Apogee Duet and Firewire

Thought i'd just post a little update. It turns out my duet unit was faulty, and i was able to return it and get a new one since i'd had it less than a month (only just). After i described the problems to apogee tech support they suggested i return it for a new one. Anyway i've since been using the new unit for over a month and have not had a single problem. It's basically been perfect.

It also comes up as a different name in my devices list "duet (0458)" instead of "duet (1392)", so i suspect apogee may have made a few revisions to it. It also has a different manual that says v1.6 May 2008 on it. I was using the latest drivers for both units.

So basically i don't want to discourage anyone from getting a duet if they read my previous post. I've heard a lot of people having issues with white macbooks and agere firewire, but i'm running it on a white macbook just fine. Just make sure you get the latest version of the duet ordered in from your importer. v1.6 May 2008.

Has anyone got a definitive answer for the Duet static problem. I,m using Duet 0893, Driver v2.4.2fc7, Firmware v1.2. It's giving me the *****.i downloaded the latest drivers I contacted tech support and was told to hold down the control knob to reset, still randomly starts to static.

Hi Guys

I was going to do a new topic but I guess I may as well ask my question here.

I have been looking at audio interfaces and was basically wondering why the Duet costs so much more than many other interfaces that also have just two inputs...is it just down to the sound quality of the thing? And is it worth the extra cash?

Cheers

Sam_BFC wrote:>

...is it just down to the sound quality of the thing? And is it worth the extra cash?

Cheers

Yes and yes.

I was experiencing problems with the Apogee Duet and my MacBook Pro recently and was unable to find any posts directly related to the issues I was having. It ended up being a Firewire issue and I hope to save anyone some time with what I learned from my snafu.

Basically, my MBP would recognize the Duet only sometimes and when it did, it wouldn't transmit sound properly- intermittent and unresponsive. Troubles would exponentially grow as I fumbled with settings in Logic, Apogee Maestro (tried multiple versions), and my sound preferences which would actually completely hang the computer giving me the spinning beach ball of death. After exchanging Duets and swapping Firewire cables, and even a clean install of Leopard, I was frustrated to say the least.

I had an e-mail support ticket with Apogee bouncing back and forth, but decided to just call their tech guys and go through the motions in real time. After I tried a number of things he suggested with no success, I had him stumped as well. We were both suspecting a Firewire connection issue despite the fact that the Duet was always receiving power (indicated by the green LED lights). It was near the end of the call that he suggested one last ditch effort:

*Power the MacBook Pro off, disconnect the power cable, disconnect the MacBook Pro battery, and wait 15 minutes. Then, re-attach battery and cable and turn it on.*

He told me he had heard that this "resets" the firewire ports. Well, it sounded desperate but I decided it was worth a try before going to the service department at my local authorized Apple dealer. Somehow this worked! I've tried repeating different things on my computer that had caused the problems I had been experiencing, and everything worked perfectly. I hope that if anyone experiences the same strange problem, that this helps them before they completely lose it! Otherwise, I would suggest calling Apogee Tech support as I found them very polite and helpful.

*Apogee Technical support: 1-310-584-9394*

Hey
I am looking to get a white macbook and use it with the apogee duet.I am looking to record using logic 8 and I will be recording guitar,bass,and my vocals.I am wondering if the white macbook is going to be able to perform properly with the apogee duet.I read that you are using a white macbook with the duet.I do not want to experience any complications while recording my music

Thomas

I definitely what had the same problem and found Apogee tech support quite helpful. It turns out there was a conflict between the multiple external firewire drives I have plugged into my system. They suggested that I try unplugging and re-plugging in my drives in different orders until I found a combo that DIDN'T cause the static problem. Now that I've found such a combo (which obligates me, annoyingly, to keep 2 of out of my 6 drives unplugged whenever I'm working in Logic to avoid the problem), the static thing is at least controllable. Even with all drives plugged in, another quick fix (as others may have mentioned), is to open up Audio Midi Setup and quickly click on the sample rate until it resets itself...
- Rob

My Duet will do that too, When I attempt to use Isight/Ichat, the Duet will go into distortion. Once I stopped using that, everything was fine.. Occassionally the duet seems to act up when something else is on the firewire buss.

But it happens so randomly now, (maybe once every 5 - 10 weeks), I just restart computer, and all is ok again.