out. I use these a lot on my M-Audio C400 and with my Kemper.


    Anyway, I'm not looking for a new one these days but will keep it in mind when people come up and ask for suggestions - which happens to my quite frequently :)

    Wow Nicky, you have been on the MOTU wagon (with good reason) for a while, but damn. That looks like a steal. I need to look at the specs closer, but I'm thinking I would have a hard time steering anyone toward anything else even at twice the $.

    Looks like I found my new go-to "what interface should I get" answer.


    ...no adat? Too bad, that would be a slam dunk for a futureproof expandable interface. I wish they had charged a few more $ and included it. It's going for $169 on some places. Geez. Still destroys anything near it's price point.

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.

    Like 1
    Quote from Djordje Petric

    How should I go about reamping with this one? Is there good way of doing it? There is no spdif sadly


    Send a single output from your DAW to the return input on the Kemper. Then send either a single stack signal or a master stereo (or really whatever signal you want) back to the DAW and record that input on your interface. Remember to switch the input on the Kemper to the Return input in the input section, as you would normally do for reamping.