VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Jen Gosnell · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:34 am Post subject:

Well I've been trading emails with David at CEntrance for a few days and still we haven't figured out why my levels are so low on the Mac. Today I sent him an actual sample of my test recordings from the Mac and a borrowed ThinkPad, and I think he was shocked as he noted the "HUGE" difference between them and that the Mac recording was almost 25dB lower. Probably by now, he's sorry I've been darkening his inbox of late! Rolls Eyes

Actually he has been very nice but he did tell me that in 4 years of supporting the device he has not seen this happen. :'-( Maybe anyone else it has happened to has just cut their losses and moved on. (Hi, Arlene! Wink

) He has suggested I may want to contact Apple since the same behavior is also happening when I record a test with GarageBand. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow.

I took a quick look at the Apogee One and the Shure x2u. They look cool but I am hesitant to buy any other USB device of this type until I can verify that there's not some problem with my Mac and USB audio input.

Anyway. I'll let you guys know if this thing somehow gets resolved. Thanks again for the support on this!

Jen
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Jen Gosnell · Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:54 pm Post subject:

Well, I got no joy from Apple support (not surprised there) and have not heard back from CEntrance today.

I was too curious about the Apogee One, so I went ahead and bought one. The Apple rep that I talked to also uses one and really likes it. I hooked it up and have been playing with setting the gain between 50-70%. When I am at 70%, my average input levels show on the monitor at about -12 dB. Of course, that is much better than the -24 dB I was getting from the M Hobo Tounge

. I'm still not sure it's where I thought it'd be, but I can look around the documentation or their site and see if there are any more ways to optimize it beyond what's in the quick start guide. It does seem pretty straightforward.

George, Arlene or anyone, is this on track with what you'd expect from the One, or am I still on some kind of wild goose chase? Any quick tips for it you want to toss my way?

Thanks.

Jen
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sirmelja · Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:55 pm Post subject:

Jen, I'll let George go over the tech details with you but here is what I learned from him. Don't be afraid to up the gain on the Apogee One. Check your levels in the Apogee Maestro software to make sure you're as high up as you think you are. I thought I had maxed out when turning the device knob, but realized I had a lot more room to increase it by entering the specific gain level directly in the software. Good luck! I think you'll love he Apogee One once you get it set the way you need.
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georgethetech · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:41 pm Post subject:

Just make sure you are recording from the EXT 48 Mic and not the internal mic of the Apogee One, and you're all set. The Maestro software is unnecessarily complex, unfortunately. Next time an Apogee One comes into my hands I'll do a new training video on the latest Maestro version, which is a lot different than I covered in the video I have on Youtube already.

Enjoy!

George
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Jen Gosnell · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:03 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Arlene and George! I think I am good to go with the device. I've tried it out with both 48v as well as the internal mic and think I am satisfied that it works properly with my setup.

Now the next thing is, I need to get the room noise under control so that if and when I do need to normalize levels a bit, it won't turn into an editing nightmare. That, however, is for another thread. Wink

(And of course I'll have to do some more digging around in old threads first before I'll know what I want to ask. Inoccent

)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Jen
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