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Apogee Preparing to Launch 'Quartet' Portable Audio Interface for Mac Music Professionals

Apogee Electronics has long been one of the most highly-regarded manufacturers of professional audio equipment for Mac users, with the company's Duet 2 portable recording interface being one of its key products. The Duet 2 features dual inputs and an OLED display to help users make studio quality recordings in a wide variety of settings.

Apogee is now teasing an announcement for September 4 with the tagline "It's what you've been waiting four" hinting at a quad-input product. The partly shadowed image of the device on the teaser page appears to show a device larger than the Duet 2 but still carrying the same iconic controller knob seen on the company's portable interface boxes.


While full details on the product have yet to be revealed, the company appears to have briefly leaked an unmasked image of the device on its site yesterday. Controls on the box hint at four separate inputs, as well as some likely user-assignable touchpad keys as seen on the Duet 2.

A listing for the Apogee Quartet has appeared on Musician's Friend with a price of $1395 and an expected availability date of September 11.

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10 months ago
That price is pretty silly.
Rating: 6 Positives
10 months ago

why even consider one of these at that price. a UA apollo is about $2000. if your going to spend a grand plus might as well save for the best i/o box on the market right now.


You're aware that the beat i/io boxes cost a lot of money, right? You're also aware that many people think that Apogee makes some of the best interfaces, right?

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loved my apogee duet (firewire) but when i upgraded my macbook pro, with no firewire 400 - i wasn't about to buy a bunch of more cables and adapters - so i sold it.


You sold an Apogee Duet that you supposedly loved because you couldn't be bothered to buy a $6 adapter?
Rating: 4 Positives
10 months ago

loved my apogee duet (firewire) but when i upgraded my macbook pro, with no firewire 400 - i wasn't about to buy a bunch of more cables and adapters - so i sold it. all the other similar price range interfaces look too bulky and don't sound worthy at all. *sigh*,


You let go of one of the best portable stereo interfaces around just to avoid using a small $13 FireWire 800 adaptor (http://www.macfixit.com.au/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=645)?
Rating: 3 Positives
10 months ago
At that price I'll stick with my RME FireFace. It still works fine.
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago
if this doesn't have 3x adat in and out, AES/EBU jacks, wordclock ... that's a lot of dough.

does it have inserts post-pre's/pre-A/D for hardware eq/compression should someone want to do that?

that's a bizarre price-point for a 4-in.
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago
Sad to say, but it's impossible to know if it is worth the money until you hear it. I know this seems odd to some, but the value in a audio interface is the audio quality. Geez, can't believe this is such a hard concept (unless of course if you can't hear the differences.)
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago
Get one of these for a quarter the price and it has amazing sound, great Mic-pre's, and excellent design/ergonomics.



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/811296-REG/Lexicon_IO42_I_O_42_USB.html (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/811296-REG/Lexicon_IO42_I_O_42_USB.html)
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago

How much?!
I could get a Protools HD rig for that money!


You're absolutely right! However, if you've ever heard the results that you get from the Duet then you'd know that this is definitely worth a look. The quality of DA conversion in Apogees products is quite staggering IMO.
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago
How much?!
I could get a Protools HD rig for that money!
Rating: 2 Positives
10 months ago

Praise Sweetwater! I'm also from Fort Wayne, so I'm a bit partial. :) Even an order under $100, I still get a personal email asking how things are going in the Carolinas.


Absolutely. Sweet water ROCKS. I initially ordered after their business hours. The next morning I got a call from a sales rep asking if I needed any additional info or had any questions regarding the Apollo. Excellent customer service from those guys !


Regarding the Apollo...... Yeah it's a lot of money to spend, but the flexibility, level of I/O (that I was coming from anyway), the UA plugins, the CPU offload to the Apollo, all make it money well-spent.
I'm sure I could've gotten away with the dual instead of the quad, but I didn't want to end up wondering "Should I have gone for the quad?".

Anyhow, recording @ 88.2 I had no hiccups, except when using Amplitude 3 I got some clicks and pops, but that is unique to that plugin. Playback sounds great. I'm still getting used to the unit, but I just read that you can use it to not only track in realtime with the UA plugs, but you can also use it to MIX using the plugs realtime as well, using their Console application. I just need a solid couple of days of doing nothing but experimenting with Apollo.

Oh yeah, not sure if this is "common knowledge" but it might help someone. I found a video on MacProVideo.com that spoke about using the I/O plugin in Logic to determine your interface's latency.
You turn your monitors OFF, route a cable from input 1 on your interface to output 1. Then you create a new track, select Input 1 as the input. Then place the I/O plugin on the new track. Then you hit the "ping" button and it will return a value, in samples. Write that value down,and then retest at other sample rates / buffer settings. Mine were all close to -83 samples. Take that number, and add it to the presample delay slider in Logic Preferences / Audio. Then you will end up with zero recording delay. I may be explaining that incorrectly, so check out the link below.

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/logic9207

All three videos in that link are free previews. Hope that helps someone.
(FYI..... my value for the MOTU Ultralite was -28).
Rating: 1 Positives

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