Studio workhorse gets an updateMark Of The Unicorn (MOTU) have added a new model, the 896Mk3, to their range of Firewire audio interfaces, which will supersede the 896 and the 896HD.

Like the previous 896 models, the new interface is a 2U rackmountable device that has an impressive array of LED meters on its front panel. As with many of MOTU’s recently released interfaces, the 896 Mk3 features on-board Digital Signal Processing (DSP), which enables users to apply dynamic processing and effects directly to the inputs and outputs, and create mixes without using a computer. In practise, this facility can be used to supply a zero-latency vocal feed, with ‘comfort reverb’, to a vocalist during a tracking session, for example, or to create a custom mix for a drummer in the studio.

Using its two banks of ADAT optical connections (the other 896s only had one bank), the AES/EBU ports and the eight channels of analogue I/O, the 896Mk3 can record up to 28 channels of 16-bit/44.1kHz audio simultaneously (although it can record at rates up to 24-bit/192kHz), and can output to 32 different channels, thanks to dedicated stereo headphone outputs and the ‘main mix’ output which can be set to mirror other outputs, or supply a custom mix.

Each of the analogue inputs, which can take connections on quarter-inch jack or XLR, have two stages of hardware limiting, which MOTU say “helps reduce perceptible distortion”, and feature dedicated 10-segment meters to show the status of each of the input signals. Further ‘programmable’ meters can be set to display any bank of input or output.