MOTU M6 - High quality audio.

MOTU M6: Proof that high-quality audio I/O needn’t be complicated. The addition to MOTU’s M-series of audio interfaces brings increased I/O while retaining the musician-focused ease of use the brand is famous for.

The musician’s mind often works differently to the sound engineer’s. The latter loves nothing more than twiddling knobs, pressing buttons, and losing themselves in painstaking EQ decisions, whereas the former just wants to capture and develop their ideas as naturally and effortlessly as possible.

Massachusetts-based MOTU has a long-time reputation for leaning its gear offerings towards this musician mindset, and its new M6 audio interface does nothing to buck that trend.

In the box

Like the M2 and M4 before it, the M6 is a compact and portable interface packaged in a sleek desktop enclosure. At first glance, the unit looks like it’s half-rack size, but is unfortunately a smidgen too tall for rack mounting – slightly surprising given how much of MOTU’s product catalogue uses the half-rack format.

The M6 provides (you guessed it) six input channels, four of which accept mic, line or hi-z / instrument inputs via rear-mounted XLR/jack combi sockets. It’s slightly unusual to use the same connector for line and hi-z signals, with many interfaces using a different signal path for instrument connections. But the M6’s preamps have no problems adapting to whichever signal you feed them, with ample gain range and a clean, detailed sound.

Next to the four combis are the two remaining inputs with balanced jack connections. These only take line signals and so have no preamp stage, which is fine for synths, effects returns and the like. They offer a decent amount of signal headroom too, so can cope with fairly hot signals.

MOTU’s M6 provides four output channels that are fed to the four rear-facing line out sockets and to the pair of front-mounted headphone sockets (all use standard 6.35mm TRS jacks). Line outputs 3 and 4 can be used as normal outputs, carrying a cue mix or as a send to an external effects processor, or can be configured as an alternate monitor output. When in this mode, the front panel’s ‘A/B’ button comes into play, muting one output pair and unmuting the other.

As an extra bonus, M6’s line outputs are DC-coupled, and so can be used to send CV signals from software such as Ableton Live and NI Reaktor to modular and semi-modular analogue synths (or any other gear that can work with control voltages).

The headphone outputs are powered by amps that deliver a clean and accurate sound, and pack quite a punch when turned up high. Both can mirror the main output 1 and 2 signal, but only the second can be switched to carry the output 3 and 4 signal, which is limiting if you plan to work with more than one musician at a time.

Easy does it

MOTU has done a stellar job of making the M6 easy to use. Each mic/line/hi-z channel has a dedicated gain control and phantom power button, while the level meters on the high-resolution plasma display make it simple to dial in the ideal amount of gain and keep an eye on the output levels. Each channel also has a button for toggling direct input monitoring for that channel – when any are enabled, a dedicated rotary control allows you to then set the balance between direct-monitored input signals and the DAW playback signal.

All of this takes only moments to set up, but the drawback is that it offers no way of adjusting the relative monitoring levels of the direct-monitored signals, short of adjusting the input gain or monitoring via your DAW. Neither are ideal options, but at least the M6’s impressive round-trip latency – around 15ms at 48kHz in our testing – is fast enough to be workable if you need to monitor inputs through your DAW.

Of course, balancing inputs and outputs is where a companion software mixer app might step in. But such mixer apps can be a source of consternation and confusion, especially from the perspective of a recording artist who doesn’t want to concern themselves with technicalities. So the M6 does not have one. Instead, inputs and outputs feed directly to and from your DAW, and everything else is managed via the interface’s front panel controls. Despite the aforementioned pitfalls, this way of working is refreshingly immediate and fuss-free.

But no audio interface offering would be complete without an accompanying suite of useful production software, and M6 is no exception. The interface comes with MOTU Performer Lite, Ableton Live Lite, a collection of over 100 virtual instruments and a 6GB library of professional loops and samples.

Classy

MOTU’s M6 is class compliant and so works with iOS and macOS without the need for additional drivers. Although, there is an optional macOS driver that minimises the system’s input and output latencies (we were using this driver to get the 15ms latency mentioned above). Drivers for Windows are available, too.

Happily, using M6 with iOS gives a near-identical experience to using it with a desktop computer (the loopback buss is not available – iOS has its own built-in inter-app audio busses), and this is thanks entirely to its lack of a software mixer. Other audio I/O boxes rely on their software to deliver functionality, yet that software is rarely (if ever) available for iOS. But the M6 does not have a software mixer, so there’s no problem.

Overall, then, the MOTU M6 perfectly fills a niche in the (very crowded) audio I/O market. It provides a useful input and output count, and delivers high-quality sonic performance, yet is so very easy to set up and work with that you almost forget it’s there.

Specifications

6-in / 4-out USB audio interface with studio-quality sound

Best-in-class audio quality driven by ESS Sabre32 Ultra™ DAC Technology

Best-in-class speed (ultra-low latency) for host software processing

Best-in-class metering for all inputs/outputs with a full-color LCD

4 x mic/line/hi-Z guitar inputs on combo XLR/TRS

Individual preamp gain and 48V phantom power for each mic input

2 x balanced 1/4-inch line inputs

Hardware (direct) monitoring for all inputs (in mono or stereo)

Monitor mix knob to balance live inputs and computer playback

A/B switch to compare mix output on two sets of studio monitors

Measured -129 dB EIN on mic inputs

4 x balanced, DC-coupled 1/4-inch TRS outputs

Measured 120 dB dynamic range on the 1/4-inch balanced TRS outputs

2 x headphone out (driven by ESS converters) with independent volume control

1 x 3-4 switch for optional headphone monitoring of Line Out 3-4

MIDI in/out (16 channels to/from USB host)

Support for 44.1 to 192 kHz sample rates

USB audio class compliant for plug-and-play operation on Mac (no driver required)

Windows driver with 2.5 ms Round Trip Latency (32 sample buffer at 96 kHz)

Mac driver (optional, for 2.5 ms RTL@32/96 kHz and loopback feature)

iOS compatible (USB audio class compliant)

Driver loopback for capturing host output, live streaming and podcasting

Bus powered USB-C (compatible with USB Type A) with power switch (USB cables included)

Multi-blade international DC power adapter for stand-alone operation without a computer

Rugged metal construction (extruded case, faceplates and knobs)

Workstation software included (MOTU Performer Lite and Ableton Live Lite 11)

100+ instruments (in Performer Lite)

Over 6 GB of included free loops, samples and one-shots from industry leading libraries

Kensington security slot

Two-year warranty

AthensProAudio Team ©