MOTU 24Ai Audio Interface

The MOTU 24Ai is a purpose-built analog input converter: 24 channels in, nothing wasted on outputs that a capture or splitting rig doesn't need. Three DB25 connectors bring all 24 analog inputs to the front of a 1U panel, and from there the signal moves into your network or DAW over AVB or USB-C. In a live context, this box earns its place as the analog front-end for a virtual soundcheck system, a multitrack recording interface, or the analog ingestion point for an AVB-routed monitor rig where all the real output work is handled downstream.

At load-in, those three DB25 tails are either your best friend or your first headache — have your Elco looms made up and labeled before the truck opens. Once cabled, the 24Ai draws a modest 25 watts typical and sits in 229mm of depth, so it fits a standard shallow tour rack without fighting for space. The dual AVB ports let you daisy-chain network nodes or connect to a switch without burning a separate interface slot, and word clock I/O means you can lock it cleanly to house digital infrastructure or serve as a clock source to the rest of your gear. USB-C connects it directly to a laptop for recording sessions or software control without a separate host machine in the chain.

If your rig genuinely needs 24 channels of analog capture — virtual soundcheck on a 32-input stage, multitrack archive of a full band, or splitting analog consoles into a networked system — this is a clean, rack-dense way to do it. Pair it with the MOTU 24Ao and you have a full 24-in/24-out analog system in 2U, which is hard to beat for the footprint. If you need even a handful of analog outputs from the same box, the 24Ai isn't your answer; look at a device with mixed I/O instead. Similarly, if your input count is 8 or 16, you're paying for channels you'll leave dark.