![]() ![]() ![]() The underside is rubberised to minimise slippage on your work-surface. It looks superb, as is the feel of the rotary encoder. The only control is a single 55mm rotary encoder which doubles as a push-button for switching between headphone/main levels and input levels, and is under-lit with delightfully dulcet blue LEDs. It’ll match your MacBook Pro or iMac nicely. The Duet 3 measures about 155 x 100 x 17mm, and presents with a sleek piano-black upper surface with silver Apple-esque underside. Apogee were somewhat cosy with Apple back in the day, and take a similar approach to design. But in Apogee tradition the AD>DA conversion is impeccable, and easily integrated via USB.Īs always the Duet 3 is the epitome of design. Like many manufacturers these days, Apogee has integrated onboard DSP functionality, which I’ll get to a little later. Version 3 of the Duet is on my bench today, and I gotta say, it brings a bunch of surprises. They’re ace!įor those simply requiring a couple of inputs, headphones and monitoring, the Duet series is ideal. ![]() In fact, I ditched more prestigious converters and interfaces years ago for a couple of Apogee Ensembles and never looked back. ![]() Units such as the eight-channel Ensemble and dual-channel Duet brought Apogee audio conversion to the masses. By the mid-2000s the company began distilling its secret sauce into smaller two- and four- and eight-channel devices aimed toward budget conscious recordists. Back in the day (read: last century), the company’s military-grade audio converters were top-shelf, deep-pocket units designed to offer some of the best available analogue-to-digital (and vice versa) conversion possible. The Symphony ECS Channel Strip plug‑in carries a full price of $99, but can be bought with the Duet 3 for the discount price of $49, while the Duet Dock is set to sell for $149.Apogee has held a lead in the digital audio conversion game for decades. The Apogee Duet 3 will go on sale in July, priced at $599. Neat freaks may also opt for the new Duet Dock, which replaces the breakout cable with a desktop-friendly set of 'proper' I/O. Internally, a DSP engine lets you run Apogee's Symphony ECS Channel Strip (sold separately) with zero latency, so that you can either apply EQ and compression to your foldback mix, or print the processing as you record. The all-important rotary encoder remains (but gains a natty purple backlight), and this allows you to set your monitor and headphone levels, and also to adjust preamp gain. It sports the same I/O configuration as its predecessors: a breakout cable gives you access to two mic/line/instrument inputs (with up to 60dB of gain available from its mic preamps), plus stereo monitor outputs, while a front-panel headphone socket lets you monitor on the move - a very viable option, since the Duet 3 is bus-powered. The Apogee Duet 3 can work on both Windows and Mac OS, connecting to computers via USB‑C. Apogee themselves issued an updated version in 2012 (the Apogee 2, a USB 2.0 device), and now they've done it again, with an all-new Duet that maintains the fundamental 2-in/4-out format, but in an even sleeker glass and aluminium chassis, and incorporating its own DSP. The concept of a combined interface and monitor controller/encoder has since become hugely popular, with companies like Focusrite, RME, Zoom and many others adopting the same form factor. Apogee pioneered the desktop interface format way back in 2007, with their original Firewire Duet. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |