Apogee Duet, professional two-channel firewire audio interface for the Mac

[macleodgrant]

Originally Posted by chk027

Yes everything was shrink wrapped, the box had a manual which had a plastic bag with a piece of tape, and the break out had the same thing a bag with a piece of tape, the firewire was a sealed plastic that needed cut to open ( is that same as yours?), but no CD just that notice that said go online..... there you had to register and give personal information to get the drivers (i just don't like having to do that)

I really think it maybe a leopard thing, maybe that made it easy for Apogee???

Voodoo thanks for your time and input!

that's odd cos i did get a CD in my package. i must say, i hated the install procedure, you have to insert all your details just to install the software which is really crap, you shouldn't have to do this! i also had problems during the registration process on their website initially.

they should definitely remove the need to insert your details to just install the driver

[chk027]

Originally Posted by macleodgrant

that's odd cos i did get a CD in my package. i must say, i hated the install procedure, you have to insert all your details just to install the software which is really crap, you shouldn't have to do this! i also had problems during the registration process on their website initially.

they should definitely remove the need to insert your details to just install the driver

Thanks for seeing my point, unlike the other tech geeks that rome.......internet or not I have to fill out form with personal information to enjoy the product......the fact is you don't need the internet to record music........

I understand that you can accomplish alot on the internet, but when I'm on the internet I'm not recording music, another fact......

When I buy a product I also receive a mail in warraty card on paper so why did they send that to me?? Why did they give me a manual when they could of just put that on the internet????

I like the apogee product alot, it is very good, I don't think that it is that hard to to include in the package what is listed on the box.

[chk027]

Originally Posted by YUGA

The actual dimensions are 160 x 102 x 24mm. I don't understand the mentality of those people who say "it's a lot bigger than I thought it would be."

How much gain or range of gain are you using on acoustic guitar? What type of mic?

Are you tracking clean?

Thanks in advance yuga.

[Duardo]

When I buy a product I also receive a mail in warraty card on paper so why did they send that to me?? Why did they give me a manual when they could of just put that on the internet????

Seems like we're seeing less and less of those as time marches on as well...

[YUGA]

Originally Posted by chk027

How much gain or range of gain are you using on acoustic guitar? What type of mic?

Are you tracking clean?

Thanks in advance yuga.

Do these things have anything to do with the dimensions of the Duet?

[chk027]

Originally Posted by YUGA

Do these things have anything to do with the dimensions of the Duet?

Not really, however, they are pretty good questions when it comes to the use of the Duet.

Since there are some people using the Duet, Call me crazy, I thought that a Duet thread would be a great place to discuss the functionality of the device....

[YUGA]

Originally Posted by chk027

Not really, however, they are pretty good questions when it comes to the use of the Duet.

Since there are some people using the Duet, Call me crazy, I thought that a Duet thread would be a great place to discuss the functionality of the device....

OK. honestly speaking, I don't record acoustic guitar often lately. And my day job is too busy these days so I haven't finished any song since I bought the Duet. Shame!

But I recorded acoustic guitar using the Duet once. The microphone was a Shure KSM137 (SDC), the required gain was probably about 30-40 db for strumming and 40-50db for arpeggios. Hey but if the same mic is used, the required gain is the same with any other pres you know...

Tracking clean? Yes, I always try to record as clean as possible and use plugins for coloration.

Hope this helps

[chk027]

Originally Posted by YUGA

OK. honestly speaking, I don't record acoustic guitar often lately. And my day job is too busy these days so I haven't finished any song since I bought the Duet. Shame!

But I recorded acoustic guitar using the Duet once. The microphone was a Shure KSM137 (SDC), the required gain was probably about 30-40 db for strumming and 40-50db for arpeggios. Hey but if the same mic is used, the required gain is the same with any other pres you know...

Tracking clean? Yes, I always try to record as clean as possible and use plugins for coloration.

Hope this helps

Thats sounds about where I'm recording around 45 for strumming if I can, and a little more on a solo.......I only have a couple songs started myself....

thanks Yuga......

I did a quick comparison with the Grace 101 through the Duet, which I like alot, and the Duet pres are a bit clearer too my ears......When I eye the sound wave the Grace seems to be smeared and wider and the Apogee is tighter and more defined......I don't know if that means shit, but it sounds just like it looks......this is through a MXL V69ME, I tried to push both gains, and pulled back alittle as well, it didn't make much difference the results seemed the same.......

Second test I opened the trim on the Grace and pulled back the gain and it sounded fantastic, and a bit better to the Duet pres, I guess the lounder I set the gain the duet won out and at a lower to mid gain level the Grace won pretty easily, Is this possible????

