Ensemble Customer Reviews

Swedish Artist Karin Park On Apogee Ensemble

Swedish Artist Karin Park

On Apogee Ensemble

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.

Karin Park - Wikipedia

“I think I’ve  been recording in over a 100 studios over the years and really been able to make up my mind about what I like and don’t like in a studio.
In my studio I focus a lot on atmosphere, the light, the colours….. It’s what I appreciate when I go somewhere myself.  Surroundings that brings out the best in people which is ultimately what we’re dealing with in a studio. Recording peoples performances. And of course it has to feel and sound great.”

Djura Missionshus, Leksand, Sweden

“So I wanted the perfect recording chain. That’s why I use Apogee Ensemble. 
I have two Ensembles next to each other which I’ve connected. I used one at first but eventually I needed more channels but I still didn’t want a mixing desk. 
I also wanted to bring one of the Ensembles on tour with me occasionally so now  I just use two Ensembles which are connected and it works really well.” 
“After I built the studio in this church along side my analague synthesizers I’ve collected many old organs, pianos, a tape Mellotron and even a big church organ so I hardly ever use midi anymore. Therefor, recording the instruments is such a big part of my sound and the Apogee ensemble allows me to capture that sound in a great way.   I think I got my first Apogee Duet in 2007. Min brother bought for me. 
So I’ve used Apogee for a good 13 years now. Still works great for me!” 

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“I’ve used an Apogee Ensemble as my interface for about 10 years. Literally every album, film, tv, commercial and video game score I’ve recorded has gone through an Ensemble.  

It’s reliable, easy to use, and sounds great.”

– Silas Hite

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“Had this baby for over a year and haven’t had a single problem with it. Blazing fast, built like a tank and sounds pristine….”

Pablo Morales
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“Stepped up from a Apollo twin and there’s definitely a big difference – you can hear so much detail and recording comes out crystal clear”

Phoenix from Florida
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“I purchased the Ensemble Firewire interface 6 years ago from Sweetwater and it has performed well in my in home studio. After reading about Apogee’s new Thunderbolt version I contacted my longtime sales rep, Nate Edwards, to discuss the product. As usual, Nate provided a detailed first hand perspective on the Ensemble Thunderbolt and I decided to make the switch.

The Thunderbolt version is a significant qualitative step increase vs the Firewire version. Mic preamps, interface options, ease of use and conversion, latency elimination, etc, are all improved. However, the biggest difference/benefit to me are the results. Whether you are listening to the Thunderbolt in a live setting or its recorded output, the fidelity of the music is greatly improved. Transparency, soundstage, imaging, make this a true “prosumer” device at a reasonable cost. It is the most “analog” sounding digital recording interface I have heard outside of a professional studio.”

John from Chicago, IL
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The New Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt.

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“First off, I have have to say that I typically never write gear reviews. However, this has been the only piece of equipment that I had purchased recently that is worth mention. I have done an extensive amount of research before taking the plunge with this interface…The seamless integration between Pro Tools and Apogee have opened new doors to my sound quality as well as the ability to be mobile with the Apogee Ensemble that is (In my opinion) far superior to that of the Digidesign’s 192 A/D converters. My mixes have opened up and the 8 mic preamps sound fantastic. In fact, I even sold off my Focusrite ISA 828 that was light piped into the 192. The preamps sound crystal clear with TONS of head room due to its gain staging as well as a sweet top end that doesn’t have any harshness when tracking. This alone is well worth the money spent. I have been going back and forth between this and the UA Apollo but, in all honesty, I am glad that I made the decision with sticking to Apogee. The Apollo in its own right is a really cool interface. However, if you are anything like me, you will look past all of the gimmicky bells and whistles of the plugins that they make you believe that you are purchasing with the unit. Truth be told, you are only getting a very small taste of the plugins that UA offers and that by purchasing the Apollo, you are now committed to buying the “Higher End” plugins that you initially thought came with the interface. This is a great marketing gimmick as I feel that by dropping $2K-$2500 on an interface, it had better come with everything that is pictured on the box. Now that I got that rant off my chest…

It truly is a wonderful interface. Latency is almost non-existent and there is TONS of IO to keep the most demanding studio nerd at bay ( If IO is an issue, you can run up to 4 Thunderbolt Ensembles simultaneously!). Also, the added talkback mic is VERY underrated. It is the same exact mic that is integrated in the Apogee One. I’ve already used this handy little mic as an ambient room mic during a drum tracking session and squashed the crap out of it with my EL8X Distressor for an added effect and mixed it into the drum bus. I am not going to go into full detail about the specs as anyone with a brain stem can read the description section for themselves. At $2500, there really isn’t more that a project studio can ask for. If you are serious about your sound and stand behind your work (Pro or not), you can count on the Apogee Ensemble to deliver the goods.”

Mike M from S.F. Bay Area, CA
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Performance, Reliability, and Quality.

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I researched THD+N and Dynamic Range, but I don’t care much about the science (and the Apogee comes out on top of everything but its expensive cousin, the Symphony, anyway). What really blew me away was my first mic test, recording an acoustic guitar with a U87 into one of the built-in pres. I couldn’t believe the headroom, clarity, and honesty of what I heard back in my headphones. And the latency doesn’t even exist. I stacked CPU-intensive plugins and ran at 32 samples, and CPU didn’t spike above 10%.

Bottom line, if you’re having a tough time choosing at this price point, go with this one if you want an interface that focuses more on top-quality conversion and performance.”

Jake from Philadelphia
From Sweetwater

Sounds Like Heaven!

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“The Apogee Ensemble sounds amazing! It’s incredible how crystal clear it captures sound, the mic preamps are outstanding, love the high resolution OLED display (it shows the levels of analog inputs and outputs, including the headphones), ultra-fast latency in LOGIC thanks to the Thunderbolt connection. The monitor speaker outs and the two headphones sound loud and accurate, yet I haven’t had ear fatigue after long sessions. Has tons of expansion possible thanks to two ADAT ports (think 16 more input channels). It’s a joy to listen to and records with pristine quality. Love the Apogee Ensemble!”

Camilo from New York
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Brad Hagen from Carlsbad, CA
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