Go Back   Home Recording Forum > Recording Engineers / Producers > Recording Gear Reviews > Audio Interface Reviews

Audio Interface Reviews Read reviews of audio intefaces designed for recording music at home before you buy.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 05-06-2008, 10:02 PM
brandondrury's Avatar
Supreme Overlord Commander
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19,209
Rep Power: 25
brandondrury has disabled reputation
Default Apogee Ensemble Reviews





Compare the best prices from all over the web on Apogee Ensemble



Is The Apogee Ensemble The Right Audio Interface For You?
Find the audio interface that is perfect for you on the Home Recording Soundcard Wizard.

Apogee Ensemble Description
The Ensemble Multichannel Audio Interface from Apogee delivers high performance converters, pristine preamps, and tight integration with Core Audio. You can use the Ensemble easily with Logic, MOTU Digital Performer, Steinberg Cubase, Bias Peak, Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live, or any professional Macintosh recording application that supports Core Audio to make flawless recordings. The Ensemble is the first professional audio interface that is all digitally controlled and designed specifically for Apple computers and Logic.

The Ensemble features 36 simultaneously available audio channels with 8 channels of Apogee's legendary A/D/A conversion and 4 transparent, digitally controlled 75dB mic preamps. It also has 8 channels of ADAT I/O, 2 channels of S/PDIF coax and optical I/O, and FireWire connectivity to and from the computer. When you get an Ensemble, you also get premium Apogee technologies such as Soft Limit, UV22HR, and Intelliclock. Soft Limit ensures your signal gets the maximum digital input level without overs, UV22HR gives you a superior dither from 24-bit resolution down to 16-bit, and Intelliclock is an advanced, dual-stage clocking tool. These technologies combined with converters that set the standard for the audio industry make Ensemble an ideal choice for professionals seeking a high-definition, integrated solution that's easy to use.

Ensemble is the first and only multichannel audio interface that is fully integrated into Logic Pro. With Ensemble, everything from mic pre and output gain to sample and bit rate selection are controllable from within the Apogee Control Panel in Logic.
Reply With Quote
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 01-31-2009, 09:17 PM
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 31
Rep Power: 1
Jamie Garner is on a distinguished road
Red face Re: Apogee Ensemble Reviews

Quality: 9
I've owned quite a few digital audio interfaces- digi001, motu828, mbox1, mbox 2 pro, edirol ua-2, gina, alesis usb mixer, presonus digimax.... I think that's all. Oh wait, line 6 toneport ux1.
Anyhow, i have enough experience with them to know good from bad, and the ensemble is GOOD. i bought it primarily to get good a/d and d/a. I didn't expect to get such high qualty preamps!
In the first 6 months i had it (i bought it very soon after it was released) a lot of problems with its drivers- i think they were in beta even longer than that. I never questioned its quality but i did wonder if i'd bought into a bad product.
After the release of the final drivers, not a single problem linked to the ensemble. It's dual (independant) headphone amps are very clean. The maestro soft mixer is great, tho i can run logic with such low latency i don't need to use maestro.
I have 2 ua 610 preamps and a great river nv1 running line in, and in a/b'ing with the apogee preamps, i find nothing lacking. The 4 d.i.'s are also excellent, tho the nv1 is better at that, no surprise.
I like being able to control the preamps from inside logic, too.
When i bought it, there weren't many hi-end audio boxes around. Now there is a fantastic selection; the stuff from tc/focusrite/rme/etc makes it hard to justify spending $2k on an ensemble, but my results are so nice i have no thoughts of regret.

Reliability: 9
Never had to contact apogee.

Overall Rating: 7
I would buy this again (if i could!), but as i said above, there are a lot of great choices now. I might recommend the duet to others, but not the ensemble.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
audio, audio interface, cubase, dual, home, home recording, interface, latency, logic, mic, motu, performance, presonus, sample, soundcard

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off




All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:19 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.1.0
Inactive Reminders By Mished.co.uk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91