Antelope Zen Q Synergy Core Reviews

I love this thing!

Having been away from home recording for the last little bit, I decided a few months ago that I wanted to start my little home studio up again. I was on the market for an interface with thunderbolt and DSP. I liked the specs on the Apollo interfaces a lot, though I didn't like the price tag - not so much of the interface, but more so of the plugins. I like what they have to offer, but then there are other emulations that fit the bill perfectly. I knew that I would quickly start to buy up all their offer, and I needed to keep that particular demon at bay. In comes Antelope Audio. There was a bit of negative press about them, and that made me wary. I also realised that none of it was personal opinion, so I decided to at least give myself the possibility to have an informed 1st hand opinion. After some initial hiccoughs regarding driver software, the interface is a joy, as are the emulations. I actually needed technical support, and their remote support technician was incredible. I can't thank him enough. The device is easy to use and setup - there's just that one issue regarding drivers that they have to get sorted out.

Great Card

After going through quite a few sound cards, I think I have reached what I will be keeping for a long time. Very versatile, great sounding. Listening to old projects is really fun. The activation process takes some time but was totally worth it. Mic Pre and models with the included mic sound great also.

Great Little Interface

We recently purchased the Zen Q Synergy Core to improve our portable recording setup. Due to needing something portable, the bus power was one of the selling points; specially when adding the flexibility and expansion potential of the ADAT, SDIF, and Line outputs all in its small footprint. With the quality of the mic pre-amps; the ease of use with the touch screen and buttons, it has made recording and producing out and about far easier. The unit also feels sturdy and has great build quality. We are very happy to have added this to our recording setup.

excellent

My Zen arrived last week and for the time being I'm more than satisfied with the product. I'm usinga Macbook pro-2019 with TB3. I needed half an hour to run through all the activation and install the software. Everything went smoothly, although I had to follow the manual at some point. The only thing I noticed is that I needed to additionally allow the driverto be installed fully in the Mac security settings. I don't know why I had to do this step, but after I installed the driver it worked well.

I've been playing around with the unit for the last several days to see how far it can go - I opened an old project,added the AFX2DAW in Logic on 128 samples buffer and at the same time recorded a vocal with my SM7B and my electric guitar with added guitar effects from the Zen control panel - not a single glitch even though the project was relatively heavy.

I love how the monitor-outs sound, it's a huge improvement for me in comparison to my older interface (don't want to mention the brand). The sound is crisp and the stereo image is much better. I also feel that I can go louder if I want. The preamps are decent and with my previous interface I had to use an additional In-Line preamp with the SM7B, but with the Zen Q, I don't need it anymore.

For now, my experience is more than excellent. Initially I was a bit scared because of some ofthe reviews, but I took a leap of faith and gave it a try because all the specs fit perfectly on what I was looking for.I guess Antelope improved the device a lot since its release because I don't get any of those issues I read on forums. I hope this stays that way because I really like the interface and I plan to get the most out of it.

Works well for me

I know some people have had issues, but it’s been working well for me on an M1 MacBook Air running Monterey (despite it being officially unsupported).

I did have some difficulty getting getting good levels with direct monitoring / onboard processing, but latency is so low that I mostly just use software monitoring with native plugins - and that works well for me.

I bought this interface after previously having a UA Apollo Solo, because I needed more I/O but still wanted a bus power. Latency is lower on the Zen Q, and my experience has been that it’s been more stable - especially not having to restart with a laptop sleeping and waking.

An Amazing portable interface!!!

I had my doubts when everyone suggested me this product from Antelope but I bought it nonetheless and... man! What a surprise!

Super quick to set up and the knobs are so smooth it's almost sexy turning them.

Mic Pres are basically noiseless and the overall experience was extremely positive.

Good

A huge number of bugs !

From the moment of purchase (2 months ago) I have been having problems using this card. Not once in ~ 20 have I been able to record without some kind of interference. The guitar might just turn off. The control panel may turn off. New drivers are not installed !!! We have to put the old version, which has even more problems! Support has a day off on Sunday. Answers waited 1-2 days. When working with headphones that are connected to a computer, the latency can spontaneously increase significantly!

At the very beginning, in order for it to function somehow, I had to start the Mac in recovery mode and enter some commands! Moreover, Antelope's support wrote me the wrong code! Because of this, I had to do this operation twice))

The sound is good. There were no problems with Logic.

To be honest, there is a great desire to bring her back. I hope it will be accepted without its own packaging.

I myself do not fully believe in what I write, but this is reality...

Macbook Pro 2019