MOTU Traveler FW audio

MOTU today introduced the , a bus-powered FireWire audio interface designed for portable recording situations with either desktop or laptop computers. The Traveler draws power from its FireWire connection to the computer or can be powered by an industry-standard battery pack via a 4-pin XLR power socket. As a complete audio recording system with 20 inputs and 22 outputs operating simultaneously, the Traveler inherits many features from MOTU's 828mkII FireWire interface and adds many additional significant new features, including four mic/guitar/instrument inputs, digitally controlled mic input gain, 192kHz analog recording capability and both S/PDIF and AES/EBU 96kHz digital I/O. The device weighs 3.8 pounds, is nearly 15" x 9" x 1.75", and is housed in a strong, lightweight aluminum alloy case. It will ship in the fourth quarter for $900.

It ships with rack ears for convenient 19-inch rack mount installation. The rack ears are long enough to provide enough space in a rack enclosure for MIDI and power cables connected to the right-hand panel of the Traveler.



The front panel provides hands-on mixing, programming and trim control
with 11 detented digital rotary encoders, four 48V phantom power
switches, a headphone jack, a 2x16 backlit LCD, 12 five-segment meters
and a bank of status lights for clock and sync options.



The rear panel provides 4 Neutrik "combo" XLR/quarter-inch
mic/instrument inputs, 4 TRS balanced/unbalanced analog inputs, 8
balanced/unbalanced TRS analog outputs, optical in/out (for both
8-channel light pipe and 2-channel S/PDIF TOSLink formats), RCA S/PDIF
in/out, XLR AES/EBU in/out, BNC word clock in/out, a 9-pin ADAT SYNC IN
port for sample-accurate transfers and dual 400Mbit FireWire A jacks
for convenient FireWire daisy-chaining from the computer.



The right-hand side panel (looking at the unit from the front),
provides MIDI in/out jacks, a 4-pin XLR battery power input jack, a BUS
POWER ENABLE/DISABLE switch, and a standard DC power input jack that
accepts any 10-24V DC power supply for extending stand-alone mixing
operation in situations where 110-220V AC power is available. The bus
power enable/disable switch allows the user to choose bus power or
battery power (when a battery source is plugged in).



The Traveler's A/D and D/A converters offer audio recording at any sample rate from 44.1kHz to 192kHz. Digital I/O (AES/EBU, S/PDIF and optical) is provided at any sample rate up to 96kHz. Like all current MOTU audio interfaces, the Traveler provides DSP-driven digital mixing and monitoring for all 20 inputs. Users can connect mics, guitars, synths and effects processors, and monitor everything from the Traveler's main outs or headphone jack with no separate mixer needed and without any latency. The Traveler supports up to four separate stereo monitor mixes assigned to any four digital or analog output pairs. Each mix can support all 20 inputs, while a "CueMix Return" feature lets the user route one of the four CueMix DSP mixes back to the computer. This allows users to record their entire mix, including monitored inputs, back into
the computer.

by MacNN Staff