You let go of one of the best portable stereo interfaces around just to avoid using a small $13 FireWire 800 adaptor?
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Apogee Preparing to Launch 'Quartet' Portable Audio Interface for Mac Music Professionals
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You let go of one of the best portable stereo interfaces around just to avoid using a small $13 FireWire 800 adaptor?
You're aware that the beat i/io boxes cost a lot of money, right? You're also aware that many people think that Apogee makes some of the best interfaces, right?
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You sold an Apogee Duet that you supposedly loved because you couldn't be bothered to buy a $6 adapter?
ahh, what so many people forget... if an a/d converter is what defines whether you can put together and/or record good or bad music... it's possible they may have lost their way.
nothing wrong w/ having great gear, though!
YMMV.
I must admit I was impressed to see Lexicon has current drivers for those. I presumed they were very discontinued, based on the many I have seen on clearance tables.
Don't get me wrong, Apogee products are great, but I would NEVER spend that much money on an audio interface, save for maybe a protools rig
Some would argue, including myself, that if you have an Apogee front end, you wouldn't have to spend all that money on PTHD. You could run an mbox pro or 003 as long as it has digital in. My Apogee Trak2 still sounds better than most "amazing" front ends I've heard. I don't even touch the inputs on the onboard converters. Straight to spdif
A lot of people are producing and mixing "in the box" so a quality front end is needed more now than ever. This goes beyond this product but if spend 5-10k on plug-ins and virtual instruments, why are you going to trust the ONE or TWO real things (vocals, guitar, etc) to some cheap front end?
Too Much
$999 and they have a hit. At $1395 it is just too pricey.
But maybe that is just "asking" price and it WILL sell for $999.
If so, count me in.
$999 and they have a hit. At $1395 it is just too pricey.
But maybe that is just "asking" price and it WILL sell for $999.
If so, count me in.
C
champ01
Guest
Funny to see the complete nonsense on this thread.
First the price is not yet released. The specs are not yet available also.
Saying it cost to much when you've just seen one picture which doesn't even show the i/o makes you a ......
First the price is not yet released. The specs are not yet available also.
Saying it cost to much when you've just seen one picture which doesn't even show the i/o makes you a ......
ahhh 1400? no way. period. I know people will buy it but I honestly always thought the duet was overpriced too, 200-300 will get you a great 2-in 2-out (prob with midi) that's very portable and quality.
The portability thing is so overblown when it comes to recording though because unless you have an ultra portable mic, stand, cable ( and maybe a pre-amp?), not to mention the instrument, along with your laptop, the recording interface's size starts to matter a bit less.
And, if im spending hundreds of dollars (if not 1400 for this thing) then chances are i have other nice equipment (the mics) that travel in protective cases which again add to the bulk of the whole sha-bang.
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judging a product based on speculation? oh its so crazy its like we are all members of a site called ...oh wait.
The portability thing is so overblown when it comes to recording though because unless you have an ultra portable mic, stand, cable ( and maybe a pre-amp?), not to mention the instrument, along with your laptop, the recording interface's size starts to matter a bit less.
And, if im spending hundreds of dollars (if not 1400 for this thing) then chances are i have other nice equipment (the mics) that travel in protective cases which again add to the bulk of the whole sha-bang.
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Funny to see the complete nonsense on this thread.
First the price is not yet released. The specs are not yet available also.
Saying it cost to much when you've just seen one picture which doesn't even show the i/o makes you a ......
judging a product based on speculation? oh its so crazy its like we are all members of a site called ...oh wait.
You might - no price has been announced by Apogee yet. Anything outside of them is speculation.
Apogee gear sells for the asking price. I've never seen more than a $5-10 discount on the Duet series except when they were selling refurb units of the original Duet a year after the Duet 2 was on sale.
Don't count on it. Apogee, like Apple, is known for stiffly controlling the price on their products. The MSRP *is* the price for Apogee gear with very few exceptions.
i sold my apogee duet (firewire) just to purchase the apogee duet II (usb) for my rMBP 2.7Ghz/16GB/768SSD then i don't have to deal with too many dangling wires all over the place - that's all...... ^_^
C
champ01
Guest
You've just made my point a fact.
We can't judge this product on just 1 photo with absolutely no more info.
Only thing we can be sure of is that is gonna be a great product like all the products of Apogee.
Agreed
Absolutely. Sweet water ROCKS. I initially ordered after their business hours. The next morning I got a call from a sales rep asking if I needed any additional info or had any questions regarding the Apollo. Excellent customer service from those guys !
Regarding the Apollo...... Yeah it's a lot of money to spend, but the flexibility, level of I/O (that I was coming from anyway), the UA plugins, the CPU offload to the Apollo, all make it money well-spent.
I'm sure I could've gotten away with the dual instead of the quad, but I didn't want to end up wondering "Should I have gone for the quad?".
Anyhow, recording @ 88.2 I had no hiccups, except when using Amplitude 3 I got some clicks and pops, but that is unique to that plugin. Playback sounds great. I'm still getting used to the unit, but I just read that you can use it to not only track in realtime with the UA plugs, but you can also use it to MIX using the plugs realtime as well, using their Console application. I just need a solid couple of days of doing nothing but experimenting with Apollo.
