Antelope Synergy Core FX

[baggio]

For what it is worth, here is my take having done a bit more research since seeing the special offer.

There can be no doubt that there was a period where Antelope Audio were doing things that were a bit suspect from a customer relations viewpoint.

More recently, it is a bit more of a gray area and there does seem to be attempts to re-address some of these problems and more recent reviews of the company seem more positive.

Feedback seems to be that if working as expected that hardware and software is very good.

Does past issues give me pause - absolutely.

Just to be clear- hardware I am looking at is at lower level. For £400, it is the audio interface, two modelling mics and all software - 92 plugins. I am a bit more tempted as the price risk is lower - may have a very different opinion on more higher end products.

Want something decent to track guitar and bass and very occasionally voice. If plug ins were UAD quality, seemed like a reasonably good bonus as well.

Website I am looking at gives a high rating from about 30 reviews.

Not dismissing anything what anybody has said, just providing some insight from what I have found subsequently.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

But isn’t that true for all companies? I don’t know of any manufacturer that has 100% success rate. You can go to the UAD forums and see users who can’t get the UAD plugins or Apollo interfaces to work correctly, does that make UAD interfaces dodgy? I don’t think so.

And the reviews I see don’t support your “dodgy interface” opinion anyway. Looking on Thomann the Orion Studio Synergy core is sitting at 4.8/5 stars rating with 37 reviews for example. Could you find another website with bad reviews? Probably so if you looked. But Thomann is a well respected retailer so take that for what it’s worth.

Everyone has opinions so no worries there, but your opinion should end at “I’ve never used the plugins or interface so I don’t really know”. Anything you say after that in regards to the company or quality of the products they have is just hearsay. That’s all I’m saying!

The negative noise is much louder for Antelope. Allow me to generalize my opinions on other companies. RME's reputation is stellar, long support periods, excellent driver performance, they don't put out interfaces often, but when they do, they're great. But their interfaces aren't cheap, so you pay for that! UA interfaces don't have the best driver support on Windows, or incredible performance, but otherwise work. Presonus isn't known for long support, but their Quantum interfaces do what they say from what I can tell. Focusrite, Arturia and other brands use off the shelf drivers and don't have great performance but do what they say. You don't hear tons of complaints but they're not top-shelf stuff either. Antelope, I hear a lot of complaints about.

"I've never used the plugins or interface so I just don't know". But that said, even if I had, that's a sample size of one. So statements like 'that's not my experience' also reflect that. That doesn't mean other people are lying about their bad experiences or that buying on of their interfaces won't be a crapshoot. If you buy an RME interface for example, it's not a crapshoot. They'll even tell you which USB3 or TB chipsets their interfaces don't like if you do some research - they're transparent, provide customers needed information to get the best performance/compatibility, and do business the right way.

I'm just telling the OP, "watch out". They'll make their own decisions. But like I said, I'd want to know this before I spent that kind of money. I appreciate you're here countering this. Like I said, maybe Antelope is making the improvements they need to and are on the way to improving their reputation. I won't give them the benefit of the doubt just yet, but word of mouth and firsthand experiences are important.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

For what it is worth, here is my take having done a bit more research since seeing the special offer.

There can be no doubt that there was a period where Antelope Audio were doing things that were a bit suspect from a customer relations viewpoint.

More recently, it is a bit more of a gray area and there does seem to be attempts to re-address some of these problems and more recent reviews of the company seem more positive.

Feedback seems to be that if working as expected that hardware and software is very good.

Does past issues give me pause - absolutely.

Just to be clear- hardware I am looking at is at lower level. For £400, it is the audio interface, two modelling mics and all software - 92 plugins. I am a bit more tempted as the price risk is lower - may have a very different opinion on more higher end products.

Want something decent to track guitar and bass and very occasionally voice. If plug ins were UAD quality, seemed like a reasonably good bonus as well.

Website I am looking at gives a high rating from about 30 reviews.

Not dismissing anything what anybody has said, just providing some insight from what I have found subsequently.

Good job doing your own research and weighing this carefully.

One more tip if I may: wait until after NAMM before buying an interface if you can. It's happening at the end of April. Most people I trust (including myself) expect some new UAD interfaces using ARM-based processors to replace the Appollo's. I'd definitely want to see what those are about before buying anything.

[kidslow]

RME's reputation is stellar, long support periods, excellent driver performance, they don't put out interfaces often, but when they do, they're great. But their interfaces aren't cheap, so you pay for that!

Lurking here on this conversation and not speaking generally, but specifically, I have been very under-impressed by RME's support, given, like you said, their stellar reputation. Last month I updated the firmware and drivers for a Babyface Pro and immediately encountered spinning beach ball in some applications (Ableton, Adobe) and not others (Reaper). Could be isolated to RME fairly easily by disconnecting their DAC from the system.

I emailed about it. Response was like someone was paid to respond but not to care, certainly not to support. I shared all my details and asked if I would encounter any problems just downgrading the driver and not the firmware. Crickets. So I emailed again and after pestering was told shouldn't be a problem. The reason I asked is because the upgrade was very specific about notifying me that driver need to be upgraded to support the firmware upgrade. I downgraded the driver and the hang problem went away. At no time did support offer up as a suggestion to downgrade the driver, nor act as if they had any clue on how to troubleshoot the problem. Given RME's stellar reputation and high price point, I expected better from them. Now you could say problem solved because I did my own troubleshooting, but seriously not a good look for RME. I wouldn't want to encounter a problem with their products that required support to actually do their job. Perhaps it's just frontline support. I had an issue with Arturia that drove me mad interacting with tier 1 support and once it was escalated I got very attentive and helpful insights.

[bmanic]

No doubt RME support (and their forums) can be super annoying and condescending. That's been my experience as well.

However, in pure anecdotal evidence from my own career, RME hardware + software is mostly rock solid. They are not gods though, and sometimes I feel like they forget that. Still, I've only experienced one dead RME device in my whole career and that one turned out to be dropped from about 6 feet (didn't even have a noticeable dent anywhere!!) and just had some internal component come loose. Sent it to RME retailer in Finland for repair and it was good as new.

On the software front, they _have_ sometimes (very rarely) screwed up a driver update but they've always been extremely quick to address it. This is where they differ from the competition where I've sometimes waited literal years for things to get fixed (Prism Audio being a great example of abysmal support!).

In pure numbers, RME is virtually the king of the land everywhere. Tons of high-end broadway productions and UK big hitters like all the Andrew Lloyd Weber shows mandate that you must use RME hardware or you are not allowed to do the show. This is because of the reliability.

I've worked with interfaces from Focusrite (2 of them Scarlets at home, both now dead. 20 of them in the music school, 3 of them dead), Universal Audio (zero problems, had 3 Apollos in two different studios), Prism Audio (the Orpheus, horrible piece of junk.. only good for it's AD/DA conversion, everything else absolute trash. Had issues with headphone preamp day-1 and zero response from support ever so I just ignored it), Roland one of those old early 2000 sound cards, a piece of junk but never failed on me, horrible drivers.. and probably a few others.

I've had RME soundcards and interfaces since the late 90's and not a single one of my own personal devices ever failed or had any issues. On the contrary, they've performed ridiculously well ever since the first RME card I had (forget the model number but it was the one before the HDSP9632 series). Had several babyfaces, all amazing (and fetching awesome resale value when sold a decade later!). Currently using a Babyface Pro at home that I've had for like 6 years now. Amazing little interface for both Mac and Windows. The only thing I've always slightly disliked about them is the AD/DA sound quality. All of the earlier RME cards have a sort of aggressively neutral sound to them. It's not hyped which is good, but it's not really feeling "transparent/effortless" either, the way the Orpheus does (though that one feels a bit stingy/hyped when compared to even higher end stuff). Is it good enough for 99.9% of things? Hell yes!

Just today, due to the Gearspace thread on their new Fireface, I looked up if they still support my old HDSP 9632 PCI soundcard. Indeed they do. Latest driver for Windows 11 updated in January this year. That's _more_ than 20 years of support for an old legacy PCI card. Utterly silly yet amazing.

EDIT: I also looked up the resale value on my Babyface Pro, just for fun. Looks like it's still going for about 585 to 650 euros 2nd hand here in Finland. That's absolutely CRAZY!! I've had mine for 6 years and I paid 699 euros for it. If I sell mine for 600 euros (relatively low price apparently in the Finnish 2nd hand market, mine is absolute mint condition), it would mean that I basically paid 99 euros for 6 years of rent.

[jens]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

That is such a dumb fanboi comment right there:

So you think it's completely impossible that there are genuine people who purchased genuine Antelope hardware and subesquently encounter genuine problems with it?

And you know this how? What's your source of knowledge, what's your expertise here?
(Besides an unresistable and very sad urge to defend your precious love interest, I mean)



Wasn't Musician's Friend the retailer who completely stopped selling Antelope because of the high number of returns?

Have you ever used Antelope Audio studio gear? If not then you are doing exactly what I said people do. Repeat nonsense. I’ve actually used the gear to make records, many of my colleagues use them and a lot of recording studios are powered by them, and they work well and sound better than a lot of the audio interfaces on the market. I’m speaking from personal experience and hands on use, what are you speaking from?

Here is two important questions - please make sure to answer them:

1) What exactly is the "nonsense" I "repeated" with my post you quoted above?

2) In what way would me having used "Antelope Audio studio gear" turn this "nonsense" into
being non-nonsense?

[SoftSynthLover99]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

That is such a dumb fanboi comment right there:

So you think it's completely impossible that there are genuine people who purchased genuine Antelope hardware and subesquently encounter genuine problems with it?

And you know this how? What's your source of knowledge, what's your expertise here?
(Besides an unresistable and very sad urge to defend your precious love interest, I mean)



Wasn't Musician's Friend the retailer who completely stopped selling Antelope because of the high number of returns?

Have you ever used Antelope Audio studio gear? If not then you are doing exactly what I said people do. Repeat nonsense. I’ve actually used the gear to make records, many of my colleagues use them and a lot of recording studios are powered by them, and they work well and sound better than a lot of the audio interfaces on the market. I’m speaking from personal experience and hands on use, what are you speaking from?

Here is two important questions - please make sure to answer them:

1) What exactly is the "nonsense" I "repeated" with my post you quoted above?

2) In what way would me having used "Antelope Audio studio gear" turn this "nonsense" into
being non-nonsense?

1. You said musicians friend stopped selling the interfaces because of the high amount of returns. That's factually untrue and Musicians Friends still sell Antelope Audio gear. Sweetwater stopped selling Antelope Audio gear, but they never said it was because of a high amount of returns. In fact sweetwater doesn't carry a lot of audio brands, who knows why. You also called me a "fan boi" for speaking positively about my experience with Antelope Audio, that is definitely nonsense.

2. If you had used Antelope Audio gear before, your negative attitude towards me for giving a positive comment about the company may be justified if you had a bad experience with the company. However, it seems you have never used them before, so in fact you were just speaking nonsense after all

Basically I strongly dislike when a company gets trashed or misrepresented by people who have never even used the products before. It's like me saying RME interfaces are "dodgy and unreliable" even though I've never used anything RME. How would I know? Based on 1 star reviews online?

[SoftSynthLover99]

Just to be clear- hardware I am looking at is at lower level. For £400, it is the audio interface, two modelling mics and all software - 92 plugins. I am a bit more tempted as the price risk is lower - may have a very different opinion on more higher end products.

Want something decent to track guitar and bass and very occasionally voice. If plug ins were UAD quality, seemed like a reasonably good bonus as well.

So you're probably looking at the Zen GO? I'm almost tempted to get one just for the extra mics and all the rest of the plugins I don't have lol.

As a guitar player myself, I was very impressed with how good the amp plugins sound. I would say a lot of the plugins they have are better than UAD, they even have some plugins that have not been emulated by anyone else before. I know Thomann have a 30 day money back guarantee and most music stores do as well so it's always possible to return if it doesn't fit your workflow.

I use MacOS so if you're on PC I'm not sure if the reliability will be as solid over there though. Best of luck with your search!

[jens]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

That is such a dumb fanboi comment right there:

So you think it's completely impossible that there are genuine people who purchased genuine Antelope hardware and subesquently encounter genuine problems with it?

And you know this how? What's your source of knowledge, what's your expertise here?
(Besides an unresistable and very sad urge to defend your precious love interest, I mean)



Wasn't Musician's Friend the retailer who completely stopped selling Antelope because of the high number of returns?

Have you ever used Antelope Audio studio gear? If not then you are doing exactly what I said people do. Repeat nonsense. I’ve actually used the gear to make records, many of my colleagues use them and a lot of recording studios are powered by them, and they work well and sound better than a lot of the audio interfaces on the market. I’m speaking from personal experience and hands on use, what are you speaking from?

Here is two important questions - please make sure to answer them:

1) What exactly is the "nonsense" I "repeated" with my post you quoted above?

2) In what way would me having used "Antelope Audio studio gear" turn this "nonsense" into
being non-nonsense?

1. You said musicians friend stopped selling the interfaces because of the high amount of returns. That's factually untrue and Musicians Friends still sell Antelope Audio gear. Sweetwater stopped selling Antelope Audio gear, but they never said it was because of a high amount of returns. In fact sweetwater doesn't carry a lot of audio brands, who knows why. You also called me a "fan boi" for speaking positively about my experience with Antelope Audio, that is definitely nonsense.

