how to get only the interface?

[dannymeltzer]

Originally Posted by nst7

Unfortunately, since these first came out, Avid has added info about this in their FAQ. Basically, there is one registration code for both the software and hardware, which makes it less desireable to try to sell.

If you sell the code, the buyer would get the software, but they would also be registering the hardware in their name. This means that if there was ever a need for warrantee repair, safety recall, or future trade-up offers, you would be out of luck.

What happens if I register the hardware and software in my name, and then sell the software and simply do an iLok license transfer with the PT software license?

I wonder if the added functionality [Eucon, etc] is worth the risk here…if I buy the Black/Avid version of the Quartet...it would be silly to hold onto the PT software license when I already have an HD license.

The way it's phrased seems a little vague on the FAQ:

"I own Pro Tools 10/11 already, can I buy just the Pro Tools | Duet or Pro Tools | Quartet or split the bundle up to sell the Pro Tools activation?
Pro Tools | Duet and Pro Tools | Quartet are not sold without Pro Tools software, and each model uses a single Activation Code to redeem the software and register the hardware."

It sounds to me that possibly[?], when you 'Activate' the code from the Quartet, that is not the same as registering your software license [Avid says 'redeem' the software]. Does it possibly mean that you receive an Activation code…and once you register the hardware with this code, you are then just given a software license key…that you can then go register the usual way [with iLok, etc]. This would seem to suggest that it might be possible to transfer the software license..? [and maybe Avid just doesn't want to say so outright]..? Just trying to figure this out, if it's worth it for me to pay more for the Avid branded Quartet if I already own PTHD.

[cuttothebeat]

Can I ask what is the disadvantage to buying the Apogee branded one? Can you still do everything you need like set up no latency monitoring via the apogee software or am I missing something?

[nst7]

Originally Posted by dannymeltzer

What happens if I register the hardware and software in my name, and then sell the software and simply do an iLok license transfer with the PT software license?

I wonder if the added functionality [Eucon, etc] is worth the risk here…if I buy the Black/Avid version of the Quartet...it would be silly to hold onto the PT software license when I already have an HD license.

The way it's phrased seems a little vague on the FAQ:

"I own Pro Tools 10/11 already, can I buy just the Pro Tools | Duet or Pro Tools | Quartet or split the bundle up to sell the Pro Tools activation?
Pro Tools | Duet and Pro Tools | Quartet are not sold without Pro Tools software, and each model uses a single Activation Code to redeem the software and register the hardware."

It sounds to me that possibly[?], when you 'Activate' the code from the Quartet, that is not the same as registering your software license [Avid says 'redeem' the software]. Does it possibly mean that you receive an Activation code…and once you register the hardware with this code, you are then just given a software license key…that you can then go register the usual way [with iLok, etc]. This would seem to suggest that it might be possible to transfer the software license..? [and maybe Avid just doesn't want to say so outright]..? Just trying to figure this out, if it's worth it for me to pay more for the Avid branded Quartet if I already own PTHD.

Yes, that should probably work. The only downside is having to pay the $25 Ilok transfer fee. And also, that the buyer would need a copy of the installer (I'm still not sure if full installers are available on the website).

[nst7]

Originally Posted by cuttothebeat

Can I ask what is the disadvantage to buying the Apogee branded one? Can you still do everything you need like set up no latency monitoring via the apogee software or am I missing something?

The main reason people would want the Protools branded one is that it will work on Windows, whereas the regular Apogee one is Mac only (this is because Avid is handling drivers and support for these, rather than Apogee). Another reason would be if you really like the black color.

As for latency, it should be exactly the same process. The Protools branded ones do not use Maestro, but have a very similar utility software by Avid. But it basically works the same way.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by cuttothebeat

Can I ask what is the disadvantage to buying the Apogee branded one? Can you still do everything you need like set up no latency monitoring via the apogee software or am I missing something?

No disadvantage and a huge advantage is you are not stuck with Avid support or at the mercy of when/if Avid issues new OS updates. The value add here is the Windows platform support. And who knows if Avid had that outsourced to their Ukrainian contractor or if Apogee or somebody else is actually doing the work and for how long this will all last. Also kind of interesting partnership dynamics to watch with the Apogee symphony being a HD interface competitor and the new Ensemble looking like it does a pretty good job of attacking the low-end HD interface market. If somebody starts with one of these Avid branded interfaces do they upgrade to Avid HD interfaces or Apogee Ensemble or Symphony? My money would largely be on the Ensemble...

[dannymeltzer]

The Eucon support would be another plus of the Avid Quartet. I could control the Quartet from my Artist Mix control surface.

That said, if the Maestro and Avid I/O software are really basically the same…then yes, buying the Apogee branded one would seem a reasonable option. I was under the impression that perhaps the Avid I/O software would interface with PT in a slightly more stable fashion, but maybe not…?

[Bill Denton]

Totally a guess, but I think these interfaces may be "leftovers"...

Given the direction of the changes at Avid, I have a feeling (and nothing else) that this may have been a project that was started prior to Avid's changes, and they had enough money already invested in the project that they just decided to let it run to fruition...

[Darryl Ramm]

The whole history post 003 of Avid non-HD interfaces is kinda weird. With the abandonment of the 003 segment, and a proliferation of junk at the very low end, which I doubted every really helped Avid. Those very low end customers often got a poor out of the box experience and too many problems. And Pro Tools SE especially was just too crippled and not newbie friendly (c.f. put a total novice in front of Garage Band). And as much as Avid says they want/got out of the consumer market, there still keep selling low-end bundles.

The Mbox 3 Pro was not close to a 003 replacement, it almost seemed that Avid thought folks would go for the HD-Native/Omni as a replacement and then they would then only had to fill in the market well below that with the Mbox 3 Pro. But a realistic 003 replacement seems to be what so many users wanted. And the real 003 (well 003 Rack at least) replacements have been the UAD Apollo and now Apogee Ensemble. And now Avid is reselling Apogee's lower end (and nice) interfaces and I suspect this was largely a move by Avid to get the Quartet in the market as a 003 replacement.

Remember that survey AVID had out to find what folks wanted in in interface... really felt to me like... "uh oops so about that 003 market segment we abandoned..". But there is still a gap to that old 003/003 Rack/003 rack+ market market. And now you have the weird situation with the Avid badged Apogee Duet and Quartet straddling the the Mbox 3 Pro as a product,... well if the Mbox 3 Pro is even still a product? And if customers buy the Avid Duet or Quartet will they upgrade to a HD Native/Omni or an Apogee Ensemble. My money is on the Ensemble (wishing I had a new Ensemble Thunderbolt...).

[VRW]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

The whole history post 003 of Avid non-HD interfaces is kinda weird. With the abandonment of the 003 segment, and a proliferation of junk at the very low end, which I doubted every really helped Avid. Those very low end customers often got a poor out of the box experience and too many problems. And Pro Tools SE especially was just too crippled and not newbie friendly (c.f. put a total novice in front of Garage Band). And as much as Avid says they want/got out of the consumer market, there still keep selling low-end bundles.

The Mbox 3 Pro was not close to a 003 replacement, it almost seemed that Avid thought folks would go for the HD-Native/Omni as a replacement and then they would then only had to fill in the market well below that with the Mbox 3 Pro. But a realistic 003 replacement seems to be what so many users wanted. And the real 003 (well 003 Rack at least) replacements have been the UAD Apollo and now Apogee Ensemble. And now Avid is reselling Apogee's lower end (and nice) interfaces and I suspect this was largely a move by Avid to get the Quartet in the market as a 003 replacement.

Remember that survey AVID had out to find what folks wanted in in interface... really felt to me like... "uh oops so about that 003 market segment we abandoned..". But there is still a gap to that old 003/003 Rack/003 rack+ market market. And now you have the weird situation with the Avid badged Apogee Duet and Quartet straddling the the Mbox 3 Pro as a product,... well if the Mbox 3 Pro is even still a product? And if customers buy the Avid Duet or Quartet will they upgrade to a HD Native/Omni or an Apogee Ensemble. My money is on the Ensemble (wishing I had a new Ensemble Thunderbolt...).

Totally right!
This was the way Avid was thinking obviously and they never offered an adequate replacement for the 003(R).
I remember well when I was looking for a change because I had been experiencing more and more core driver
issues with my 003R at that time from PT10 to 11.

And, yes, of course I would have loved to buy an Omni/HDN but, you know, quite a difference in price between the 003R
and the Omni/HDN package. Simply too much for me personally and I´m sure I was not the only one who had that problem.
I knew the MBoxes 3/3 Pro from friends and they were ok but for me personally at least definitely not the same class like the
003R (although Avid intensively tried to prove and advertise the Pro to be the perfect new 003 that at that time).

