MOTU 16A

Professional I/O with Room to Grow!

If you're looking for a system that can meet the needs of a wide range of professional audio applications, then check out the MOTU 16A hybrid audio interface. With 16 balanced analog inputs and outputs, the 16A serves as an excellent conduit for your outboard microphone preamplifiers and other studio gear, and an additional 16 channels of ADAT I/O on optical ports provide you with plenty of expansion for multi-channel mic pres and more. Thanks to its Thunderbolt connectivity, latency is no hurdle for the 16A, though the onboard DSP mixer offers latency-free routing for monitoring and mixing. MOTU's AVB Ethernet lets you network multiple AVB interfaces to your 16A, and advanced capabilities even let you use it as a standalone, iPad-controlled digital mixer if you like.

Classic MOTU audio quality with the shockingly low latency of Thunderbolt connectivity

At Sweetwater, we've been huge fans of MOTU for a very long time, and one of the things we've come to depend on them for is delivering top-shelf sound quality to studios on a budget, and a whole lot more. The 16A is no exception. With a mere -110dB THD+N of self-noise and 123dB (A-weighted, 20Hz-20kHz) of dynamic range, this 16A's 16-channel analog I/O offers you some of the cleanest audio around, and an additional 16 channels of digital I/O via ADAT optical ports bring your total channel count to 32 x 32. To go with this impressive selection of high-quality I/O, MOTU gave the 16A ultra-fast Thunderbolt connectivity (in addition to USB 2.0), so you get epically low system latency too.

DSP-fueled mixer onboard gives you the added benefit of EQ, compression, and effects

Granted, with the MOTU 16A's extremely fast Thunderbolt connection, system latency isn't much of an issue to begin with, but the onboard DSP mixer still offers a number of advantages you'll find useful in a variety of settings, such as when you're connected via USB. For starters, this digital mixer supports up to 48 inputs (via AVB expansion) and 12 stereo busses, allowing you to set up extremely complex routing schemes completely independent of your computer. In fact, if you connect a wireless router to your 16A, you can access all of its internal mixing functions, including effects and processing, via an app on your iOS device, turning this powerful audio interface into a fully capable standalone mixer. Speaking of onboard processing and effects, whether you're in the studio or onstage with your 16A, you'll find a ton of uses for its DSP EQ, compression, gate, and reverb.

Expand your production system with additional AVB networkable audio interfaces

Another extremely cool use of the 16A's Ethernet connection is the ability to link more MOTU AVB equipped audio interfaces to it. You can do this in one of two ways: directly via a simple Ethernet cable or as part of an audio network via one or more MOTU AVB Switch. If you go with just a single Ethernet cable, you can easily link a second 16A or other AVB ready device directly to your first one. With MOTU AVB Switches, you can create an audio network of up to five units, potentially linking hundreds of channels of I/O across multiple rooms. And since it's all over standard Cat-5e Ethernet cable, latency or cable runs aren't an issue.

MOTU 16A Hybrid Audio Interface Features:

• A fantastic 32-in/32-out hybrid audio interface for studio and live sound applications
• ADAT optical digital I/O lets you expand your system with additional gear
• Choose from ultra-low-latency Thunderbolt, high-speed USB 2.0, or iPad/iOS (w/ Camera Connection Kit) connectivity
• Onboard 32-bit floating point DSP-driven digital mixer with EQ, dynamics, and effects provides latency-free routing
• Hook up a wireless router and take complete control of the onboard mixer from your iOS device - no computer needed!
• MOTU's AVB audio networking lets you easily expand your system and additional AVB equipped audio interfaces
• Create an AVB network via optional AVB Switches for support for up to five compatible interfaces