Apogee duet, any good?

CliffD · #1 01-07-2009, 04:39 PM

I'm thinking about buying Apogee's Duet for use with my mac book pro and logic software. Does anyone have any experience with the Duet? Thanks!

sonic assassin · #2 01-07-2009, 05:18 PM

no first hand accounts, but ive heard great things about it. and the entire apogee line works best with logic. wish i had one.

cripula · #3 01-07-2009, 05:53 PM

*disclaimer* I've only had mine for a couple of weeks, so I'm still in the Honeymoon Phase. I think it's a great piece of gear. It has the same converters as the more pricey Apogee units and they are supposed to be really high quality.

My main use for it was wanting to be able to record bass tracks for other people - get the song emailed to me, play tracks, and email them back, so only being able to record 2 tracks at once wasn't a problem for me. It seems perfect for my application.

I'm using it with a MBP and Reaper. I'm having a blast with it. It sounds great!

CliffD · #4 01-07-2009, 06:40 PM

Awesome, thanks for the replies!

thehurlatron · #5 01-07-2009, 06:59 PM

I've had mine for quite some time now. It's my "go to" for recording single or stereo tracks. It's so clear, and has a TON of gain at your disposal. The maestro software "mixer/control" is very straight forward and easy to use. Select which input, phantom power on or off, set the gain, and set the output. DONE. You can also store settings in maestro, so if you use the same bass, KB, mic, whatever, you don't have to do your settings again.

Physically, the box seems fairly sturdy, and the one knob/button seems so as well. The breakout cable is a good idea, and so far has held up, but time will only tell on that one.

Overall, VERY satisfied.

Side note: for multitrack recording, ie. drum tracking, I'm using MOTU interfaces, and while they sound good, they don't touch the apogee pre's and convertors. IMHO

CliffD · #6 01-07-2009, 07:26 PM

Cool, thanks!

jkdahlman · #7 01-08-2009, 07:21 AM

I'll add another big +1 for the Duet. I've used it for the same thing as
Cripula, doing live 2 ch. recording & as the front end for audio testing while running FuzzMeasure. This past weekend I used the Duet/MacBook Pro rig live running Main Stage for all my FX. Really, really cool.
After fighting with a number of other A/D~D/A boxes, I'm sticking with Apogee. Next up is an Ensemble

Jehos · #8 01-08-2009, 09:02 AM

Own one, had it for several months now.

I love it. It sounds great, it's easy to use, and it's got direct compatibility with Garage Band and Logic. Meaning you can control everything about the Duet from within those programs.

My only gripe is that you can't use it to record drums, unless you're willing to pre-mix or just use a pair of room mics. But I'm using mine for working on a demo in an acoustic folk-rock band and it's great. I use it for guitar + vocals, stereo piano, etc.

One day I will buy the 8-channel version to use for drums. After getting used to the quality of the Apogee I don't think I'd want to go back to anything else.

Marcury · #9 01-08-2009, 11:35 AM

I've had one for @ six months now. No complaints, clean simple and sounds great.

debassr · #10 01-08-2009, 11:39 AM

I've used one for a while and just recently bought my own. Very good sound but I'm not sure it's worth the pretty high price tag. I don't like that the inputs are riding on cables so I bought one of these too...

http://www.duetbreakout.com/

agreatheight · #11 01-08-2009, 02:07 PM

I use one at work for recording voiceovers, and I love it. Nice pres w/ tons of clean gain, nice converters, handy little box. I'd love to pick one up for myself, but I work PC in my home studio.

thehurlatron · #12 01-08-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agreatheight

I'd love to pick one up for myself, but I work PC in my home studio.

DAAAHHH!! GET EMM'!!!!!

CliffD · #13 01-08-2009, 05:03 PM

Gracias, looks like I'm gonna start off with garage band (maybe step up to logic), apogee duet, and an eclair engineering evil twin DI to get my home studio going. Thanks for the input!

I'm gonna try and get this up and running this month, then I'll post samples!

Jehos · #14 01-08-2009, 05:32 PM

After working with Garage Band for a while now, I've found that there's no reason to step up to Logic until you need to do some serious in-depth editing or really want to have the whole "channel strip" setup that you get with Logic. For casual use, Garage Band is *really* powerful for a piece of free software.

cnltb · #15 01-08-2009, 05:44 PM

Does it work??

Yes it does...it really does!!

...and very well at that

cripula · #16 01-08-2009, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CliffD

Gracias, looks like I'm gonna start off with garage band (maybe step up to logic), apogee duet, and an eclair engineering evil twin DI to get my home studio going. Thanks for the input!

I'm gonna try and get this up and running this month, then I'll post samples!

It's worth giving Reaper a look before you go Logic. It's free to download and try for 30 days, $50 if you keep it. I've barely scratched the surface with it - it's pretty powerful, certainly way more than I need!

debassr, how do you like the Breakout? It seems like a really good idea...

CliffD · #17 01-11-2009, 09:10 PM

Awesome, thanks for all of the input.

galore · #18 09-11-2010, 12:53 PM

Before I write the question I want to clarify that I'm a complete beginner at recording. I've recently acquired imac with logic express 9.0.1. I've learned the basics of logic and tried to record some bass with it. First I've plugged the bass directly into computer and it sounded very thin and little distorted. Signal processed by my amp gave a little better result, but far from satisfying. I've read couple of posts in this forum and apogee duet seems to be highly regarded for home recording with mac, so I guess it would work for me. But before I go spending $500 on it, I would like to know, if there is anything else needed for home recording if I want to get as close as possible to more pro-quality sounding bass tracks? Would apogee even get me there? Thanks.

Charling · #19 09-12-2010, 09:23 PM

The duet is great. It DOES cost but you are getting what you pay for. However, 'what you pay for' in pro audio is often a little for a lot. Its like nice wine, a £10 bottle may taste great, a similar £50 bottle will also taste great, and probably a little more refined then the £10 one, but its up to you whether its worth the extra cost!

The duet has instrument inputs, so as far as a high-quality DI type sound goes, its great. But remember that a 'pro bass sound' in many cases means using an amp, some great mics, a few great pre's etc. There is no 'one route' to a pro-sound.

However the duet will record a di style signal that is pretty much as good as you can get without going into 'high-end' territory, and it will sound great feeding an amp sim like amplitube svx or similar if you think you miss the 'amp sound'.

So to clarify, the duet will do it VERY well, but look to getting an amp sim plug in if a very clean DI bass track is not suitable for the sort of music you record!

T. Alan Smith · #20 09-14-2010, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jehos

My only gripe is that you can't use it to record drums, unless you're willing to pre-mix or just use a pair of room mics...
One day I will buy the 8-channel version to use for drums. After getting used to the quality of the Apogee I don't think I'd want to go back to anything else.

I would use one channel for a room mic and the other channel for pre-mix. Then run them thru a wide stereo reverb. If they drums sound great in the room, this should get 'em sounding great on the track.