I'm keeping the Grace 101

[David Robinson]

i've been using duet 24/7 here.
couldn't be bother rigging up my other i/o's.
this does the job.
never a drop out.
never a crash.
no overload mssgs.
just pure good audio and great performance.
kudos to apogee.
DR9.

[g-nem]

Anyone know anything about the availability of additional breakout cables? I think someone mentioned there might be longer breakout cables as well, which would be great. I'd love to hook my studio up to one breakout cable and have a second for my live rig.

[rectifier]

Tried to get one in Belgium and they said not until December/Germany and ordered one from Germany who said they were coming in this week but haven't appeared and are not sure when they will be getting some in now..

Anyone got one from this area recently?

[androne]

Hi rectifier,

Here another one from Belgium.. Where' re ya from ?

I am first getting a mac then a Duet. I am curious as well where to get them from then.

[JimmyTurbo]

Another Belgian here!
I ordered one too, should be here this week or next week I'm told.

But I'm not in a hurry...

[busytbp]

Just received Duet yesterday for testing......Sounds fantastic and Great Handling!!!!

[dirtboy]

At the risk of being controversial, I was able to actually see a duet yesterday. As some have mentioned, it's larger than I thought it would be. In fact, my RME FF400 really isn't that much bigger. The difference is that it has way more I/O than the Duet, including some pretty stellar digitally controlled mic preamps. In fact, I tend to use it more than my other converters/preamps because it's so convenient and sounds great. It is also very stable with Logic8, BTW. Just curious to see if you actual users find it's latency/sound/satability to be better than RME's offering. If the benefits outweigh the I/O limitations, I might consider one for my simple remote gigs. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Vocalvoodoo]

Here's an interesting find. First, I can monitor through the Duet in Windows by using VMWare's Fusion. I have Windows XP installed with Bootcamp then VMWare created a VM from the bootcamp install. Of course to do this you have to have the Duet set as the main Mac audio output. So the bonus is being able to use the Duet with Samplitude and Tracktion in Windows. But recording has WAY too much latency. Monitoring does too, but in a pinch, it does the job for small productions.

But the weird thing is, in Samplitude, if I select the ASIO4ALL driver, it shows the clock as "Big Ben". Could the Duet actually have the Big Ben clock? At first I thought maybe that was just a generic clock source name that Samplitude displayed when using ASIO drivers, but when I selected the Digidesign ASIO driver the clock source was listed as 'control panel'. So it's only with the Duet that the clock is listed as 'Big Ben'. Strange....

[macleodgrant]

Originally Posted by Vocalvoodoo

But the weird thing is, in Samplitude, if I select the ASIO4ALL driver, it shows the clock as "Big Ben". Could the Duet actually have the Big Ben clock? At first I thought maybe that was just a generic clock source name that Samplitude displayed when using ASIO drivers, but when I selected the Digidesign ASIO driver the clock source was listed as 'control panel'. So it's only with the Duet that the clock is listed as 'Big Ben'. Strange....

now that is interesting. i do find that the apogee converters sound very good compared with my MOTU though they are slightly coloured, not in a bad way though

[rectifier]

had mine for a few days now and it's absolutely fantastic. The downside is that I now want a bigger one , there has to be an Apogee something in between the duet and ensemble, if it's priced right they will sell truckloads! Winter Namm perhaps?

Anyways, I'm very very happy with it, well worth the wait and well worth the step up from mbox

[thearnicasync]

Seriously, if they put a spdif out on it, they could charge $200 more easily.

i just got the duet and it RULES. All of the stuff that blew on the ensemble when it came out are fixed and improved on. you just want to sit down and play into a mic and have fun. no headaches. few cables. one big nob. beautiful. sturdy. maestro mixer finally makes sense. pre gain deduction for "silent" mode.

best two channel interface ever, IMO. $500? booya!

[shanghaitang]

this has probably been brought up but, 20 pages! how do i use the duet with an external preamp? I would like to use my external preamps(portico, lunch box preamps etc) without coloring the sound with the addition of the apogee preamp.

[Vocalvoodoo]

Originally Posted by shanghaitang

this has probably been brought up but, 20 pages! how do i use the duet with an external preamp? I would like to use my external preamps(portico, lunch box preamps etc) without coloring the sound with the addition of the apogee preamp.

Use the the mic XLR inputs. In Maestro change the input in question to line in. The Duet pres are completely bypassed when going line in.

[chk027]

Originally Posted by shanghaitang

this has probably been brought up but, 20 pages! how do i use the duet with an external preamp? I would like to use my external preamps(portico, lunch box preamps etc) without coloring the sound with the addition of the apogee preamp.

I used a Grace 101 today trough the Duet, all I did is use XLR port 1 and turn down the volume to zero, and used the gain on the Grace. I hope this is an acceptable method. I emailed Apogee on this, I will post when I get a response.

