 MOTU TRAVELER—The Easy Choice for Home Recording
by Dave Wood
dave@sistersofsong.com
www.davewoodmusic.com
Guitarist, producer, engineer Dave Wood has produced and performed on countless albums over the past 10 years. Appearing with Norah Jones, Antonio Sanchez (Pat Metheny), Pete Matthews (Evanescence), Ezina Moore, Jake Simpson (Star Search) and Martin St-Pierre (Cirque du Soleil).
So I admit it, I’m partially biased to MOTU products… being that I’ve used them for many years. On the upswing, this also gives me the advantage of experience in comparing their products. The MOTU Traveler may be one of their most innovative products yet.
First, a little background: I’ve been dealing with Digital Performer and ProTools for years.... using the MOTU 828, 896 and Digi 002 rack. The original 828 was my workhorse, but being the lower man on the audio interface totem pole always reared it’s ugly head when I’d upgrade/rent the 896 for recording projects. Instant boast in sound quality. The Digi 002 rack, I felt, is comparable to the 896 sound quality-wise. These work fine in the studio but what about portability? These units are ‘rack-based’ gear that were honestly small enough to take around but just big enough to be cumbersome at gigs.
 Now comes the Traveler. With 4 beautiful mic-pre’s, on board mixing (thanks to software that allows you to mix on your computer screen) and powered from your computers firewire port… could it really get any better?
Yes. Soundwise, the converters in the Traveler are like butter, in a good way. Very clean, transparent and to this musician, a step above the Digi 002 but not quite the depth of an Apogee Rosetta or Universal Audio 2192. To step into the later would require you buying 2+1/2 Travelers!
Portability you ask? Yes. Smaller than rack gear, although it comes with attachable rack ears. Incredibly light and due to the lack of power cables, very portable. My only complaint is having a unit so portable you almost want it to have padding for the bottom/sides for transportation purposes.
In use, it takes a minute to adjust to the green read-out screen on the Traveler but after awhile, all of the buttons and menu choice begin to make sense. While using any of the 4 mic pres, you have instant access to gain controls. Using anything less, you must toggle into menus which can be a little disconcerting when a quick change needs to be made. Part of this is made up when you have such easy access to on-screen controls provided by MOTU’s software QueMix which gives you instant control of all inputs and outputs. Very nice. Did I mention that I sold my mixer?
All in all, despite a minimal learning curve, the MOTU Traveler has more than exceeded my expectations in capturing recorded audio at a minimal price.
For more information, visit www.motu.com
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