So about a month ago my dad and I decided we needed to replace the audio interface in our studio. We used to have the Motu 828 but for some reason it decided to stop working. We headed out to Sam Ash (a great music store if you haven't heard of it) for a new piece of equipment. After looking at a few other options we decided on the Duet. Now, I was pretty unfamiliar with Apogee but now I have a lot of good things to say about them. When we got home we set it all up and in less than an hour we had everything working perfectly. Right out of the box you can really appreciate the aesthetics of this device. It looks awesome. The one problem that I could see right away was the instrument inputs and outputs. Since the unit is very small, there isn't enough room for XLR and 1/4 inch inputs right on it. Instead, they use a "breakout cable" that goes into a serial port. These wires are very small compared to standard cables. This doesn't present a problem right away but I can see regular wear and tear breaking these eventually. Also, the connectors are plastic which firstly, doesn't look great and second, presents issues regarding the integrity of the construction. In this picture you can see what I mean:
I had no complaints with the sound quality of anything coming in or out of this device. The day after we bought our Duet I worked on a short demo album for a band that I have become a part of. Bring the Noise calls themselves alternative/rap and they had me produce and engineer their album. Using the Duet is completely intuitive and I never had an issue. I don't recommend the Duet if you need more than two inputs though. For my recording needs just an XLR for a mic and 1/4 inch for a guitar at the same time is the most I'll use. Regularly I only record one track at a time. Check out the Duet by Apogee if your in need of a solid firewire audio interface I definitely recommend it.
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