MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Review (Audio Interface)

[DrSpan]

I assume from the MOTU I'll get the sound of Audient EVO line, maybe slightly more refined.
But in the Audient iD line, the preamps do the mojo stuff.

Having owned the audients ID series which are or was a notch higher than the Evo and owning the Motu Mk5 and having heard quite an amount of other
interfaces (again only speaking for me) my personal opinion is that you will never hear any serious difference in normal tasks between any halfway decent interface.
Like if you playback music and connect speakers-monitors , you will not hear a difference in „resolution“ or in general audio quality unless your aim is to hear differences.
The Instrument Preamps are a different story as there you have headroom, what they add, what they can take and stuff like this.

"MOTU I'll get the sound of Audient EVO line, maybe slightly more refined“. if it helps you psychologically i would say totally go for it. I have also bought
things in the past where i could not hear a difference but thought „But what IF“ .
Makes no sense to buy the Evo and constantly asking yourself „but if“ even if you hear no difference. Might sound abstract but i hope you understand how i mean it.

Thats why i can only speak for myself. 1) Monitor Quality 2) Room acoustics 3) Everything else. Interfaces are Way overrated when it comes to tech data or better said to actually perceivable audio quality

„Oh this one has o gazillionth less distortion“ are usually measurements no one notices in real life usage.

Anyhow. I wish for you to find the best solution for your taste and needs. I can only offer an opinion. Not a solution

 

[antcollinet]

but it just sounds boring on recording.

What measurement of noise, distortion of frequency response does "boring" show up on.

Because the Motu inputs have all three below the level of audibility.

 

[tamtam]

What measurement of noise, distortion of frequency response does "boring" show up on.

Because the Motu inputs have all three below the level of audibility.

Boring means it doesn’t enhance the sound, it is meant to be clean on this interface. While on Audient recording has an added color

 

[DrSpan]

What measurement of noise, distortion of frequency response does "boring" show up on.

Because the Motu inputs have all three below the level of audibility.

i would interpret „boring“ in this case as „nothing happens“ as in „too transparent“.

I find it interesting how differently different people interpret things. One of the beauty of our species.

Like Flat Response sounding monitors. More than a few people find them „boring“ sounding. Even more extremely on headphones.
So they will then choose more „exciting“ speakers which most times will simply be a speaker or headphone that highlights thus represents their comfort zone.

Audio is a super subjective area imho. So many engineers that have spend extended periods of time tweaking bypassed plugins prove it. Especially as it
does not mean anything about their skill in the end. Just a mishap yet it happens

 

[DrSpan]

Boring means it doesn’t enhance the sound, it is meant to be clean on this interface. While on Audient recording has an added color

Funny. We probably wrote the comments simultaneously I see i got you right

 

[antcollinet]

Boring means it doesn’t enhance the sound, it is meant to be clean on this interface. While on Audient recording has an added color

Surely clean is what you want. Added colour is what you do in mixing and mastering. Otherwise you end up with added colour of the same type on very recording - whether you want it or not.

And what form does this addded color take? Frequency response audibly not flat? Audible distortion or noise (I am sure you don't want either of those in a recording device)

There is nothing else.

 

[tamtam]

Surely clean is what you want. Added colour is what you do in mixing and mastering. Otherwise you end up with added colour of the same type on very recording - whether you want it or not.

And what form does this addded color take? Frequency response audibly not flat? Audible distortion or noise (I am sure you don't want either of those in a recording device)

There is nothing else.

That's actually entirely not true, and it couldn't be avoided.
Color is being added all along the way before the mixing and mastering, during the recording stage, by choosing the instrument, mic, preamp, room etc.
Preamp color is subtle, nothing wrong of having it on all channels.

 

[antcollinet]

That's actually entirely not true, and it couldn't be avoided.
Color is being added all along the way before the mixing and mastering, during the recording stage, by choosing the instrument, mic, preamp, room etc.
Preamp color is subtle, nothing wrong of having it on all channels.

Instrument - sure - that is part of the performance. Mic you normally select the one that is optimum for the environment / set up etc. Not to "colour" the sound. Same with preamp. You also don't swap out audio interfaces to influence coloration.

