Motu 8-Pre versus Apogee Duet sound quality

[kevinlongmusic]

ANyone have experience with both?

I do not have any external preamps.

I have used my motu 8-pre extensively and I like the sound OK, and I like the cuemix software quite a bit. I have some latency issues in cubase sx where the latency changes from time to time so I can never offset it right. So sometimes my tracks are delayed a bit from the last one which is very very annoying.

My work just gave me a mac laptop and so I was thinking of ditching the motu/XP/cubase setup I have and getting an apogee duet and just using garageband or something. Hopefully this will solve my latency issue, but will the preamps and AD sound better? How much better? Is this real apogee conversion? I have heard its just got the apogee name and isnt that great from some, others swear it has the great Apogee sound.

[donsolo]

Garage band not fix your latency issues.

Lower your sample rate. Lower it to the point where the computer doesn't want to play anymore and then bring it up one step.

If you're still having latency, you need to do some streamlining to your computer, quit all unneccesary processes etc. Check the computer music section, there's a sticky on streamlining XP.

And to address your actual question, the apogee is a big upgrade. The pres are better (that's the big problem with that motu 8pre, I have an 828mkII myself)

Personally, stick with the 8pre til you don't like the pres anymore. Yes, move to the mac. Try cubase on that (make sure it's Universal Binary). You're already familiar with the workflow. If you don't like that, get Logic or Digital Performer (I recommend DP myself)

But latency can be compensated with that cuemix console. That's a zero-latency monitoring solution. If you want to add effects like reverb, that's a whole new bag of tricks (I use a Lexicon reverb for that purpose)

If you're having consistent latency timing issues, you should measure how far off your latency is. The easiest way to do that would be to record an impulse, run a line out into another input and record the playback of the impulse. Then you can always nudge your tracks by the difference to bring them back into sync.

[Guitar Zero]

+1 on the apogee duet. I have one. Very cool unit that sounds very good. Pre-amps are very clean and conversion is more than adequate. Also garage band is extremely easy to use and although it gets no respect because it's not professional, seriously you can make very good recordings in garage band. I have logic, but haven't really taken the time to learn it yet because GB is so easy to use.

[blayz2002]

+2 on Duet Pre's they are nice, pretty transparent.

[donsolo]

Originally Posted by Guitar Zero

+1 on the apogee duet. I have one. Very cool unit that sounds very good. Pre-amps are very clean and conversion is more than adequate. Also garage band is extremely easy to use and although it gets no respect because it's not professional, seriously you can make very good recordings in garage band. I have logic, but haven't really taken the time to learn it yet because GB is so easy to use.

Have you tried to MIX in garage band?

That thing is a resource hog.

[Guitar Zero]

Originally Posted by donsolo

Have you tried to MIX in garage band?

That thing is a resource hog.

Have always mixed in garage band, and with the old imac it was an issue with lots of tracks. Now on intel dual core imac it's never an issue.

[andyafco]

I find Garageband great for licensing work, where fidelity usually takes a back seat to speed. Easy for me to lay some quick tracks down and throw some loops / midi against them. I also found GB to be a resource hog though, sometimes needing to quit/reopen to get some RAM back. In an odd way, I like the non-graphical interface of the plugs. So many times we EQ or compress with our eyes and not with our ears, the GB plugs make you listen more.

af

[slybass3000]

Originally Posted by kevinlongmusic

ANyone have experience with both?

I do not have any external preamps.

I have used my motu 8-pre extensively and I like the sound OK, and I like the cuemix software quite a bit. I have some latency issues in cubase sx where the latency changes from time to time so I can never offset it right. So sometimes my tracks are delayed a bit from the last one which is very very annoying.

My work just gave me a mac laptop and so I was thinking of ditching the motu/XP/cubase setup I have and getting an apogee duet and just using garageband or something. Hopefully this will solve my latency issue, but will the preamps and AD sound better? How much better? Is this real apogee conversion? I have heard its just got the apogee name and isnt that great from some, others swear it has the great Apogee sound.

No one used the 8-pre?
Anyway I have switched from an 828 ii to the Apogee Ensemble and the difference is really notiecable on the mic pres and converters too.

Sylvain