| Duet
I think the Duet is a great little box and it is easily worth the $440 to $499 price if you want a compact and relatively low cost box of I.O. for a Mac.
I've had mine since the beginning of the year and I've made a lot of recordings with it.
IMHO, one of the biggest problems with DAW recording is latency. There are a ton of users out there recording who are unaware of the small timing differences their systems are injecting into their recorded tracks. This leads to sloppy sounding loose recordings.
I can't stand latency, it ruins good music. Latency should be illegal. It should not be some special mode you have to go into. Latency must be stomped out!
I grew up on tape decks that passed their input to the output when you were in the record mode (zero latency). Why is this so hard? Is it the need to apply reverb and effects during recording? Why don't more computer recording interfaces offer this simple monitoring mode, at least as an option, without running some other big mixing board piece of monitoring software.
The Duet uses a piece of software (Maestro) to effectively pass the input to the output and reduce latency to virtually non-existent. The Maestro interface consists of two relatively large windows. I wish these windows were smaller. I wish the relationship between Logic and Duet was spelled out better, but, it is possible to make very FAT good sounding recordings using the onboard Duet mic preamps, line inputs and instrument inputs and latency is NOT an issue so I've been very satisfied.
In my main control room I run the output of Duet into the 2-track return on a Neve 8816 and monitor it over Meyer HD-1 monitors. Some things I have to compare to are a hardware L-2, Apogee AD/DA16X, and Hedd.
In the field I have played and recorded on Duet/Logic Pro using a stock $1099 MacBook (not pro model). I also tried Duet/Logic on a late model MacMini and that worked fine. Track counts are limited on these lower cost Macs due to the slow 2.5" hard disks Apple puts in them and lack of DRAM (only 1GB in mine) but I have been able to record and overdub 7 or 8 tracks without an external disk drive. Logic will let you know very quickly when you run out of system resources. In these personal field applications I don't use virtual instruments or loops, I'm just trying to make some high quality recordings of song ideas when inspiration hits.
There are things that I wish were different on the Apogee Duet but the quality of the sound you can produce with it is up there with the best. The size and features means that you can take it with you anywhere in the world easily. The Maestro software means latency won't be an issue. The Duet works very well with Logic and Garageband so now, even some of the cheapest recording packages on the planet are 24-bit with great converters and mic preamps.
For well under 2-grand anyone can have a complete 24-bit recording system (including computer and software) that dramatically surpasses the most premium of systems available just a few short years ago. This is a great time to be a recordist.
Best of luck to all.
Mark |