I’d planned on getting more/better singers to help me test this out, but time was not on my side. Results here were similar to the guitar test. Apogee One with the 990 sounded the best, but the differences were not as noticeable to me as with the guitar. I was surprised by this. I expected with a more complex sound source coming in that the difference would stand out more. I’ll post up the summary soon. Here’s the set with all of the tests:
Just got my Kustom Defender in. Pretty fun. Picked it up for a song off of Hello Music for the purpose of tinkering. I’ll be posting up the tweaks I make. Also tracked some vocals for the Apogee vs MobilePre series. I wanted to track a lot more, but life has been a little busy lately. Anyway those will be up soon.
Retracked this to a drum loop using EZDrummer (big fan) to keep me on time. Sped up about 10 bpm. I think it doesn’t drag as much this way. Here’s both with and without the scratch drums and bass.
With D+B:
Just voice+guitar:
Been too long since I uploaded something. For shame! This one’s been noodling around for a while. Still not sure what to do with it, but it’s come a long way from where it started. It came from a weird place. A love song with no love, I think that’s why it’s so sad. Most of the changes came after I met Allison though which may be why it’s so undecided in that sadness. Started sad, finished happy. Strange things can happen when your mood shifts mid song-write like that.
I’m in a bit of a hurry so I thought I’d track this one straight in to the One’s internal mic. The vocals at the end get a bit overpowering, but I think it came out pretty decent for one mic and one take. I’m all out of mostly done songs now. The rest of them are basically sketches which means I have some work to do. But hey, that’s what this blog is all about.
First round of testing complete! Round one was testing on acoustic guitar. There are three different options I’m comparing here, but there are four sound files below. The reason for this is because I can only record two tracks at a time (the One will not let you record the internal mic and the breakout mic simultaneously). The three options are:
Since I want as straight a comparison as possible, I tracked both the 990 tests in one go, then the 990 + MobilePre and the One’s internal mic. This was you so can compare the exact same sounds against each other. You can see my sweet mic set up over there along with my “recording studio”. Please excuse the mess.
I tracked these using my Breedlove C250/SBe. Lovely guitar, I play it against my dad’s Taylor 710 and while the Taylor is certainly a superior guitar, it’s not 4x the price superior.
You can see in the photo above that I have the 990s stacked on top of each other to try and get them as close together as I could. The little Apogee is also as close as I could reasonably get it to the others. I set these up as an aggregate device in the Audio/Midi set up dialog on my Macbook Pro. This is the magic that let me record both the MobilePre and the One at the same time.
I tracked the 990’s together with a very simple strumming pattern, then the MobilePre 990 and the One internal mic using the same pattern about 1 foot away from, and aimed at the 12th fret. I did my best to not move around too much, but the second take with the One’s internal mic sounds more bass heavy to me, because I did have to move a little to set up the second recording. That’s why I’ve include the second MobilePre 990 track so you can get a more accurate comparison. These are the raw tracks with no processing at all. The goal here is not to sound “good” just to get a comparison. It is best to listen to these on pretty much anything but your laptop’s speakers. I checked them out on my laptop speakers, Sony headphones, and home theater system. There is a much more noticeable difference when you can hear the lower frequencies better. Alright enough babble here’s the tracks, and my opinions below that.
The Apogee One’s preamps definitely sound clearer to me. Everything is more articulate, and the top end shines more. It’s not a huge night and day difference but you can hear it without trying. The main thing to consider here is that these things stack on each other. Sure recording just one guitar is no big deal, but that mud piles up as you record more tracks. Add in a second guitar and a couple vocals and I think the difference would be night and day at that point.
The difference from the internal mic to the 990 is obviously more drastic. At first I really liked the internal mic better, but my wife felt the 990 was warmer and fuller. After thinking about we’re both right. This one wasn’t so much a “one is better than the other” situation as a “one is different from the other”. The One does seem to attenuate those lower frequencies a bit, which again in a track heavy song would be very helpful. If I was recording multiple instruments I would probably favor the internal mic, but for a stand alone singer songwriter thing, I’d probably go with the 990. The takeaway here I think is to learn your equipment and use what works.
