Can an Apogee Ensemble replace my mixing board?

[mazz]

Richard,

Unless you are running the mixes out of your 1224 into another unit, then in and of itself, it really would have no effect on the sound of your mixes as they exist as audio files. The effect of the 1224 is in how it potentially colors the sound in the D/A conversion, which influences the sound that reaches your speakers and ultimately your ears. The decisions you make in mixing are based on what you are hearing. If your mixes are lacking in sweetness and air, it may be because you are not hearing what you need when you are mixing in order to achieve it, not because the 1224 is doing anything to the mixes besides playing it back out of it's analog outputs to your speakers. If you have anything in between the 1224 and the speakers, that may be influencing what you are hearing as well, for instance any EQ or another amplification step like a mixer, etc.

There's no doubt that the Apogee will have a much better A/D conversion than the MOTU, but what's happening after it leaves either unit could be potentially what's affecting your mixes.

My mixes improved tremendously when I purchased a used Benchmark DAC-1 and connected it digitally from my MOTU interface and then analog to my speakers. What a difference in what I was hearing through my speakers!! It was like a blanket had been lifted off of them. If you aren't hearing everything you need to hear, you may be overcompensating by adding too much in the "air" band which could be actually making things sound harsh. This is a place where the Apogee will help you, if your monitoring chain is clean and your room is relatively balanced.

Why would you need a 16 channel mixer if you're only using less than a third of the channels? That adds up to 10 or 11 if my math is correct.

Having no mixer would change your workflow, no doubt, but lots of folks have gone this route and they seem to be doing fine. The only thing that may be an issue is latency, and they may have some software mixer app to deal with that.

I'm not trying to discourage you from the Apogee, quite the contrary, I love to see folks get high quality equipment, but I know it's a big investment for you and not one to be taken lightly.

Good luck!

Mazz

[remmet]

Thanks Mazz - and everyone else - for your thoughts and contributions to this discussion. Lots to think about!

R

[Len911]

Richard, before you invest a ton of money, I would recommend you try Nebula first. They have a free demo version. The third party software is where the real gems are, but this will give you an idea of what it does. It's a little different kind of product than most, but well worth it and cheap really! Besides the numerous console emulations, cdsoundmaster has a wonderful vintage tube emulation and tape emulations that are fantastic. AlexB has some great consoles and eq's also. This is the closest thing I've ever found that sounds like a "real" record!
http://www.acustica-audio.com/index.php ... &Itemid=53