2 M6's on the same computer?

[digitiki]

Is it possible to have 2 M6 units working on the same computer in DP?
With the 8M difficult to get, I'm looking at 2 M6's. Or maybe one for now and a second one as needed.
Is this possible? And if possible, what is the difficulty level of getting them to play together nicely?

[bayswater]

If you use a Mac and DP, just plug them both in. Both should show up in AudioMIDI Setup and both the Setup menus in DP.

[mikehalloran]

And if possible, what is the difficulty level of getting them to play together nicely?

Easy. The macOS lets you set them up as an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup.app in your Utilities folder.

The M2/4/6 do not have a mixer. Each analog In has a corresponding USB Out. For stereo, 1/3/5 are panned hard L while 2/4/6 are panned hard R.

For mono channels in your DAW, simply select the USB IN from any source in the AD you want. For Stereo channels (keyboard, mixer etc), pay attention to the R/L assignments.

Monitoring gets interesting and the switches are multi-function—read the manual pages. You can monitor the return from your DAW as mono or stereo and use the USB In/Out blend control to adjust the balance (M4/6 only). There are other monitor options using Loopback which requires the Mac driver being installed. The manual covers this, too.

[bayswater]

Easy. The macOS lets you set them up as an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup.app in your Utilities folder.

If you are using DP, is there any advantage to this over just shift-selecting multiple devices in the DP setup menu?

[mikehalloran]

Easy. The macOS lets you set them up as an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup.app in your Utilities folder.

If you are using DP, is there any advantage to this over just shift-selecting multiple devices in the DP setup menu?

Probably not. It depends on how one is monitoring. The M4/6 has a lot of options.

I don't know that the OP is using DP so I gave the one size fits all answer.

[Phil O]

Just curious, what happens to the I/O channel names when both units are identical?

[mikehalloran]

Just curious, what happens to the I/O channel names when both units are identical?

An Aggregate Device will not duplicate channel names. In this case, it will assign channels 1–12 to the pair of 6-channel devices. You can give the AD any name you like and re-name the devices by right-clicking each device to see New Label and renaming as you like. In this case, call the AD Motu M12 and rename the devices as M6 Prime and M6 II. The AD will assign 1–6 to the first and 7–12 to the other.

Apple's instructions don't mention this of course but with a little exploring, one will see how easy it is to do.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102171

[bayswater]

If using DP, they will appear separately in the list of audio devices in Audio Setup, and channel names can be further clarified in the Bundles window.

[Phil O]

Good info, guys. Thanks.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil