RME Fireface 400 or Apogee Duet?

drummy · Post by **drummy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:44 am

Hey guys. I am officially sick of MOTU gear. My 896 left output just gave out, and it won't come back. I'm going to sell it and get another audio interface. I plan on using this interface with my iMac Core 2 Duo OSX 10.5 desktop. I am thinking of the RME Fireface 400 and the Apogee Duet (the Fireface 800 and Apogee Ensemble are a bit out of my range). I won't be using preamps, it'll just be my Mackie mixer going into the inputs of the interface, which I'll record into Digital Performer 5. Which should I get and why? Any other interface suggestions will also be appreciated.

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:15 am

Sounds like the Fireface would be better suited for that, but it's 2 1/2 times more expensive than the Duet so that's not really surprising.

The Fireface has 8 ins/8 outs, 6 of the ins can be used at line level which is what your mixer would be outputting.

The Duet has 2 mic ins, 2 guitar ins, no line ins. To get audio into it from your mixer you'd need to use the guitar ins with the gain turned all the way down, which wouldn't be ideal.

You might be annoyed at your 896, but Motu still make the best interfaces for mac in that mid price bracket. It's pretty old by now isn't it? You can't expect things to last forever. If I were in your situation I'd get your 896 serviced and then send it to Black Lion Audio to get the analogue section upgraded to get the most out of the convertors.

If I was looking for something new in that price bracket ($500-$1250) I'd be looking at all the Motu gear, perhaps the PreSonus (I'm quite happy with the Firebox we use for our live sets) although I don't think it's quite as clean, or the RME.

Another option you might want to consider would be selling both the 896 and your mixer and getting a Mackie Onyx with the firewire option, although that doesn't allow you to bus stuff out of DP to process through outboard gear, which you might want to do.

drummy · Post by **drummy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:23 am

Stab Frenzy wrote:Sounds like the Fireface would be better suited for that, but it's 2 1/2 times more expensive than the Duet so that's not really surprising.

The Fireface has 8 ins/8 outs, 6 of the ins can be used at line level which is what your mixer would be outputting.

The Duet has 2 mic ins, 2 guitar ins, no line ins. To get audio into it from your mixer you'd need to use the guitar ins with the gain turned all the way down, which wouldn't be ideal.

You might be annoyed at your 896, but Motu still make the best interfaces for mac in that mid price bracket. It's pretty old by now isn't it? You can't expect things to last forever. If I were in your situation I'd get your 896 serviced and then send it to Black Lion Audio to get the analogue section upgraded to get the most out of the convertors.

If I was looking for something new in that price bracket ($500-$1250) I'd be looking at all the Motu gear, perhaps the PreSonus (I'm quite happy with the Firebox we use for our live sets) although I don't think it's quite as clean, or the RME.

Another option you might want to consider would be selling both the 896 and your mixer and getting a Mackie Onyx with the firewire option, although that doesn't allow you to bus stuff out of DP to process through outboard gear, which you might want to do.

Thakns for the reply. How much does it cost to get the 896 serviced, and how much for the serve and mod? I don't really need bussing, What I plan to do for that is sending the outputs of the interface into a mixer, feed the signal through the FX loop, and record it back into DP through the inputs of the interface, if that makes any sense. Hmmm...right now, it's either the whole service thing, or get the RME...I didn't know the Duet lacked Line Ins.