by David Pajo (bass/keyboards with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, currently bass with Interpol)

I found the Apogee Duet to be invaluable when I was touring with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last year. There were certain keyboard sounds that were absolutely vital to the live performance, but they understandably wanted a real human (me) to play the keyboards instead of pre-recorded playback.

Since many of the tones were created in Logic using stacked plug-ins it was easy enough to recreate the sounds from the record and trigger them with a MIDI keyboard. But how were we going to get audio from the MacBook to the front of house, monitors, and keyboard amp with the highest resolution possible?

That’s where my Duet came into the picture. With the breakout cables I was able to send signal to everyone that needed it. And having access to a big volume knob made it easy to control how much signal was being sent. To be able to do this quickly was very important, especially in a festival environment where set up time was limited. The ability to mute signal quickly was also a welcome addition, and was employed at least a few times!

Add in impeccable sound and road-ready build quality and you’ve got yourself a solid keyboard rig. Plus, Maestro worked seamlessly with Logic’s MainStage, allowing me the flexibility and stability needed for live performance.