1280 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Website: www.motu.com

Mark of the Unicorn or MOTU for short has been developing music related software since 1984. They are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

They were the first to create a music program for the Mac with the release of Composer in 1985. With this program you could print out to paper a music score which until this time had to printed or professionally engraved. Also in 1985 found the release of Performer, the first MIDI sequencing program made for Macintosh computers. In the early 1990’s they added digital audio which allowed the musician to synchronize audio to MIDI. Around this time as well Performer was used with Digidesign’s Audiomedia hard disc recorder. This was very basic in today’s terms but at the time was very impressive. The Audiomedia system actually used DSP cards which had their own processors to edit the audio. Real-time editing wasn’t yet possible because PC/Mac computers at the time where much slower (68000 Motorola or 8088 Intel chip). Eventually these processors and the hard drives became fast enough to allow ‘native’ processing of audio data. This meant that external cards and hard drives where no longer needed which made the whole system able to be run within a personal computer. When this happened MOTU came up with MAS: Motu Audio System. This used Macintosh’s internal CPU and hard drive for all audio processing. Again by today’s standard it seems like nothing new but at the time was a very exciting thing to use.

Since then they have grown into a larger company offering both PC and Macintosh audio and MIDI interfaces and audio software. They still make Digital Performer which was originally called Performer. It’s grown into quite a program and is used by professional and amateur musicians alike for ease of use and it’s wealth of MIDI and digital audio capabilities. They currently have many FireWire based audio/MIDI interfaces including the Traveler, Ultralite and others.

MOTU UltraLite FireWire Portable FireWire Based Audio Interface
The Motu Ultralite is a firewire based audio interface with a MIDI port made for use with a PC, Mac, as well as standalone operation. It can operate at samplerates up to 96kHz and 24-bit depth. It's designed to be 'ultralite' and portable and works with most firewire ports. It's great for use with a laptop computer and is compatible with new Intel MacBook computers. It has drivers for Mac & PC in the ASIO, WDM, Wave, GSIF, Core Audio, and Core MIDI formats.

MOTU 8pre 8-Channel FireWire Audio Interface
The MOTU 8pre is both an 8 channel microphone preamp and 8 input/2 output Firewire audio interface with an additional 8 channels of ADAT I/O and MIDI support. It has 8 Nuetrik XLR/TRS input jacks and two (Stereo) ¼ inch TRS output jacks. It works will as an audio interface for both recording and stereo monitoring.

MOTU 896 FireWire Digital Audio Interface
The MOTU 896HD is a 2 rackmount unit firewire based digital audio interface that runs at up to 96kHz samplerate and 24-bit depth. It allows you to record and playback audio from your Mac or pc computer. It can be used in professional and home studios, project studio, sound designers, and video post production. This is a high quality product meant for professional installation and use. (Standard 1394 ‘FireWire’ ports)

The Motu 828mk3 is a firewire based digital audio interface designed for the intermediate to professional musician, sound engineer, and sound designer. It can be used in professional and home computer studios as well as for video post production.

The Motu 2408mk3 is a 24-bit 96kHz audio interface made for computer based digital recording studio. It has been designed for professional and intermediate musician's and sound engineers who already understand the major aspects of digital recording using a computer. Since this sound card has a built-in video and and SMPTE synchronization it can be used for video post production as well. It requires either a PC or Macintosh computer and digital audio software to work.

Motu Traveler FireWire Audio Interface with 4 inputs 8 outputs
The MOTU Traveler is an 4 input and 8 output 1394 FireWire audio interface that supports sample rates up to 192kHz on all 8 channels. It great for musicians on the go, such as music students or anywhere you need a compact yet powerful audio interface.