Apogee One or the Apogee Duet?

greeneagle047 said:

I'm an owner of a new Imac and will soon be getting Logic Studio as well. So far of the research I've done, both the One and Duet seem like great products for a great price. I'm mainly interested in recording as a singer/song writer and record with some other guys in a band. ( I also heard they help a great deal with live performances). Which should I get?

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I'd say if you want to use your interface mainly in your studio and make sound with it and plugin a good external microphone. The Duet is a good choice. If you're more on the road and you want fast recordings with your band and just turn the One on and record, I'd go for the one. After all you'll get better quality with the Duet and external mics I say...
It's the question how professional you will go? One is perfect for a "garage band".

I use the Ensemble and I love Apogee quality.

greeneagle047 said:

I'm mainly interested in recording as a singer/song writer and record with some other guys in a band. ( I also heard they help a great deal with live performances). Which should I get?

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What exactly will you be simultaneously recording? List all the ics and any MIDI connections. If you are recording a full band there is a good chance neither of these will work for you.

None of us know what "guys in a band" means. Is this a swing era big band with a woodwind section? Are there three people doing backing vocals? Is there a piano or drums involved? If yo have an elect. guitar, do you like to mic the amp or do direct? No one can offer anything but guesses without a list of what exactly needs to be recorded.

greeneagle047 said:

I would like to be able to both (to mic the amps and do direct) but at this point I feel direct would be better since I don't feel my amps are high enough quality. As far as microphones I have basic equipment from "Blue" like the snowball mic, but I plan on getting a decent condenser mic or 2 also.

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What ChrisA is saying is if you will have to record more than one thing at once, the One is out. If you will have to record more than two things at once, the Duet is out. If you are trying to record the entire band, I would look more at something like the Firepod (enough inputs for the average rock band for less money than the Duet) and some more microphones.

Good luck!

greeneagle047 said:

I would like to be able to both (to mic the amps and do direct) but at this point I feel direct would be better since I don't feel my amps are high enough quality. As far as microphones I have basic equipment from "Blue" like the snowball mic, but I plan on getting a decent condenser mic or 2 also.

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I reccomend def. going with the duet.
and as a hint, recording guitars via microphone is much better than going direct. even if you have crappy little $100 amps and a radio shack microphone. im serious about this. it will sounds better, if you position it all right. research that and find guitar recording positions. it will really help out in quality.

Hows the playback sound quality on the ONE vs the Duet?

ghostchild said:

Hows the playback sound quality on the ONE vs the Duet?

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I don't know that. I'd google it. I say Duet is the better interface and audiocard for playing-back tracks, also recording quality.

One is more an all-in-one device with great quality also. If the One would be better in quality, I don't think there would be a need for the market for the duet .

seisend said:

I don't know that. I'd google it. I say Duet is the better interface and audiocard for playing-back tracks, also recording quality.

One is more an all-in-one device with great quality also. If the One would be better in quality, I don't think there would be a need for the market for the duet .

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As far as I know, the A/D/A is identical, except the Duet has two preamps and A/D converters (duet) and the One has one (one)

If you're using a Snowball, the mic input isn't even going to go through the audio interface

I'm assuming you're still learning your gear. Both interfaces do the same thing but have great preamps (that's why they're expensive) - just one is Firewire with 2 preamps, the other is USB with 1 preamp. Both are best suited to record one instrument at a time so if you were planning on recording your whole band at once onto multiple tracks, that's impossible. You also won't be able to mic drums using multiple mics, which you're probably not worrying about right now anyway.

If you're just starting out, it's always good to go cheap. 90% of the people I see on audio forums don't need pro quality gear. You could probably do fine with a cheap M-Audio interface but if you have the money, pick up one of the Apogees. Just understand how you're gonna be using it before you buy it.

When I first started recording my band (and some live sound) I got an Alesis Firewire 16 mixing desk. It did everything I asked of it very well. 8 balanced xlr and another 8 1/4" inputs. The faders interacted with Cubase (i've used it with logic as well) and the quality was awesome.

If you can get hold of one it would be exactly what you need. As well as some half decent microphones (SM57/58 and some condensers).

Hope this helps.

How long has the one been out? I owned a duet and it was great. The one would be perfect for my needs solo guitar

ghostchild said:

Hows the playback sound quality on the ONE vs the Duet?

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I have auditioned both for sound quality, using AIFF files on both Macbook Pro and iMac i5, with Beyer Dynamic DT 770 Pro headphones and Focal CMS65 monitors (which I rate as absolutely outstanding powered speakers, by the way).

The playback quality of the Duet is substantially better than the One. At no time, with all types of music, was the difference not immediately obvious to my ears. The Duet is simply smoother and fuller, while the One is relatively grainy-sounding.
This is not to say the One isn't a pleasant-sounding and good value device in its own right. But with my replay equipment, the One is clearly a step down from the Duet.
Of course, we're talking of two units at a very different price. Does the Duet replay quality justify twice the cost of the One? For me, definitely yes. But for those with lesser speakers and playing mp3 music, the additional outlay for the Duet might seem unnecessary and less discernible.
But price aside, and simply listening to the two side-by-side on high quality gear, I find the Duet undoubtedly superior for music replay.

