Apogee Mini-me & others, Pros & Cons Options

[deleted]

DigitMus said:

Just got a MiniMe and it absolutely blows the 828 out of the water!! 2 phenomenal mic preamps, limiting, compression (you can even tweak the ratios by opening the top of the box!) famous Apogee A-D conversion (+UV22) 96khz operation, and you can even use different sample rates/bit depths SIMULTANEOUSLY (i.e. 96/24 from SPDIF & AES/EBU, and 44.1/16 via USB). For me, the 828 is now an expensive doorstop.
Scott

Holli answered:

mini-me sounds very cool fidelity wise, how much do they go for roughly?
I could look on the web site  but what kind of outs does it have, also what is the driver system? I think I speak for everyone but please let us know how you get on DigitMus , now and as an ongoing concern. Maybe this warrants a new forum! I for one would love to follow it's progress.
Holli xxx

Teiwaz answered:

DigitMus,
Great to hear a fellow Apogee user talkin' loud!
I LOVE my AD-8000...Apogee rule, man!
Maybe we should open a new thread on the subject of the extremely exciting Apogee guys and their products...  :D

And now for the rest...
;-)

Bye.

[rickenbacker]

Holli - price of the Apogee last time I looked was around £1300. And the little leatherette carry pouch costs extra!

[Teiwaz]

Apogee do have high prices. But you do get what you pay for...superior sound quality...that's a major plus.

Apart from Prism (who make even nicer converters - horrendously expensive though) Apogee definitely are the best company out there, and that is more or less all they do - make AD/DA convertors, so they put all their time and resources into it. Dedicated hardware.

They don't make software (not that I'm aware of - except for the new ASIO drivers that support their firewire Ambus cards...I'm drooling now!!)



I have actually acquired new clientele since I invested into Apogee convertors. One friend of mine wanted to mix a couple of tracks at my studio and ended up mixing his entire album with me on my system so that he could get that 'unmistakable' Apogee sound...the AD-8000 actually paid for itself within the first 3 weeks of buying it!!!



The mini-me is just wonderful...and worth every penny! It's a bit like (with an i-Book or Titanium laptop) walking about with an Ampex 1/2 inch 30 ips reel to reel with Dolby SR under your arm!!



That is revolutionary in my eyes...



Anyway DigitMus...I'm envious 'cause I haven't got a mini-me yet! you're one lucky guy!

[holli]

Thanks rickenbacker, that is a fairly hot tag but worth it I'm sure!

Could someone explain how this would integrate with a DAW setup? For example, I understand that the preamps, or outboard preamps running in at line level would give the apogee edge A/D wise.. but, how about monitoring the mix inside logic? Eg. If I was to put one in my studio tomorrow, I would presumably need to run the spdif or AES outs into something like my 2408 to go analogue D/A to my monitors

Sorry if this sounds dumb, this is new to me!

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to an internal bounce inside logic/whatever sequencer compared to the digital outputs presented at the apogee?

Presumably one would need similar or superior D/A for monitoring, external bussing etc to appreciate the quality of the apogee gear and work with it to mix? Otherwise I'd just be hearing the D/A of the 2408.

Holli xxx

PS I think I may be asking if the mini-me is a top little portable interface for tracking only or if it has a place in the studio as well, like a junior AD-8000

[DigitMus]

holli -
The MiniMe has USB I/O and ASIO drivers for getting signal into your DAW. It also has a headphone jack for monitoring, either the input, or computer playback, or a mix of the 2. FWIW I paid about $1250 for mine. With just the MiniMe, my iBook and a pair of Earthworks QTC-1s or SR-77s I can carry everything I need for a world-class binaural recording in one small briefcase. Add the Sony Spressa and I can burn CDs on location. Gotta love it...

Scott

[holli]

thanks dude, I'm jealous!

Apogee kick ass, I'd love to get some info on the UAD ADDA and see if there's a new competetor in the Apogee/Prism field.

Is your poor 828 still a doorstop? How does the headphone output compare to the balanced outs on the 828 for monitoring, or do you have something else lovely tucked away in your studio!

[urbanmatador]

828 is a doorstop now!?!? high praise... what about latency? as i understand it, the USB bus has terrible latency troubles...

also, how do you reconcile the fact that you've only got two channels to work with? do you find that a limitation? if i need multichannel audio for my tibook, what product do people recommend?

[DigitMus]

Latency is pretty bad on it (like anything USB) so you'll need some kind of outboard monitoring situation (like a Mackie 1202) if you're gonna be overdubbing. I mainly got it for live to 2 track location recording, which it excels at. If I told you what I have in my studio, you'd faint.
Lemme put it this way, my portable multi-track location rig consists of a Mackie MDR24/96 w/AES cards, Crane Song Spider, HEDD192 and Flamingo, Earthworks 1024, Lucid 9624DA (for monitoring), Royer SF-12, 2 Neumann M149s, 2 Earthworks QTC-1s, 2 Earhtworks SR77s, and about 40 more mics if needed. The point of that blatant bragging is just to make the point that, if I only need 2 channels, all that stuff stays home, and the iBook, MiniMe and appropriate pair of mics are all I need to get the same sound quality. The dang thing rocks!

Scott

[holli]

Thats cool So, your minime gives you just enough information from the headphone out to get the placement right on location, and you can trust the quality of the apogee and the mics (and of course your familiarity with the kit) to be there when you get back to edit/mix -I think I understand now
I was thinking from a studio perspective, as a cheap way of getting that apogee sound. Is there a stereo in/out adda made by apogee? i.e to enable monitoring/bouncing from one of their convertors.

[urbanmatador]

Lemme put it this way, my portable multi-track location rig consists of a Mackie MDR24/96 w/AES cards, Crane Song Spider, HEDD192 and Flamingo, Earthworks 1024, Lucid 9624DA (for monitoring), Royer SF-12, 2 Neumann M149s, 2 Earthworks QTC-1s, 2 Earhtworks SR77s, and about 40 more mics if needed.

so what you're saying is, you've got a good kit.



i'm quite impressed. therefore, you are the perfect guy to answer my question. i do live theatre sound, and i'm looking for a hardware solution which will let me record multiple tracks while preparing for a show, then play back at least four indipendant channels through a piece of software that i'm developing (currently written in hypercard, going to cocoa in the next few months).

the recordings are mostly effects (hitting things, breaking things, etc.) or music for underscoring. quality is important (isn't it always?), but nobody is going to be listening carefully to my stuff in headphones.

all my research so far points to the 828 as the best candidate. firewire is easy, the hardware is rugged, the quality is above average (not WAY above, but above), and the price is right.

am i off base? should i be looking at other options? i've got WAY less money than DigitMus...

thanks in advance. that is cool, though, your setup.