I finally came to see only 2 options which would be reasonable replacements for the 003R as to quality as well as price-wise
which were the Apogee Quartet and the RME UCX.
I loved the Universal Audio Apollo too, but actually also this one were simply out of the 003R price range (which was all I could afford
because of the additional need for a new Mac, new monitors etc. etc.).

I talked to experienced engineers as well then and they confirmed what I thought to have heard too which was that sound quality-wise
the Quartet was an exceptional piece of gear as compared to the price. So I went for the Quartet and I have never looked back.
I still would recommend it to everybody who doesn´t need many I/Os and can´t go for the bigger stuff because of the lack of money.

Apogee also (like most of the others) struggled a bit for some time with their driver support when Mavericks came out but since the new
Yosemite/Mavericks drivers everything is working flawlessly again. Couldn´t be better actually.

If there´s no Windows support nor support for controllers needed the (silver) Apogee version of the Quartet is a decent option
as it´s converters are exactly the same and the latest Apogee drivers are great and super stable.
Maestro software is easy to handle and supports the same (almost ) no-latency monitoring like the Avid version.
Actually the Avid IO software is only an adapted version of Maestro software, they only have added Windows support and the EUCON support.
All the hardware related functions as well as the monitoring are the same like with Maestro, there is no advantage from the Pro Tools IO.

And finally, it´s just a guess of course, as DR already has mentioned, the Apogee version even may be better supported in the long run as it is
an important product for Apogee themselves whereas, which is a guess again, for Avid the Quartet/Duet may be an interim solution until they
probably will release their own all-new range of audio interfaces like MBoxes 4 etc. But that´s really only a guess.

On the other hand those black guys look d... cool indeed, me also love the visual design, good job, Avid!

Long story cut it does make sense to also consider the Apogee version of the Quartet as the converters are identical (and of exceptional quality in
this price range), the monitoring options are the same as well as all the hardware related functions and finally the latest Apogee Yosemite/Mavericks-
drivers are rock solid, working flawlessly with PT11 and with all other applications (iTunes, Logic X, Ozone 6, Soundforge for Mac, T-Racks, etc. etc.).
You even can have all those apps opened at the same time and alternately play music from them via the Quartet driver, something which never ever
had been possible with the 003 Core driver . Love it!

Btw the new Ensemble is one cool piece of gear again and on my personal wish list too. Unfortunately -though worth every penny for sure-
not the most affordable stuff again. We´ll see...

All the best everybody,

cheers, VRW




Mac Mini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.10.1 Yosemite, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2
Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10, Pro Tools 11.2.2, Logic 10.0.7, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, HOFA, IK Multimedia, NI etc.

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

The whole history post 003 of Avid non-HD interfaces is kinda weird. With the abandonment of the 003 segment, and a proliferation of junk at the very low end, which I doubted every really helped Avid. Those very low end customers often got a poor out of the box experience and too many problems. And Pro Tools SE especially was just too crippled and not newbie friendly (c.f. put a total novice in front of Garage Band). And as much as Avid says they want/got out of the consumer market, there still keep selling low-end bundles.

The Mbox 3 Pro was not close to a 003 replacement, it almost seemed that Avid thought folks would go for the HD-Native/Omni as a replacement and then they would then only had to fill in the market well below that with the Mbox 3 Pro. But a realistic 003 replacement seems to be what so many users wanted. And the real 003 (well 003 Rack at least) replacements have been the UAD Apollo and now Apogee Ensemble. And now Avid is reselling Apogee's lower end (and nice) interfaces and I suspect this was largely a move by Avid to get the Quartet in the market as a 003 replacement.

Remember that survey AVID had out to find what folks wanted in in interface... really felt to me like... "uh oops so about that 003 market segment we abandoned..". But there is still a gap to that old 003/003 Rack/003 rack+ market market. And now you have the weird situation with the Avid badged Apogee Duet and Quartet straddling the the Mbox 3 Pro as a product,... well if the Mbox 3 Pro is even still a product? And if customers buy the Avid Duet or Quartet will they upgrade to a HD Native/Omni or an Apogee Ensemble. My money is on the Ensemble (wishing I had a new Ensemble Thunderbolt...).

IMHO...If Avid had wanted to stay in the more-than-an-MBox-less-than-TDM market they should have just upgraded the pre's and converters on the 003 Rack and given it a new paint job...

While another four preamps would be nice, to me, my 003 Rack has the perfect feature set for my "basement creations"...