Universal Audio Apollo A Good Buy In 2023

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[steveg]

The Apollo continues to work really well for me. While UA is porting the plug-ins to Native, there is only a short list today available. Not sure for new buyers, but for those of us who have used UAD for a while it is still great AND you can run some of the plugins natively, this is a huge bonus

[royalnegotiation]

I think there's more value in Unison than you're giving it credit for.

Just about every blind test I've seen has left people borderline guessing as to whether they're listening to Unison preamps or hardware. For $100-$300 software to be virtually indistinguishable sonically to $2-7k hardware is really impressive, and will continue to be a huge Apollo selling point. I've gone so far as to run Neve 1073SPX pres and the UAD Neve 1073 through plugin doctor, only to find virtually no differences in frequency response and harmonics.

I'm not saying it's the be all end all, but it's hard not to recognize value when I see it. Having a roster of high end preamp emulations that are a) portable, b) sonically indistinguishable, and c) less expensive to own/maintain is a very flexible system overall, and definitely worth the investment into UAD's interfaces.

[wolfgilbert]

Barry, nice video with a well thought out perspective. I take a different viewpoint. To add context, I actually did buy an Apollo X8 this year and I have to say I'm delighted with it, but I did so even though I believe it is soon to be 'replaced'. There are a couple of points I'd like to make, first being that people buy in to 'ecospheres' more than devices...if you are an Apple guy/gal, you have iCloud, which means your Mac works best with an iPhone (vs. a Samsung) and your data is more easily ready from a Mac than from a Windows device. So when you need a new device as part of this ecosystem, you buy one from that same ecosystem...the same is true in cameras (lenses vs. bodies etc) and so many other areas. So if you've invested in UAD plugins, and you need a Preamp/Interface, you'll get benefit from a UAD device, and vice versa.

Secondly, I don't think you are right in your thinking that because computers are getting more and more powerful and can do everything the Sharc powered UAD devices can do, that there's little value in offloading that to a device. I love the fact that I can have a signal come in from an analog device (mic/instrument/whatever), be processed the way I wan't, monitored, but also routed to another device, recorded...with or with out the processing, and if it's live, streamed directly, without every tying up my Mac (or frankly even needing it to be powered on - although admittedly it pretty much always is).

It seem clear to me that releasing 'native' plugins is part of a two prong approach from UAD...obviously expanding their market to not UAD hardware people, but also setting up for the obvious shift to ARM based processing in what I assume will be UAD v3 hardware...but only once the entire stack is 'native' ready. I'm excited to see what they do with that, because I think it will let them do so much more, more cost effectively.

So if I 100% believe that's the direction (which I do), why commit a not so small chunk of cash to a dated platform now? Well, I've watch the tech industry for a very long time and the one truth I can absolutely tell you is that there will *always* be something better coming along soon. Waiting for it is a fool's game. If you can wait until the next gen, you don't *need* anything now, and spending money on something you don't need is silly. If you do need it, buy it...if it's good enough now, the fact that something will be better latter is irrelevant...if it's not good enough now, save your money!

Just my perspective...anyway, great video, and good discussion.

[TheChrispablo]

As a windows user i have the UAD apollo twin mk 2 thunderbolt for about 3 years now. It was a pain in the beginning setting it up and all that(thunderbolt drivers and windows was not easy), but after i made it work it was and still is the best thing i bought. My computer is not that powerful and the UAD makes it possible to track with auto tune, compression, reverb etc. with no latency and without taxing my computer. Sound quality is top. for 1000€ it was the best thing i bought.

[bdeep]

Been using UA gear since UAD-1, now using Apollo and have always been super happy. Great sounding, straight forward to use, and stellar customer support.

[catojrgensen]

Hi Barry. Great points ! Regarding the "committing to tape" at the recording stage is a huuuuge win for me creatively.
It might seem counter productive, but there is a huge creative aspect of limiting yourself and getting the sound right from the get go. Playing back something that has "the sound" early in the proces is an immense time saver and creatively rewarding and inspiring during the proces. Instead of having 50 tracks that all sound kind of bland because of fear of committing to a sound. And THEN you have to click on a mouse for a hundred years frustrating yourself with how many options you suddenly have chasing a sound that somehow seems like a faint and fleeting idea. No! I want my hands tied any day. Just a thought.
your content!

[americanbigelow]

"...If not thousands of tracks..." Wow! Barry, I'm impressed. My sessions are usually only between 80 and 150 with all the handoffs. You must truly be a master. FYI: My (Clearly inferior) Silicon Mac tops out around 300 tracks. So... You got a diamond. Thanks for the video!

[definfected]

I love my apollo x8p!! I'm using a classic Mac Pro on Mojave with Logic Pro and everything works great!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Much ❤ Barry!!

[arturflor]

Love you, Barry!

Some counterpoints:
-Even my M1 Macbook Pro can't get me the 2ms of latency that Apollo path offers. Not a big deal, but just saying... :)
-In the late stages of a mix, with my M1 getting taxed with plugins, I need to quickly record a new take. With my Apollo, I can track with plugins printed at almost no latency, regardless of what's happening on my M1. That's a powerful argument for an Apollo for me.
-For the price of an Apollo I could buy a nice hw preamp/channel, true. Or with an Apollo you can track a mic thru an API channel strip, a noise and room-removing magical plugin (C-Vox), and a Studer tape machine. I am making better use of my money with the second option.


