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Apogee ONE Mac Audio Interface Has Built-In Mic, So You Sing Right Into It

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atheos
06/26/09

In reply to Apogee ONE Mac Audio Interface Has Built-In Mic, So You Sing Right Into It
$250 for an USB audio interface with a single mono instrument input, a single XLR mic input (with NO phantom power) and a single 1/8" stereo output? No friggin' way. Take a look at ESI ESU 22 interface for example. It has MORE features than the Apogee thing - for $100.

And what's the point of the "famous Apogee converters" anyway when you can't use condenser mics and you don't have balanced outputs with separate jacks for each channel? I'll tell you: no point. You lose all the advantages of the good converters because of the crippled other features. Now, don't get me wrong: Apogee does amazing hardware but that's for $1000 and more.
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frigg
06/26/09

@atheos: These features at $250 for a device that potentially doesn't sound like shit is a great price.

The big question mark is how good will this sound. If it sounds good, $250 is low for an Apogee product that does everything this box says it does.

Those $100 do it all interfaces are starter kits. An Apogee device *could* be more of a serious tool.
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frigg
06/26/09

In reply to Apogee ONE Mac Audio Interface Has Built-In Mic, So You Sing Right Into It
That looks like a clever affordable little box, as long as it doesn't suck.

Apogee started as a high end converter company and keeps dipping lower and lower, but they seem to do a good job of keeping quality decent even at lower prices.

There was a lot of skepticism when they first included mic preamps in their Trak2, but the preamps were awesome. And the newer Ensemble ($2000) and Duet ($500) interfaces are both good at their prices.

So while it's hard to believe they could offer all those functions and a decent mic at $250 and still have it live up to Apogee's quality, maybe they'll pull it off.

I could see this being popular with singer songwriters, or for musicians slinging an interface in a backpack with a laptop to record single instrument ideas away from the studio.
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deathbychichi
06/26/09

@frigg: Agreed, Apogee has a great reputation and it could be sweet for some people, particularly those just getting started. I don't know, though, I want to be able to record at least stereo with 1/4" and XLR and it's easy to collect interfaces -- even Line 6 Pods can generate 24-bit 48K (96K?) to USB.
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j05hu4
06/26/09

@frigg: I like the converters from Apogee very much, they sound sweet.

If their microphone and preamp is somehow decent (like the one in my Boss Micro BR) and it comes with XP drivers and it is preferably supported by ProTools then I won't hesitate.

During studio sessions I record 24 tracks simultaneous, but when I write I like to book a hotel in a sunny country, bag my guitar and a small recorder with mic.

Hmmm, I just read the compatibility list, this thing is not for me! No Windows and no ProTools. I'll have to hackingtosh my laptop first :(

@deathbychichi: 24 bit 96k is not a measurement of quality. It is like saying my speakers are 500W. Sound quality differences between converters are a multitude bigger than my mood swings.
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frigg
06/26/09

@deathbychichi: as j05hu4 said, resolution is deceiving. It's easy enough for any of these companies to buy a commodity converter at whatever resolution and still build a shitty sounding interface. Generally, I'd expect an Apogee interface to sound better than a line 6 Pod. It could be that Apogee is limiting resolution in order to support a better sounding lower resolution interface than a shittier sounding higher resolution interface.

Also, the fact that the Apogee can record 24 bit words is more important than if it could record at 96 kHz. Going from 16 bit to 24 bits is more sonically meaningful than upping the sampling rate from 44.1 to 96.

It also keeps it compatible with Garaband, which can record in 24 bit but maxes out at 44.1/44.8 (a large intended market).

But if you want to record in stereo, then obviously this isn't for you!
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frigg
06/26/09

@j05hu4: I GUARANTEE, sight unseen, that the microphone and preamp in the Apogee ONE will BLOW THE MICRO BR OUT OF THE WATER!!! No question. Seriously. You would come home to your Micro BR crying in the corner, weeping and gnashing its teeth, growing rusty from disuse as soon as you introduce an Apogee ONE (or Apogee anything) into your household. I mean, the Micro BR does a lot of tricks and is full of features for sure, but sound for sound, anything Apogee makes will crush the BR like a Velociraptor crushing a fleeing fatman in Jurrassic Park.

As for ProTools compatibility, it depends on your ProTools. If it's one of the versions that runs on CoreAudio, it should work. If it doesn't, you could try using Digidesign's CoreAudio driver which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
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getz76
06/26/09

@frigg: You are basing "sight unseen" on the Apogee name? The only thing this and the Duet have in common with other Apogee products is the branding. The AD/DA in this is nothing like the real Apogee stuff.

I agree, 24-bit/48kHz is plenty for any audio-only distribution at this point. I have the ability to record at 96kHz and never do, it is just a waste of space and system resources for me.
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frigg
06/27/09

@getz76: I'm basing it on having messed around with a Micro BR, which isn't that good sounding a box compared to what's out there (it has lots of features, but not great audio quality), and the fact that the kind of readily available chips Apogee would stuff into a $250 gadget like this will sound better.
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