MOTU Audio Express Hybrid USB & Firewire Audio Interface

Compact and versatile - the MOTU Audio Express is great for reliable, high-quality sound with mobility!  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.   Quickly balance the levels of your mic, guitar, keyboard, and a S/PDIF device, right from the front panel. Each instrument has its own volume control. Route inputs directly to any output pair, each with its own unique mix: main outs, line outs, S/PDIF out, and phones.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

Simplicity by design

Connect your powered speakers. Plugin your instruments. Adjust their volumes with the front panel knobs. Double-click to install the drivers. What could be easier? The Audio Express is designed to be simple to use, so you can focus on your music and performance.

Studio-grade sound

The Audio Express delivers MOTU's renowned, award-winning audio interface technology to your personal studio with the pristine audio quality, advanced engineering, and rock-solid performance that MOTU interfaces are known for worldwide.

The Audio Express provides a wealth of professional features for producing broadcast-ready audio recordings.

Hybrid Firewire/USB 2.0 connectivity

FireWire has long been recognized 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 a 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. For an even more authentic feel and response when using virtual guitar amp and cabinet plug-ins, use a ZBox guitar impedance adapter.

Digitally controlled analog trim

The Audio Express's analog 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.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

• 6-input, 6-output audio interface for Mac and Windows.

• 6 x 8 physical input/output channels - all channels are available simultaneously and operate independently.

• Hybrid FireWire/USB 2.0 connectivity - connect to your Mac or PC via either bus-powered Firewire or hi-speed USB2.

• 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.

• Two mic/guitar combo jacks - provide hi-Z 1/4” guitar input or XLR mic input with phantom power, 20 dB pad, Precision Digital Trim™, and plenty of gain.

• Stereo analog 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 analog destination).

• Stereo 24-bit 96kHz S/PDIF digital in/out.

• Stereo headphone output on the quarter-inch jack with independent volume control.

• Support for standard sample rates up to 96 kHz.

• Precision Digital Trim™ - digitally controlled analog trim on all inputs provides adjustments in approximately 1 dB increments. Fine-tune the balance of your inputs and then save/recall trim configurations.

• 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.

• 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.

• Front panel volume control of main outs and headphone jack.

• Expandable - add additional interfaces for more I/O as your needs grow.

• Time code support - directly resolves to (or generates) time code via any quarter-inch input or output, without the need for an extra synchronizer.

• Direct Digital Synthesis™ (DDS) - a DSP-driven phase-lock engine and internal clock source that produces imperceptibly low jitter characteristics (below the noise floor), even when the Audio Express is resolved to an external clock source via SMPTE time code.

• 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.

• Footswitch input - connect a standard foot pedal switch (sold separately) for hands-free punch-in and punch-out while recording. Or map the pedal to any keystroke function in your host software.

• DC-coupled TRS outputs - can be used with Volta™ (sold separately) to manipulate and sequence voltage-controlled modular synthesizers from a host DAW.

• Plug-and-play operation with your Mac or PC via FireWire or USB2 - compatible with all current and recent generation Macs and PCs.

• 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. Full system requirements.

• 100% compatible with all host-based effects processing in today's popular audio programs.

• 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.

• Chassis dimensions, excluding rack ears and front and back panel knobs and connectors: 9.5 × 7 × 1.75 inches (24.13 × 17.78 × 4.45 cm). Knobs and connectors extend up to 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) from front and back panels, adding 1 inch (2.54 cm) to depth. With rack ears attached, fits one half of a standard 19 inch (48.26 cm) rack at 1U high.

MOTU Audio Express SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Audio Express employs industry-standard drivers for across-the-board compatibility on both Mac and Windows.

Mac

The Audio Express ships with standard Core Audio drivers for Mac OS X for compatibility with virtually all Core Audio-compatible apps, including:

• MOTU Digital Performer

• MOTU AudioDesk

• Avid Pro Tools (version 9 or later)

• Apple Logic Pro

• Apple Logic Express

• Apple Garage Band

• Apple SoundTrack Pro

• Ableton Live

• Propellerhead Record & Reason

• Steinberg Cubase

• Cockos Reaper

• Native Instruments Kontakt

• Waves stand-alone apps (and plug-ins, via any compatible host)

The Audio Express ships with standard Wave and ASIO drivers for Windows 7 and Windows Vista for compatibility with virtually all Wave-compatible audio apps, including:

• Avid Pro Tools (version 9 or later)

• Ableton Live

• Cakewalk Sonar

• Steinberg Cubase

• Propellerhead Record & Reason

• Image-Line FL Studio

• Sony Vegas Pro

• Sony Sound Forge

• Sony Acid

• Cockos Reaper

• Native Instruments Kontakt

• Waves stand-alone apps (and plug-ins, via any compatible host)