The winner of this round was definitely the Apogee.
Questions and comments are welcome and appreciated.
Dang! Initial messing around has me believing the hype on the One is legit. I’ll still do all the tests and audio samples like I planned, but my first impressions of this thing are very positive. That built in mic in particular is something else.
I have a couple hours to kill before Super Bowl parties begin, so what better way to lay waste to some time than by playing with the new toy and doing some science! With my wife napping in the living room, I will start with DI testing the bass. I expect this to be the least obvious difference, but should be a good test of Apogee’s AD converters. Also since I figured out that I can use the One’s clock as a master for the MobilePre I will be running tests on that as well to see how much of a difference the clock makes on the sound. I honestly don’t expect much difference at all, but this is science so I will try it anyway!
I will be playing a simple bass line into the MobilePre, then the MobilePre using the One as a master clock, then into the One. The bass will have no processing or EQ on it at all except for some level adjustments to get them to the same volume. The goal here is to hear the differences between the One and a cheap interface, not to get a great sound.
I will be using a stock Epiphone EB-0 tone and volume all the way up. I will be listening back to these recording using Sony MDR-V150 headphones, my MacBook Pro’s built in speakers, and through my home theater system. Unfortunately I do not have any real reference monitors to listen through, but honestly I think this is better since it may more accurately reflect the listening environment for most people in the budget interface market. All right, let’s get started!
*fast forward about an hour*
Well that was a bust. The line in on my rental One unit is broken, so that was short lived. What took so long testing was me trying to get it to work at all. Also the usb input is really loose (probably because it’s been abused during it’s rental life) so it disconnects easily. Every time that happens Garageband freaks out, and I have to reboot to make every thing alright again. I’m not going to even bother uploading the two takes I did on the MobilePre with the two different clocks because, really there is no difference. I mean there might be, but without being able to track both at the same time it’s hard to tell whether the difference is in the recording or the playing. Certainly it is not a $150 difference.
The only leg up I’d give the One at this point is how small it is, and how tightly it integrates with Garageband.
Winner: Mobile-Pre (no-contest)
A while ago I was reading about the Apogee One. Reading nothing but amazing things about the One. Reading about how the One was just SOOOOOO MUCH AWESOMER than insert cheap interface here. I even watched a pretty great video of a song being recorded using nothing but the One’s built in mic. Very impressive.
What I couldn’t find however was any videos or sound clips comparing the One to any of those cheap interfaces. So being the industrious lad that I am, I headed down to Rock N Roll Rentals and picked one up for a month. Over the next few weeks I’ll be comparing the One against Allie’s M-Audio MobilePre USB (1st gen, not 2nd).
Then finally there will be a comparison video of the One versus another budget interface and the internet will be complete!
Oh man, Nels is a guitar hero of mine. Love this guy, great run down of his touring rig with Wilco. Jump to about 22:30 to get to the effects if that’s your thang.
Degradation is my sound.
-Nels Cline
Sometimes your kids mess up, them’s the breaks. As a parent we need to guide them along the path, and not stomp them into the ground. I hope I accomplish the former. This one came out late at night during some quiet reflection. Quiet, singer/songwritery, another one of those songs that basically came out complete almost immediately.
If my son hears this I hope he feels terrible and NEVER DOES THAT AGAIN. Ha!
Son you don’t listen to me anymore
No you don’t hear a word I say
I guess actions are louder thanSon your father is calling you home
You’d better run on homeWe all make missteps sometimes
Just get your head back on your shoulders plumb and true
Before you take another step on this path that you’re on
Oh I’ve been there, how I’ve been there for so longSon your father is calling you home
You’d better run on home
*lyrics added per Allison’s suggestion
unclejustin's horrible audio blog 