Motu M2 USB Interface on Linux
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:48 pm
recently i was looking for an USB audio interface for stereo output and mic input. the Motu M2 attracted my attention. on (non-linux) tests low latency and high quality preamps are reported and it possesses a LCD level meter (which is quite unique for this device class). a popular competitor in this class is the focusrite scarlett 2i2, but i heard on linux there are issues with the latest 2i2 generation (gen 3).
on the web i could not find any info at all using the Motu M2 on linux and of course it is not officially supported. but as the specifications say "USB audio class compliant" i decided to just order it, test it and report. and it looks like it runs pretty well.
my specs are:
intel x86_64
archlinux, kernel 5.4.12
systemd
Xorg+lightdm+cinnamon
pulseaudio
plug-and-play works, at the beginning there were two issues: the first one was a little annoying. sometimes when switching or starting an audio stream the the sound output did not start right away but 2-5 s late (but not asynchronously). the second issue rarely appeared. sometimes the sound output was distorted like on a low sample rate. both issues were fixed when putting
into /etc/pulse/daemon.conf. i also tried
but that led to regular crashes of the device (LCD meter froze and no sound at all).
so now the device almost runs perfectly, the only thing left is minor cracking on sound output when moving the volume slider on some applications (happens only on some files, really strange). but this is a minor issue for me.
i did not test midi in/out, high-z-in and line-in. for recording i used audacity 2.3.3, a dynamic microphone and 48 kHz and 96 kHz sampling rates. no issues there and sound quality sounds very good to me. as i do not use jack i cannot say anything about xruns, on my recordings i did not notice any issues. the recording latency with pulseaudio is very high and not suitable for recording along a track (which i do not need so far. maybe audacity uses alsa directly and shows lower latency but i did not investigate).
very quickly i tested the Motu M2 on an old debian machine (debian 9/stretch+linux 4.9+xfce) without success.
maybe i install jack in the future and take a deeper look on latency. if so i can give an update here.
on the web i could not find any info at all using the Motu M2 on linux and of course it is not officially supported. but as the specifications say "USB audio class compliant" i decided to just order it, test it and report. and it looks like it runs pretty well.
my specs are:
intel x86_64
archlinux, kernel 5.4.12
systemd
Xorg+lightdm+cinnamon
pulseaudio
plug-and-play works, at the beginning there were two issues: the first one was a little annoying. sometimes when switching or starting an audio stream the the sound output did not start right away but 2-5 s late (but not asynchronously). the second issue rarely appeared. sometimes the sound output was distorted like on a low sample rate. both issues were fixed when putting
Code: Select all
default-sample-rate = 48000
Code: Select all
avoid-resampling = yes
so now the device almost runs perfectly, the only thing left is minor cracking on sound output when moving the volume slider on some applications (happens only on some files, really strange). but this is a minor issue for me.
i did not test midi in/out, high-z-in and line-in. for recording i used audacity 2.3.3, a dynamic microphone and 48 kHz and 96 kHz sampling rates. no issues there and sound quality sounds very good to me. as i do not use jack i cannot say anything about xruns, on my recordings i did not notice any issues. the recording latency with pulseaudio is very high and not suitable for recording along a track (which i do not need so far. maybe audacity uses alsa directly and shows lower latency but i did not investigate).
very quickly i tested the Motu M2 on an old debian machine (debian 9/stretch+linux 4.9+xfce) without success.
maybe i install jack in the future and take a deeper look on latency. if so i can give an update here.