I experienced an issue while performing on Friday night. During the 3rd song, I realized the song I was playing wasn’t making any sound in the mix. A quick check of my rack showed that the Motu audio interface was still on (the meter area was lit up), but no sound was being metered. on my gig performer screen where I have L/R meters for each VST I was able to see the various all producing sound but the outputs meters for channels 1/2 and 3/4 were dormant. The gig performer audio menu showed that all 4 outputs were still visible to gig performer and checked.
I made sure the rear USB-c cable and 1/4" output cables were seated well on the motu and that the usb-c cable was plugged into the Mac port. A bandmate confirmed my XLR sends were still plugged into the band mixer. I disconnected the Motu cable from the Mac and plugged it back in, but still had no sound. I eventually quit gig performer and reloaded my gig file and the sound returned and worked through the end of the show.
The only thing unusual about this show is I was part of the headliner act for a big festival. We completed sound check at 5 and didn’t return to the stage until about 7:30 - so my rig was on and idle for 2 1/2 hours. I’ve seen this issue a couple times at home on the machine I develop sounds/rackspaces which is also a Mac with its own motu m4. If it sits idle for a long time and I return, sometimes the Motu doesn’t produce sound.
Not sure if there’s a way to fix this without restarting gig performer? There aren’t many configuration options for the device. Usually gig performer will show the red warning screen if loses the connection, but that didn’t happen in this case.
I just had a few seconds to troubleshoot with the pressure to get back to the show, so I didn’t try changing to a different backspace or things like that. I run my Nord outputs through the motu inputs as well and those sounds also weren’t making through to the outputs either.
I’m running gig performer 5.1.1 on a 2023 Mac M2 Pro with 32GB ram, Sonoma 14.6.
My sound development machine is running Gig performer 5.1.1, on a 2025 Mac Studio with 128GB ram, using Sequoia 15.4.1.
Both have Motu m4 units plugged into the Mac usb-C ports, with 1/4" outputs into a Radial DI box that goes to FOH or my at home mixer.
Did you try double-clicking on the panic icon to restart the audio system?
Are you routing the Nord into GP or directly from M4 inputs to M4 outputs?
I have certainly experienced a problem with the M4 that I use in my development machine….not often, but maybe about once a month, it will stop working and the only way to fix it is to power cycle it…note that it is powered on 24/7 and it does happen independent of GP but I have never been able to reproduce it on demand
I wasn’t aware of the double-click on the panic button feature, I will definitely give that a try if I encounter this again.
I have the Nord 1/4 L/R outputs run into the front Motu M4 inputs. I combine those with the VST sound in the global backspace, sending all through a compressor and a couple of gain controls which allows me to fade in the sound with a pedal and boost the overall volume as needed. for sound check gain staging.
I’ll keep playing around with it. Overall I’m pretty happy with the Motu when it works. If there’s a more stable audio interface for Mac I’d be willing to try it out as well.
That definitely seems like a step up feature-wise, with a high-end price. I presume GP would work fine with this? I’d be willing to invest in it if it’s more reliable than the Motu, nothing worse than troubleshooting gear in the middle of your biggest gig ever (in front of a crowd of 10k)
RME interfaces are superb, I’ve been using and touring with UFX for years without a single problem, often leaving everything on all day. The drivers are superb as is the quality,
That said, you should really understand what might be happening with the MOTU. Have you reached out to MOTU Tech support ?
Even worse I rebooted this time and nothing is fixed /l-
Recognized on my Mac
Sound comes out of the Mac speakers but north g when switched over to the M4
Rme keeps getting mentioned - will this one work for a left and right stereo KEYS PLUS an extra two outputs (for metronome and other future inputs) so I need at least 3
Well I don’t think the motu phones out will work - but I did buy a cord to go from the computer to the mixer as a backup / it comes today / I lose the click track though
I know there is an immense thread in audio interfaces but let’s talk back up plans - a cheap and reliable audio interface with low latency, low signal to noise ratio and 4 inputs - I’m seeing the beringher 404hd as the go to for back up
Maybe even replacing the motu m4 - I’m still really pissed about the m4
I heard back from Motu support overnight. They offered some additional troubleshooting ideas:
Make sure you’re on the latest firmware and driver for this device
Try all USB ports on the computer
Swap out USB cables, try a few if possible
Use a USB-A to USB-C cable on a USB 2.0 port on the motherboard if using a C to C cable
If possible, run the M Series through a USB hub to see if there’s a difference
Please also try the steps to check something within the Audio MIDI Setup application:
On your Mac, head to Applications > Utilities (folder) and open the Audio MIDI Setup application.
Select M4 on the left side of the window
Select the Output tab in the middle of the window
You want to check if any outputs are attenuated or muted when this issue occurs.
Some of these are counter to what I would normally try, i.e using it in a hub vs direct connection or using a USB-A port over USB-C. I’ll give them a try and see if anything improves on my development machine… In the meantime, I’ll also probably shift towards an RME option as the primary, since I really need a rock solid solution for the kinds of gigs I’ve been playing lately.
Thanks for the advice - id like to swing to RME but i need only 4 outputs and dont feel like spending $$$$ - which one you think is best for such a thing (in the meantime I ordered a Berlinger 404HD for $129 as a back up and tonight for practice Im trying to use headphone out to mixer….. (gulp)
Check eBay/Reverb. There have been multiple new interfaces since I got my UFX 10 years ago (and I’m still using it, it’s rock solid) and you could probably get a decent multi-channel version second hand but in good condition at much better prices.
I use a umc1820 (the bigger brother) and I’m not disappointed. The only thing to keep in mind that it’s not possible to have different buffersizes for multiple (GP) instances, (at least when using Windows). They all end up using the same buffersize.
Another nice thing is, that because of the low price point, I can afford having a backup unit
Good find. Hopefully unmuting it would allow it to work right away, but what could cause it to get muted like that? In my case I just send a program change command into GP to choose the song and then play notes on my controller, it wouldn’t make sense for that to trigger a mute action inside the audio/midi configuration.
