Studio Upgrade: Carbon vs Apollo - Part 1

Part 1 of 2
An unapologetic look at the pros and cons of Pro Tools Carbon and Universal Audio Apollo. No complaint left unaddressed!

0:00 Beginning
2:48 Latency
5:39 Plugin Latency
7:16 Audio Quality
8:23 Limitations
9:11 Carbon Detailed Pros and Cons

#matthepworth #carbonvsapollo #studionu

[mrsayang]

Great Video and I appreciate especially your deep dive into the MOST important You did help a lot for my research about that topic. Thanks soooo much.

[Ritzourne]

This is one of the greatest videos I have seen. The value you bring in is great.

[paulsmith]

Love this video and the Part 2. So much excellent information and advice, top work 🙂

[albertbrennan]

Madre de dios...
hard times for "serious" professional studios and people..
i really miss...my 3x TDM Accel PCI-e Cards +192 I/o... and macpro really...

man, friend... you have saved my wallet... really. thanks, Matt.

[jaimemonroyofficial]

I watched this video 2 years ago... I did get the difference at that time. Today I can say that 32 bit depth + HDX DSP for AAX it's second to none. The interface is even compatible with any DAW (not the DSP of course) but with a perpetual license of pro tools ultimate it's more than desirable to just mix in pro tools. Awesome upgrade for my productions.

[JoelBouchillon]

When doing your test the latency between these two audio interfaces within Protools, what have you set Protool’s hardware buffer size for both tracking and mixing? Also, would the latency be even much lower if using a Mac M2 or M3 with the efficiency Apple’s Silicon?

[seanriley]

Great video Matt! One of the best out there for sure. Can I ask which one you lean on/prefer more for day to day?

[patrickbear]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but, regarding the DA--you can use the optical IO as 2-channels of SPDIF instead of ADAT/SMUX (selectable independently input or output) so, if you want premium DA, you have the option to configure the Carbon to send stereo output to the DAC of your choice. Can you comment on the quality of DA on the Line Outputs vs the Monitoring outputs? This would be a concern if you are planning to use analog gear in post sending tracks out through "average" DA would potentially render using analog gear over plugins sort of pointless. Also, while you are limited to AAX/DSP during tracking (for low-latency), that does not limit you as a producer/mixer from adding any number of native plugins in post. Aux plugins like "comfort" reverb and delay can run on an insert and don't really impact low-latency monitoring and, even if you don't have access to your preferred native plugin during tracking you can use low-latency equivalents as place-holders and replace them later with whatever you want. During tracking the focus should be on capturing the performance not final mixing the song anyway.

[STxFisherman]

Thank you for the excellent overview and comparison. Great information!

[sparkletune]

I watched both parts of your video and enjoyed it. I was on the fence between Carbon and Apollo, but ultimately (pun intended) went with Carbon. I don't do it, but I believe Carbon can be expanded with three Carbon Pre units, which give 24io as well as the 16 ADAT on the main unit.

Recently, I did a massive (for me) upgrade, added The Box (4 channel), and already owned an A2D, which I use as 2 312 pres. I added two 550As in The Box and a pair of 1073s (BAE) for the A2D. I plan to sell the A2D soon and get a 3124 from API.

Prior to my upgrade I had an Omni and SSL Alphalink. I kept the Alphalink, which gives me 16 channels ADAT in/out of Carbon (not possible on Apollo) while still giving me 8 mic/line ins via Carbon - which I mostly use for hardware.

I have been a UAD user since the Mackie days, but I prefer to use an Audioscape 1176 and LA2A on the way into PT. I've been able to match the software with the hardware, but not the other way around.

As a PT user Carbon works great. If I used something else or needed fewer inputs, Apollo would be my choice. Both are really nice.

[BillBene]

Excellent video. Everyone should use your videos as a guide on HOW TO do a video....Thanks for sharing

[billymack]

Great info!!! Do you know how to connect Burl B2 Bomber ADC to Apollo 6x for tracking? I'm using using a Neumann 103 into bae 1072 preamp MacBook pro m1 Cubase 12 Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks .

[grahamjohnston]

Around 2:30 you talk about “playback/tracking it all sounds the same” in Carbon & can be done in Apollo with some work. I would be interested in what’s needed to get the Apollo closer to this? I’ve stopped tracking in Logic with Apollo because of huge differences between tracking and playback with Logic’s ‘software monitoring’ turned off. Pro Tools is not as bad and Luna is probably the best but obviously not as functional as the other two Daw’s….. yet. Thanks!

[leirumanuel]

Yes. Whats the point to use PA plugins with carbon to have the same latency as from the CPU usage?

[CaseJams]

I think I replayed parts of this vid more than I ever have 😅

[Mheyos]

Awesome job ! Thx a lot you saved me money.
Greeting from France 🙏😘

[nettydrone]

When I record via Apollo I always use Console and there is no noticeable latency at all. For you to knowingly choose to go through the DAW just seems like you don't want to take advantage of the best way to record with Apollo using the ZERO Latency Setup with Console application and its Realtime UAD Processing - I don't understand why that is? You could run the full library of UAD plug-ins with near-zero no noticeable latency at all. You can choose which of the plugins you want to print to media and which you don't during performance. If viewers of this video don't understand that you are choosing not to take advantage of the UAD's Console they may not be well informed. But... it could be that like I said there is stuff I don't understand...

[lastcall]

Hi Matt, I haven't found the answer anywhere: What's the latency when direct monitoring through the Apollo (not the DAW)? And if I added let's say a Reverb and a Compressor for Vocals? All using the chips from the interface? Is it all instant?

[thomasnolte]

can u please share ur thoughts on the avid matrix interface

[soulinspiration]

Matt I crowned you "Mr. UAD". I never thought I see you using Carbon.