i'm considering buying a new audio interface and i've narrowed it down to a few. the audient id14 mkii and the motu m4 are my top picks. but i'm open to other suggestions in the $200 - $250 price range.

my biggest needs are:
4 discrete outs
usb type c
good quality mic pre (only really need one for vocals)
solid windows 10 drivers and high likelihood of driver updates for future versions of windows.

 

is good interface
but in my experience i advice you to check out the audient id 14 mkII is the an entry level and for me is much better . also u have alots of option like ID software . loop back . and u have abilty to add a external preamp
Good luck

 

Last edited: Dec 11, 2021

Absolutely a bang for your buck. I highly recommend purchasing it. In the price range, the Audient ID14 is good too, the reality is you're not going to get anything mind-blowingly better in either. And the M4 has at minimum specs to back it up. This link is for the M2, but they're the same thing minus the extra ins and outs on the M2.

 

I have an m2 and it is a nice little interface. I am using it with a Mac so I can not comment directly about using it with a PC. But MOTU are as good as any other manufacturer (if not much better) about drivers and updating software a long time after product sales. Reliability has always been one of the top reasons to go with MOTU, and I have not had a problem with a Motu unit in 20+years of using their stuff.

the M2 does not use the Motu "Pro Audio" software, which for me is perfect; it coexists on the same Mac with my main interface (MOTU 828es) without problems.

 

I have an M4, I have only been messing with it for a short time but it is working well and sounding great.
I came from a N.I. Pro Audio 6 and so far the M4 is outperforming it, but I have not put it through anything
too demanding, yet.

 

If you plan to use it with Windows, be careful. Until now, all Motu interfaces I've tried with Windows had driver problems.
Historically, Motu first worked only for Mac then, they adapted to Windows, but, they still use bad Microsoft libraries to program their windows drivers, which make them dependent of Microsoft actualizations and less efficient even when they work.

 

I wanted to buy an M4 last year - needed something that had more than a few inputs/outputs and was bus-powered (Mac) - but they were having some really bad delivery issues. Couldn't find one anywhere. I see now they're more readily available.

Having onboard traditional MIDI in/out is a rarity these days! Very useful if you're doing anything with any hardware. That said, if you have more than a few synths, you'd still need a bigger MIDI interface anyway (like MOTU's Midi Express XT).

 

In 4 weeks I will

 

Hi, I have M2 for a year, under Win10, the driver is great, never a problem, the instrument inputs are great, the sound is great ( with hp Kali Audio), I was a bit undecided at the beginning, before the purchase, about the Motu drivers under Windows....now I am very satisfied!
The price is affordable. The quality is there

 

@liquidlove Midi Express XT is about 100$ more expensive than the Express 128, and the difference is AC vs bus powered only. unless you have a very old computer. both are 8x8. The microlite 5x5 is another cheaper hundred than that. 1x1 with the m2 is nice feature though, for someone sampling non-usb synths.

 

Last edited: Dec 9, 2021

@Angelo Archetti would you explain what you disagree with in my comment, please?

 

i've heard that before - many years ago. i don't believe that is still true today. and the m2/m4 are only a year old so i don't think it is true about this specific interface at all.

 

I believe you Olymoon, after what I've read, the driver support is not the best.
Search for: Motu interfaces driver problems
https://audiosex.pro/threads/motu-m2-m4-for-windows-sufferers.55558/

 

I bought MOTU M4 7 days ago and I am very satisfied by it. I was doing extensive research, reading comments and forums for almost a year before my decision because my budget is pretty tight and I was saving money for good headphones, an elecric guitar and an XLR cable. My electric guitar was an abandoned old cheap one which I got from a friend and it even has some cables fucked up but still the sound of it is great once plugged in the MOTU M4 which I didn't expect at all. This is my first Audio Interface and I use hacked Windows and as far as drivers are concerned I didn't have any problems at all with them. The latency is great as well... I am deeply in love with this audio interface. I think that the quality it offers for it's price is extremely good...

 

Last time I tried to install a motu driver in a windows system was 2 month ago. And we had problem as it needed libraries that were not into windows. The interface was a recent one.

Maybe it's just me. I only tell my personal experience.

 

i definitely like having all the controls on the front instead of the top for my purposes. i also like the meters much more than most budget interfaces. i'll probably buy it from amazon so it is easy to return if i don't like it. but right now everyone is charging the same price so i will wait until i see it on sale.

 

Ah @realitybytez btw I made one recording of my Clean Guitar DI and one Heavily Distorted with Omega Granophyre vst plugin amp (Neural DSP) to let you hear how it sounds like with MOTU M4. A bit sloppy playing cause i rushed it. Keep in mind that my guitar is a very cheap one like I said before, also its electronics are kinda messed up (only the volume knob is intact ) and atm i have medium strings on it and I still consider that it sounds very clean imo.. I was planning to buy a new one but I am gonna keep it since with MOTU M4 it sounds pretty decent imo...
https://vocaroo.com/1nAQEMqZpUKe
https://vocaroo.com/15kwREGStNVM

 

Bought it last month after extensive research. It's perfect - can't beat it in this price category. Then upgrade for a 1000+ interface.

Much better than any other entry-level stuff I had before (Scarlett, Audient 14 mk1). It's also better than the new entry-level Arturias.

The Audient 14 mkii is slightly more powerful but that's it, M4 is a much better deal overall, and it has Midi. Also I had very bad memory from using the Audient on Mac, it kept shutting down or rebooting with Macs, and the volume knob reset every time it shut down too.

Using the M4 with M1 Mac, it's simply perfect and faultless.

Very low latency (<3ms) and the ESS Sabre32 Ultra amp to feed it all beautifully.

The headphone amp like all these entry-level interfaces is the only weak point but I'm not using it anyway, using an external headphone amp on the regular outputs as you should to make the most of good headphones on it.

 

Last edited: Dec 10, 2021

I personally bought the Beyerdynamics DT Pro 770 250 ohms headphones along with MOTU M4 and I plug them on the headphone amp of MOTU M4 normally and it drives them pretty well. (I don't have an external one) Just need to turn the knob to max but it works fine. I don't know the difference that an external headphone amp would make but I can say that am pretty satisfied with the sound personally tbh even with the headphone amp of MOTU M4.

Which external headphone amp do you use btw if I may ask? I didn't bother researching about any of them. Would be nice to hear some good recommendations.

 

Sounds like you need to pay attention to what headphones you're buying. That should be the same headphone output as all the rest of them. My 250ohm DT990s can blow my head off straight out of my 828X's headphone output. I do have problems with my old AKG 250s but those are also the 600 ohm 'Studio' version, those things have such high resistance they suck with any interface for the most part and need their own dedicated headphone amp. Dont buy ridiculous 600 ohm headphones and you've got nothing to worry about.