Apogee duet or one.. problems

[btele]

Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to pro tools, and this is my first post on the forum. I have to give a big thanks to this forum, every problem that I have encountered has been solved by doing a little searching around on the DUC. I can't say the same for Avid's website. I'm sure everything is there, just seems harder to find.

Anyway, to my question...I have an Imac, 1 firewire port 800, OWC Oxford chipset External, and an Apogee Duet, recently upgraded from Mbox mini 2.

I am running 800 to 400 cable from computer to external, then 400 out from external to Apogee (daisychain).
From my searches here on the DUC, this is the recomended method. However, once in awhile I get a few pops that I never experienced before. Some have said hook up the external to USB, but I have read enough to know better.
It has me wondering if the Apogee One might be better suited, condsidering I only have 1 firwireport. I don't know...maybe it's a non issue.
I know that I don't need 2 out's etc. I also know it has been beat to death that the One and Duet have the same converters etc...not sure that anyone knows for sure.

I guess my question is...will everything run smoother with the "ONE" instead of daisy chaining the "DUET" ?

Anyway, hopefully I haven't left anything out. Most people seem to think the Duet is the way to go. I agree it "sounds" great! Just wanting some opinions.

Imac i3 intel 10.6.6
OWC external Oxford
Apogee Duet

[collinsylex]

the duet is nice if you don't need low low buffers or much routing options (even worse situation with the ONE.. minijack output only?? no no)... I found the two smallest buffers availble in the prefs were useless with my duet, but perhaps its just cuz my 2010 macbook pro doesn't have a SUPER fast processor. The Duet is a good stable card but the firewire bus has become an issue since i got a fw800 drive. I am pretty happy using a USB soundcard now, and i am getting better performance with it than with the DUET. I have the ONE also but haven't tested it too far with pro-tools,l but from what i remember it was pretty much the same limitations as the DUET when it came to system performance. The RME fireface UC (USB) is running circles around Apogee as far latency and system performance... The jury is still out on the difference in sound quality

[dayadon]

Hello!

Last week I had an issue with my duet. I called Apogee Support, and the man I talked with worked things out with my system, and now my Pops are gone.

I have a different Mac than you (Mac Pro 2.66), so I have several firewire and USB ports. The point is, relating to your issue here, that I had the Duet connected to an added PCIe card with Firewire 400 & 800 on it. I removed the Duet from the card, and plugged it directly in to the Mac.

I learned that the Duet won't work well if there is something in between it and the direct computer connection. I also have the Multi-Connect OWC 1TB external connected to FW 800, and only use it for backup.

I would try just connecting the Duet directly to the iMac port without the OWC, just to see if you can get a pop/crackle-free sound. Or, call Apogee support. It was a very helpful call.

I do think it is very strange that Apple opted for only a FW800 port. Maybe it has something to do with the step-down cable you have to use to connect the Duet(?).

Dennis

[btele]

Thanks guy's.

The Fireface looks awesome, but is out of my price range. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Also, I will look into the cable thing. If I use maestro for very low latency monitoring, it works well. No pops.
But, sometimes it's nice to have a little verb on your guitar or whatever when you are tracking.
I'm doing some stuff today so I will try setting the buffer at 64 and see what happen.
I think I just started thinking, that if the ONE would be more stable, cheaper and sound as good, then why not.
Of course I would have to sell the duet or return it. pain in the butt.

[Goldencd]

You will not have any luck with one or Duet tracking at any buffer size below 256. It has been pretty well documented here on the forum. My computer was more than capable of the task with an Ensemble, but I had the same issue.

I returned mine and went the symphony/rosetta route.

Good luck, but with firewire or usb apogee products, you will need maestro or to be at 256 or above for tracking.

[btele]

hmmmm...guess i didn't do enough homework..anybody try the new Saffire stuff? same price range.

[Goldencd]

If you can deal with the latency, apogee is far superior in sound quality and build (duet and ensemble).

[Goldencd]

Why don't you get an mbox 3? The sound quality is as good as Duet and the latency should be a non issue.

[btele]

Yeah, actually considered that. But...it was after I already crossgraded to PT 9 with the old mbox.
If I understand correctly, the new mbox 3 comes with PT 8. I wish they sold hardware separately.
I really don't know. Maybe you can buy the bundle, and just use the interface with 9. That possible?

[Goldencd]

You can probably sell the old mbox and protools 8 on ebay for decent money. Just an idea.