NEWBIE TO MOTU MK2 USING COOL EDIT and.... <no manual for 828mk2>

hello all! I am trying to help a friend who has a MOTU 828 mk 2 firewire........ but, he has no manual.... so I am trying to figure out what this equipment really does... he has the box it came in, no start up disk <but I got the driver from MOTU support.... so we are kinda there.... but as I understand it, its supposed to colaborate with adat....... well, he no longer has adat, so we have hooked it up to a pc with firewire and we are getting sound out of it.. don't ask me how! Anyway......... he is used to using a MAYA 1010 in his studio but since the card is making a lot of noise and he has had the 828 mk2 from new, but NEVER used it.<its brand new>    I am a loss to figure out what the capabailities are. Can you use it similar to the MAYA 1010, that is: 8 channels simultaneous to the pc and 8 channels out? And please tell me how do you actually record with this thing < separate channels into the pc, so he can have 8 tracks on different channels on his pc. so you see, I really don't understand this equipment.or does it HAVE to have Adat?  He is using Cool Edit Pro to record .thank you all.

Here is a link to the MOTU page for the latest version MK3. http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828mk3/body.html

The features are close enough (the MK2 doesn't offer DSP effects in Cue Mix) to give you an idea of the connection points and possibilities.

at this time no PDF version of the 828mkii manual seems to exist (MOTU is charging $20 for mailing paper copies but these are tied to a register serial # and access to legacy gear can only be determined by direct contact (i.e. phone) to MOTU)

they do have some FAQ's on site that might be useful for general questions this is copied from that site regarding number of available inputs and outputs:

"The 828 MKII has a total of 20 inputs. 8 Analog 1/4" inputs. 2 mic pre/instrument inputs via combo XLR 1/4" connections. 8 channels of ADAT lightpipe. 2 channels of SPIDIF. These can all be used at the same time!

The 828 MKII has 22 outputs. 8 analog 1/4". Two main outs (separate from the 1-8 analog outs). Headphone jack (separate from the main outs and analog 1-8 outs). 8 ADAT lightpipe. Two SPIDIF. These can all be used simultaneously as well."

With a Cool Edit version you would need to use the MME-WDM drivers (rather then ASIO) and that might limit access to some of the I/O (been long enough since I used CE that I don't remember and never got the original 828 to work on any Wintell machine in any case)

with 828mkii, WinXp, AA3.x I've not problem with any of the functions and have tracked up to 18 individual tracks (2 mic, 8 line, 8 ADAT)

while there are significant differences in operation between MAYA1010 and 828mkii generally speaking you can use in same way as an A/D front end for a computer based DAW (with correct drivers, current ones should be available from MOTU web site) the Console & Cuemix apps supplied by MOTU are fairly straight forward and should help you start using it without manual . . . while accessing more complex functions (multiple monitor mixes, stand alone use from front panel, etc. (I have used 828mkii as a mixer for stand alone solo singer song writer shows . . . that would not be my first choice in gear for that but sometimes when traveling lite you use what you got) probably could benefit from access to the manual

if CE does not recognize 828 make sure you have appropriate drivers installed (mme-wdm).  Additionally some variations of Win operating systems have difficulty with some firewire hardware . . . I still use XP but rolled the firewire implimentation  back to v1 from sp2 (and never up?graded to sp3).  Further recognition of firewire devices can be system dependent with regard to which order devices are powered.  I.E. sometimes you have power computer then attach firewire device & for some devices you attach first then power computer.  I've never discovered any magic that covers all cases for all systems (in fact even running same OS I have f/w boxes that display opposite behavior on different systems).

in 2004 Sound on Sound published review of the 828mkii that might be helpful in detailing features, things you can expect it to do

in any case if you get it up & running for basic operations and have specific questions about features please post back

good luck