All user reviews for the Apogee Ensemble

The characteristic of my choice?

I say we shut the sound excellent, and also design and apogee is rput.

what purpose?

for recording, sound and mastering pr- (finalizer 96k)

configuration:

mac pro 3 ghz 4 core, 4 GB of ram. Genelec, neumann, preamp Solo 610 finalizer 96k ... logic studio ... etc ...

What instrument:

guitar, vocals, bass, drums, congas bongos, timbales ....

USE

Installation:

every morning, I sync my mac has galley with apogee together and can not control the headphone volume, which Appear on the screen or micro and monitoring.j'ai's sent back to the supplier

incompatibility:

no

Gnral the configuration:
after some time it ... easy.

manual:

I like this question, the basic thing ... there are lots of things that I discovered all alone.

and then to speak English, I had to download it on the internet (franais)

IMPLEMENTATION

Drivers: parfais

has put the days just after I set a day, every hand live, so I do not put a day and suddenly I did not take advantage of guiding the thing that Appear on the screen (headphones, microphone , monitoring). I had ramen vendor

software I use; logic studio.

I can record 8 simultaneously enter, but if you dig well head, one can go up to 10 and even more.

NOTICE GLOBAL

Two days I use.

those I love:

design, colors, sound more analog sound is warmer.

the warning:

weight, and then we can not use as I fesais the Fireface 800, all out 1/2 3/4 5/6 7/8 on a single headset

the slightly more expensive price, slightly better.

with the experience:

yes I would do my choice, I hopes to readers will respect my opinion.

The Ensemble is a sleek firewire interface that was tailored specifically for Logic Pro users. It has four built in microphone preamps that have channels for sends and returns. After that, it has four coinciding HI-Z line ins. Aside from the Firewire output, it also has eight Hi-Z line outs that are labeled as analog outputs. On the front of the interface it has two 1/4" headphone outputs and an additional couple of HI-Z inputs.

I personally use it for it's conversion.
I use one of two separate preamps with the ensemble (the pre's on the Mackie Onyx 1620 or a Peavey PV 2.6C poweramp). The sound seems relatively warm in comparison to a lot of other interfaces on the market. This can be for better or for worse if the built in mic pre's are the only amps being used.



UTILIZATION

My first experience with the ensemble was actually in a friend's studio and I was originally blown away by the ease of use. I basically learned what I know about mixing in the box while using the Ensemble for inputs as well as monitoring and therefore have a great love for this machine.
The drivers have been very stable as long as I have owned it. I have heard, however, that with particular OS updates for the Mac the Interface control software has had problems with crashing.

The interface control software is called Maestro and it is a pretty cool way of controlling certain aspects of the Ensemble. It has gain controls, Hi pass filters, phantom power toggling, etc. That being said, the only complaint is that some of these controls cannot be toggled without using Maestro.
I remember running into a problem involving the Phantom power being switched off in Maestro and then trying to use the Ensemble with a different set up in a place that I couldn't download or re-download Maestro in order to turn it back on. I was so frustrated and still to this day cannot understand the thought process behind something like that.

GETTING STARTED

No compatibility issues with Mac or Apple or Logic. It was designed specifically for these things. The manual is simple and elegant and It is essentially plug and play as long as you are using Apple products.
As far as use with other DAWs, I have no personal experience but I can't imagine it being difficult at all.
As far as using it with anything other than Mac OS', I have no experience but I feel like some issues will have to arise due to it's manufacturing specifically for Mac/Apple.

OVERALL OPINION

Pros:
-I personally love the sound. It is warm but not overly so.
-Rack Mountable
-Runs Smoothly with Mac
-Sturdy casing. It is tough metal and seems quite durable.

Cons:
-A bit of a latency issue on occasion. Not bad enough to REALLY matter, but it exists.
-Made for Mac. Not PC.
-The Mic Pre's do have a pretty specific sound that could be hit or miss depending on what it is that you are looking for.
-Firewire is becoming outdated.

Better interfaces are certainly available. This is a quality interface that will not do you wrong.
But only in a few years and only after they lower the price, would I recommend it as a top notch choice.
The sound is good standing alone.
The sound is great when coupled with other gear.

If you can save up a thousand bucks, go on and save up a little more and get something else.
If you can wait for the price to go down, do that and buy one of these bad boys second hand.

I love Apogee. They have great products.
I like the Ensemble but it didn't blow me away.

Hello dear reader, I will answer the questions as they are put me there.

What characteristics have motivated your choice? What purpose? What config? What system (s) (s)?

Having started with a small Edirol, then tascam fw1884, then Focusrite ... I started to get tired of the input range with which I reached their limit after a few months of use models. (Both in terms of connectivity that sounds). There, I needed a high-end sound card (and the fact of finding opportunity today at reasonable prices has allowed me to make me happy). Good afternoon, no need DSP for my mac (imac 2013 27 "8gb ram) is powerful enough for what I do.
I use it in logic 9.

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable? What you get lag?

Very stable drivers (for one week) in maverick. We'll see later, but a brand that produces hardware for apple compatible I guess it will take to Yosemite. Especially since the card is still sold new.

At latency below 8ms. Nickel

GETTING STARTED

The installation is done it without problems? Have you experienced any incompatibilities? The general configuration is easy? The manual is clear and sufficient? ...

