Apogee Duet Firewire Recording Interface

This one is for the musicians out there. By day I'm a geek, but by night
and on the weekends I write, play, and produce music. Since this is one of
my primary uses of technology, I have spent a boatload of time and money on
the right gear for the job. Not so long ago I had the need for a small
recording interface I could use with my MacBook Pro to get rough cuts of
guitar parts I've written. I find that I have trouble remembering
EVERYTHING I come up with, so recording is a good way to jog my memory if I
need to. Since my practice space isn't at home and my recording studio
is...I had to find something mobile that would fit in my laptop bag and not
take up too much space.

The Apogee Duet is a 2 channel Firewire recording interface for Mac. Sorry
Windows users, this one's not for you. I'll have a review of some Windows
compatible gear soon. It has 2 balanced XLR inputs for microphones or DI
boxes, 2 Unbalanced 1/4" inch inputs for instruments such as guitar,
keyboards, bass, etc., and 2 unbalanced 1/4" outputs to connect to your
studio monitors, monitor management system, or amplifier. All of the I/O is
provided via a breakout cable and the entire interface matches the Macintosh
aesthetic well. It provides phantom power on the XLR inputs and is host
powered so you don't need a power adapter. I won't go into installation of
the driver and software here, but rest assured, it's a painless process.

The first time I monitored a mix with the Duet I was blown away. I was
using a Presonus FireStudio as my primary interface which sounded good, but
the Duet sounded clearer and seems to have a flatter frequency response than
the Presonus. I could hear such a difference that I could pick out flaws in
a recording I had already mixed within the first few minues. Since then,
I've also replaced my studio monitors with MUCH nicer monitors and I'm
reviewing the mixes again. I'll review those monitors soon.

I've used all of the inputs on the Duet. To be clear, you can't use both
the XLR and 1/4" inputs simultaneously on the same channel. You can use
different connectors on separate channels, though. I've used each
configuration available on both channels. The frequency response and
headroom are very good. Recording guitar from my Line6 Spider Valve
amplifier couldn't have been easier. There is a balanced XLR output on the
amplifier which sounds superb when connected directly to one of the XLR
inputs. I use this for quick recordings at least once a week and am quite
pleased. Plugging microphones into these inputs works very well. Also,
recording dry guitar signal to re-amp works nicely with the 1/4" inputs.

All in all, the interface is solidly built. There's tons of headroom in the
Mic Preamps. The frequency response is superb. For anyone who uses a Mac
to record and needs either a solid 2 channel interface or something small
that can be packed away in a laptop bag, the Duet is at the top of the list.

I give the Apogee Duet a perfect 10 out of 10







Amazon.com WidgetsApogee Duet Firewire Recording Interface