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Spiralsurfer

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  1. As it happens when the Mac Studio arrived it had Sonoma preinstalled, not Monterey as advertised, so I went with it as is and did a clean install of everything. After a couple of weeks use I'm happy to report that it's running great, with no issues with any major third party plugins. I did finally lose the use of my ancient Maschine MK I controller, but that wasn't even supposed to work on Monterey on my old MacPro, so I figure I had a good run with that.
  2. Thanks for your reply. Think I'll probably go to Ventura and see how it performs, then possibly go to Sonoma in another 6 months. I like the idea of going straight to the latest mac OS in theory, but past experience has taught me that's not usually such a great idea. There's almost always something that doesn't quite work as expected!
  3. Hi all, I've just bought a used Mac Studio M1 Ultra, which currently has Monterey installed. The 2013 Mac Pro I'm replacing also has Monterey running well with no plug in issues, but can't run the latest version of Logic Pro. Is it worth stepping up to Ventura on the Mac Studio so I can run the latest version of Logic? I'm planning on doing a complete fresh install of everything else on the Mac Studio, including plugins (there goes a weekend!) rather than migrating from the old Mac. My initial thought was to remain on Monterey, but maybe it's best to start by upgrading to Ventura, then install Logic and all my plugins. I could also bypass Ventura and go straight to Sonoma, but I'm a little wary of doing this, as I doubt everything I use is fully compatible yet, including graphics programs I use daily for work. Just looking to start with as smooth an experience as I can, definitely don't want to be troubleshooting technical issues if at all possible once I set this up. I'm keen to just dive in and start working with the extra power this upgrade is going to provide, so any experiences anyone can share would be greatly appreciated. Edit: After reading a few of the existing threads here now I'm tempted to go straight to Sonoma, seems like it's pretty good right now.
  4. Thanks for the info I had not known about these. You're welcome! Hope it helps.
  5. If you're willing to spend a bit, the Slate VSX headphones are great. They are very comfortable for long periods and they come bundled with software for room emulation that makes it much easier to mix on headphones and have your mix translate to speakers accurately. I like them a lot, expensive but worth it.
  6. I ended up receiving a replacement unit from the local retailer, a straight swap over for a new Duet 3 on the spot after arranging it with help from Apogee support in the US, which was a lot better than waiting 4-6 weeks for a repair assessment. I'm happy to say there have been no more issues after two weeks of constant use listening, recording and mixing, so it seems it was just bad luck getting a very rare faulty unit! Everything sounds awesome now and the Duet 3 is working very smoothly!
  7. I've definitely been guilty of this far too often. Even when I recognise it for what it is, procrastination, I still get caught up in it! It's far too easy to think that a new plugin or piece of gear will improve your music when in reality the only thing that will actually improve your music is time and effort with what you already have. Easy to say but not so easy to do sometimes! I've been sidetracked by looking at many new virtual instruments and sample libraries. It's not all bad though - the positive side is that whenever I'm lacking inspiration all I have to do is open a few of the latest libraries I've bought and within minutes I'll hear something that will spark an idea.
  8. No problem, if you do end up getting a Duet 3 let me know what you think once you've used it for a while. For monitoring I'm still using a pair of Mackie MR8s, still going strong after 12 years! Bought a matching Mackie sub a few years back as it handles the lows better. I did consider a UA interface too, but familiarity with Apogee and the new Duet won me over in the end!
  9. I should be receiving a replacement unit this week hopefully. The person I spoke to at the store seemed genuinely surprised there was an issue as they've apparently sold quite a few and no one else has reported any problems, so at this stage it seems it's a very rare fault. It's still possible that it's something in my system causing issues, which I'll find out for sure when I try out the replacement unit. I've been through all the potential software conflicts with Apogee support and it's still persisting, though seems to be happening less now, to further cloud the issue. I recently installed a new firmware update and the latest version of the Apogee Control software, and haven't had any issues in the last couple of days. As far as the interface itself goes, I love it. The stereo imaging is an improvement on the Duet Firewire I was using previously, and that sounded really good. The clarity is also superior, you really hear every detail of a recording, so much so that I've picked up new small details in albums I've been listening to for years. It's been great fun revisiting some of my favourite albums and production references. The low end is also tighter and punchier than on the Duet Firewire, it seems better defined. There also seems to be more detail in the mid and high frequencies, which I've noticed on delay and reverb effects in particular, and on amp sims. It makes it much easier to hear what those types of effects are actually doing to the source when mixing, and also makes it a real pleasure to listen to effect heavy albums just for enjoyment. One of my favourite recent soundtracks is Blade Runner 2049, and it sounds AMAZING through the Duet 3. I use my Duet 3 for roughly ten to twelve hours every day, for listening to music or podcasts while I'm working on graphic design projects and for recording and mixing in my spare time. The recording features plus the built-in DSP Symphony ECS Channel Strip are great, everything sounds really good tracked with the FX printed as I record and there's plenty of scope to adjust the EQ, compression and drive, with starting presets for various instruments and so on. The built-in effects are optional, you don't have to use them, but I like the way they can colour the sound and control the signal. The Duet 3 also has soft limiting for recording. There's plenty of gain available for instruments and mics, and you can adjust the Duet's recording input levels directly in Logic Pro. You can record or playback at anywhere from 44.1kHz to 192kHz. You can check your mixes in mono easily with the click of a button in the Apogee Control software, and also dim the monitoring level by an adjustable amount. It's also easy to setup direct monitoring or software monitoring. The Apogee Control software is easy to use and I've had no issues with anything else other than this random noise, which has been relatively rare. I'm very happy with the Duet 3 otherwise and looking forward to receiving a replacement unit so I can get back to just focusing on the great sound!
  10. That's a great idea David, thanks! I'll try that if the same issues persist once I have a replacement unit and I'll be sure to update this thread when all is resolved.
  11. Thanks for your reply David, it sure is. Apogee are organising a replacement with the local distributor to rule out any hardware fault, as we've tried just about everything we can think of. Sample rate mismatch was one of my early theories, but doesn't seem to be the case as when I deliberately try to create a conflict it doesn't trigger the issue. The Duet integrates pretty tightly with Logic, so it automatically follows the sample rate set there when Logic is open. No one else seems to have had this issue when I spoke to the local distributor, which is good news as it means a replacement unit should fix the issue. If by some chance there's something obscure in my system causing the glitch and it happens with a new unit I'm resigned to wiping the internal SSD and reinstalling everything from scratch, including the OS. This is a last resort, as I have a ton of applications and plugins that will need to be reinstalled! I figure if it comes to that I'll only install the stuff I use every day to start with, then gradually reinstall everything as I need it. I'll update this post and let you know how it all turns out! I should add Apogee support have been very helpful, responding quickly and with great attention to detail, so I'm sure this will be resolved one way or another soon.
  12. Hi all, I bought an Apogee Duet 3 a few months ago and love the sound of it, it's a great unit and a long-overdue upgrade from the trusty old Apogee Duet Firewire I used for 12 years. Unfortunately I'm having some issues with random bursts of digital noise (a high pitched beep lasting 1-2 seconds) during music playback. I don't recall hearing it happen in Logic, but it has happened in Apple Music (streaming or playing files on disk), Spotify and YouTube during playback. It happens most often when using Adobe programs simultaneously, like After Effects or Photoshop, but this could just be coincidence too as I use them most for work while listening to music. Has anyone else experienced this with their Duet 3? I've been going back and forth with Apogee Tech Support and they have been very helpful, but we still haven't managed to figure out what is causing the noise. It can happen any time but is infrequent, perhaps once or twice a week during near-constant use daily. I suspected it might be sample rate conflicts between audio programs, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've done some extensive troubleshooting with Apogee, deleting any old USB audio drivers and installing a new Duet 3 firmware update, reinstalling the Apogee Control software and more, but the problem persists. Hoping someone else may have had similar issues and solved it!
  13. I just did this the other day. I had previously installed Sierra on my 2008 MacPro using this same method, and it has been running great, so I thought I'd take the plunge and upgrade to High Sierra. I was reluctant to do it as I'd read reports that the Apogee Duet firewire would no longer work with High Sierra, but then I saw several people had managed to make the upgrade and retain Duet functionality so I decided to risk it. So far, so good. Everything seems to be working fine, though there was an issue with an Apple security update installation hanging and preventing startup which meant I had to reinstall High Sierra again. Since then it has been pretty good as far as I can tell. I've been opening Logic projects and recording with no major issues. Logic feels a little snappier overall. Templates definitely load a lot faster I also use my Mac for fairly heavy Photoshop use and it all seems fine. I definitely made sure I had a complete backup ready just in case it broke something seriously though and I'd always recommend doing the same.
  14. Sorry, just realised I was logged in to a Singapore server via Torguard - I did use my Australian App Store account though, so I figured it was using the Australian server. Maybe that was enough to download it from a different Apple server altogether. I tried a US Los Angeles based server before that and it didn't work, but it appears the Singapore one did.
  15. Looks like Apple fixed the download package on the Australian App Store - just installed 10.4.4 with no issues. The download size changed from 861MB to 1.45GB so I'm guessing the installer was incomplete before.
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