Apogee Duet 2 VS NI Audio 6

[AcoosticZoo]

Okay, I've been using the Duet 2 for around 8 months now. I really love the quality of the sound I'm hearing, recording and playback.

What seeeesh me is the power to the usb is a little flakey after waking up for the sleep mode. My duet2 has the drivers about 6mnths old and tbh I haven't checked to see if Apogee has made another firmware update since. Also, there's the problem of the audio chopping in and out after waking up free sleep mode. Basically, it's a great interface but the stability on my MBP with Snow leopard is questionable.

I would recommend it, but since you're doing it purely for live work, I wouldn't trust it based on the criteria that you need rock solid stability for live gigs.

For recording and mixing duties where you can reset and workaround the flakiness of the Duet 2 it's alright.

Also, I love that big silver knob wheel the clicks in 1 db increments. Very handy with you're mixing or mastering cos you can keep a constant level while monitoring. Another plus is that it has a coloured led display - great for working in the dark.

Hope that helps.

Kind Regards
Josef Horhay
Mixing Engineer
www.acoosticzoo.com

[Sanchez]

For live djing you need 4 outs, 2 to the house and 2 for monitor/cue listen. Afaik and I looked quite carefully, this is not possible with the Duet 2-I was really psyched on it until I got hands-on and realised how under-implemented it was in some ways, even wrote to Apogee about it. You can maybe hack together something with aggregate devices but for that money I want solid out-the-box. Komplete Audio 6 on the other hand is ultra-functional, sturdy and sounds damn good to boot and no dangly breakout cables to tear at shows. Seriously, if Apogee made the guts and NI the box/features I'd never need to buy anything else.

[Clawson]

Josef,
We have a new driver that fixes the issue you are having. Please download the latest version and you should no longer have any issues. If you ever do have any problems... Please contact our support department. They can be reached by phone: 310-584-9394, email: support@apogeedigital.com, or you can live chat with them on our website. It's free and they are happy to help.

Sanchez,
Duet 2 does indeed have 4 separate outputs. The main outputs can be assigned as outputs 1 & 2 to send to the house, and the headphone outputs can be assigned as outputs 3 & 4 and used as a cue mix. We have heard from a number of people using Duet 2 for DJ gigs, software synth playback... etc.

Phil,
If you need any help configuring your Duet 2 for live or have any other questions, please feel free to contact our support department.

Chris Lawson
Apogee Electronics

[Sanchez]

CHris, you're absolutely right, my bad, sorry. What I do now remember putting me off was that 3/4 are only headphone outs, so without some kind of adaptor/splitter you can't use them as regular mono outs for processing etc. What the NI box offers in this respect is a headphone out that can be assigned to monitor 1/2 or 3/4, which has to be better IMHO. Personally the other weak point was the lack of midi.
Thanks for clearing it up though.
Like I said, borrow the NI box size, layout, feature set and lack of dangly wires, put Apogee inside and you'd clean up as one box to cover small studio and live needs.

[Clawson]

Originally Posted by Sanchez

CHris, you're absolutely right, my bad, sorry. What I do now remember putting me off was that 3/4 are only headphone outs, so without some kind of adaptor/splitter you can't use them as regular mono outs for processing etc. What the NI box offers in this respect is a headphone out that can be assigned to monitor 1/2 or 3/4, which has to be better IMHO. Personally the other weak point was the lack of midi.
Thanks for clearing it up though.
Like I said, borrow the NI box size, layout, feature set and lack of dangly wires, put Apogee inside and you'd clean up as one box to cover small studio and live needs.

Actually the Duet 2's headphone out can be assigned to 1/2 or 3/4.
Not having midi has not been an issue for all of the people that we have talked to that use Duet 2 live, they typically use keyboard controllers with USB midi and you just plug it straight into the computer.
Thank you for the feedback!

Chris Lawson
Apogee Electronics

[Sanchez]

Hi again Chris.....

Yes, the headphone output can BE 1/2 or 3/4 but it does not monitor them separately ie you cannot be sending out 1/2 to your speakers and 3/4 to external processing and then use the headphone out to listen to either of those signals. The NI box has 4 discreet outs AND a separate headphone out that is switchable to listen to the outputs of 1/2 or 3/4. I'm not trying to be an ass, just be clear....of course I would be very happy if you show me I'd misunderstood.
About the midi....lots of people do use midi, sure in live environments maybe less but in terms of being a full-featured live/studio box, having midi is potentially one less thing to break or forget and one less USB port taken up on my laptop, I'd have been happy. I sue Faderfox controllers (gen 2 w midi) and one reason I'd rather not get the 3rd gen is no daisy-chaining of devices so that means lots of usb ports used or a usb hub ...you see where I'm going here?
Anyways, still hoping someday for Apogee or Metric Halo's 'One-4 I/O-live-and-studio-prosumer-box-to-rule-them-all'™

[Clawson]

Sanchez,
The NI box sounds like it is very nice, and I'm glad you found what works for you. I'm not trying to battle over which is better, just simply wanted to give Phil the correct information about Duet 2.

Phil,
If you have any questions about your Duet 2 for Live/DJ gigs please let us know. Our support team can be reached by phone: 310-584-9394, email:support@apogeedigital.com, and live chat through our website:USB Audio Interfaces, FireWire Audio Interfaces, AD/DA Converters, Microphones for iPad, iPhone and Mac > Apogee Electronics.
Nick who is on our support team uses the Duet 2 for live gigs all the time and would be more than happy to help you configure it.

Chris Lawson
Apogee Electronics

[Sanchez]

Hey Chris, absolutely, I was only trying to get it absolutely clear too, it's a subtle but (in my case) significant enough difference.
Always keen to see what Apogee are coming out with

[Sanchez]

Let's see what Apogee shows us later today....good job keeping quiet there Chris!
Fingers crossed on midi but not looking hopeful based on your comments about Duet users, reading those again got me thinking it's people who use something non-Duet you should be asking, why didn't they buy Duet? Anyways, just thinking out loud, let's see

[sunseekerdjs]

Originally Posted by Clawson

Sanchez,
The NI box sounds like it is very nice, and I'm glad you found what works for you. I'm not trying to battle over which is better, just simply wanted to give Phil the correct information about Duet 2.

Phil,
If you have any questions about your Duet 2 for Live/DJ gigs please let us know. Our support team can be reached by phone: 310-584-9394, email:support@apogeedigital.com, and live chat through our website:USB Audio Interfaces, FireWire Audio Interfaces, AD/DA Converters, Microphones for iPad, iPhone and Mac > Apogee Electronics.
Nick who is on our support team uses the Duet 2 for live gigs all the time and would be more than happy to help you configure it.

Chris Lawson
Apogee Electronics

Hey I want to know how to configure the duet2 too have 4 separate monitors connected to them without having a splitter.
I want use this setup temp until I get my new interface the lynx aurora 32.
Hope you can help out with this.