Thanks for the advice. The Motu choice was a happy accident, used them in the past, and recently bought the 8pre-es before looking at getting into modular, so lucked out with the whole DC thing :)
-- TheSoundGardxn
Another nice thing about those older MOTU interfaces is that most pro audio types these days consider them to be "obsolete", so they turn up for cheap. That makes it relatively easy and definitely inexpensive to slap new I/O in in banks of 8 via either another interface or the ADAT lightpipe. Plus, add an outboard patchbay to the mix, route your I/O through that, and then it becomes a snap to change your CV/gate/trig routings. All you need are 1/4" to whatever's needed for the synth's format cables, and you're set.
-- Lugia
I kept my very old Motu 828 MKII (no drivers anymore) and now I'm glad I did, as yes I was aware I can daisy chain both of them together via ADAT to increase my system by another 8 in/outs. Long way off that but I did have 'future proofing' in mind when deciding on the 8pre-es.