Apogee Quartet

I like te gain of the preamp (75 dB!) and they sound really good, with very low noise. I have a MacBook Pro Retina and sE EGG monitors.

UTILIZATION

The drivers are pretty stable on my MacBook Pro Retina, and I don't have any problem. I use Cubase 7.

GETTING STARTED

The mixer is very easy to use, I can monitor quickly my microphone.

OVERALL OPINION

The price is a little high, but the preamps are great, and the interface is pretty stable.Plus, the OLED screen and the look are awesome !

The Apogee Quartet is a Mac based USB interface that offers 24 bit resolution and four mic pre amps. It has 4 inputs and 8 outputs. The pre amps are extremely good and they should be for this unit costing over 1200.00 dollars! Installing his interface was pretty simple, it only took us about 20 minutes to install it in the personal studio on campus. We have used this interface to record some acoustic and electric guitars with it and the quality is amazing. This is the best interface that you can have right now for a personal set up running a Mac system. We have used this interface to record into Pro Tools and even Logic on multiple occasions. It will work great with either set up that you might have.


UTILIZATION

The Apogee Quartet just sits on your desktop, it can not be racked and you plug it in through USB. Being that the Quartet is fairly new it will be interesting to see if any bugs or driver issues come up in the next year. We just got this interface on campus last week, I am privileged to be the one who go to use it first and go through the installation process. I am not getting any latency, which really isn’t possible but the latency is very minimal.


GETTING STARTED

To this point, we have not had any driver or compatibility issues. As I stated this just came out so its kind of new and only time will tell how it will play out. I don’t see any issues popping up in the future because of how simple it was to install. The manual is easy to read through, I didn’t take a glance at it out of curiosity on some of the features that the Quartet has to offer.


OVERALL OPINION

The Quartet is a great interface so far, I can not wait to record with it some more. All of the functions are right on the main panel of the interface and so are the LED’s showing your levels and activity. I have used a lot of Apogee interfaces and this one is better than a lot of them. It is also pretty expensive. The sound quality is crystal clear. Start saving up to get the Quartet!

I was looking for a sound card with these criteria:

- Very high quality converters
- With digital input Adat
- Stereo audio with at least 2 inputs
- To use it with my iPad and my iMac
- That this card to charge my iPad while I'm using it
- Format desktop

UTILIZATION

No problems with installation. On the Mac, you plug it rolls ^^ What's a driver ????

I use Ableton Live Suite 9 on iMac and iPad Auria. Well recognized card.

I use coupled with a Behringer ADA8000 Ultragain. It allows me to have 2 analog stereo inputs + 8 mono inputs (or 4 stereo inputs) of the ADA8000. What makes me 6 stereo inputs! 6 synths connected in a small footprint, it's magic!

I love the whole "I zap between sedentary or mobile use." I plug the iPad and it keeps me turning the iMac if it's just to save a few ideas in Auria. And if I want to work with more tools, just a cable to exchange and hop is on the iMac.

The Maestro application (free to download) provides easy entry into the bowels of this beautiful card: one makes routing inputs / outputs.

GETTING STARTED

Installation a snap. The longest is to connect all the instruments)
No conflict (what for ???
Hardly need the manual.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it since January 2014 and this is happiness.

Given my criteria above, this card is perfect for MY use. Of course, dear, but beware the quality is totally there! Ultra quiet converters, high quality.

You have a Mac / iPad and earch card high quality? Need not look any further, seriously.

Its format is nice, it's not one of those flat maps we do not know where to put. OLED screens are great, everything is clear, everything works. The bottom line for me is that in the end the sound is good. And that's perfectly appropriate.

I would do the purchase with eyes closed, for example if one came to me prick for a concert!

What characteristics have motivated your choice?
8 outputs (6 lines symmetrical + 1 stereo headphone used as additional independent unbalanced line output), USB connectivity, ease of use, reputation Apogee, the look!

For what purpose?
Mixing and mastering in Protools, mainly when I'm not in the studio. Hardware inserts the inputs / outputs of the Quartet

What is your config (Motherboard / CPU / Ram / Hard, ...)?
Mac Mini 2.3GHz i7 8GB RAM

Which instruments and systems (console, preamp, DTD ...) you use it and how connections? ...
Connected to an SSL X-Desk

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable?
Generally yes, although I noticed some bugs in Protools especially using long the device. Not bad "CPU overload" when the buffer is 1024, and the CPU usage even at 15% ... Nothing bad but probably due to the USB which is still much less reliable than the Firewire well. Logic with no concern on the other hand.

Are they often updated?
I have not seen an update in 6 months

What software do you use most often?
Protools

What you get lag?
I did not measure!

How many tracks you get record / playback simultaneously? ...
I do not record that I mix, but the card cash smoothly 4-track recording and 8 output

GETTING STARTED

Simple installation, just download the software from the Apogee website.

Everything is then very fast. The Maestro software is pretty well done and easy to use.

OVERALL OPINION

I kept this card only two months since I moved to another system. It took me 16 tracks output to the warning on my SSL. I am now on a Metric Halo 2882 Expanded 2D and Rosetta 800 connected top and synchronized ADAT WC (Rosetta is the master).

As mentioned above I did not recorded it with the Quartet, but I tested the preamps for the price they are pretty good, but very neutral.

So I can make / compare Rosetta Quartet, and also with the MH even if it's not the same kind.

The Quartet has very good converters, but not at all neutral. Apogee is known for producing colored converters but this is a little "too much". The Quartet has a very distinctive hi-fi sound, that is to say, a lot of low and midrange dug. We do not find the sweetness of the usual treble at Apogee, those of the Quartet are a little dry.

I find the more neutral than the Rosetta Quartet! But Rosetta is considered a colored converter ... If we compare the two, the Rosetta has more accurate, the less mushy and less "extreme" mediums least dug more musical and sweeter treble. Overall, Rosetta is nicer, more musical and sweeter, but less "bright" as the Quartet. I too agree with those who say that the Quartet is the same level as the Rosetta or better. For cons, the stereo image of the Quartet is wider than the Rosetta chouilla.

Digression now when compared to the Quartet MH: I'm not a big fan of HD sound, I find it cold, aggressive and narrow. The Quartet is more musical and stereo much broader picture. Ok the MH is neutral, that is true but not especially pleasant. As against the MH has much more punch, ideal for drums. Here I think it is a matter of taste.

To summarize: the Quartet is rather intended for home studio use, in order to flatter the mixes, Rosetta is rather intended to use in a pro studio to convert the signal faithfully while adding a slight analog coloration. It does not mean that the Quartet is bad, far from it, I still mixed and even mastered a few projects with this card, making back and forth with the analog hardware, customers were happy and me too. Sounds and it's the job, just need to be aware that it adds a little low and it deepens mediums.

In short, the Rosetta is doing well for a machine that is 10 years old ... He should know that today a Rosetta is cheaper than a new opportunity in Quartet. It all depends if you are looking for mobility to sacrifice quite a bit of quality, good preamps and 4, or a converter without quality preamp and not mobile at all.