Oh yeah, not sure if this is "common knowledge" but it might help someone. I found a video on MacProVideo.com that spoke about using the I/O plugin in Logic to determine your interface's latency.
You turn your monitors OFF, route a cable from input 1 on your interface to output 1. Then you create a new track, select Input 1 as the input. Then place the I/O plugin on the new track. Then you hit the "ping" button and it will return a value, in samples. Write that value down,and then retest at other sample rates / buffer settings. Mine were all close to -83 samples. Take that number, and add it to the presample delay slider in Logic Preferences / Audio. Then you will end up with zero recording delay. I may be explaining that incorrectly, so check out the link below.
http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/logic9207
All three videos in that link are free previews. Hope that helps someone.
(FYI..... my value for the MOTU Ultralite was -28).
Praise Sweetwater! I'm also from Fort Wayne, so I'm a bit partial.
Absolutely. Sweet water ROCKS. I initially ordered after their business hours. The next morning I got a call from a sales rep asking if I needed any additional info or had any questions regarding the Apollo. Excellent customer service from those guys !
Regarding the Apollo...... Yeah it's a lot of money to spend, but the flexibility, level of I/O (that I was coming from anyway), the UA plugins, the CPU offload to the Apollo, all make it money well-spent.
I'm sure I could've gotten away with the dual instead of the quad, but I didn't want to end up wondering "Should I have gone for the quad?".
Anyhow, recording @ 88.2 I had no hiccups, except when using Amplitude 3 I got some clicks and pops, but that is unique to that plugin. Playback sounds great. I'm still getting used to the unit, but I just read that you can use it to not only track in realtime with the UA plugs, but you can also use it to MIX using the plugs realtime as well, using their Console application. I just need a solid couple of days of doing nothing but experimenting with Apollo.
Oh yeah, not sure if this is "common knowledge" but it might help someone. I found a video on MacProVideo.com that spoke about using the I/O plugin in Logic to determine your interface's latency.
You turn your monitors OFF, route a cable from input 1 on your interface to output 1. Then you create a new track, select Input 1 as the input. Then place the I/O plugin on the new track. Then you hit the "ping" button and it will return a value, in samples. Write that value down,and then retest at other sample rates / buffer settings. Mine were all close to -83 samples. Take that number, and add it to the presample delay slider in Logic Preferences / Audio. Then you will end up with zero recording delay. I may be explaining that incorrectly, so check out the link below.
http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/logic9207
All three videos in that link are free previews. Hope that helps someone.
(FYI..... my value for the MOTU Ultralite was -28).
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Yes it is
Yes that price seems ridiculous.
Had an Apogee Duo for a while. No doubt it sounded pretty darn good. But let's be honest -- did it sound better than any other topflight interface? Better than an RME Fireface? Better than UAD Apollo? Better than a Lynx HiLo? Better than a Presonus Firebox even? No way, it sounded pretty much as good as those, maybe not quite as good as the Lynx or the Apollo.
But here's the rub. The Apogee Duo died an early death. Out of the blue, it just started going bonkers on me. And that's where things got sticky, because unlike UAD where the level of support is just TREMENDOUS - consistently - Apogee was pretty aloof. I got nowhere.
Then you have the features issue. Others have pointed out that with other interfaces at this price point or close, you are getting a lot more. UAD Apollo (which is my current rig) is a wonderful case in point. Also, someone posted the Lexicon - that is a very powerful alternative.
So either this will come down or it will struggle, I think. The Apogee Duo was also pricey but in its range ($600) it was close enough to budget models in price for those who wanted to have top-flight A/D and preamps and would reach a bit to get them. Here, the competition is very different. For me, the lack of Apogee customer support would discourage me (as it does with RME, who is represented (in my opinion poorly) in the US by their distributor).
Yes that price seems ridiculous.
Had an Apogee Duo for a while. No doubt it sounded pretty darn good. But let's be honest -- did it sound better than any other topflight interface? Better than an RME Fireface? Better than UAD Apollo? Better than a Lynx HiLo? Better than a Presonus Firebox even? No way, it sounded pretty much as good as those, maybe not quite as good as the Lynx or the Apollo.
But here's the rub. The Apogee Duo died an early death. Out of the blue, it just started going bonkers on me. And that's where things got sticky, because unlike UAD where the level of support is just TREMENDOUS - consistently - Apogee was pretty aloof. I got nowhere.
Then you have the features issue. Others have pointed out that with other interfaces at this price point or close, you are getting a lot more. UAD Apollo (which is my current rig) is a wonderful case in point. Also, someone posted the Lexicon - that is a very powerful alternative.
So either this will come down or it will struggle, I think. The Apogee Duo was also pricey but in its range ($600) it was close enough to budget models in price for those who wanted to have top-flight A/D and preamps and would reach a bit to get them. Here, the competition is very different. For me, the lack of Apogee customer support would discourage me (as it does with RME, who is represented (in my opinion poorly) in the US by their distributor).