Karin Park is a singer, songwriter, and producer based in Leksand, Sweden, and has a particular intrigue with Apogee Ensemble. With vast experience as a producer and artist, Karin has extensive knowledge with recording equipment and what she likes in an audio interface. Karin takes us through her church turned studio Djura Missionshus, in this Artist Q & A.
“Ensemble Thunderbolt represents a sizable investment compared to some other interfaces with similar I/O counts, but you get a lot for your money. This versatile piece of hardware could easily function as the sole piece of outboard gear in your studio, because it handles not just the functions of an audio interface with eight mic preamps, but also a monitor controller and a high-quality guitar DI and reamping box. When you factor in the vaunted Apogee sound quality, super low latency, Thunderbolt bandwidth, and the flexible and generous I/O, it starts to look like one heck of a deal.”
“With plenty of I/O for project studios right out of the box, and the expansion potential provided by digital I/O, this is the perfect centerpiece to the modern studio. It can serve as a monitor controller for multiple speaker pairs, or be configured for surround sound. Best of all, the pre’s and converters are top-notch and will not disappoint. If you’re in the market for a fully featured multichannel interface, this should be high on your list of choices.”
“Apogee’s preamp reputation is second to none; this interface sounds sumptuous and there’s no doubt that it will turn the heads of guitar-led producers as much as those requiring more ‘regular’ microphone and line inputs via its neat and well thought- through re-amping capabilities.
“If you’re keeping score, this one box can be an 8-channel analog tracking device (with many more inputs available on the digital side), a full-featured monitor controller complete with talkback, a reamplification box with not one but two sets of outputs, and a high-fidelity playback and mixing device where you can loop hardware processors in and out of your DAW… all with flexible routing in the Maestro software. “Impressive” doesn’t begin to cover it.”
“How was Apogee going to make its audio interfaces any better? By doing what it always does; ushering in the next generation of technology.”
“All in all, this is a tremendously flexible box that I wouldn’t hesitate recommending to anyone in the market for a new interface. At its price point, it offers a lot of extras that help to distinguish it from similarly-priced interfaces sold by Universal Audio, MOTU, Lynx, and others”
“There’s not just a lot to like about the new Ensemble—there’s a lot to LOVE about it! This is a spectacular interface from Apogee that truly makes you feel like you’ve invested your money wisely. It’s convenient, it’s quiet, it offers you a ton of features and plenty of gain. This baby is a HUGE win for Apogee.”
“…have Apogee managed to put a little excitement back into the life of this old cynic? Does the Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt deliver on the sound and ‘ultra low latency’ performance? The simple answer is yes. Enough for me to have gone and purchased this unit, it’s not coming out of my rack any time soon.”