Apogee Ensemble. good, bad, ugly?
Apogee Ensemble. good, bad, ugly?
Seems like there have been a lot of buggy reports of this thing, but for those of you who have experience with one, do you like it? How buggy is it and how would you compare it in the 828 / FF800 / 002R / Aurora 800 (big spread there) range? I'm looking into a new interface / converter set and would appreciate the advice. Looking to leave PT... For what it matters, I won't be using Logic. Thanks!
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PublicMelody
- takin' a dinner break
- Posts: 199
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:25 am
- Location: South Jersey
Don't forget Metric Halo
The Metric Halo 2882 should be on your list of considerations. It's a great unit that can be had for cheap when bought used.
I own three MH interfaces (all bought as used gear -- no problems):
- 2882
- 2882 +DSP
- ULN2
Great conversion. Good preamps on the 2882, but not high-gain. You can get about 30 db of gain before they get too noisy -- more than enough for close micing with condensors. The sound is clean, but not sterile -- sweet, actually.
On the down-side....they are hard to find used....but, I guess that's a positive depending how you look at it
I own three MH interfaces (all bought as used gear -- no problems):
- 2882
- 2882 +DSP
- ULN2
Great conversion. Good preamps on the 2882, but not high-gain. You can get about 30 db of gain before they get too noisy -- more than enough for close micing with condensors. The sound is clean, but not sterile -- sweet, actually.
On the down-side....they are hard to find used....but, I guess that's a positive depending how you look at it
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the tiny dancer
- audio school graduate
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:48 am
I got the ensemble maybe two months ago, and it's a mixed bag. For all it's buginess, I'm not giving up on it, mainly because it sounds so retardedly good.
I do use logic, and there's a handy logic apogee control panel. That's the extent of it's integration, imho. Kind of a joke.
The marketing rage was that this integrated "seemlessly" with Core Audio, and my experience has been far from that. I really don't get the feeling it's entirely apogee's problem; apple firewire drivers are difficult apparently. Ultimately, it has ten quirks instead of the eight that I've suffered with any firewire audio device. I really do hope they get it ironed out soon; the design seems pretty flexible - everything is digitally controlled, and the firmware is updated via FTP automatically, syncing with the apogee server to update. Pretty slick, I guess. More slick would be a better functioning unit.
And it doesn't do 192 yet, but is sold that way. If I worked at that sample rate, I'd be super, duper pissed.
How does it sound? Light years beyond anything I've ever owned. I sold off a bunch of stuff for this, including a couple pres, knowing I might regret it, and I don't at all. Ensemble laughs at the original rosetta, motu 828 mkii and even my old lucids...absolutely no comparison. You can hear everything finally, and actually mix. The lows are huge, rarely muddy unless I've gone ribbon crazy again and mussed it up in the first place. The pres are sick IME. Obviously, very clean, but they don't bum me out at all, and that's coming from a couple of years of chandler, seventh circle, hamptone, etc. Colored, no. Boring? Not at all. They kill the syteks/True stuff that I've used, that's for sure. The stuff I do, I'll need one great pillow-y pre for snare and vox, but beyond that, the ensemble pres are perfectly fine for me, and probably forever. They do a quality job amplifying microphones, and that's the point, right?
$.02...
I do use logic, and there's a handy logic apogee control panel. That's the extent of it's integration, imho. Kind of a joke.
The marketing rage was that this integrated "seemlessly" with Core Audio, and my experience has been far from that. I really don't get the feeling it's entirely apogee's problem; apple firewire drivers are difficult apparently. Ultimately, it has ten quirks instead of the eight that I've suffered with any firewire audio device. I really do hope they get it ironed out soon; the design seems pretty flexible - everything is digitally controlled, and the firmware is updated via FTP automatically, syncing with the apogee server to update. Pretty slick, I guess. More slick would be a better functioning unit.
And it doesn't do 192 yet, but is sold that way. If I worked at that sample rate, I'd be super, duper pissed.
How does it sound? Light years beyond anything I've ever owned. I sold off a bunch of stuff for this, including a couple pres, knowing I might regret it, and I don't at all. Ensemble laughs at the original rosetta, motu 828 mkii and even my old lucids...absolutely no comparison. You can hear everything finally, and actually mix. The lows are huge, rarely muddy unless I've gone ribbon crazy again and mussed it up in the first place. The pres are sick IME. Obviously, very clean, but they don't bum me out at all, and that's coming from a couple of years of chandler, seventh circle, hamptone, etc. Colored, no. Boring? Not at all. They kill the syteks/True stuff that I've used, that's for sure. The stuff I do, I'll need one great pillow-y pre for snare and vox, but beyond that, the ensemble pres are perfectly fine for me, and probably forever. They do a quality job amplifying microphones, and that's the point, right?
$.02...
Last night I did an onsite live recording with one of the locals,4 piece,chick singer.Using a pair of Ensembles for i/o, with Logic. The Pres are very good. Worked great on my E/V ribbon Mic,love the integration with Logic. Some bullshit is going on with it I think . I used em in aggregate device mode, so it looks like one interface to Logic.Used the first 8 inputs to Logic (4 on the internal,2 on a JFET,2 Calrec 1161s) and 3 inputs on the second unit. when I listened back, all of the 8 inputs on the first unit were popping and clicking like crazy,but the three inputs I used on the 2nd one sounded fine. WTF?? Rebooted the Mac, reloaded the firewire driver, but still the same shit. Ruined everything. I cant for the life of me figure that shit out. Got a call in to Apogee support, but nothing back yet. When they work they sound great. Being an early adopter sucks ass........
Just got off the phone with Apogee support, and just found out that running 2 Ensembles on 1 Mac will not work with the current firewire driver.I Have been using it with one, and it is a great sounding unit.Ill be holding on to the second one till they figure it out. Has been working flawlessly and pretty much as advertised since I disconnected the other unit. So if your thinking about using 2 of these, hold off until the driver is fully baked.........
I too am waiting on this one until better driver integration. Perhaps I'll there will be better news after NAMM. I want to get one, but must wait until it gets ironed out.
The parties involved might be biding time until the new OS is out, but that is speculation on my part.
I've used the MHalo 2882, and it works very well.
Best,
H
The parties involved might be biding time until the new OS is out, but that is speculation on my part.
I've used the MHalo 2882, and it works very well.
Best,
H
You can use 2 (which I do) but only one on the FW bus. The last update of the driver, firmware,and Maestro app seemed to fix alot of weird problems, random snaps and pops ,which could only be remedied by rebooting the Ensemble.The way it is right now,2 Ensembles can be used,one using the FW bus and a secondary one connected via the Lightpipe connection to the primary one. In order to fix your routing and I/O connections, you have to completely remove the primary Ensemble from the FW bus, and connect the secondary one to the FW bus, make all your changes in the Maestro app for routing and I/O, and then turn the computer off, put the Primary back online, and hook up the secondary one via Lightpipe. It is a Giant pain in the ass. And twice the pain if you make a mistake in doing the setup. Once together, it works well, and they are great sounding units. Mic Pres are very useful and sound good,with 70 dB of gain. The front knobs are convenient but mine sometimes jump to the highest value if you move the knob too quickly.There is a cool mute function on the output knob, just push and hold it down for a second or two. I use mine on a G4, 44.1,24 bit. Havent had the opportunity for the higher sample rates, but that functionality is probably much better on a G5.Really, the biggest thing is the FW bus issue. Other than that I think they work really well, and are your best bet if you use Logic, cuz it is integrated so well with the app and the OS.The Symphony rig is better, but much more costly.......
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