Apogee Rosetta 800 vs. Motu 2408 Mk3... bear with me a sec..

How about this:

Keep your MOTU and buy a Big Ben. The MOTU stuff is 'allright' but paired with great wordclock the sound is vastly improved. With the new Apogee AD16X, there are quite a few BBs on eBay for (slightly) cheap.

Do A/B the stuff, you WILL hear the difference.

Hi There,

in our studio B - we have MOTU in studio a 4xApogees!

we are talking planets apart:-)

What that other guy's saying about the clock is indeed very important that is why iin your case I would buy the AD-16X! The big ben clock resides inside of the AD16X! So you are guarantied a tight word clock! However this is only important if you sync lots of digital equipment!!

The converters og apogee are fare more advanced than those of MOTU - MOTU is good - no doubt! we used to have digidesign 888/24's but they were worse than motu - but after getting the Apogees Rosetta 800's we were blown away! It's not only the clarity but also the depth of sound and one thing that changes very audible is the stereo image! However, the most important thing to remember - SUMMING! Lets say you run 48 tacks when mixing and you assign all 48 outs to output 01-02 in logic! Now you are using the Logic summing amplifier thus making 48 track to 2 tracks(when bouncing) Make sure you have a good analog board with either 8 or 16 tracks in order so capitalize in the summing of analog! e.g. you have 48 tracks - assign e.g. drums to output 01-02 - Keybords to output 03-04 - brass - output 05-06 and so on..... This will part your 48 tracks into 8 stereo groups(16 channel Analog Mixer) and the summing will beat the **** out of the Software summing of Logic!!!!

25G'S

Even though it wasn't the OP's question in the first place, I can definitely second 25G's posting here. Summing of tracks is really the most important fidelity issue once you're ready to mix - assuming you've recorded your tracks with most accurate (yet reasonable) resolution and A/D conversion.

Naturally that depends on your setup - if you stay digital and within logic all the way, there is no real improvement. And it needs a decent analogue mixing console in order to A/B digital mixdown vs analog track-by-track summing - which is why I went for one. The difference is huge. It's at least as big as the difference between, say, motu and apogee converters.

If you're short on budget but want really nice A/D conversion as well as the opportunity for later channel number upgrades, an RME PCI card / ADI-8 setup might be worth considering, or maybe even a Metric Halo setup. When I A/B'd the 8 channel Apogee with the RME ADI setup (admittedly a few years ago) there was no audible difference in the A/D/A conversions, but budgetwise there was. Have sticked to RME ever since, keep buying ADI's and spent the 'really big bucks' on a nice analogue console (that also has great sounding mic pre's onboard) ...

Hi again,

I again have to second Uniquorn, my neighbour uses the metric halo firewire interface......And it sounds awesome:-)

Check it out - not too expensive and included is the Channelstrip Plug-In that run on the dsp of the Mobile unit:-)

25G'S

are you actually doing much recording of external sources, acoustic or otherwise? if not, and you are mostly working with audio instruments and so on, then remember that souping up your i/o with better converters and digital clocks amounts to nothing more than improving your monitoring. your bounces will sound objectively the same, you will just hear them with more accuracy in your environment.

this in and of itself is a valid thing to do -- top notch monitoring is crucial. but don't be expecting sudden, automatic, magical improvements to the sound of your work. if anything, it will put even more of an onus on you to respond to the improved clarity in you'll hear in your monitoring, and to get in there with more detail and subtlety in your mixes.

Russell:

I was going to ask what type of recording, but I see from your later post that you're using lots of virtual instruments, so I'm assuming your emphasis is not on recording audio.

Although I have a Rosetta 800 with firewire, I have little experience of MOTU other than what I've heard from friends and tracks I've heard that used them. I have to tell you that I doubt that you'd notice enough difference to warrant the substantial investment over MOTU.

I'm about to embark on the by-FAR-most-important-recording-work-of-my-life

Not knowing your setup, I can imagine that your money could be better spent elsewhere in the chain. Better monitors? A great vocal mic? Sample libraries which increasing your options?

As an example, I've recently recorded vocals on my "big" system using a Rosetta with a Focusrite Red pre and a Røde Classic II tube mic. I recorded the same singer at home, using the same preamp and mic, through my Focusrite Saffire box. Any miniscule difference I hear is 99% the room that I recorded in and 1% the quality of the AD converter. In fact, the completed vocal was comped from the two sources seemlessly.

When buying gear, forget the specs. Trust your ears, and consider the most bang for your buck. No song will succeed or fail by some barely perceived difference in the quality of A/D/A conversion.

Good luck with your project.