MOTU releases the OctaLite, a half-rack interface with eight mic preamps

MOTU has released the OctaLite, a half-rack audio interface with 16 inputs and 12 outputs, available now at $849.95, according to Sound On Sound. The maker says it is the only half-rack interface on the market with eight onboard mic preamps.

The unit runs over USB 2.0 and reaches latency as low as 2ms with MOTU’s optimised drivers, while also working as a class-compliant device with no driver install. An onboard DSP engine provides reverb, four-band EQ, compression and gating, and conversion is handled by 32-bit ESS Pro Sabre chips.

Each of the eight mic inputs has individually switched phantom power, a -20 dB pad, polarity inversion and a pre/post FX option for sending either dry or DSP-processed signals to the DAW. The preamps offer 74dB of gain and an EIN figure of -129dB. The first two inputs use front-panel combo sockets that also take high-impedance instrument signals.

On the output side, the OctaLite has a main stereo monitor pair on quarter-inch TRS sockets and a front-panel headphone output. ADAT I/O adds eight more channels in each direction and lets the mic preamps feed the digital outputs, so the unit can serve as an eight-channel expander.