Duet2 or ?????

[ezevic97]

Hi everyone , i have a situation with picking the right pre amp . i have an M-audio firewire 410 and it has performed very well for me. i later decided to get the duet2 and yes i noticed the difference in sound quality and although i feel my 410 is more natural sounding, the duet is very crystal clear. my problem is now is the duet is not stable. it keeps shutting out and most times my computer cant recognize it. So i have to keep rebooting, plugging and unplugging which has become quite a drag. is it because its usb not fire wire? and now im thinking about returning it and getting maybe the Mbox 3 pro, or any other amp that has firewire capability. So does any one has a better suggestion about getting a decent amp on the 800 range . thanks in advance

[triplets]

Try the Motu Track 16. Looks like the Duet but is firewire and usb and has way more I/O options.
Personally, I think the Duet 2 is overhyped, and yes, the USB flakiness is a pain.

[ezevic97]

just checked out the web site and i have to say motu is looking good right now but i have no experience with motu products just wanted to know if it is up to power with the duet cause the duet does sound very good but also limiting

[ezevic97]

and thanks triplets for the quick reply and suggestions

[triplets]

I've been using Motu stuff for the last 5 years and they have the best drivers out there. Great latency values, 2ms at 44.1 with 32 buffer.
Great sounding units, but I use additional mic pres that sound better than the apogee stuff.
For me the Duet sounds a little too bright, too hyped.
I would say go for it, you won't regret it.

[webstersp]

Might also check the RME babyface, in this price range can't be beat for sure!
I have never tried anything from motu but after reading a lot around this forum, MOTU seems to be ok, great bang for your buck.
But rme seems to be a big step up from Motu.
Best drivers, lowest latency, superb mic preamps, total mix fx is incredible and you can do everything you want with it. Also have ADAT if you need to add more inputs later!

Some reviews:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Babyface/reviews
http://www.musicradar.com/gear/all/comp ... 938/review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFrzKGBXNQ

[triplets]

I have never heard of anybody using the RME Babyface with Logic with a 32 buffer.

[webstersp]

I didn't but read plenty of reviews saying that with the babyface, getting 32 buffers with Logic and Presonus Studio One but Pro Tools 9 would only go down to 64.
I'll recevie my new mac retina in 2 days so I'll let you know.

[triplets]

ProTools will never go to 32, not even HD can do it.
Yes, let us know how the Babyface fares in latency, I'm really intrigued!

[ezevic97]

i think im going with the motu and RME has good reviews to0 but i dont really like the looks or the software it comes with. looks very complicated . i know looks dont count but the design sucks lol just saying

[David]

I like the Duet 2. MOTU is good but IMO Duet and RME are both one step above. I have used all three (brands) and don't feel like the RME software is any more difficult to use than the MOTU software. The Duet and its "Maestro" software probably trumps them both in that department.

[ezevic97]

hi David, i understand what you mean because i can hear the difference from the Duet compared to my MAudio firewire 410 but dont you think the Duet is a bit too bright?, and the usb thing kills me because i feel its one of the reasons the Maestro keeps messing . And yes the Maestro if very easy to use just like my firewire 410. i guess my main concern now is stability with this product .

[webstersp]

I have never heard of anybody using the RME Babyface with Logic with a 32 buffer.

From reviews on this site...

http://www.synthax.com/~synthax/index.php/babyface.html

Extremely easy to set up and operate. Very "dummy proof", and trust me I'm a technical moron. I had not one problem.
Getting 32 buffers with Logic and Presonus Studio One

another one:

the Babyface has absolutely no issues powering for mentioned mics and runs beautifully at 32 samples with LogicPro.

and you can find many other post in the RME forum that says the same thing, like this one:

Get a RME Babyface, there you can get down to play with a 32 buffer size, a much more tight feeling.

etc

[triplets]

hi David, i understand what you mean because i can hear the difference from the Duet compared to my MAudio firewire 410 but dont you think the Duet is a bit too bright?, and the usb thing kills me because i feel its one of the reasons the Maestro keeps messing . And yes the Maestro if very easy to use just like my firewire 410. i guess my main concern now is stability with this product .

Couldn't agree with you more.

[webstersp]

I once had the duet 2 and had problems with it also but sounded great and not to bright for me.
There's a post on another forum called: Apogee Duet 2 drivers are bad bad bad!
If you go to the few last pages they seems to have fixed the problems.
And when I had the duet 2 I emailed them to ask about my problems, too bad I received my reply few months later!

Dom, sorry for the late reply, we have issues with our ask apogee inbox.

Again sorry that you had issues with your Duet USB. In the early shipment days we were plagued with a problem of Duet not being recognized by a Mac. The problem in many cases became known as the "flashing A" issue. At the time we could not disclose that the issue was caused by a driver issue in Apple core audio, as soon as they released the latest firmware our issue disappeared! since then we no longer get the recognition issue.
As for reap, yes Duet actually has a feature that can be set within maestro that allows for reaping.

Hope this helps

Best

Jeremy

[damon]

I recently bought a Duet 2. I'm pretty impressed with it. Also, I've found the customer support to be excellent. Too bright? It seemed that way for the first couple of days: while I was realizing that what I thought was bass in my old set up was actually just mid range mush.

Also, you gotta update once in a while, guys. Apogee recommends the 10.7.4 update for Duet 2 users and they released an updated software installer (1.30) in May:

http://www.apogeedigital.com/knowledgeb ... -may-2012/

I'll be curious to see what Apogee might be able to do via a firmware update and new breakout cables to expand the i/o options in the future.

[ezevic97]

what is reaping?

[ezevic97]

and why cant it the duet go down to 32, im always at 128 to avoid the cracking noise?

[webstersp]

what is reaping?

Reamping

[ezevic97]

oops yeah reamping, whats that?