Apogee GiO
Photo courtesy of Apogee

July 24, 2009 – The Apogee GiO is a USB guitar interface designed to tightly integrate with the newly announced Logic Studio 9. But that’s not why people will buy it. After all, Apogee offers the Duet interface at near this price point, and the One well below it; and both of those offer more input options. No, people will buy it because it doubles as a guitar pedal, albeit a very pricey one (around $400).

I must admit that it looks quite nice, and having foot activated transport controls would be quite handy since it would allow me to record without having to take my hands off whatever instrument I’m playing. However, I could use software like JunXion to roll my own foot controller for a fraction of the cost and then get a used Duet for around the GiO’s price.

Also, the GiO is tied to Logic Studio, Mainstage, and Garageband. It cannot be repurposed for Ableton Live, Cubase, or any other software. It’s a neat toy, but unless its sound blows away a One or Duet (which is doubtful), it won’t entice me away. Sure is pretty though.

Apogee GiO via Engadget

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 11:02 pm.
Categories: Asides, Gear.

8 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Sebastien Orban

    Behringer FCB 1010 + a tiny soundcard : do the same, with more input/ouput, work in every software you want (standard MIDI), and well, offert more option. It’s build like a tank (and weight the same…), so construction is not a problem !

    Jul 25th, 2009

  2. DJSDive

    Did you build your own foot controller or did you pick up some rebuild foot controller? I have been looking at foot pedals used for transcribing.

    Jul 25th, 2009

  3. Sean

    @DJSDive : I haven’t built a foot controller yet, but using JunXion allows you to map almost USB input device into MIDI-controlled actions. For example, you could take an old USB QWERTY keyboard and remove all but a few of the keys. You could then map those keys to transport commands in Ableton Live, Logic or whatever other DAW you use. Put the keyboard on the floor and you’ve got your super cheap foot controller.

    Jul 26th, 2009

  4. DJSDive

    Yeah. Seems kind of fragile though, but old partially broken keyboard are easy to come by .. just gotta find a good place to recycle them once they are finally totally broken :)

    Btw this is the pedal I was talking about:
    http://www.tvps.com/Products/(5850)-IN-USB-1-Infinty-USB-Foot-Pedal-for-Computer-Transcription—New__VE-IN-USB-1.aspx

    I guess it gives you 3 sizeable buttons and should be fairly (but not rockstar jumping) sturdy.

    Jul 26th, 2009

  5. Sean

    @DJSDIVE : Here’s a vid of what I’m talking about if you haven’t seen it already : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxaClh7FACw

    Here’s a video of a slightly nicer mod : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw42QEiFDJg

    If you build your own foot controller using either method, you could buy better switches and a nice beefy enclosure and you’d be set.

    Jul 26th, 2009

  6. Sebastien Orban

    Behringer FCB1010 is cheap. Rockstar jumping allowed. I love midi controller !
    That, with Transcribe (who can be use with midi), perfect match.

    Jul 28th, 2009

  7. alexander

    I contacted Apogee and they said the GiO’s controls are all MIDI-assignable, so you would be able to use it with Live or any other sequencer.

    Sep 16th, 2009

  8. Sean

    @Alexander : Excellent…thanks for the confirmation!

    Sep 17th, 2009

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