Following its highly anticipated debut at Superbooth last year, the groundbreaking MAT 16X8 audio interface has officially arrived for worldwide pre-order. The road to mass production has been long and technically challenging, pushed forward by rigorous certification milestones and exhaustive redesigns to achieve immaculate component stability. Teaming up directly with Thomann for its global rollout ensures that mobile producers can now secure this specialized hardware centerpiece, which is fully compatible out of the box with iPad, iPhone, and macOS platforms.
The architecture of the MAT 16X8 targets a very specific and historically neglected niche: the high-density connection of multiple external synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers into a single portable workstation. By completely omitting microphone preamps and unnecessary gain controls, the interface features a direct line-level path that lowers the noise floor to an absolute minimum while retaining a striking 110dB dynamic range. When paired with an iPad running AUM, the hardware instantly transforms your mobile device into an incredibly versatile, low-latency live digital performance mixer with complex effects chains and external send-return loops.
In real-world live environments, the hardware proves to be remarkably rugged and reliable, easily enduring unprotected transportation inside a standard gig bag without any dropped connections or structural fatigue. The developer has also actively upgraded the initial core feature set based on early performance testing. The onboard firmware now supports completely independent addressing for both MIDI outputs, greatly expanding your hardware sequencing and clock distribution options. Furthermore, future system expansions remain entirely stress-free via a modern, web-based tool designed for quick browser updates.
Key Features:
- Massive Pocket-Sized I/O: 16 line inputs handled via 8 stereo mini jacks, and 8 line outputs across 4 stereo mini jacks.
- High-Fidelity Converters: Pristine 24-bit / 96kHz AD/DA resolution boasting up to 110dB signal-to-noise ratio.
- Advanced Mobile MIDI: Features auto-sensing TRS-A/B MIDI input along with two fully independent TRS-A MIDI outputs.
- Ultra-Low Latency: Achieves an incredibly fast round-trip latency down to 3.7ms on modern iOS devices.
- Dedicated Cued Monitoring: Integrated high-quality headphone amplifier with a physical toggle switch to pre-listen to channels 1/2 or 3/4.
- Bus Powered Mobility: Operates completely on USB Class 2.0 bus power, requiring no extra power bricks or wall adapters.
- Featherlight Footprint: Unbelievably thin and lightweight design measuring 222 x 60 x 11 mm and weighing only 135 grams.
Retail Price: $466 USD / €439 EUR (Excluding local VAT).
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