Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo

Thunderbolt Interface with powerful onboard UAD-2 DSP

By Phil O'Keefe

Universal Audio's Apollo interfaces have been a huge success for them, with reviewers and owners alike praising their sound quality and powerful onboard DSP, but their broad feature set puts the price tag of the rackmount Apollos out of reach for some home recordists who have more modest needs and means. Fortunately, Universal Audio has recently released the new Apollo Twin interfaces, which are scaled down in terms of the number of inputs and outputs, but retain many of the features that have made the Apollo line so successful and popular.

What You Need To Know

• Housed in a stylish and heavy-duty aluminum enclosure, Apollo Twin is a rugged and compact (6.31" W x 6.2" D x 2.6" H) tabletop audio interface for Thunderbolt-equipped Mac computers. Apollo Twin comes equipped with onboard DSP for running Universal Audio's well-regarded UAD-2 plug-ins. Apollo Twin is available as the Apollo Twin Duo, which has two SHARC DSP processors, or the Apollo Twin Solo, which has a single onboard SHARC chip. For the review, UA sent me the Apollo Twin Duo to check out. Other than the amount of onboard DSP, the two units are identical.

• You'll need an Internet connection for the necessary software downloads and UAD plug-in authorizations, but UA has made the process quick, easy, and pain-free. No DAW software is included, but Apollo Twin is compatible with all the major DAW applications, and supports VST, Audio Units, RTAS, and AAX 64 plug-in hosts. 

• Apollo Twin features fewer inputs and outputs than the rackmount Apollo units, but they are of noticeably higher quality than what most tabletop audio interfaces provide. With the same 24 bit converters as the Apollo rack units, the sound quality is outstanding, with up to 118dB dynamic range. Apollo Twin supports sample rates of up to 192kHz.  

• Apollo Twin has two high-resolution, ultra-transparent digitally controlled analog mic preamps which can be controlled from the front panel, or UA's Console software application. Up to 65dB of gain is available. The microphone preamps feature UA's new Unison mic preamp technology. Unison plug-ins interact bi-directionally with the actual hardware of the mic preamp circuit, changing things such as impedance, gain stages, and component level circuit behaviors so that the physical hardware and software plug-in work together to more accurately emulate the modeled mic preamp. This is significantly different than applying emulation after tracking, since things like impedance can affect the way the mic and preamp interact with each other. It works great too - the included Unison 610-B Preamp and EQ plug-in is remarkably faithful in feel and sound to a hardware LA-610 mic preamp.

• In addition to the two Mic/Line inputs (on combo XLR/1/4" TRS jacks), Apollo Twin also has two 1/4" TRS Monitor outputs, as well as two additional pair of 1/4" TRS balanced line outputs for extra utility. For example, they're ideal for use as an extra stereo cue feed. The analog Monitor outputs are digitally controlled, so unlike most interfaces in this class, they retain full resolution, even when the volume is set to less than full blast. There is also a high impedance instrument input and a independently-addressable headphone jack on the front panel where they are easy to get to, and they sound excellent too.

• One thing to consider when shopping for an audio interface is the number of simultaneous channels you can record with it. While an interface may suit your needs today, your needs may change in the future and you could easily find yourself wishing you had opted for an interface with more channels - especially input channels. Fortunately, Apollo Twin has an optical digital input jack, so you can add a external analog to digital converter or a 4-8 channel mic preamp with ADAT lightpipe out to your Apollo Twin at a later time, and record up to ten channels simultaneously at either 44.1 or 48kHz. The lightpipe port also supports S/MUX so you can use it at higher sample rates too - all the way up to 192kHz, although with fewer channels. It can also be configured as a S/PDIF input, complete with sample rate conversion and the ability to run at sample rates of up to 96kHz. Best of all, you can use realtime UAD processing on the digital inputs too!

• The hardware user interface on the Apollo Twin is ingenious, intuitive, and exceptionally well designed. There is a minimal number of controls, but they provide quick and easy access to everything you need. A Preamp button toggles a single set of controls between input Channel 1 and Channel 2 and an Input switch toggles between mic and line inputs for the selected channel.. There are dedicated switches for a 75Hz low-cut filter, 48V phantom power, 20dB pad, and polarity inversion. Another switch links the two channels so that the settings of one are mirrored by the other. 

• The single large control knob is surrounded by a ring of green LEDs that indicate the position of the selected parameter. This knob is used for everything from setting the preamp gain to your headphone and monitor levels - any of which can be accessed with just a button push or two. A dedicated Monitor switch toggles the knob between controlling your monitor and headphone levels. 

