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In this article and video, Luke Goddard looks at the Apogee Symphony Desktop, a premium audio interface that gives professionals high-end performance from a compact system that fits in your bag. Although they have close links with Apple, Apogee do not make a DAW of their own. So with the Symphony Desktop, they’ve set out to create a ‘hybrid’ interface that is DAW‑agnostic. In other words, they’ve implemented a similar automatically switched native/DSP environment in a way that should work in any recording software that can host Audio Unit, VST or AAX Native plug‑ins. The Symphony Desktop has been on sale for some time now, but hybrid operation was not fully supported until OS v1.2 was released in February 2022, hence the timing of this review! Hot Desking The second thing that I like about the Symphony desktop is the TFT screen, the touch screen interface and the large rotary encoder worked really well, so you've got a touch and twist type thing where you touch the interface and then make the adjustment on the hardware itself. Apogee Control 2 software in non-beta form with its full functionality on Macs (including M1 Apple Silicon) & Windows 10 PCs
A/D CONVERSION - Faithfully capture every nuance Similar to Symphony I/O MkII, Symphony Desktop’s analog-to-digital convertor stage features ultra-low distortion, high-slew rate, fully differential analog op-amps plus a cutting edge A/D convertor in a performance-enhancing dual-sum configuration. Create with the confidence that every nuance of your analog input is faithfully reproduced in the digital domain. That aside, the analogue inputs feature Apogee’s excellent Symphony preamps (from the flagship interface), which provide up to 75dB of crystal-clear gain. They also benefit from the company’s Alloy preamp tech, which lets you modify the impedance and response of the preamp’s analogue circuitry with additional processing in the digital domain. This allows for highly accurate emulations of classic analogue preamps, with two models built in. For the musician, producer, or engineer who demands excellence in a portable, expandable footprint, the Apogee Symphony Desktop promises to deliver. What Do I Get With The Apogee Symphony Desktop? Symphony Desktop has two completely independent ultra low impedance headphone outputs, individually routable, both equipped with dual-sum ESS DACs. Output power range is tailored to the expected type of headphones: the front panel output can drive virtually any headphones, while the rear panel output is specifically tailored for high-efficiency headphones Whereas the Duet 3’s DSP is limited to a simple but effective channel strip which can be placed only in the record path, the Symphony Desktop’s implementation is vastly more ambitious, both in its scope and its flexibility. Apogee have coded an entire suite of plug‑ins, both in all the usual native formats and as DSP processes that can run within the Symphony Desktop’s own mixer. On top of this, they’ve developed something called Apogee Channel FX. This looks to the host program like a conventional native plug‑in, but is in fact a specially designed ‘container’ plug‑in that can communicate with the Symphony Desktop. The idea is to allow the creation of a single chain of processes that is simultaneously accessible from the DAW, from Apogee Control 2 and from the front panel of the Symphony Desktop.
The third thing that I really like about the Apogee Symphony Desktop is the sound, it's clean, it's transparent and it imparts absolutely nothing especially when you use the built in Symphony desktop, mic pre, which is the unmodeled option. The unit does come with a Neve style pre and also a tube style pre, but for me, the whole point of the unit is it's unparalleled quality. So the sound quality is excellent and using the built in SD, mic pre really does the business for me. The Apogee Alloy Mic Preamp (AMP) emulation offers analog circuitry plus DSP processing to create the richest, most authentic audio modelling available in an audio interface. Critical aspects of the model such as input impedance, transient profile and distortion characteristics are first implemented in the analog domain, followed by precise and accurate refinement in DSP, for a hybrid result that’s greater than the sum of its parts. British Solid State - Class A console sound Sound On Sound have recently reviewed the Apogee Symphony Desktop for their May 2022 issue, providing a thorough breakdown of its features and a glowing account of its "first-rate" touch screen interface which they note betters its closest rivals with ease. The Symphony Desktop’s DSP resources are finite, and a percentage readout informs you how much capacity is used at any given time. My tests suggest that it would be difficult if not impossible to max it out using only the two analogue inputs; however, Print FX and Monitor FX are also available for the digital inputs, and some DSP economy is probably advisable if you want to use them across eight or 10 channels simultaneously. It’s not possible to use the Symphony Desktop’s DSP at mixdown within your DAW, as you can with Universal Audio’s UAD plug‑ins for example.
Like every product in the Symphony line, Symphony Desktop benefits from Apogee’s core mission to design the finest performing audio interfaces using cutting edge analog and digital components, carefully selected by ear. While others cut costs and rely on conventional design approaches, we use innovative components and circuit optimization to consistently improve the performance of our products A/D Conversion - Faithfully capture every nuance All 3 workflows fully functional in the ACFX plugin wrapper: Print FX, Monitor FX, and DualPath Link I've been using it for the last week and I'm very, very happy with the Apogee Symphony desktop. The quality is great, which is the thing. There are lots of interfaces out there at the moment, and some very affordable and some very good ones, but you definitely get what you pay for. It's well-built it has the touchscreen UI, and it's very, very clean and transparent, which really lets you hear into your recordings. I'll be sorry to see it. Conclusion
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One of the big features that sets Symphony Desktop apart from other interfaces is its clever integration of DSP to run plugins and emulate mic preamps.
Variable impedance settings on both mic and instrument inputs optimize their input stage to match your specific device A/D CONVERSION – Like Symphony I/O Mk II, Symphony Desktop’s analog-to-digital converter stage features ultra-low distortion, high-slew rate, fully differential analog op-amps plus a cutting edge A/D converter in a performance-enhancing dual-sum configuration. Create with the confidence that every nuance of your analog input is faithfully reproduced in the digital domain.
Symphony I/O Mk II includes the most refined analog-to-digital converter we’ve ever designed. The analog stage uses the same fully differential op-amps as found in the original Symphony I/O, but now in a circuit precisely streamlined to provide the most transparent path to the A/D stage possible. A Dual Sum A/D stage – where two conversion stages are summed for each analog channel – offers the lowest distortion and greatest dynamic range of any A/D converter we’ve ever designed – you get digital recordings that are true to your analog inspiration. Symphony Control App only available in Thunderbolt Audio Interface mode. Firmware update not required. The triangular mirroring of information between Apogee Control 2, the Channel FX plug‑in and the touchscreen is generally excellent, but does fall down in one small respect. There are on‑screen buttons in Apogee Control that tell you whether Print FX and Monitor FX are switched on for each input, but nothing to tell you whether any plug‑ins are actually loaded. The only way to tell whether an input is being processed or not is to open the plug‑in window for that channel. Obsessively crafted by the same team that designs all Apogee hardware and software products, Apogee FX are premium plugins that run on the hardware DSP in Symphony Desktop or as native plugins on your computer.
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