“Ensemble: Recording a Band” Blog and Audio Downloads>

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Ensemble
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Video Transcript

“With the sound quality and versatility of Ensemble, combined with your favorite core audio application, you have the most complete fire-wire based digital audio station available.”

“Ensemble features 36 channels of simultaneous audio inputs and outputs,  including 8 channels of Apogee’s legendary A/D and D/A conversion. Channels 1-4 have four transparent digitally controlled 75 db Mic Pre Amps. And since most engineers love using different types of mic pre amps, channels 5-8 of ensemble are  line input only. So, you are free to use your favorite mic pre amps to compliment the already extraordinary sounding Ensemble Mic pre-amps.”

“For digital connectivity, Ensemble also has 8 Channels of ADAT I/O, 2 Channels of S/PDIF coax or optical I/O, and FireWire connectivity.

With the help of the Los Angeles band, Blue Judy, We are going to show you how to make a professional recording using the Apogee Ensemble.

We started off by using Ensemble and Logic on a MacBook Pro to record scratch guitar and vocal tracks. For vocals, we used a standard dynamic mic, plugged into channel 1. We connected a compressor to the insert on channel 1 . The send of the Ensemble goes to the input of the compressor and the output of the compressor goes back to the return on the Ensemble. The signal now goes through the Ensemble mic-pre, through the compressor, and then gets converted by Ensembles A/D converter.”

“For guitar, we connected into the high  Z instrument input number 2 on the front of the Ensemble, and used Guitar Amp Pro in Logic. We set the tempo of the click track in Logic and recorded the scratch tracks.

Next we recorded our drum tracks. For this, we used the Ensemble and Logic on a MacPro. The session could have easily been finished on the Mac Book Pro, but we wanted to show how great Ensemble works on either computer. We used a total of 8 mics for the drums. For the overheads and room mics, we used the Ensemble mic-pre amps. For the close mics, kick,snare, tom 1 and tom 2, we chose API Mic pre amps. The overheads and room mics were connected to the inputs 1-4 of the Ensemble. Because we used condenser mics, we engaged phantom power on each of the ensembles mic pre amps in the maestro control panel.The API mic preamps were connected to inputs 5-8 of the Ensemble by using XLR to quarter inch trs cables.

For bass, we ran direct into the high z instrument input in the front of the ensemble. And like the scratch vocal track that we did earlier, we inserted a compressor.The signal goes through the Ensembles high z input, through the compressor, and then gets converted by Ensembles A/D converter.

Since we used a powerful Mac Pro for this session, we were able to keep the buffer very low just using software monitoring in logic. However, if you have an older mac, or you are running a lot of processor intensive plug-ins and software synths, you may need to use the maestro software that comes with the Ensemble for low latency monitoring. If you’re not sure how to use Maestro, please visit Apogeedigital.com for further information.

We mic’d the guitar amps using a dynamic mic and a ribbon mic and the ensemble mic preamps. The connections are pretty straightforward. The ribbon mic is connected to channel 1, and the dynamic mic in channel 2. We then used the Maestro Mixer B to sum both inputs together so that we can record them onto one track in Logic.”

“Once again, using the Ensemble mic-pre amp, the final vocal track was recorded pretty much like we recorded the scratch vocal track, only this time using a condensor mic. The 48V phantom power box must be checked in maestro for the Ensemble mic pre being used.

If you would like to download the finished track of the Blue Judy song ” Little fires” or for more information on what we used during the recording, and how we used it…You can visit us at Apogeedigital.com”