Metric Halo LIO-8 Line-level Digital Audio Processor

The Metric Halo LIO-8 is the perfect tool for capturing audio wherever inspiration hits, in the studio or on the road. Well suited to any recording situation, you can record and edit on the road, in the hotel, on the airplane, or wherever inspiration hits. Use 3 LIO-8s chained together for 24 tracks of live concert recording with processing on all channels in 3 rack spaces. Location sound engineers can now capture the moment — anywhere, anytime.

When you’re done recording, use the LIO-8 in the studio as an extremely high quality audio interface to transfer your tracks into a DAW. You’ll be amazed at the sound of this box! And weighing only 6 pounds, and a little larger than a laptop, you can be the first one out of the gig, with no hassle.

The LIO-8’s archival grade inputs and outputs, coupled with Metric Halo’s exclusive Character processing, provide flexibility and sound quality unavailable on any other interface. You can transition from a wire-with-gain to a gooey tube pre with one click of the mouse, and every input can have the right character for the material you are recording.

The LIO-8 is the only unit in its class with an on-board processing engine that supports fully instantiable processing, allowing you to use Metric Halo’s world-renowned signal processing effects without sacrificing your computer’s processing power or introducing any additional latency in your monitor path. From MIOStrip to HaloVerb, the LIO-8 comes with the 2d plug-in package that provides basic production processing. If you need more, you can add the +DSP package. And remember, this one rack space audio interface has the ability to run entirely from any DC power source (16 V - 30 V), making it truly and completely mobile.

Organically Scalable

A unique feature of the Mobile I/O system is that MIO’s work well individually or as a group. Mix and match LIO-8 with ULN-8, 2882 and ULN-2 units to create a system that meets your needs for track counts and number of preamps. Adding a unit to the system organically increases the DSP power of the system, so that your DSP always scales with your I/O. Break your system up for small gigs when playing out or add the units of your mates to build a huge system when required. By standardizing on the Mobile I/O platform, each member of the band can have ultimate quality while working alone, and the band can have huge track counts when playing together. You can’t lose!

Stand-alone Operation

Flexible signal routing and sophisticated patch and preset management systems as well as a comprehensive set of front panel controls are also featured in the LIO-8. The LIO-8’s front-panel controls allow the unit to function equally as well as a stand-alone Converter system. In standalone mode, the LIO-8 operates with the converters directly routed to and from the AES I/O, and the analog domain sends allow splitting or "multing" your analog inputs to other devices.

As a standalone converter, the LIO-8 provides a 24-bit/192 kHz eight channel front-end. It also functions seamlessly as an analog monitor controller, making it ideal as a digital headphone amp and studio monitor controller.

Applications

The LIO-8 supports a variety of applications. For studio recording, it provides a very high quality interface to a DAW, offering sound processing or simple file transfer between workstations. Its exceptional sound quality makes it perfect as any studio’s primary analog to digital conversion and monitoring chain.

The LIO-8 is suitable for broadcast applications, too. It offers instant playback of 8 individual stereo sends for music cues or sound effects, or smaller numbers of surround stems. The compact package and portable power features mean that the unit can go anywhere users need to work, and make on-site fixes or edit location recordings without the need to send files back to the studio, saving valuable time before air.

In the live performance arena, in addition to operating as a remote recorder for archiving performances or to play out backing tracks and musical cues, the LIO-8 can operate as a soft-synth mixer and I/O interface.

Features:

• Exceptional archival-grade converter quality
• Flexible, integrated analog-domain monitor controller
• Universal sample rate support
• Analog, AES, and FireWire interfacing
• Rock-solid stability: mature, real-world tested dependable firmware, software, and drivers
• Instant access to tactile controls
• Fully digital control for total recall, remote control, and control-surface support
• Comprehensive precision metering
• Works with or without a computer
• Metric Halo’s exclusive per-channel selectable character
• Integrated ultra-low-latency instantiable processing with plenty of DSP power to run it