10 min chrono, and everything went correctly. With maestro or in logic -> apogee option (which installs directly in logic). A breeze. Clear French manual on the site of peak. It's cool.

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it? 1 weeks

What is the particular feature you like best and least?
Plus: Converters / preamp clean.
Least: it seems to have slowed a 10aine second start of the imac (beware provide a FW400 to FW800 cable belkin + FW800 adapter to thunderbolt (60 euros for 2 with apple)

Have you tried many other models before buying it?
Yes, Edirol (zero), Tascam FW1884 (mwai. ..), Focusrite Saffire (not bad, but less defined). It is above the lot.
Now to see compared to metric halo, UAD, prism. Anyway, I think for my use (home stud, stud preproduction) that makes him amply.

How would you rate the quality / price? With experience, you do again this choice? ...

Nine, I think I would have saved a little more and go to the UAD apollo and still have the dsp board.
But for Cygnus, it is 700/800 euros (incidentally, friends afiens interested apogee), I paid 700 euros. What lowering the AF side which makes 850.

Thank you for reading me.
And turn me this computer and go to your home studio

I passed al all because of the incompatibility BEYOND rme ff400

used in home studio specializing hip hop (taking voice, guitar, groovebox etc.)

i mac aluminum 20p 2g ram

six preamp compressor q

UTILIZATION

Yes and no, I Navais no sound through headphones, but it soon settled c you had to go by maestro
config easy, but clear manual in English

GETTING STARTED

The drivers are stable an update, May 08
recent purchase so for now I made is that no votes taken, and c is nikel

OVERALL OPINION

I used the last few days alone, I would return here in a few weeks of

what is striking is the c!! clearly specified, coupled with my Dynaudio BM6A mk2 c is a pleasure to work with my mix .... the preamps are excellent, very easy to use

j rme ff've tested the 400, if it was compatible j would have kept this one, for it is very good stuff and very good sound too, in comparison with the ff800 which is its direct rival, I'd say cest a matter of taste, its still very good stuff on both sides, the whole may be easier to use, in the soft rm at the beginning was a bit complicated for my taste

No value for money is not great, but reasonable, value for money, for my part I prefer the sound of its apogee, therefore justifies a little price difference ....

I would do this election if I'm in the same position as it is true that I need the louse ff 400 was sufficient, but Apple wants to do good when the economy c is the paying customer!

its still very good gear, fully integrated into Logic, easy to use, its sick with 8 I / O for Mac owners I think c is a good investment

I work on Mac OS as well as Logic Studio 9. I was looking for a 100% integrated interface with my DAW.
That's done. The Apogee Ensemble interface is quite impressing fireware wise. Only drawback is that it can run on PC.
I work with a 15.4 inch macbook 2.53 GHz intel core 2 duo i5. Frankly, even 192khz registration card still runs as well.

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable. The drivers are working with MIDI tracks and audio tracks. Up to 20 or 30 tracks with effects plugin Flux or Metric Halo. No bugs and no slowdown. No latency either.

GETTING STARTED

Installation is very easy you just put the last driver update then plugin the card and search. The general setup is easy, but I do not always operate at full capacity. I preferred to download the manual in French for better understanding than the English manual.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for six months already. Before I owned the Apogee Duet, and i like the sound of Apogee interfaces. Very vintage sound that is widely used in the United States.
The price / quality ratio is excellent for a card of this quality. The fact that it is incompatible with windows explains its less-than-exorbitant price compared to other cards that are compatible.
Without any doubt I would repeat this acquisition with my eyes closed.

The Apogee Ensemble is an eight channel firewire based audio interface. It has four built in microphone preamps, which each also have 1/4" TRS connections. There are four more channels of inputs in the form of 1/4" TRS as well. In addition to these inputs, there are eight 1/4" outputs as well as S/PDIF and ADAT optical connections. It also has two firewire ports and word clock connections. On the front of the interface, it has 1/4" connections for headphones. The Apogee Ensemble is designed for the user looking for top of the line conversion inside of a audio interface. This will take up only a single space in a traditional rack space.

UTILIZATION

I don't find that using the Apogee Ensemble to be hard at all, as everything is pretty user friendly and straight ahead. I wasn't involved with setting up the interface, although I really don't think that I'd have an issue doing so if I needed to. You set the level of the pres on the front with the input and output knobs. Even if you're new to audio interfaces, everything is pretty self explanatory, although I'd recommend having the manual around if you're new to this sort of stuff.

GETTING STARTED

In terms of the sound quality of the micpres and otherwise on the Apogee Ensemble, I have no complaints and only good things to say about it. As always with Apogee units, you're getting the best of the best in terms of A/D/A conversion, so you don't have to worry about that here. While the mic pres aren't the warmest sounding pres I've used, and they certainly won't match that of an analog console, they do have a very clean sound that will get the job done in more situations than not. The best part about this interface is that you can rest assured knowing that you are hearing exactly what you are sending into it and vice versa.

OVERALL OPINION

As far as compact audio interfaces go, the Apogee Ensemble is really one of the best out there. Of course it will cost you the price of a high end interface, but if you're serious about building a top notch studio without getting a huge console or investing a lot of money in top of the line preamps, this is one of the best deals out there. I highly respect Apogee from using their converters, and it is great to see that being transported to a compact audio interface like this one. Definitely check out the Apogee Ensemble if you're in the market for a high end firewire audio interface.