• The software heart of the Apollo Twin is the Console application. This is laid out like a mixing console, with four inserts per channel for assigning UAD-2 plugins, and two independent stereo aux sends. Anyone who has used a DAW mixer will quickly feel right at home here. You can also set up cue mixes for near-zero latency monitoring while tracking, regardless of your DAW's buffer setting. Plug-ins can be monitored while tracking, and you can even opt to "print" them while recording. There is also virtual I/O for routing your DAW tracks through the UA Console. Of course, you can save your favorite setups for later recall, and there's even a Console Recall plug-in for your DAW that allows you to control the Apollo Twin's monitoring features, as well as save and recall Console configurations from within your DAW sessions. Of course, when you get ready to mix your recording, the UA plug-ins can be used in your DAW too. 

• Since Universal Audio has partnered with companies like Neve, Studer, Manley Labs and API, there is a wide range of exceptional plug-ins available, and 14-day demos of all the currently available plug-ins are included so you can try them all out before purchasing your favorites. The Apollo Twin comes with UA's Analog Classics bundle, which includes their 1176LN and 1176SE Legacy plug-ins, the Teletronix LA-2A Legacy plug-in, Softube Amp Room Essentials, Pultec and Pultec Pro Legacy plug-ins, Realverb Pro reverb, CS-1 Channel Strip, and 610-B Tube Mic Preamplifier and EQ plug-in. There's plenty to get you started, but as soon as you demo the rest, you're going to want more… the UAD-2 platform offers some of the finest plug-ins you'll find anywhere.

• How many plug-ins can you run simultaneously? That depends on which Apollo Twin you opt for, and which plug-ins you want to run. Some plug-ins are more processor-intensive than others. Universal Audio has a handy chart up on their site showing the instance counts you can expect with the various different UAD-2 plug-ins. To give you a general idea, I was able to set up a tracking session with a UA 610-B Unison preamp emulation as well as a UA 1176LN Legacy plugin and Pultec EQP-1A Legacy plug-in on each of the two analog mic preamp channels, and also the same Pultec and 1176 plug-ins on each of the 8 ADAT lightpipe inputs for a total of 22 plug-ins while tracking, and the DSP meter was sitting at 67 percent. Input delay compensation, which maintains phase alignment across all analog and digital inputs, was enabled.

Limitations

• There's only one Thunderbolt port on the Apollo Twin, which means it has to run at the end of the Thunderbolt chain. If you use a non-Apple external monitor (without two Thunderbolt ports on it), you're out of luck - unless the monitor has other connection options and you're willing to get a ~$200 Thunderbolt docking station (such as the ones made by CalDigit and StarTech) to facilitate the connection, it's the Apollo Twin, or the external monitor - you won't be able to use both simultaneously.

• No Thunderbolt cable is included, so you'll need to budget and plan accordingly.

• At this time, there is no PC support. Apollo Twin is designed for use with Apple Macintosh computers with Thunderbolt ports running OS X 10.8 or higher. It will not work with Firewire to Thunderbolt adapters.

• Unfortunately, Apollo Twin can not be bus powered; it requires the included 12V power adapter for operation.

Conclusions

This interface is going to be a game-changer for a lot of home and project studios. The Apollo Twin's audio quality is outstanding, and the great sounding converters are straight from the award winning Apollo rack units. The Thunderbolt interface provides exceptionally low latency, and with the easy to use Console software, it's simple to track with those high-quality plug-ins in real time. The clean, transparent mic preamps coupled with the innovative Unison mic preamp technology gives you the best of both worlds - clean and character mic preamp tones are both available. The ability to add more inputs via the ADAT optical port means that the Apollo Twin can tackle larger tracking sessions too - up to ten input sources at once, which is enough for a heavily miked drum kit or even a small rhythm section. 

The outstanding UAD-2 DSP powered plug-ins are a major step up from most native fare, and the onboard DSP definitely lightens the load on your host computer's processors, allowing for more complex and better sounding mixes. Being able to monitor through the plug-ins and record through them in real time while tracking is a capability that most native DAWs simply don't have, but that Apollo Twin handles with ease. And again, it just sounds so good, from preamps to converters to headphone output - Apollo Twin may be the smaller sibling of the Apollo line, but make no mistake - this is a seriously cool interface, with pro-level sound quality, innovative preamp features and powerful DSP processing that make it a real winner that can help take your recordings to the next level. Highly recommended!

Resources

Musician's Friend's Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo and Apollo Twin Solo online catalog pages ($1,129.00 MSRP / $899.00 "street", and  $879.00 MSRP / $699 "street", respectively)

Universal Audio's Apollo Twin web page

Universal Audio's UAD-2 Plug-in Instance Count Chart

Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Senior Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.