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Post by Guitar on Aug 16, 2018 8:07:50 GMT -6
I'm curious how you found the Apollo workflow annoying? I was thinking of picking one up now that they are on sale but I hate adding more steps or silly software mixers to my flow. Just a few things. You have a very limited number of alternate routes in the mixer, so if I wanted to use it sort of "standalone" as a slave interface with something else I'm only able to use half of the interface. It's also kind of clunky sharing drivers with other audio players, etc. I actually had to use a second interface for casual listening. It wouldn't change sample rates or something. Running out of DSP constantly for the plugins also kind of sucked. Maybe that was the worst one. It just seemed kind of complex, yet under-powered. I got a weird vibe about Apollos after a while. Buying all these plugins, only able to use a few. I would say try to go for a Quad at this point. They sound pretty good though. I wouldn't tell anyone not to buy one. Unison preamps are a good feature if you're not decked out with rack pres yet. I would almost say I just got tired of looking at it, or something. The decision to move on was more calculated than it was urgent. Another thing to note is I seem to buy and sell interfaces all the time, so maybe I didn't keep it as long as most people would have.
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Post by yotonic on Aug 16, 2018 9:55:11 GMT -6
That Presonous Quantum sounded great in the shootout against the Apogee Ensemble. How is the latency on it compared to the Apollo. Can you track instrument parts in real time without being off? What's your workflow for keys, guitar, vocal, etc
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Post by Guitar on Aug 16, 2018 15:00:28 GMT -6
That Presonous Quantum sounded great in the shootout against the Apogee Ensemble. How is the latency on it compared to the Apollo. Can you track instrument parts in real time without being off? What's your workflow for keys, guitar, vocal, etc Yes I finally feel like I have learned the sound of the Quantum. So I can do work now and not feel this crazy urge to buy a bunch of converters I'm used to, or have never heard before. It's just a very straight ahead sound, nothing fancy. Which is a big part of the attraction for me. It's one of those invisible sounding things. Latency, as far as I can tell anyway, is basically imperceptible. Clarett did not quite achieve this (they ran the same basic advert as Quantum, but they came up a bit short.) Apollo did OK. Apollo ties you to the Console mix window for cue mixing. I think the Quantum comes out ahead of the pack on that front, regarding latency performance. You can run fairly demanding sessions and keep the buffer quite low. It's been a minor revelation. I feel like Quantum is the only one of the three that really gets it right. If you're on-board with 2-3ms or less latency, and pretend it's not there, then you basically have a "real time" interface. Not technically, but in practice. Apollo has a complex and tedious system with proprietary plugins to "sort of" solve the same problem. Clarett is just a decent run-of-the-mill modern interface that works as you would expect. Same as things have worked for a long time. Clarett software is very easy to navigate, and ignore if needed. Apollo and Quantum are the ones that do things differently. "Track with plugins" (Apollo) well now I can do the same thing with Quantum and Cubase. I just tracked 11 tracks of drums "to tape" today by putting Softube Tape on every one of my drum input channels (red faders) in the Cubase mixer. But now my options are Native plugins rather than UAD. It was a fun experiment it definitely gave a "vibe" to the drum tracks that I haven't heard in a while. I'm not even sure if the Apollo would have had enough DSP to run that many UAD plugins. (I had a Duo and a Twin Duo.) My PC, on the other hand, is about a factor of 20X more efficient and powerful than a UAD Quad, running the same plugins (I did a test with the Elysia stuff.) So you get more "bang for your buck" with a native system like this one. I think UA plugins sound great though so I do keep a Quad Satellite here. I'd rather it be an Octo of course. Somebody mentioned it earlier in another post I think it was jeromemason "With a decently spec'd mac or pc and a UAD octo you are good to go these days." in terms of your core system. I was playing some keys today and the latency was a non-issue. I also checked a guitar amp mic in my headphones, vs the sound in the room, through Cubase channel listen, and the sounds blended so cleanly I couldn't really tell them apart, especially in terms of timing. It was like hearing the same sound at the same time. So at least for me, it is working as advertised. Even the dreaded "virtual guitar amp" test seems to feel all right. My workflow... I started with a bassline today (Waves Bass Slapper, fun instrument.) Just load it up and jam out the basic track. I knew I was going to add drums so I did play to a 190 BPM click. Drums I run into the other room and plug in my Shure in ear monitors (super important--I can't even really work properly with normal headphones.) The track is close enough for a demo so I do some very minor editing and mixing and move on. I overdubbed a reggae style electric grand very quickly, using the same MIDI keyboard from the bass riff that is right in front of me at all times. Then I slapped on the open back headphones and added a fusion/lead kind of weird electric guitar with a few pedals, through the Marshall DSL40C with Creamback speaker. e609 mic into Five Fish NK72DI preamp. Everything happens very quickly, the workflow is so smooth. Cubase is also fast since I've learned it halfway decently. I could have kept going with a vocal or something, but I didn't. The point is that my inspiration ran out before my workflow felt cumbersome. So basically if I'd had a really great idea I would have been able to keep chugging along. I could have kept at it for another hour at least. That's a good feeling thinking back on older times of sessions being interrupted by this or that technicality. Or those old sessions that hit a technical brick wall and everything goes on hold until it's sorted. It's something that gathers with time and practice, but the gear is obviously being utilized in this pursuit. Speaking of the PC/Quantum/DAW it's just pure sweetness.
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Post by yotonic on Aug 16, 2018 15:52:10 GMT -6
Sweet just ordered one! Thanks
Also interested in Studio One instead of Pro Tools, that apparently reduces the latency even further.
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Post by Guitar on Aug 16, 2018 16:02:54 GMT -6
Sweet just ordered one! Thanks Also interested in Studio One instead of Pro Tools, that apparently reduces the latency even further. Wow, cool, I'll be curious to hear your thoughts. Yeah I haven't even looked into the Studio One stuff yet, apparently it's all very tightly integrated.
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Post by yotonic on Aug 16, 2018 17:05:03 GMT -6
I bought the Studio One Pro upgrade, it looks interesting and I've blown enough money on Pro Tools upgrades. This upgrade for $149 is worth it.
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