Logic Studio > Virtual instruments and Apogee Ensemble

Respiro wrote:
Hi,

I'm wondering, if I'll use Apogee Ensemble as interface [with iMac],
when I'll work with virtual instruments, I'll hear them "pumped up"
by the Apogee Ensemble?

??? No.

I mean, the Apogee Ensemble delivers its contribution when the signal
of the virtual instruments are simply going through it or only when
the virtual instruments are saved as wavs?

If you save your virtual instrument track(s) as WAV or AIFF, you will not hear a difference with the original track.
The AE doesn't 'deliver a contribution', it just converts the digital signal to analog, it doesn't alter any sound. It is an interface, not an effect.

regards, Erik.

If you bounce inside Logic, the output convertors have no bearing on the data.

Of course, when you listen to the bounce via playback, your convertors will have an affect, and if your output stage is better, that will affect the mix decisions on how you put the track together.

Of course, if you are recording real instruments, or insert processing with analog gear, that's when the output and input convertors get printed into the data as well, but when the interface is good and transparent, this won't have that much of an effect anyway...

The whole point of a good output stage is to hear what's going on accurately, not to implicitly make your mixes better by it's "contribution".

It let's you hear depth and warmth (if present) better than a cheap interface.

It doesn't change, in any way, the actual digital audio generated by plugins.

Respiro wrote:
saved through it as wavs?

If you use outboard gear for mix and processing i.e you route out your Software Instruments thru some of the Apogee outputs (analog/optical or digital), process them using some external analog or DSP processors and route back the processed sound to the Apogee Inputs ( i.e Logic Mix track ), then the mix may be different, rather than the Logic native Bounce.
If you use Logic bounce, then Apogee is just a monitoring device as was mentioned before. I agree if you have several devices and play same (previously) bounced Logic audio file thru the different devices they may sound different - this the test the audio engineers make in the laboratories.
Personally I own several devices and I prefer to use one for final mix monitoring (which is most "true" not "sweet or pumped"), some for recording, other for internal DSP processing, depends on the situation...

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