And if I had been using Antelope Audio gear that would qualify me better to make such a statement?
How so? In what way would I gain knowledge abaout Muscician's Friend business practices by using Antelope Audio gear?

And - going by the logic - of your argument, using Antelope Audio gear would enable reality to bend and make a false statement true.

(I.e. you asked first about my experience with Antelope Audio gear rather than saying straight away that my statement regading Musician'S Friend was wrong. Furthermore you said my statement would be wrong if I had no experience with Antelope Audio gear i.e. according to you the truthfulness of my claim depended on my experience with said gear.)

I just don't think this reality stuff works the way you seem to think it does.

2. If you had used Antelope Audio gear before, your negative attitude towards me for giving a positive comment about the company may be justified if you had a bad experience with the company. However, it seems you have never used them before, so in fact you were just speaking nonsense after all

That still doesn't explain how my bad experience with the company would turn my statement regarding Musician's Freind not selling Antelope due to the high number of returns magically true if it was false otherwise.

Plus my negative attitude was clearing towards you generally dismissing all negative comments regarding Antelope as fake. I am highly interested in their stuff (especially the Zen Go and the Axino) but quite cautious for obvious reasons. Hence I looked at this thread.

Plus you are completely contradicting yourself right there as you just admitted yourself that a bad experience with Antelope gear is very well possible.

I don't think you're doing Antelope much of a favour here. Blind fanboyism makes it just worse for them. What I want to read is recent genuine praise for them so that I know they really have improved so much (in regard to both quality and customer relations) that there's no reason to worry anymore (i.e. there clearly was at least a while ago) - and that can not come from one who generally dismisses all critique and reports of bad experiences as fake.

That's factually untrue and Musicians Friends still sell Antelope Audio gear.

Then I misremembered that apparently. Before I made this post I of course tried to check this and
searching for Antelope in their shop returned nothing. However when I now checked again I realized that the whole site doesn't work for me anymore.
Regardless of whatever I click, it just shows some Wireless mic receiver and a "We're sorry-this item is unavailable. Contact our experts for a recommendation of great alternatives. Call us at 855-272-1087" notice. I didn't realize this before, so it was an honest mistake.
However having had experience with Antelope Audio gear would of course give me no advantage here.

[SoftSynthLover99]

@jens I have no idea what you are talking about at this point lol. Honestly your last post made very little sense. I never said people don’t have bad experiences with Antelope gear, I said it is highly likely that the people who spread misinformation in this thread have likely never used Antelope gear before, and are basing negative comments on hearsay online. And so far that seems to be true does it not?

[jens]

I never said people don’t have bad experiences with Antelope gear, I said it is highly likely that the people who spread misinformation in this thread have likely never used Antelope gear before, and are basing negative comments on hearsay online.

And there goes the last bit of your sense of reality...

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

This was the third reply in this thread. Up until there NOBODY wrote anything negative at all about Antelope here in this thread.

[SoftSynthLover99]

@jens Well my reply was the 4th in the thread, slow down. And I was responding to the comment above me which was negative and said:

“ it seems like about half the people who buy an Antelope interface have bad things to say about them, ”

Painting a company in a bad light is not cool especially when you’ve never used anything from them or have any firsthand knowledge how their products work.

[jens]

Jeez, you're thick!

Your reply is the fourth post and the third reply in this thread. The first post is not a reply. It seems you are struggling with basic English at this point. What's your native language anyway?

[SoftSynthLover99]

Jeez, you're thick!

Your reply is the fourth post and the third reply in this thread. The first post is not a reply. It seems you are struggling with basic English at this point. What's your native language anyway?

Says the guy who can’t even use basic search functions on the Musicians Friend website

But no worries old timer you take care

Afx2Daw is definitely worth talking about though as its a much better way than UAD to use plugins inside your DAW. Low latency and you can build your own chains within that 1 plugin and track with it. Pretty sweet!

[jens]

Says the guy who can’t even use basic search functions on the Musicians Friend website

That obviously went straight over your head right there...

Yes, I can't use the search-function on that site - because the whole site DOES NOT WORK here. I wrote that in clear and plain words. You're really struggling with English dude.

(If I had to make a wild guess I would say they're blocking visitors from Europe now, for whatever reason - I bet the site would work just fine if I used a VPN to access it - but either way you scored a nice own goal there)