Apogee - GiO USB Guitar Interface

$395.00

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$395.00
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Apogee

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Overview

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Key Features:

GiO USB Guitar Interface

The Apogee GiO is the cA USB Guitar Interface that Combines Effects Control and Recording Functions in one Convenient Pedal Controller.

A complete guitar interface for Apple's Logic Studio 9, MainStage 2 and GarageBand '09. Combining effects control, recording functions and amazing sound quality, the GiO delivers total access to incredible sounding guitar amps and effects in a single foot controller and audio interface.

Designed to work with the Apple Logic Studio 9 and MainStage 2, GiO allows guitar players to control recording functions, preset changes and plug-ins like Amp Designer and Pedalboard, along with Playback and Loopback features in MainStage. With GarageBand '09, Apogee GiO is truly plug-and-play pedal and lets users quickly connect their guitar, select and control built-in amps and stompboxes, and record.

Stomp On It - Effects Control Without The Mouse
Find your sound without going back and forth from your guitar to your Mac. With GiO, you can audition effects presets in GarageBand, Logic, and MainStage, and turn effects on and off while playing or recording . . . all without touching your keyboard.

Hands-Free Recording
Apogee GiO frees you from key-command recording allowing you to concentrate on your performance and not the space bar. The five transport buttons on GiO let you record, play, stop and quickly navigate through your track without taking your hands off the neck of your guitar.

"Next" Preset Please
Previous and Next preset select buttons let you quickly audition and toggle between guitar amps and effects presets in Logic and GarageBand and the patch lists in MainStage.

Instrument Input
GiO's ¼" instrument input features Apogee's world-class instrument preamp and converters. Hear and record your guitar's true tone straight into Apple's GarageBand, Logic and MainStage without compromise. The Apogee GiO is optimized for all pickup configurations from the most basic single coil to sophisticated active electronics setups.

MIDI Expression Pedal Input
GiO's Expression control pedal input allows access to traditional effects like wah-wah, and volume. Also, control effects parameters like the length of a delay or the speed of a tremolo. (Expression Control Pedal not included)

USB
GiO is fully powered by the USB connection to your Mac eliminating the need for an external power source. Simply plug into an available USB port on any Mac and you're ready to go.

Output: Headphones, Monitors or Instrument Amplifier
Hear your guitar and recording like never before. Connect your headphones, powered monitors or instrument amplifier to Apogee converters via GiO's ¼" stereo output and listen to your guitar and mix with incredible clarity and dimension.

Features:

Unbalanced ¼" high impedance instrument input
¼" MIDI Expression pedal input
Line-level, ¼" stereo output for headphones, powered monitors or an instrument amplifier
A/D and D/A conversion @ 44.1/48kHz, 24-bit
5 Stompbox buttons, dynamically color coded to match software effects
5 Transport control buttons, dynamically lit when engaged
2 "Previous/Next" preset selection buttons
Control built into Apple's GarageBand '09, Logic Pro 9, and MainStage 2 software

GIO review by Ernest Devaney

Review at a Glance
What is it?	The Apogee GiO is a USB guitar interface with a built in pedal board made for use with Logic, Garage Band, and Main Stage.

Who would use them?	Guitarists who want bonehead simple control over their guitar input whether recording a track, or playing live.
How does it sound?	The GiO uses the same converters as the One and the Duet, so it sounds amazing.
What is so great about it?	Amazing Apogee converters. Allows guitarists to track guitar faster and play live through Main Stage with ease.
What is not so great about it?	No microphone or balanced input, but that's not really what this is for.
Review summary?	The GiO is a unique product that makes guitar tracking a breeze, and will help simplify your live setup. It won't replace your audio interface, but rather would be used in conjuction with it.

GIO and Logic

With Logic 9, Apple took a look at what they could do to make their sofware more guitar friendly. They added a more familiar interface for guitarists, with amp models and stomp boxes that look like their famous dopplegangers. With Main Stage, they allowed users to translate those models to the stage, enabling users to set up entire shows within the box. This is where Apogee stepped in and realized that while having an intuitive UI is helpful for guitarists, they'll probably want a way to interact with it that's just as intuitive and natural for them. This is where the GiO comes into play.

Recording

The GiO is plug and play if you just want a guitar input. If you want to take advantage of the pedalboard, you'll have to spend a few minutes in the Key Commands preferences. Within about five minutes, I had it set up so that hitting Next on the board created a new track with the settings from my previous track. I'd heard that you could do this with the GiO so I had to try it out for myself.

After spending an afternoon with the GiO, I thought it was a cool unit. I loved the quality of the sound I was getting. But I wasn't blown away. The pedalboard was great, and certainly did speed up my tracking a bit, but that's all. That evening I started tracking some guitar without the GiO to see if there would be a difference. Once you go hands-free, it's really tough to have to mess with the track pad every time I want to do something. Within the course of an afternoon, the GiO became an integral part of my workflow. Great. Now I have to buy it.

Live

As great as tracking with the GiO is, I can see where live application is probably the unit's strong point. Being able to access Main Stage at your feet is a freedom that cannot be understated. I haven't played out in a couple of years now, and I still have nightmares of setting up a myriad of stomp boxes, patch cables, instrument cables, and inevitably needing two more power outlets than the venue provides for the power bricks. The next time I step on a stage, I'll have my guitar, my GiO, and an extremely long USB cable. Extremely, extremely long.

Conclusion

Sometimes when we purchase a new product, we can instantly see how it's going to transform our creative output, or help us create things we'd only ever heard in our heads. This isn't one of those products. For me, the GiO was a slow burner. While tracking, I found it was like learning to use keyboard shortcuts on your computer. At first, people say "but I can just right click and then click Copy", and that's true. But once you get used to using shortcuts for everything, be it Copy or New Track, you can't imagine going back to doing it the hard way. You're now faster and more efficient, and that's what I take away from the GiO. That's on the recording front. On the live front, I can see that this could completely change the way people perform live, in a very dramatic way.