Open Box Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt Interface For Mac
Apogee Ensemble is the first Thunderbolt 2 audio interface to offer superior sound quality, the lowest latency performance and the most comprehensive studio functionality all in one box. Made for the professional home or commercial studio, Ensemble features legendary Apogee AD/DA conversion, 8 Advanced Stepped Gain™ mic preamps, monitor controller functionality including talkback, front panel Guitar I/O, two headphone outputs and digital connectivity for a total of 30 x 34 I/O. Now, Ensemble includes the industry’s most popular plugin bundle, Waves Gold – an $800 value comprising 35 essential plugins that bring a wealth of mixing and mastering power to your studio. Ensemble’s Core Audio optimized DMA engine, custom audio driver and Thunderbolt 2 connection combined with the powerful processing of your Mac allow you to utilize more plugins and virtual instruments with the lowest latency performance of any native system. Highlights.
8 Mic preamps with up to 75 dB of gain and Advanced Stepped Gain circuit. Thunderbolt connectivity for ultra-low latency (1.1ms round trip with Logic Pro X). Front panel Guitar I/O with Class A JFET inputs, dual mode re-amp outputs.
Includes Waves Gold Bundle (reg. $800) – 35 audio plugins. Talkback functionality with built-in mic and control button. 2 PurePower headphone outputs. 10 separately assignable analog inputs.
16 analog outputs of premium Apogee conversion. Core Audio optimized DMA engine frees up Mac CPU for plugins and software instruments.
True Thunderbolt Performance Ensemble delivers the full potential of Thunderbolt 2 performance with the lowest latency, unmatched CPU efficiency, 2 ports for expanding your system and a revolutionary 32-bit playback signal path. The Lowest Latency of any Audio Interface Ensemble’s proprietary Thunderbolt driver has been written from the ground up for Mac OS X Mavericks, resulting in unmatched performance and efficiency. Latency has been reduced to an astounding 1.1ms round-trip., allowing you to monitor through your DAW, plug-ins included, simplifying your workflow and leveraging the power of your Mac. Even when your session’s DSP demands require a higher buffer setting, Ensemble’s ultra-low latency means no longer having to choose between power and speed. To accommodate different workflow preferences, Ensemble features optional direct hardware monitoring through Apogee’s Maestro App with 0.6ms of latency. Logic Pro X at 96kHz / 32 buffer setting Devours Bits, Sips CPU Ensemble’s custom driver includes two innovative features to maximize the performance of the software-hardware interface: a full 32-bit signal path from the output of your DAW straight to the high-performance ESS DAC, and a revolutionary Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine to more efficiently read and write data directly to Mac memory independent of the Mac CPU.
Open Box Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt Interface For Mac
Soft Limit for protection from digital overs An Apogee technology first introduced in 1992 on Apogee’s AD-500 converter, Soft Limit can be heard on countless platinum selling records around the world. Once a technology exclusively reserved for Apogee’s most advanced audio converters, Soft Limit is included in Ensemble and can be enabled in Apogee Maestro software.
This superior FET-based analog design prevents the digital clipping that causes distortion by instantaneously rounding off transient peaks before they hit the analog-to-digital converter. Soft Limit allows several more decibels of apparent level to be recorded while subtly providing an analog tape-like warmth to the sound.
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For inputs, the 1U rackmountable interface features eight microphone preamps with up to 75 dB of available gain using the company's Advanced Stepped Gain Circuitry - four rear panel XLR-3F connectors and four rear panel ¼' TRS/XLR-3F combo connectors. The preamps include line level Input channels 1 and 2 also included 1/4' send and return loops.
The inputs include FET-based Soft-Limiting which can be enabled in the Apogee Control software and prevent digital clipping by instantaneously rounding off transient peaks before hitting the analog-to-digital converter. This allows several more decibels of apparent level to be recorded while also subtly proving an analog-tape-like warmth to the sound. Inputs can be selected using the front panel's grid of soft LED illuminated buttons. Pressing and holding the input select buttons will adjust parameters such as input type, +48v phantom power, Soft Limit, grouping, polarity invert, and hi-pass filtering.
The front panel features two Guitar I/O channels with class-A JFET inputs in a bootstrapping circuit design to reproduce the feel of vintage tube amplifiers and preserve the tone and high frequency response of connected instruments by providing an ultra-high impedance load. Beneath the front panel guitar inputs are a pair of dual mode re-amp outputs for connecting to external effect processors such as stomp boxes or guitar amplifiers. The dual mode switching allows you to easily record your direct guitar signal while also listening through an amplifier. You can then play the recorded guitar signal back through the amplifier to adjust tonality and microphone placement. A built-in microphone capsule within the interface can be used for archiving your session, recording a crushed room sound when tracking drums, or for talkback when tracking musicians. Rear panel Word Clock IN and OUT connectors enable syncing other digital audio gear to the interface's high quality master clock.
For outputs the interface features 16 rear panel analog outputs in the form of two balanced 1/4' TRS monitor outputs and eight balanced line outputs on a D-Sub 25-pin connector. The front panel features two PurePower headphone outputs with separate volume controls for monitoring mixes. Monitoring can be configured between the two 1/4' outputs, one of three stereo speaker sets, or a 5.1 surround system. The speaker and headphone levels are controlled with the dedicated knobs on the unit's front panel OLED display or with your Mac's volume controls. Four configurable buttons labeled A, B, C, and D can be assigned using a software drop-down menu to functions such as muting outputs, dimming outputs, engaging talkback, engaging a speaker set, or clearing meters. With the addition of the unit's rear panel S/PDIF I/O and dual ADAT I/O connectors, the interface is capable of a total 30 inputs and 34 outputs. The interface also features optional direct hardware monitoring through the Apogee Control software, with only 0.6ms of latency (at 96 kHz with a 32-sample buffer).
The extraordinarily round trip latency of the converter is made possible by a proprietary Thunderbolt driver that was built from the ground up for Mac OS X Mavericks. Even in sessions that require higher buffer settings for DSP requirements, the ultra-low latency of the interface prevents the compromise between power and speed. The driver uses a 32-bit signal path from the output of the DAW into the unit's ESS Sabre32 32-bit Hyperstream DAC with Time Domain Jitter eliminator for low distortion audio with significant headroom and dynamic range.
The interface also employs a Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine to more efficiently read and write data directly to Mac memory independently of the CPU. Directly reading and writing a 32-bit signal from memory increases the driver's efficiency, lowers latency, provides a higher resolution signal, and frees up more CPU power for plug-ins. Apogee-designed power regulators are used throughout the interface's mic pre, A/D, and D/A circuitry for ultra-low noise operation. The Ensemble Thunderbolt features the Apogee Control software with the Essentials Control Strip window, which offers extensive flexibility to customize your workflow and adapt to your creativity. The software lets you connect two Ensemble Thunderbolt interfaces to your Mac to double your analog inputs and outputs, and connect any Apogee Element interface to expand your system with Ensemble-quality I/O.
The interface's dual rear-panel Intel Thunderbolt ports allow you to connect multiple high bandwidth peripherals to your Mac such as hard drive arrays, video capture devices, and Thunderbolt monitors with up to 4k resolution from a single port. The interface is designed in California and assembled in the U.S.A.