The Duet USB Audio Interface for iPad, Mac and Windows 10 from Apogee is a portable audio interface that builds on the success of the Duet 2 by adding compatibility with Windows 10, Mac, and iOS devices. For Mac users, it provides a direct digital Lightning connection that allows for DC charging of the Apple. The Apogee Duet is an award-winning audio interface, headphone amp and MIDI interface making it easy to create professional recordings anywhere on your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or Mac. With Apogee's legendary digital audio conversion and world-class mic preamps, Duet is the best way to capture your music with incredible dimension and detail. A) Open the App Store and on the search bar type in “Apogee Maestro”. The app will come up and you can download it from there. B) This second method requires that you connect your Apogee Interface compatible with iOS (ONE, Duet or Quartet) to your iPad/iPhone: 1) Go to SettingsGeneralAbout. The Apogee duet for iPad and Mac offers a full color OLED display that gives you visual feedback for a number of functions, including metering, input/output value levels, muting, Phantom power, and more. All of this information is also available in the convenient and well designed Maestro software for iOS. Apogee Duet sets the industry standard for portable professional audio recording on Mac and iPad. Made for the musician, producer and engineer that wants the ultimate sound quality and elegant simplicity, Duet features legendary Apogee AD/DA conversion, two world-class microphone preamps, USB MIDI I/O and ESS Sabre32 DAC technology.
The Duet 2 was reviewed in the March 2013 issue of SOS, but Apogee have already released an updated version of the design suitable for use with both iOS devices and Macs and, to make this absolutely clear, the new name is Duet For iPad & Mac.
The plus points noted in the Duet 2 review remain: typical Apogee sound quality, a useful (but small) OLED screen, assignable touch-pads... But by revising the internal hardware to support iOS devices, Apogee have significantly widened the appeal of the Duet to include all those who wish to make high-quality audio recordings on a mobile device as well as on their Mac.
The rear panel of the new Duet features a further socket that will please those of you who held off buying the Duet 2 because of its lack of MIDI support: a USB type A socket supporting 16 channels of MIDI I/O. It has to be said, though, that the omission of a USB cable from the supplied cables seems a little stingy on Apogee's part, especially given that this is not exactly a budget interface. On the other hand, you do get a dock connector (old-style 30-pin) to mini-USB lead (which powers your device and conforms to Apple's 'Made For iOS' program), a mains adaptor and a breakout cable with two XLR/TRS combi input sockets and two TRS output sockets. Owners of iOS devices with Lightning connectors will need a suitable adaptor.
Most of the features of the free Maestro II software for Mac have been ported across to the free Maestro iOS app, including volume controls (which update the position they display depending on the position of the single hardware control) and switchable soft limiting to guard against clipping. One feature missing from the Maestro app is the ability to switch sample rate. Due to the nature of iOS, this is achieved within the app used for recording, if that app supports multiple sample rates. Rates of 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz are supported by iOS itself, so an app like Auria would allow you to record at this rate using the built-in hardware or the Duet, but you are only likely to hear the benefit using the Apogee. GarageBand's sample rate is non-selectable, and so remains fixed at 44.1 kHz.
I was, as usual, impressed with the sound quality afforded by Apogee's gain circuitry and A-D/D-A converters. The rogue noises noted in the Duet 2 review when adjusting input gain are still there, and are especially noticeable the first time you adjust gain after selecting a new channel; almost as if the pots are dirty! That's a bit odd, considering that this is an all-digital system.
Apogee Duet Ios Mac
The Duet 2 was a good bet for Mac, so this new Duet has become a great choice if you want an interface with independent headphone and speaker outputs that will support capture and playback of high-quality audio from both your Mac and your iOS device.
£670.