 

[tamtam]

I totally don’t agree with that. External preamps are being swapped for color while recording, while it doesnt make sense to swap the audio interface, having a built-in option with high end preamp on the interface is cost effective for me. I can always bypass this Audient preamp, and use external preamp of my choice.
While in MOTU the preamp is just transparent, so if I want a colored preamp I need to buy one, and it is not cheap.

 

[somebodyelse]

I totally don’t agree with that. External preamps are being swapped for color while recording, while it doesnt make sense to swap the audio interface, having a built-in option with high end preamp on the interface is cost effective for me. I can always bypass this Audient preamp, and use external preamp of my choice.
While in MOTU the preamp is just transparent, so if I want a colored preamp I need to buy one, and it is not cheap.

By the same logic you can always bypass the MOTU preamp with the external preamp of your choice, while in Audient the preamp is just coloured, so if you want a clean preamp you need to buy one.

 

[Grooved]

Instrument - sure - that is part of the performance. Mic you normally select the one that is optimum for the environment / set up etc. Not to "colour" the sound. Same with preamp. You also don't swap out audio interfaces to influence coloration.

I totally don’t agree with that. External preamps are being swapped for color while recording, while it doesnt make sense to swap the audio interface, having a built-in option with high end preamp on the interface is cost effective for me. I can always bypass this Audient preamp, and use external preamp of my choice.
While in MOTU the preamp is just transparent, so if I want a colored preamp I need to buy one, and it is not cheap.

You are actually both right and wrong, you simply can't generalize one rule for recording.
Sometimes, you need as much transparent as possible, sometimes you need to color. I remember, while live recording a band (not live as during a show, but all playing at the same time), the instruments were so much near perfect to what they expected that both singers were a bit struggling to be as "perfect" as instruments.
I added a mic preamp with a good amount of harmonic distortion, matching what they expected the voices to be at the end of the record, and guess what, they instantly did a "perfect" take. They just needed to hear their voices not transparently, but colored more like they had imagined for the finish product.

Yes, coloring during recording is a risk, as you won't be able to lower it later, but it can also be the only way to make a great recording.

The only rule I would follow is having monitoring as transparent as possible, but for recording, absolutely no rule, everything can work, depending and the project, the kind of music, the musicians, their needs and their vision of the end product.

 

[Grooved]

By the same logic you can always bypass the MOTU preamp with the external preamp of your choice, while in Audient the preamp is just coloured, so if you want a clean preamp you need to buy one.

Not fully right, some Audient iD have insert In and Out, so you can use a external preamp, go into the insert In and hit the Audient converter without touching its preamp, and by the same logic, if you have the MOTU and need a colored preamp, you need to buy one

 

[tamtam]

By the same logic you can always bypass the MOTU preamp with the external preamp of your choice, while in Audient the preamp is just coloured, so if you want a clean preamp you need to buy one.

Correct, I need the colored preamp, buying MOTU + preamp is much more expensive than buying Audient.

 

[tamtam]

Not fully right, some Audient iD have insert In and Out, so you can use a external preamp, go into the insert In and hit the Audient converter without touching its preamp, and by the same logic, if you have the MOTU and need a colored preamp, you need to buy one

Right, must point out though that the MOTU has a massive amount of inputs for such a small interface.
Even if the 2 front are hardwired to preamps, you have 6 more on the back.
While for comparison the id 44 mk2 had only 4 inputs (half). The two on the front disable two on the back when used, so it is kind of limited.

 

[antcollinet]

I added a mic preamp with a good amount of harmonic distortion, matching what they expected the voices to be at the end of the record, and guess what, they instantly did a "perfect" take. They just needed to hear their voices not transparently, but colored more like they had imagined for the finish product.

Why wouldn't you just do that with an effects box? Instead of trying to get a particular colouration out of a pre-amp which is simply not designed to do that.

