This is an impressive recorder: It has a ton of inputs, the sound quality is stellar, the software is easy to use*, most of the important controls are right in front. The monochrome design is pretty spiffy There is a printed manual(!), and it's actually useful(!).Small nitpicks:-downside of monochrome design: you can't see if the input is clipping on the front screen, and the vu meter isn't super useful; a grayscale screen would be much better IMO!-speaking of, the front screen developed a stuck line after a week of use -_--there is a slight pop when you shut down the unit; the downside of not using relays I guess?-there's no way to dim the screen-a balanced headphone output would have been nice?(* at least on a trashcan Mac Pro running Catalina)

I needed something compact & portable that could handle 7.1 output monitoring for Pro Tools, and this is pretty much the only thing in this price point that will do it. You have to spend at least 3x as much for the next viable option, so while I'm still not the biggest fan of MOTU's converters or overall sound quality, for the price it can't be beat. Drivers are solid on Mac OS Monterey and CueMix 5 is much better than prior versions for I/O setup.

I like the hardware. The interface comes in a metal casing that feels sturdy. I appreciate they added the ability to house this in a rack with the optional 1U rack ears.The sound is very clean and the ASIO latency is a lot less than my old Microbook II. It just works.I will say though that Cuemix 5 seems lacking. The feature set is lacking from previous Ultralite and Cuemix versions.Now you only get 4 nodes of EQ on channels and 3 on the master out. The compressor is missing Knee and Trim controls now too. And the compressor is entirely missing from the master out!Previous versions of Cuemix came with 7 band EQ and the extra compressor features as well as having this on the Master out. That was handy when listening to youtube interviews or tutorials as well ... MoreI like the hardware. The interface comes in a metal casing that feels sturdy. I appreciate they added the ability to house this in a rack with the optional 1U rack ears.The sound is very clean and the ASIO latency is a lot less than my old Microbook II. It just works.I will say though that Cuemix 5 seems lacking. The feature set is lacking from previous Ultralite and Cuemix versions.Now you only get 4 nodes of EQ on channels and 3 on the master out. The compressor is missing Knee and Trim controls now too. And the compressor is entirely missing from the master out!Previous versions of Cuemix came with 7 band EQ and the extra compressor features as well as having this on the Master out. That was handy when listening to youtube interviews or tutorials as well as podcasts where the audio wasn't treated properly.There is also no way to hold a text parameter value on the EQ display and drag it to whatever value you want. You have to click on it and type in your value or drag the node in the above graph. And the only way to control Q is through typing the value. Also, Q is fixed on the HPF at what appears to be 12 db. Old Cuemix gave you options from 6-30db! And a LPF (which is also missing).They also removed the Instrument Tuner, audio analysis tools, O-scope, and the sound generator (if you used those).Therefore, I hope MOTU is planning on working on the software features of Cuemix 5 more. It needs a lot of work imo.