User Manual

CHAPTER
11
2 Software Installation
OVERVIEW
USB audio class-compliant operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Driver installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
M series Control Panel (Windows only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
MIDI I/O on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
MIDI I/O setup on the Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Working with host audio software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
USB AUDIO CLASS-COMPLIANT OPERATION
Your M Series interface is a USB audio class-
compliant device. This means that you can
connect it to your Mac (running macOS 10.11 or
higher) with a USB cable and use it without
installing any software drivers. The computer
recognizes your M Series interface as a USB audio
device and makes its inputs and outputs available
to your host audio software. Basic settings, such as
the hardware’s sample rate, are made in either your
host software.
☛ In this scenario, your M Series interface
provides basic audio input and output, and no
software driver installation is necessary. Use the
Mac’s Audio MIDI Setup utility to manage your M
Series interface audio inputs and outputs for your
Mac.
Connection to iOS devices (iPad and iPhone)
Audio-class compliant operation allows you to
connect your M Series interface to any iOS device
with a standard camera connection kit adapter.
The M Series interface then provides multi-
channel audio I/O to your audio apps. Use your
audio app to configure the number of available
audio channels.
☛ For iOS devices with a USB-C port, a USB-C
to USB-C cable is required (sold separately).
☛ For iOS devices with a Lightning port, an
Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter is
required (sold separately).
DRIVER INSTALLATION
Driver installation is required for either of the
following scenarios:
■ You are using a PC running Windows 7 or later.
■ You are using a Mac and you wish to take
advantage of the extra features that the driver
provides: lower latency performance and loopback
channels (see “Loopback” on page 21).
If neither of the above scenarios apply to you, then
you can skip software installation if you wish, and
proceed to chapter 3, “Hardware Installation”
(page 15).
Download and run the M Series installer
To download the latest M Series installer for Mac
or Windows, visit www.motu.com/m2-start (it’s
the same installer for both the M2 and M4).
Follow the directions that the installer gives you.
☛ We recommend that you run the software
installer before you connect your M Series
interface to your computer and power it on.
Industry-leading I/O latency performance
On macOS and Windows, the M series driver
provides exceptionally low I/O latency
performance. For example, with a 32-sample
buffer size, an M Series interface operating at 96
kHz produces round trip latency (RTL)
performance of 2.5 milliseconds (ms) on
Windows and 2.5 ms on macOS. RTL is the
measurement of the time it takes audio to pass
from an analog input, through a DAW host, to an
analog output.