Just engaging here with you because I love your channel! 🙂

[marklholloway]

I own two x16 and an x4 clocked off a Rupert Neve Master Bus Converter (MBC) and they sound great. I do love the workflow in Luna and the recent update where you can flip between Native and DSP versions of UA plugins, similar to Carbon DSP and Native in Pro Tools. I think UA may be taking their time on the next gen Apollo because there will be a change in the DSP workflow approach and to support this in Console, Luna, new and old Apollo hardware, updated software drivers, requites a massive roadmap and a large team of developers dedicated to just this. Meanwhile UA has acquired Bock and others and even though UA may be “small” they still have a big growth trajectory and added some great executives to their leadership team. Lastly, they are on a roll and I’m sure whatever the next generation of products are, they want to knock it out of the park as it will likely be a massive R&D investment.

[ProVoiceBH]

Thanks so much Sir. But I feel that the amount of low latency that you get from UA Console is more pleasing and more comfortable to the ears than tracking natively in 32 samples even on Apple Silicon. I know the difference is not that much, but it’s noticeable if you compare them immediately one after the other. When I tried it I felt that the UA Console is closer to a real analog mixer in my opinion (in terms of latency performance). Lovely video BTW thanks again.

[sumithramachandranwatchyou]

So happy with my first generation Apollo Twin. I will definitely buy the Apollo x . I just bought the Friedman and PT100 amps. Amazing sound.

[JTPiano]

I use both PC & Mac in our studio. I looked hard at the Apollo product line recently. I ended up going in a completely different direction and bought an SSL Big Six.
Latency is a thing of the past. Track through the console while monitoring through the console. Voila.
Having said all that I am thrilled to be able to access the Apollo line of plugins to use in my system.

[OneManRightHere]

Fully agree! Just got an x8p and absolutely loving it along with their native, apollo and Unison plugins. So far, I'm only using UA plugins and don't feel the need for anything else. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the LUNA DAW. This is the DAW I've been seeking for a very long time. I'm usually a Windows guy. Have nothing against Mac, but never had the need to get one. So I got a used Mac Book pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD and i7 processors, and it runs LUNA beautifully. I literally can't take any other DAW anymore, especially Reason. Most DAWs are like walking through Disneyland on acid, looking at like "wtf is this and what am I supposed to do with it??" LUNA hands down beats them all.

[Stormsurf]

I'm using an Apollo X4 on a custom Win PC with Thunderbolt card with 16 core/32 threads at 24 bit/96khz with upwards of 350 tracks per song all recorded through soft preamps/some comps and tape emulation and piles of plugins on top and it works perfectly and steady as rock. Tracking through the plugins is very light like you mentioned. Anyway, the Apollo ecosystem is insane. All totally in the box. Good economic decision for me and I'm very happy with the system. Apollo rocks!

[pat-enz]

Makes sense. As you say it is a small company. They want to be efficient, so they put all the spare sharc processors in their pedals. Once they used them up, they will come out with a new big one with a new processor. As long as they do well, they will wait for this release and keep developing a great new hardware platform. If I record myself, I prefer the apollo. I even record with plugins to stop tweaking and be more productive and I love it. That being said, I will continue with my apollo until end of life and also stay with my mac.

[tmappe]

As a straight up -plug and play- no brainer solution if you have a little more cash it’s an avenue that saves a lot of headache. Buy an Apollo 8xp and a refurbished MacBook Pro M1 that’s what I did. Hook it up and press go. Everything sounds amazing.

[MusicOfDreamweaver]

I find tracking with UAD has a better feel than using other interfaces. I have the native Brown Eye from Brainworks and I have the UAD version and when playing through the interface into the native plugin just doesn't feel as good as using it in console. When you add on that I can use it for streams or live, this adds to the value. I love that I can use both Native and DSP now because that gives me choice. Sure, when you mix it doesn't matter that much, but when you track it makes a world of difference.

[RobertRyda]

Apollo is still viable. As you should probably know, the DAW plays the critical role while 'BOUNCING' the audio into the file and its a definite miss to think that the connected audio interface does. I used to think that if the interface is connected and visible by the DAW it plays the role in bouncing the audio. I was wrong. The engine of the DAW does that and not the interface. That is the reason why people print their external converters instead of doing a DAW-bounce. However, the UAD-2 DSP plugins DO play a role while boucing/rendering takes place because of those SHARC chips UAD-2 utilizes. So whether they are outdated or not (I think their cumputing power is lagging for about 5 years or so already), but they play that crucial role in getting the analog flavor of UAD-2 while the DAW reads and bouces the session (and to be honest Im not quite sure the native UADx do the same).

[TheBASSmentStudio]

I'm thankful for their starting to port over to native. It's great come mix time... My apollos still reign for tracking. I love the conversion and I track through the unison preamps all of the time. It's about the tracking DSP... Not the mix DSP for me. It sounds the complete opposite for you.