The first time I did this, the results favored the Duets pres, but the second time I set both to around 40dbs and I open the trim on the Grace and it sounded much better, and slightly better than the duets pres.

I was ready to sell the Grace, but after today I holding on to it. I wanted to post this because I previously dogged the Grace after my first experience, which is all trial and error.

[A4722]

by Vocalvoodoo :

"But the weird thing is, in Samplitude, if I select the ASIO4ALL driver, it shows the clock as "Big Ben". Could the Duet actually have the Big Ben clock? At first I thought maybe that was just a generic clock source name that Samplitude displayed when using ASIO drivers, but when I selected the Digidesign ASIO driver the clock source was listed as 'control panel'. So it's only with the Duet that the clock is listed as 'Big Ben'. Strange...."

I have a device from 1999 that is not made by Apogee. When I use the ASIO 4 ALL driver the clock is listed as "Big Ben". I think the ASIO 4 ALL guys name their "clock" as "Big Ben".

mfb

[Vocalvoodoo]

Originally Posted by A4722

by Vocalvoodoo :

"But the weird thing is, in Samplitude, if I select the ASIO4ALL driver, it shows the clock as "Big Ben". Could the Duet actually have the Big Ben clock? At first I thought maybe that was just a generic clock source name that Samplitude displayed when using ASIO drivers, but when I selected the Digidesign ASIO driver the clock source was listed as 'control panel'. So it's only with the Duet that the clock is listed as 'Big Ben'. Strange...."

I have a device from 1999 that is not made by Apogee. When I use the ASIO 4 ALL driver the clock is listed as "Big Ben". I think the ASIO 4 ALL guys name their "clock" as "Big Ben".

mfb

That's good to know. I figured it was something lke that, but hey, nothing wrong with a little wishful thinking. :)

[jslevin]

Originally Posted by thearnicasync

Seriously, if they put a spdif out on it, they could charge $200 more easily.

Where do you get that idea? I think sales would be much, much lower at $700 than at $500. Apogee is capitalizing on the fact that the great majority of two-channel interface customers don't use digital i/o, and many of them would love to have Apogee quality.

JSL

[thermos]

Originally Posted by chk027

I used a Grace 101 today trough the Duet, all I did is use XLR port 1 and turn down the volume to zero, and used the gain on the Grace. I hope this is an acceptable method. I emailed Apogee on this, I will post when I get a response.

The first time I did this, the results favored the Duets pres, but the second time I set both to around 40dbs and I open the trim on the Grace and it sounded much better, and slightly better than the duets pres.

I was ready to sell the Grace, but after today I holding on to it. I wanted to post this because I previously dogged the Grace after my first experience, which is all trial and error.

I believe that is not an accurate way to do a comparison. The best way to do it is to change the duet input with the grace to +4 line xlr in. That way you aren't using any extra ciruitry/gain in the path. That would be a better way to compare.

[thermos]

I was able to make an aggregate device out of the Duet and the Line in on my Macbook. Sweet! Seemed to work fine, as I did a test running all 4 inputs. Very cool that this works, as I was going to have to pull apart my whole home rig just to record a 3 mic session later this week. Now all I gotta do is grab an extra pre and cable.

[lanervoza]

Originally Posted by thermos

I was able to make an aggregate device out of the Duet and the Line in on my Macbook. Sweet! Seemed to work fine, as I did a test running all 4 inputs. Very cool that this works, as I was going to have to pull apart my whole home rig just to record a 3 mic session later this week. Now all I gotta do is grab an extra pre and cable.

The MB's input is minijack, right? Are you using an analog or digital source? I just checked the Apple website, and it says it's a digital input, but in my very limited experience I haven't seen a minijack digital cable. How did you set yours up?

Thanks,
Alex

[YUGA]

Originally Posted by lanervoza

The MB's input is minijack, right? Are you using an analog or digital source? I just checked the Apple website, and it says it's a digital input, but in my very limited experience I haven't seen a minijack digital cable. How did you set yours up?

Thanks,
Alex

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When I aggregated the Duet and the Konnekt 24D by hooking up the Duet to the firewire hub on the Konnekt, playback was fine but the recorded sound was distorted. So I bought a Firewire 400-800 cable and connected the Konnekt to the FF800 port using this cable. This configuration worked! Now they are aggregated with no problem.

[thermos]

Originally Posted by lanervoza

The MB's input is minijack, right? Are you using an analog or digital source? I just checked the Apple website, and it says it's a digital input, but in my very limited experience I haven't seen a minijack digital cable. How did you set yours up?

Thanks,
Alex

I was using an analog source, mini jack in. I didn't know you could use a digital source actually. Recorded 4 tracks and played back with no problems.