MOTU MicroBook USB Audio Interface Review

Although small in size, the MicroBook USB Audio Interface is huge when it comes to audio quality. It is a USB bus-powered audio interface that provides studio-grade audio performance. Despite being small, about the size of a regular pocket, the MicroBook USB Audio Interface can turn your Mac or PC into a personal 4X2 recording studio – all complete with the needed audio I/O and mixing features for professional recording.

The MicroBook lets you have a complete personal recording set up whether on a Mac or on a PC. It has four simultaneous inputs for a microphone, a guitar, and a keyboard or any other stereo line-level device. Its mic preamp gives nothing but a neutral coloration and pristine sound, thanks to 20dB pad and 48V phantom power of its built-in condenser mics. On top of that, the MicroBook offers flexible monitoring options – choose among a programmable analog, a digital and headphone outputs.

Because the MicroBook is slim, its mic input is a balanced quarter-inch jack. If in case you would like to use a mic cable with an XLR plug, there is no need to worry because the MicroBook comes with a XLR-to-1/4-inch adapter. Its Precision Digital Trim Feature lets you digitally control analog trim on all analog units. This only means one thing – you get to enjoy both worlds: the excellent signal quality of analog audio circuitry and the fine-tune precision of digital control. Not only that, you also get to save and recall trim settings on your computer.

But perhaps the best thing about the MicroBook is its superb audio quality. It provides rigid audio quality particularly tailored to meet the demands of most professional recording applications. Because it comes from MOTU’s award-winning family of FireWire, USB and PCI audio interfaces, the MicroBook is without a doubt a product that signifies decades of engineering expertise.

Most of the audio interface brands that we see in the market today (even the expensive ones) usually cut corners with unbalanced analog inputs and outputs. Such imbalance then results to a greatly compromised performance that falls way below an equivalent balanced circuit. But the MicroBook has well balanced inputs and outputs that ensure only the best protection possible against RF interference, AC hum, and other noise-creating environmental factors.

The guitar input of the MicroBook gives the proper impedance loads for guitars, so you can play through guitar-processing plug-ins in a host software without worries knowing that you will get nothing but natural feel and response. Its “mini” eight-inch analog input can also be connected to an iPod or any other stereo line level signal. This allows audio input mixing with other inputs and routed to any output device.

With the birth of the MOTU MicroBook USB Audio Interface, you can now have quality I/O recording, personal audio tracking, laptop-based DJing, among many other applications, on-the-go.

Buy the MOTU MicroBook USB Audio Interface from Gigasonic.com, your trusted music store and get special limited time offers on financing and no interest layaways.

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