Best Apogee for Garageband -- ONE or DUET?

[joesnewmatch]

I am seriously on the fence between the ONE and the DUET. X-mas is around the corner, and I need some help. Please keep in mind that I am COMPLETELY NEW to recording. I mean, completely new. I had an 8 track once, but that's it. I plan to record guitars with Garageband on a Macbook Pro (13"). Electric and acoustic. And, yes, my acoustic is wired, so I don't necessarily need the mic that comes with the ONE.

My main question -- is the DUET more compatible with Garageband, or not? Some of the DUET poop suggests that it's fully integrated. The ONE info doesn't make it sound the same. If the DUET is more fully integrated, is that enough of a reason to go with a DUET?

Thanks in advance! JOE

 

[paolo-]

Okay so do you plan on recording anything else than guitar say vocals or drums? Also, do you plan on recording your amp or emulating amps in garageband? For the acoustic, you probably don't want to hear the built in wiring and will want to mic it instead (plug it in your electric guitar's amp and dial a clean tone, doesn't sound anything close to what it does in real life, eh?).

You might prefer the duet for the acoustic as the two inputs might give you a bit more flexibility. One mic might sound a bit restrained, the guitars sound differently at differently at different places. So you want to mic a couple of those key spots to give it a full sound. That said you can get a kick ass sound with one mic

I would personally go with the duet, a condenser and an SM57. But I'm amazed how good the mic in the one sounds (apogee's youtube channel has some samples).

But I think it really comes down to what you are going to be recording and what you'd like to be able to do out of your home studio. The one could be a great tool to do demos whereas the duet would give you much more flexibility in the future. But the duet is a bit more expensive and would need a mic, sot that's something to think about.

As for integration, both are fully integrated within mac os so there shouldn't any problems with either one of them in garageband or logic, or any other software for that matter. Not sure what your computer is but the duet uses firewire so it won't run on the macbook (not pro) or macbook air

 

[Fishrrman]

How many simultaneous inputs do you contemplate using, particularly for the drum set?

The Apogee units may not have enough inputs to suit your needs.

There are other interfaces out there that may be better suited to what you need to do.

 

[joesnewmatch]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm just planning on guitars for the immediate future.

I plan to just go direct, but would like to experiment down the road with amp micing. That's it. No band, no REAL drums.

Thanks