Apogee Ensemble or RME Fireface 800

[Jay Lee]

Apogee Ensemble, RME Fireface 800 or maybe MOTU 24 I/O CORE or what?...who knows...!!!

I've been trying to decide which interface to get (to work with Mac G5)...and I have read every forum and thread I've got my hands to and this is totally frustrating! There are so many opinions in the matter and so many choises...

Like I don't even understand the text in Apogees site where they tell that Ensemble is compatible with Rosettaa 200 & 800...but why would you get Rosetta when the Ensemble already has AD/DA converters. If you want Rosetta conversion, can't you buy something cheaper in the sound card apartment?

I actually just recently found out why do you need AD/DA...it's about the recording sound quality and what you hear from the monitors...am I correct? And I'm still not sure what the whole word clock thingy means...? It's about "true" bit rates or something like that? I'm not going to get any external synths or gear other than Liquid channel and don't know where the clock would be needed?

Wow...a lot of text...well maybe someone could enlighten me on the matter...

I want as professional sound as professional sound as I can get let's say with 1000-3000$...

Oh, and I don't think I need more than 4 channels because all the music is done with virtual instruments and sample cds, so Logic 7 will use channels 1-2 for those, and then I need a channel for recording...why can't Apogee have a Rosetta 400.

[cheeky b]

You'd need extra A/D and D/A conversion if you plan to use the extra eight in and outs that the ADAT light pipe gives you. Otherwise, I personally don't know anyone who's actually used the ensemble yet but it should be reasonable and if you use Logic it could tip the balance. The RME stuff gets great reviews from almost everyone.

The motu stuff isn't thought of as highly but is totally usable and of the three is the only one which will make use of a PCI slot which technically should be better for higher numbers of in and out performance especially at higher sample rates. However it doesn't have any built in mic pres so it's not a single box recording solution.

The other player you haven't mentioned is the Metric Halo 2882 or uln-2 depending on your requirements. Top drawer interfaces - the mic pres on the ULN -2 are as clean as a whistle with 72dB of gain.

As for word clock, you should only really need it if you have two digital devices working in tandem or talking to each other - put very simply it's just a method of sync so all the 1s and 0s stay in line.

[Jay Lee]

Thanks Cheeky!
I just thought of something...do I need ad converter when Focusrites LC alrealy has that...and everything recorded goes through it. Focusrite says on their site that the converters they use are top notch. Doesn't Digidesign use same converters in Protools? I'm not sure. Or should I chain the Liquid Channel through another converter like Apogee? It actually is unclear to me, if you can connect the LC directly to Mac, or does it need something in between? I read from somewhere something about the quality of the sound if you don't connect it right...

TOO many things to understand...LOL!

I guess the whole AD/DA conversion comes to play if you actually record the entire mixed song to final Stereo track in Logic instead of bouncing it...which seems to be a whole another matter of discussion that divides people. Though I guess the recording could be done through Liquid Channel.

Oh and like I said, yes I use Logic 7

[tomdarude]

my advice would be:

sell the liquid channel...then get a

MetricHalo 2882 I/O
Daking MicPre/EQ (or a great river, or a-designs pacifica, or phoenix DRS-1 or whatever you like)
Distressor (or cranesong trakker, or Daking fet comp)


if your only recording 1 or 2 ch. that will give you a nice quality analog front end!
without any digital modelling involved...try it

[James Lehmann]

I vote Metric Halo.

Does the Liquid Channel have a Digital Out? If so you could probably manage fine with the Metric Halo ULN-2 which can do 4-channel recording (2 digital and 2 analog).

Otherwise just get a 2882 - Metric Halo gear sounds fantastic and is much revered by Mac users everywhere!