For instance, you could treat the outputs of these guitar inputs as dedicated effects loops, allowing you to record wet and dry signals to separate tracks. And on the input side, although the first eight inputs are all capable of accepting line-level signals (and offer switchable +4 or -10 sensitivity options), they will only do so on XLRs. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. Quote? If its feature set is what you're looking for, Ensemble is an ideal centrepiece for any Mac-based desktop or mobile studio, especially if you're using Logic Pro. The Ensemble brings Apogee's hardware and software technologies to an easy-to-use, high-quality Firewire audio interface. PreSonus Quantum Thunderbolt - 1.33ms. Good. They really set out to raise the bar this time. Add to Cart. The unit was purchased new in 2016. Guitarists will love its built-in re-amping facilities. Ensemble Thunderbolt Review „Apogee has upped the ante yet again, with a definitive upgrade from more affordable units such as the Duet and Quartet. Just checkin' ... the plots are a 1k sine thru the A/D? Different converter chips & DC coupled converters for a start. Maestro software looks a little dated, and its low-latency cue mixing facilities lag behind the competition. AFAIK direct memory access is standard in pcie bus communication, which is basically what thunderbold is about. Just haven't seen any reviews of it yet. The DC coupled converters offered in the Symphony, Hilo, & Motu AVB are not conjecture. There are very significant differences. Thunderbolt 3 is backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt 1 devices so any Apogee Thunderbolt device will work through this adapter with no reduction in performance, latency, or sound quality. Very good to see. And with no facility to show/hide, re-size or re-order the channels, anyone working on a small screen will quickly tire of scrolling left and right to keep tabs on all their inputs. The Test. Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt Specification. Message Seller. We have 1 Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt manual available for free PDF download: User Manual . Registered Office - Suite 19, Maple Court, Grove Park, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 3LW. If you stated this as your opinion it would be a valid statement but your willingness to state it as fact completely invalidates it. Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt Audio Interface. I am not sure how you got this conclusion. It’s an arrangement that is adequate for most real-world purposes, but it feels a little basic compared with what’s possible in current rivals from the likes of RME or MOTU. For one thing, although the Ensemble Thunderbolt retains its antecedent’s word clock and coaxial S/PDIF input and output, it adds a second optical input and output, permitting up to 16 channels of 24-bit digital audio to be piped in and out at base sample rates. Yea I've also been looking into the Motu 1248. The best practice amp for recording and why miking amp ... Nuisance neighbour evidence..Need some recording advice. Each input also has its own dedicated select button; pressing and holding this brings up the complete list of parameters that can be adjusted for that input, including input type, polarity, phantom power, high-pass filtering and so on. Most of the Ensemble Thunderbolt’s I/O is found at the rear of the unit, which was obviously quite a logistical challenge, hence the inclusion of a D-sub port for the majority of the analogue outputs. Line outputs: stereo monitor output on quarter-inch jacks plus eight line outputs on D-Sub. For example, they can dim or mute main or headphone outputs, collapse them to mono, clear the meters, switch the mode of the guitar outputs (see box) and engage alternate monitoring paths. The New Ensemble is not out yet. Connect two Ensemble Thunderbolt interfaces or an Ensemble Thunderbolt and an Element Series interface to your Mac and expand your studio. No sir it's you that do understand what conjecture means. Whatever the four Assignable buttons are assigned to, pushing the Output encoder acts as a mute control, which is handy. What didn't you like specifically and what do you currently use? However, Pro Tools 11 was happy to work at all the sample rates I tried. The colour display on the left normally shows small but detailed vertical bar-graph meters for all 10 inputs, with the upper third or so depicting configuration parameters for whichever input is ‘in focus’ at the time. I'm actually really surprised the Ensemble 2 hasn't gotten any complaints about using the same DA conversion as the Duet 2/Quartet. ... Sweden, and has a particular intrigue with Apogee Ensemble. Each of these has a dedicated quarter-inch output socket, which can be switched to emit either the direct signal from its associated input, or a software return from your DAW. The range of available options is broad, and almost all of them are potentially useful. The Maestro software’s mixer page.As well as various configuration options and input and output routing matrices, Maestro offers four low-latency cue mixers. Other I/O: built-in talkback mic, word clock in and out. You can then apply as much preamp gain as you need to get the DI’d signal into your DAW at a healthy level, without changing the level of the signal going to the amp. Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates & SOS. A nice touch is that when you press one of the Assignable buttons, a message flashes up on the Output display telling you what it is you’ve just done. There are separate, balanced quarter-inch jacks for send and return, so you can plumb a line-level source into the insert return using a conventional cable. Wasn't for me. Funny how they market "Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine to more efficiently read and write data directly to Mac memory independent of the Mac CPU" as an innovate feature. Online Guides. However, I think the "forest is being missed for the trees." Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt Audio Interface. Things are arranged somewhat differently on its Thunderbolt descendant. Show all. Gear Locker. Apogee Ensemble is the first Thunderbolt 2 audio interface to offer superior sound quality, the lowest latency performance and the most comprehensive studio functionality all in one box. Seems like the actual conversion is great but the analog stages are built by measurement and not by ear at all. At 44.1kHz, this equates to a round-trip latency of about 3.6 milliseconds, which is pretty impressive. Neat front-panel design with good visual feedback. Excellent low-latency performance and comprehensive hands-on control means many users won’t need the bundled Maestro utility. This is a shame; admittedly, once the Ensemble is plumbed into your studio, there are aspects of its configuration that are unlikely to change, but it would be very handy to be able to store things like gain settings, input names and cue-mix setups as starting points for different recording sessions. Each makes available all of the interface’s audio inputs, along with a single stereo software return, and can be routed to any or all of the Ensemble’s output pairs. Show all. The flagship new feature is of course the replacement of the old FireWire interface with the newer, faster Thunderbolt interface. Karloff has one and commented that it reminded him of the Symphony a lot. You may login with either your assigned username or your e-mail address. Everything that can be done from the front panel is also configurable in Apogee’s Maestro utility. This arrangement ups the total I/O count, and gives you a possible total of six high-impedance inputs, should you ever encounter six guitarists who wish to DI their instruments simultaneously. All rights reserved. Brilliant. In recent years, however, Apple computers have been shedding Firewire ports, leaving Ensemble users dependent on Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptors. By using this site, you agree to our use of cookies. OS: 10.9.3 or greater. Austrian Audio OC818 Dual Set Plus microphones. The distortion and noise I measured when analyzing it also supported this. Session Notes: Recording Voiceovers At Sea, Distant City Studios - A Drum Room With A Difference, Mastering Essentials Part 6 - Final Delivery: Requirements & Specs. The 2015 and 2016 12″ MacBook, shown here, do not include a Thunderbolt port. Apart from the cue mixers and the function of the assignable buttons, almost every Ensemble Thunderbolt parameter can be quickly and easily adjusted from the front panel; while Apogee believe that the unit’s excellent low-latency performance (see box) renders Maestro’s cue-mixing features redundant in most applications. The level of control over the inputs that is available from the front panel is vastly improved over the Firewire Ensemble, as is the amount of visual feedback available. Personally, I see a "problem-solver" of an interface that when combined with a new MacBook Pro or Mac Pro is hard to beat. Given that the Ensemble Thunderbolt can operate at latencies comparable with Pro Tools HDX, I think that’s fair enough, and I’m sure most of us would rather handle everything from our DAWs where possible. On the subject of Thunderbolt, the new Ensemble is not actually supplied with a Thunderbolt cable, despite its £2000$2500 price tag, so you’ll need to provide your own. Incorporates a clever guitar re-amping arrangement. Apogee Ensemble is the first Thunderbolt 2 audio interface to offer superior sound quality, the lowest latency performance and the most comprehensive studio functionality all in one box. This is understandable, but it certainly had me scrabbling around at the bottom of the cable drawer, and the fact that the XLR connectors are shared with the mic preamps means that it’s possible to accidentally apply 48V phantom power to a line source if you fail to switch the input out of microphone mode.