Alternative to Apogee Duet?

Hi,

Have you contacted our tech support about the static issue?
Your profile says you are running 10.4.6? If that is correct you will need to at least go to 10.4.11 and make sure you have the latest Duet updates from our website. If you are up to date and still having the static, please contact tech support (310)584-9394 and I'm sure they can get this sorted out for you.

Chris Lawson
Apogee Electronics

I had a problem with my Duet too and worked with Jeff in Apogee Support. He was very helpful, but my problem never got resolved. I returned the first one because the best guess we could make was that it must have been defective, and ended up returning the second one as the static never went away and it finally just died. It was under store warranty and I ended up getting a MOTU Ultralite instead because I just didn't want to bother with futzing with the Duet anymore. I really wish Apogee had been able to solve the problem because when it was working the Duet really was dead easy to use with Logic and it sounded incredibly good, but I was pretty frustrated. Apogee should be on the lookout for two Duets returned from the Boston Guitar Center and maybe they can figure it out. The MOTU is more complicated to use but I didn't notice any drop off in quality, and it works really well with Logic. I'd have preferred to have stayed with Apogee because they seem like a great company but after having mysterious problems using the Duet for months, my patience was at an end.

I have no doubt that there must an issue with some units based on the experiences noted here, but for the record my Duet worked from the first moment it was turned on, without issue. It was the best sound A-D and D-A that I've heard next to the Rosetta 200, and I'm not sure I could hear much of a difference. Unfortunately I need to use Pro Tools at this point so I did sell it, but it was tremendous unit.

TH

Derihr -- Q for you. I have static problems now and again with my Duet, as well as audio-MIDI sync errors. I usually can resolve the problem by shutting everything down and rebooting the computer; if it persists I reload the drivers.

Anyway, are your projects mostly MIDI/software instruments? I am probably way off here, but sometimes I think the Duet has some basic issues with MIDI.

The only times I have problems with the Duet is when I use it as a sound output for my iTunes and then use it for Logic without restarting the computer. I guess it's because the sample rate for iTunes is usually 44.1 and in Logic I use 48. But it's just a guess.
I never have problems when I use the Duet only for Logic.

Anyway, there are alternatives from Motu, Digidesign, Presonus etc. You'll just have to find what is best for your needs.

Cheers

Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a 100% problem-proof audio interface. Although I always thought MOTU were rock-solid, there's currently a problem with 828mkII, 828mkIII and Ultralite. It generates a digital screech quite often and there's no solutionn yet. It happens either on Mac or PC and I know at least two different people with two different setups with the same exact problem. There's a two-page topic at Motunation about that problem. We'll probably have to wait for a firmware or drivers upgrade. I don't want to put down MOTU but I just want to show that there will be always problems with one or either, depending on how lucky we are...seems the computers' fate...!

That said, although I still hate the breakout cable, I have yet to find something better than the Duet.