MOTU has a new answer for anyone who needs a lot of mic inputs without a lot of rack space. The OctaLite is a compact 16 x 12 USB audio interface that squeezes eight mic/line/instrument inputs, DSP mixing, and onboard effects into a half-rack box about the size of MOTU's popular UltraLite-mk5.
It's shipping now for $849.95, and works with macOS, Windows, and iOS.
Eight preamps, two on the front
All eight inputs are combo XLR/TRS jacks: two on the front panel and six on the back. Each mic input gets its own 48V phantom power, -20 dB pad, phase invert, and a pre/post FX switch, so you can send either dry or DSP-processed signals to your DAW.
The preamps use Burr-Brown engineered Texas Instruments parts and offer +74 dB of gain with -129 dB EIN, which is plenty for quiet dynamic mics. The quarter-inch jacks have a 1 MΩ instrument impedance, so guitar and bass DI recording through amp sims should feel natural.
On the output side, you get two balanced, DC-coupled quarter-inch line outs driven by ESS Sabre32 DAC technology (125 dB dynamic range) and a front-panel headphone output with independent volume. Because those outputs are DC-coupled, they can also send CV to modular synths straight from your DAW.
An interface or an optical expander
The "Octa" in the name also points to its second job. OctaLite has ADAT optical in and out, and you can set it to work as an 8-channel mic preamp expander for another ADAT-equipped interface or mixer, up to 96 kHz. A second optical output covers channels 5 to 8 when you're using the SMUX format at 88.2 or 96 kHz, and the optical ports can also switch to stereo TOSLink.
That makes it an easy way to add eight more preamps to an existing MOTU 828 or 16A, or any other interface with optical input.
Low latency, DSP mixing, and loopback
OctaLite connects over USB-C (USB 2.0 speed, compatible with USB 3/4 and iOS). MOTU quotes 2 ms round-trip latency at a 32-sample buffer at 96 kHz with its drivers, and it's class compliant on Mac and iOS if you'd rather skip the driver. Sample rates run from 44.1 to 192 kHz.
Other highlights:
- DSP monitor mixer with separate mixes for headphones and monitors, plus three virtual mix buses for in-the-box routing.
- Onboard effects including reverb, 4-band parametric EQ, compressor, and gate.
- Loopback for capturing computer audio when streaming or podcasting.
- Guitar re-amping with a near-zero-latency loop-thru, so you can record a dry DI and a mic'd amp at the same time.
- OLED metering on the front panel for all analog I/O.
- CueMix 5 control from a Mac, PC, iPad, or iPhone, including Wi-Fi control on the same network, so it can also run as a stand-alone mixer.
- A rugged steel chassis, plus Performer Lite with 100+ instruments and over 6 GB of loops and samples included.
Rack it next to an UltraLite
With the optional Half-Rack Coupler Kit, you can mount two OctaLites side by side for 16 mic inputs in a single rack space, or pair an OctaLite with an UltraLite-mk5. For mobile recording, both fit compact half-rack road cases.
For bands tracking live, podcasters with several guests, or producers who want to grow an existing interface with eight extra preamps, OctaLite looks like one of the most flexible small interfaces of the year. Full specs are on MOTU's OctaLite product page.
Images in this article are from MOTU.