UAD Ox Box, is it still a thing in 2022?

[zygoat]

Strange my usb hubs are always going and I’ve never had an issue connecting the Ox app. Maybe because it is on the other side of my space

I’ll have to try… all my stuff is pretty close together.

 

[natebernstein]

I've never used the S/PDIF option, but I do use an Ox with an Apogee Duet. No dumb questions! Typically what I'll do when I get ready to record a guitar part is that I'll pull up my go-to rig preset, fine tune it in the Ox app for the part I'm working on, and this will determine if I go out to the Duet with either one or two cables. Most of the time I get things to sound right with everything in the Ox panned center, so I'll go with only the Left output, with a 1/4" to XLR cable into the line input of the Duet. I find that gives me more flexibility adding reverb and delay in Logic, and I won't be stuck with reverb settings that might be too little or too much when it comes time to mix. But the effects in the Ox are top notch, as we know! Other times, especially for parts that only need one guitar panned center-ish, I'll be a little more creative with the Ox's stereo room mics, reverbs, and delays, and then come out of it with two 1/4" to XLRs to both Duet line-ins, and pan them hard left and right in the Apogee Control app. So to answer your question about the Ox's analog outs, you are fine using either the Left only, or both. How you have things set up in the Ox app and your Quartet settings will dictate how things are panned.

There is one annoying thing about this process. I need to have a USB hub running all the time when I'm in Logic due to using an external hard drive, iLok dongle, USB keyboard, etc. The USB hubs are known to prevent not only the Ox app, but many wifi-enabled apps, from keeping connection because there is some kind of interference with 2 ghz wifi and USB hubs. I haven't tried looking into different hubs but I may need to, because I have no choice but to tweak my tones through the Ox app before firing up the rest of my recording rig.

Thanks for this!

I'm going to try to ask Apogee and/or UA for more details, but this is helpful.

One follow-up question: When using the left-output-only option you describe here, do you know whether you're getting all the information from the signal as processed by the OX? Is the left out the default for a mono signal, or is it providing only "half" the information (the left side) produced by the OX to your Duet/DAW/mix? Would you get the same outcome using only the right-side output? Or would that just give you "the other half?"

I guess the other way to ask this is, are you happy with the results you're getting using that method? The main reason I'd buy the OX is to simplify guitar recording - i.e. not have to worry about hooking up multiple mics, getting the placement right by listening through cans when the amp is also loud in the room and not having a separate person to move them around, how they sound in my little room with that particular cab/speaker, etc. If for some reason using it with my Quartet yields a less-than-optimal result than working with another interface would, I may not take the plunge just yet.

 

[108]

It sounds better than Two Notes, that’s for sure. It’s expensive and has some limitations. I never use the attenuator but it’s not as bad as some people make it seem. I’ve owned far worse attenuators.

 

[zygoat]

Thanks for this!

I'm going to try to ask Apogee and/or UA for more details, but this is helpful.

One follow-up question: When using the left-output-only option you describe here, do you know whether you're getting all the information from the signal as processed by the OX? Is the left out the default for a mono signal, or is it providing only "half" the information (the left side) produced by the OX to your Duet/DAW/mix? Would you get the same outcome using only the right-side output? Or would that just give you "the other half?"

I guess the other way to ask this is, are you happy with the results you're getting using that method? The main reason I'd buy the OX is to simplify guitar recording - i.e. not have to worry about hooking up multiple mics, getting the placement right by listening through cans when the amp is also loud in the room and not having a separate person to move them around, how they sound in my little room with that particular cab/speaker, etc. If for some reason using it with my Quartet yields a less-than-optimal result than working with another interface would, I may not take the plunge just yet.

Sure. The Ox does not sum everything together to a mono signal for the left output. For example, if you turn on the delay, turn the left/right link off in the delay setting, and pan the echoes all the way to the right, you will not hear the echoes while using only the left output.

Overall I am very happy with the unit. I must admit I use the built-in effects and room mics way more when I'm jamming through headphones, but tend to turn them off for most recording because I like to work with dryer tracks in the mix stage. Most of the time I'm on the Mesa V30 4x12 model, SM57 centered, maybe a little R121 centered and blended in, maybe some mono room mic blended and centered. I like to view it as a microphone going into the computer on one channel, but there are way more options of course.

 

[natebernstein]

Sure. The Ox does not sum everything together to a mono signal for the left output. For example, if you turn on the delay, turn the left/right link off in the delay setting, and pan the echoes all the way to the right, you will not hear the echoes while using only the left output.

Overall I am very happy with the unit. I must admit I use the built-in effects and room mics way more when I'm jamming through headphones, but tend to turn them off for most recording because I like to work with dryer tracks in the mix stage. Most of the time I'm on the Mesa V30 4x12 model, SM57 centered, maybe a little R121 centered and blended in, maybe some mono room mic blended and centered. I like to view it as a microphone going into the computer on one channel, but there are way more options of course.

Thank you!

Would be curious to hear from any Apogee Quartet/OX Box users, if you're out there, about how you are connecting from OX to Quartet.

The Quartet has "optical" ins but I'm not sure these are compatible with the S/PDIF outputs on the OX...

 

[natebernstein]

Sure. The Ox does not sum everything together to a mono signal for the left output. For example, if you turn on the delay, turn the left/right link off in the delay setting, and pan the echoes all the way to the right, you will not hear the echoes while using only the left output.

Overall I am very happy with the unit. I must admit I use the built-in effects and room mics way more when I'm jamming through headphones, but tend to turn them off for most recording because I like to work with dryer tracks in the mix stage. Most of the time I'm on the Mesa V30 4x12 model, SM57 centered, maybe a little R121 centered and blended in, maybe some mono room mic blended and centered. I like to view it as a microphone going into the computer on one channel, but there are way more options of course.

Thinking about this a bit more, and mindful of how the UA app works in conjunction with OX, wouldn’t one way to most-effectively use the mono TRS outputs be to pan all the mics in the UA app left and use the left TRS out to a line-level audio interface input? Or pan everything right and use the right output?

I checked with Apogee, BTW, and the Quartet‘s digital input isn’t compatible with S/PDIF.