Re-engineered with renowned ESS Sabre32™ DAC technology and new front panel design, the 828es delivers everything you need to turn your computer into a powerful 24-bit/192 kHz digital audio workstation.
The 828es connects to a Mac or PC with Thunderbolt™, Hi-speed USB 2.0 or AVB/TSN Ethernet. Proven, reputable MOTU drivers work with all your favorite audio apps, delivering industry-leading, ultra-low round-trip latency (RTL) performance as low as 1.6 ms at 96 kHz over Thunderbolt with high-performance DAW hosts. USB audio class-compliant firmware allows connection to your iPad™ or any iOS™ device (with a standard camera connection kit, sold separately).
The 828es is equally well-suited for studio and stage, with or without a computer. As an interface or standalone mixer, the 828es provides 28 separate inputs and 32 separate outputs, including two XLR/TRS “combo” mic/guitar inputs, dedicated main outs on XLRs, and two independent front-panel headphone outs.
Connect all of your studio gear, including microphones, guitars, synths, keyboards, drum machines and effects processors. Record, monitor, route and process all of these live inputs with no latency and no processor strain on your computer. Extensive routing features let you patch ins to outs, or split inputs to multiple destinations. Powerful DSP delivers large console style mixing with 48 channels, 12 stereo busses, and 32-bit floating point effects processing. Add Classic Reverb with lengths up to 60 seconds. Further sculpt your sound with 4-band parametric EQ meticulously modeled after British analog console EQs. Apply conventional compression or the Leveler™, an accurate model of the legendary LA-2A™ optical compressor that provides vintage, musical automatic gain control.
Take control of your recording sessions with the built-in talkback mic and front-panel talk button. Connect two sets of speakers and check your mixes instantly with front-panel A/B speaker select buttons.
Analyze and scope your audio with advanced diagnostic tools, including a full-screen real-time FFT display, spectrogram “waterfall” display, full-featured oscilloscope, X-Y plot, and linear/polar phase graph.
After recording and mixing in the studio, unplug the 828es from the computer and take it on stage for operation as a stand-alone mixer with effects. Control everything over Wi-Fi from your favorite web browser running on your laptop, tablet and smartphone.
Through AVB/TSN Ethernet, connect another MOTU interface for more I/O — or connect to an expanded MOTU network with multiple interfaces and computers.
From studio to stage, the 828es delivers exceptional sound quality, state-of-the-art operation and rock-solid performance.
Features
- New dual-LCD design — Two full-color LCDs display all signal activity at a glance with detailed metering for all analog and digital I/O. Access hardware settings from a simple and convenient menu.
- Superb analog audio quality and high-end converters — Renowned ESS Sabre32™ DAC technology delivers 123 dB dynamic range and the same proven, award-winning audio quality as MOTU's flagship 1248.
- Ultra-low latency and proven, high-performance MOTU drivers — Round-trip latency (RTL) performance as low as 1.6 ms at 96kHz over Thunderbolt™ with high-performance DAW hosts.
- Universal connectivity — Connects to your computer with Thunderbolt™, hi-speed USB 2.0 or AVB/TSN Ethernet for up to 256 audio channels (128 in and 128 out). Class-compliant firmware and industry standard drivers work with any audio apps. Connects to an iPad™ with a standard camera connection kit (adapter).
- 60 simultaneous audio channels — 28 inputs and 32 outputs, including two mic preamps with sends, 8 TRS analog in/out, separate main outs on XLR jacks, two banks of optical, S/PDIF, MIDI in/out, time code in/out, word clock I/O, and two front-panel headphone jacks.
- Control room features — Built-in talkback mic with front-panel "talk" button and"A/B" speaker select buttons.
- DSP mixing and effects processing — Flexible 48-input digital mixer with 7 stereo aux busses, 3 groups, access to 32 network inputs, and DSP effects, including Classic reverb, Compression modeled after the legendary LA-2A compressor and EQ modeled after British analog console EQs.
- Universal control from any device — Control everything from your favorite web browser on a laptop, tablet and smartphone connected to your local Wi-Fi network.
- System expansion — Add a 2nd MOTU AVB-equipped interface with a simple CAT-5e ethernet cable. Connect up to five MOTU interfaces using a MOTU AVB Switch (sold separately).
