The Apogee Electronics ONE is a single channel interface that does its job well. What is remarkable about a company like Apogee is that they essentially use the same brilliant components in all of their units, but design the number and arrangement differently in each one so that there is a maximum consistency between them all. In these regards, the Apogee ONE has the world class converters of digital to analog and analog to digital that Apogee is known for, in addition to its world class preamps which can drive something that needs a whole load of gain. I believe it has 63 dB of gain. What is even more remarkable about the Apogee ONE is the fact that this interface has its own built in condenser microphone. You may be thinking that this is just a gimmick, but in typical Apogee fashion, the condenser microphone actually compares with some of the better <200 condensers that are not quite flat, but certainly not overly bright either. You would be incredibly surprised at it; it absolutely blasts any condenser microphone out of the water under $100. I will put money down on that one.

UTILIZATION

The Apogee ONE is very simple. Plug it in. Play it. There really is nothing to it. It is great to just use the ONE with everything, and you can take it with you. You can pretty much replace the built in microphone on your Mac with this little machine. The knob is also used exactly the same way that the Duet's knob is used. Push to change function.

GETTING STARTED

This is simple. Everything is problem free with the ONE.

OVERALL OPINION

In the end, the ONE is a great alternative to the Duet, and as long as you do not anticipate having to do more than a channel at a time and you do everything in the box, this is a great, world class tool for songwriters to use. The built in microphone also makes this interface that much more useful than the Duet as long as you do not need the channels or the bit of extra gain from the Duet.