Apogee newbie

[Bunion]

So I purchased an Apogee Quartet from our very own @johnbiffa for a bit of personal home recording (Bass and drums) to start with, then hopefully moving on toward passing some tracks around between friends. 
My quandary, do I go desktop, notebook or iPad? 
I kind of like the idea of simplicity with the iPad and the mobility of the notebook/iPad route, (I do travel for work) but would I be served better with a fixed desktop  to start with?

If the iPad route what would be the model to go for?

I’m open for used with any option.

Cheers 🍻 

 

[Owen]

If you are recording audio then an iPad hard drive is going to fill up astonishingly quickly. 

[BigRedX]

That definitely a "how long is a piece of string" type question. Ultimately it will depend what sort of recording you want to do with it. If it's basically just for capturing ideas for some writing then pretty much anything will do. However if you get more serious about recording you might want something with a bigger screen and more power, and you get much more power for your money from a desktop computer then you do from a mobile device where a lot of what you are paying for is getting it as small and light as possible.

 

Also do you have any software to actually do your recording? Are you a Mac or Windows user?

 

One word of warning; the Quartet is now discontinued, and probably near the end of it's product support life. The product page on the Apogee website makes a big deal about all the OS versions it supports but the last Mac/iOS versions are now all 3 years old. It may continue to work with newer OS versions, it may not. Apogee have made unpopular decisions in the past regarding abandoning support for their hardware. Personally I'd be wary, especially if you are doing to buy a computing device specifically to use with this interface. My already ancient iPad is running iPadOS 15.7 that's a long way from iOS13. I'd be asking some searching questions in the music technology forums regarding which OS and hardware still work with this interface.

[Bunion]

11 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Also do you have any software to actually do your recording? Are you a Mac or Windows user?

Sorry I should have been clearer, when I said notebook or desktop it will be apple as I’m familiar with those systems at work. 

I am aware they are discontinued but I’m perfectly happy with a used system with an iOS compatible with the unit. 
 

14 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

how long is a piece of string

I can actually answer that, it’s twice the distance from the middle 😄

 

I was thinking to start with running a preamp DI through the apogee and using it with maestro as an interface to connect to the iPad/notebook/desktop. 

if I’ve got this wrong then I’m happy to listen. 
I purchased the apogee based on videos and reviews on other sites for its simplicity but I may have missed something 

 
 

[songofthewind]

Apogee Duet here. Runs fine on current Mac OS and iPad OS iterations.

[Sibob]

You’ll unlikely need a preamp/DI as the Duet will have an instrument level input (read: DI). With that in mind, a Preamp will just give you EQ flavour, which is fine, but almost always achievable within the DAW you’re using, which allows more mixing freedom.

 

Based on your usage, I’d probably go with a fairly powerful laptop (I’d say a Mac Book with at least 16gb RAM). If you have the budget, get an additional screen for home use, that way you can work on a two screen setup at home, while also having a mobile setup via the laptop.

 

Boom, sorted.

At some point you’ll likely add an external hard drive for storage/backup, but you’re unlikely to need/want that immediately.

 

I’d also recommend Logic as your DAW if you go Mac, cheap for what you get, and nicely scaleable from beginner to professional.

 

Si

Edited September 29, 2022 by Sibob

[BigRedX]

Then it really depends on how portable a system you want.

 

Unless you already have an iPad to use, I go for a Mac laptop, as you will less likely to outgrow it, and has been said you can always add a second screen if you need it (if you get reasonably serious about home recording you will soon discover you can never have too much screen real-estate).

 

Have you decided on a DAW to use with this? If not start with Garageband which comes free with the Mac, and if you get serious then you can simply upgrade to Logic which will import all your old Garageband projects. 

[Bunion]

I’ll keep my eye open for a decent MacBook and see where we go from there.

As regards preamps I want to run my Noble through it, the quartet has a balanced XLR built into the inputs so it would be rude not too 😄

Ive heard good things about logic too.