Primarily facilitating MADI connections, MOTU’S M64 is a digital-audio interface which allows you to route, split monitor, link, and apply effects with flexibility and ease. The device can also interface with AVB/TSN infrastructures, act as a standalone mixer, and accomplish further functions.
For connecting to your computer or host device, the M64 utilizes a USB 2.0 termination point—class compliant and compatible with both USB 3.0 connections and iOS. You can also use a CAT5e Ethernet connection with Mac computers, provided you’re running OS X 10.11 or later, and provided the computer in question has a thunderbolt port.
With this unit, MADI is the name the game, as the M64 sports two optical connections for 64 I/O MADI, as well as BNC connections facilitating 64 I/O channels of MADI. All standard formats and sample rates are supported, from 44.1 to 192 kHz, and a duplicate BNC output is provided for mirroring the coaxial bank to a secondary destination point, obviating the need for a separate splitter. This configuration, alongside the headphone output (which can be set to monitor any stereo source) gives you 256 inputs and 258 outputs in total.
In addition to its MADI capabilities, the M64 can distribute eight 8-channel banks of network-audio I/O, and thus, operate as part of a larger ecosystem of MOTU devices, all linking over an AVB-TSN and controllable wirelessly over Wi-Fi. For this express purpose, the MOTU Pro Audio Control web app has been created, working across platforms to provide seamless integration, manipulation, and coordination of digital audio. Any network you set up in such a fashion will function with ultra-low latency, even whilst handling hundreds of channels over long cable runs.
Also included with the M64 is a 32-bit, floating-point DSP engine. This engine provides a routing matrix with 48 channels and 12 stereo busses, as well as effects modelled on several prized pieces of hardware, audio analysis tools, and the AudioDesk DAW for Mac and Windows platforms.