The Duet and the One have the same audio quality. Use the same pre-amps and AD/DA converters. So you'll get professional studio quality sound whichever one you pick.

miscend said:

The Duet and the One have the same audio quality. Use the same pre-amps and AD/DA converters. So you'll get professional studio quality sound whichever one you pick.

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I cannot agree that the two units have the same audio quality. I would say they both have very good quality, but as I said above, I find the Duet is clearly superior.
Apogee does not provide specs for these units (much to many people's disgruntlement), so I'd be interested to know just how similar those innards are, including the associated wiring and other considerations that relate to the very different connectivity and housing.
My own direct conversations with Apogee left me in no doubt that they themselves also consider the Duet to sound superior to the One in terms of music playback. Indeed, they talked themselves out of a sale by saying so – I told them I had a Duet already and was considering a One purely for its USB capability. But first I wanted to know if the audio monitoring sound quality of the One was exactly like the Duet. I was told the Duet had a slightly fuller sound. Nevertheless, I auditioned a One from the Apple Store, which confirmed that with my equipment the One sounded somewhat thinner and grainier, and was not a match for the Duet. I subsequently returned the One.
But if anyone has chosen a high-value One over a much more expensive Duet, they will still have a very nice-sounding device.

Apogee claim to use "similar" components, and the specs they do quote are not the same for the One and Duet. Beyond that they seem to like to keep that air of mystery.

Sir Cecil said:

I have auditioned both for sound quality, using AIFF files on both Macbook Pro and iMac i5, with Beyer Dynamic DT 770 Pro headphones and Focal CMS65 monitors (which I rate as absolutely outstanding powered speakers, by the way).

The playback quality of the Duet is substantially better than the One. At no time, with all types of music, was the difference not immediately obvious to my ears. The Duet is simply smoother and fuller, while the One is relatively grainy-sounding.
This is not to say the One isn't a pleasant-sounding and good value device in its own right. But with my replay equipment, the One is clearly a step down from the Duet.
Of course, we're talking of two units at a very different price. Does the Duet replay quality justify twice the cost of the One? For me, definitely yes. But for those with lesser speakers and playing mp3 music, the additional outlay for the Duet might seem unnecessary and less discernible.
But price aside, and simply listening to the two side-by-side on high quality gear, I find the Duet undoubtedly superior for music replay.

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Sir Cecil- I'm curious if you've had any problems with noise/hiss with the Duet - Focal combination? I've got a Duet running into Focal CMS-50s and can't turn the gain on the monitors beyond the 4th notch without getting significant hiss. I sent the Duet back to Apogee and they replaced it with a new one, but I still have the hiss.

Scott

I chose to buy an Apogee ONE yesterday, it works great. I had a small issue with hiss and pops/clicks but it turned out I'd set the buffer setting to low in Logic. Once the settings were correct the problem disappeared.

I have one persistent problem though; the pop-ups when changing the input/output gain/volume seem to stop working randomly, and only a reboot brings them back. Has anyone with a ONE/Duet encountered a similar problem and managed to fix it? Apogee are still to get back to me on this. I have all the latest Apogee software and I've tried reinstalling multiple times. Running OS 10.6.2

Jolly Jimmy said:

...I have one persistent problem though; the pop-ups when changing the input/output gain/volume seem to stop working randomly, and only a reboot brings them back. Has anyone with a ONE/Duet encountered a similar problem and managed to fix it? Apogee are still to get back to me on this. I have all the latest Apogee software and I've tried reinstalling multiple times. Running OS 10.6.2

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I have the same exact issue. I wrote to Apogee support, they sent me a firmware upgrade but unfortunately it didn't solved the problem.

robbysoul said:

I have the same exact issue. I wrote to Apogee support, they sent me a firmware upgrade but unfortunately it didn't solved the problem.

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Same here, the update the support guy sent me didn't work. I found a workaround to get the popups back without rebooting though. You need to quit and relaunch ONEPopup. I made an automator action app to accomplish this if you are interested. May I ask what version of OS X you are running?

Jolly Jimmy said:

May I ask what version of OS X you are running?

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I'm running the same OSX of you 1.6.2 It seems very interesting your workaround. Can you explain how to use it? Thank you so much

It's just a simple app that quits and relaunches ONEPopup, the app that deals with the popups when changing the gain or volume via your ONE. Just open it when they stop working and they should start appearing again. No need to reboot.

Ah ok! Good job, Very useful waiting a fix from Apogee. Thanks

I looked long and hard at both the One and the Duet, but in the end I decided on the Presonus FireStudio Mobile. It has the upgraded preamps from their higher end line, more I/O and works on both a Mac and a PC (I have a Dell laptop from work).

I was always very curious as to the sound difference between the One and Duet and while Apogee is very closed about the actual differences, the Duet appears to sound better than the One.

richpjr said:

...the Duet appears to sound better than the One.

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I don't know how much better than the ONE the Duet sounds. But the Duet cost twice the price of the ONE and it's also less portable then the ONE I love my ONE