 

[tamtam]

Audio engineering is on the verge of technical and creative worlds.
Preamps these days are for sure designed to color or not to color the sound.
I tell you even more than that,
Abusing tools in this area has a deep roots, and many times considered an industry standard.
For example, clipping AD converters on purpose is done by many mastering engineers.
I might choose the interface with color, even if I don't have to use the preamp at all,
since I'm recording a line-level instruments that do not require amplification.
Driving line-level into a preamp is a creative decision, not a technical one.
Like doing art, no one can tell if this is right or wrong, it is art.

 

[Grooved]

Why wouldn't you just do that with an effects box? Instead of trying to get a particular colouration out of a pre-amp which is simply not designed to do that.

It was another possibility for sure, "no rull on recording" for me like I said. The choice was only due to having this preamp on hand at the moment, and knowing that its harmonics characteristics were exactly what they had in mind, so easier and quicker to insert it than any other solution in this specific context

 

[levimax]

Are there any measurements of distortion and frequency response for the Audient interface?

 

[charlielaub]

Having owned the audients ID series which are or was a notch higher than the Evo and owning the Motu Mk5 and having heard quite an amount of other
interfaces (again only speaking for me) my personal opinion is that you will never hear any serious difference in normal tasks between any halfway decent interface.
Like if you playback music and connect speakers-monitors , you will not hear a difference in „resolution“ or in general audio quality unless your aim is to hear differences.
The Instrument Preamps are a different story as there you have headroom, what they add, what they can take and stuff like this.

"MOTU I'll get the sound of Audient EVO line, maybe slightly more refined“. if it helps you psychologically i would say totally go for it. I have also bought
things in the past where i could not hear a difference but thought „But what IF“ .
Makes no sense to buy the Evo and constantly asking yourself „but if“ even if you hear no difference. Might sound abstract but i hope you understand how i mean it.

Thats why i can only speak for myself. 1) Monitor Quality 2) Room acoustics 3) Everything else. Interfaces are Way overrated when it comes to tech data or better said to actually perceivable audio quality

„Oh this one has o gazillionth less distortion“ are usually measurements no one notices in real life usage.

Anyhow. I wish for you to find the best solution for your taste and needs. I can only offer an opinion. Not a solution

OK, sure, we can play this game of "well it is proabbly just about as good and I don't hear a difference". Case in point, I use a Behringer UMC1820 in my home to run what I would call more casual loudspeaker systems for my family and not the ones where I am trying for high SQ. Do I hear some differences? No, because in that application the speaker are not set up in a critical way and the UMC1820 is just fine in its role. But the UMC1820 measures much worse, MUCH worse in fact. But it is still much better in terms of distortion compared to my loudspeaker systems, so you do not really notice anything. You can play this game ad nauseam, but most people on this forum care greatly about the performance and SQ of their equipment, and so paying attention to measured performance is also important to them and drives their buying choices.

 

[tamtam]

Having owned the audients ID series which are or was a notch higher than the Evo and owning the Motu Mk5 and having heard quite an amount of other
interfaces (again only speaking for me) my personal opinion is that you will never hear any serious difference in normal tasks between any halfway decent interface.
Like if you playback music and connect speakers-monitors , you will not hear a difference in „resolution“ or in general audio quality unless your aim is to hear differences.
The Instrument Preamps are a different story as there you have headroom, what they add, what they can take and stuff like this.

"MOTU I'll get the sound of Audient EVO line, maybe slightly more refined“. if it helps you psychologically i would say totally go for it. I have also bought
things in the past where i could not hear a difference but thought „But what IF“ .
Makes no sense to buy the Evo and constantly asking yourself „but if“ even if you hear no difference. Might sound abstract but i hope you understand how i mean it.

Thats why i can only speak for myself. 1) Monitor Quality 2) Room acoustics 3) Everything else. Interfaces are Way overrated when it comes to tech data or better said to actually perceivable audio quality

„Oh this one has o gazillionth less distortion“ are usually measurements no one notices in real life usage.

Anyhow. I wish for you to find the best solution for your taste and needs. I can only offer an opinion. Not a solution

Same here, bought the expensive $2500 audio interface and barely heard a difference.
Nowadays, I rely purely on what I heard, not specs, not price, but only the sound.