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Universal Audio Apollo Audio Interface + UAD 2 DSP


Anderton

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To say that this review is highly anticipated would be an understatement. As fellow HC editor Phil O’Keefe said, “probably half the page views will be mine, I’m really interested in this.” And as Universal Audio said, “We’re really curious to see what you think of it.”

So here we are, and I’ve hit the trifecta of pro reviews: The Casio XW-P1, Line 6 Dream Rig, and now, UA’s Apollo. No wonder I’m not spending a lot of time in the other forums. Just think, it's my job to work with this stuff smile.gif

Now, things you need to know about Apollo and this pro review.

  • UA has a page with basics and an FAQ. I’ve read it over, and it’s excellent background for this pro review as it minimizes marketing blather and gives you lots of useful information about the intended functionality. The job of this pro review will be to determine the extent to which they’ve delivered on that functionality and also, workflow.
  • Apollo comes with the equivalent of either a DUO or Quad DSP card for running UA’s Powered Plug-Ins. We will not be covering individual plug-ins in this review, as there’s already a pro review that covers the Satellite DSP farm but has mutated into a review of the Powered Plug-Ins line. That thread will continue to review additional plug-ins, so it’s worth checking it out from time to time to check for updates.
  • The Big Deal: You can use these plug-ins in real time with under 2ms quoted latency. I can imagine lots of live performance laptop jockeys finding this very useful, and is something we'll be covering in depth during the course of this review.
  • Currently, Apollo is Mac-only. Windows 7 compatibility is slated for this summer, as is 64-bit compatibility for the Powered Plug-Ins. Apollo’s drivers are already 64-bit compatible. Also, all my software for doing audio testing is Windows-specific, so you probably won’t see my usual screen shots of dynamic range, noise, THD, frequency response, etc. until at least beta Windows drivers show up. However, I’m currently trying to figure out a workaround and hopefully I’ll be successful at it. Meanwhile, I’ll see if UA has any suitable graphs I could use.
  • Apollo is designed as a FireWire 800 interface, but will run at half-bandwidth with FireWire 400 ports, or FireWire 800 ports that don’t deliver the goods (which unfortunately is the case with my quad core Mac Pro). My computer’s limitations won’t affect the review, as it only relates how many simultaneous channels I can stream at once. At some point I’ll likely get a FireWire 800 card, as recommended by UA, so I’m not dependent on the computer’s internal port.
Let’s talk pricing and options before starting our traditional photo tour.
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There are currently two “flavors” of Apollo. One has DSP equivalent to their UAD-2 Quad card built-in, and has a street price of $2,499. This is actually less than I expected, way back when the product was first being shown I was hearing estimates of $4k MSRP. The version with the equivalent of a DUO card has a street price of $1,999. For comparison, the Quad card itself has a street price of $1,499 and the DUO, $899. So basically, you’re paying around a grand for the audio interface part of the Apollo package.

Apollo comes with the underrated Analog Classics Plug-In Bundle, which is covered in depth in the other thread about Powered Plug-Ins. You also get a $100 voucher for the UA store toward the purchase of UA's extensive collection of optional-at-extra-cost plug-ins. This can add up, so fortunately, there are 14-day free trials of all plug-ins so you can see if they warrant communing with your bank account.

I should also add that I’ve been following the Powered Plug-Ins saga since the original UAD-1 board, and for anyone who hasn’t seen my comments about them or read the other pro review, these plug-ins do a fantastic job of capturing the “analog” vibe in a digital context. Of course, the question always comes up “Well native processing is so powerful, who needs DSP?” Well, aside from the fact that the only way to get UA plug-ins is to use their DSP, UA isn’t shy about throwing DSP processing cycles at their effects (we're talking Analog Devices' SHARC chips), and you always know how many plug-ins you can run—if you’re red-lining the available hardware DSP and add 20 more tracks and five virtual instruments to your DAW’s project, the DSP card doesn’t care.

(I reviewed the Quad card for Keyboard back in 2008 when it first came out, and mentioned that the card could run 128 instances of the Neve 88RS channel strip with a 44.1kHz project. The editor wanted to know what the qualifiers were to that figure, but there weren’t any—that’s how many it will run regardless of the computer platform, or what else is going on in your project.)

Another comment: I don’t like cheap gear that’s shoddy, and I don’t like expensive gear that’s overpriced (not just because I can’t afford it!). But I love cheap gear that’s put together well—like the Casio XW-P1, for example—and I don’t have a problem with expensive gear that’s cost-effective. Although $2,499 for the Apollo Quad isn’t inexpensive, you can only appreciate the pricing when you take the unit apart and see the level of quality it has, both inside and out. This is a beautifully engineered piece of gear that justifies its price, so in the spirit of “it’s not a real pro review until I’ve voided the warranty in at least one way,” let’s start the photo tour and then shoot some pictures of the insides.

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Normally I don’t include box shots, but when a company goes to this much effort...let’s give some props to those unsung heroes, the “packaging engineers.” That’s the rack unit on the bottom, and the box with the other items (shown next) on top.

wOpNS.jpg

Here’s what else is in the box: “line lump” global power supply (110/240V, 50/60Hz) with two different IEC cables (one for the US and one “Euro” plug). There’s also a printed manual, a “one-sheet” read me, and the obligatory useless CD-ROM you can use as a coaster because it seems there’s always newer software on the web (and there is; the current version is 6.2).

hfJNY.jpg

Here’s a picture of the overall unit.

d55OZ.jpg

This shows the left part of the front panel. There are two 1/4” DI inputs with JFET input stages, a single Preamp control you can assign to the four digitally-controlled mic pres, and buttons for mic/line level, low cut filter, +48V phantom power, pad, phase flip, and link (for stereo linking). That green “swoosh” that shows preamp level is lit and looks really cool. It’s clearly designed to impress impressionable clients...and probably impressionable reviewers, too.

Q9J9f.jpg

Moving toward the right, you can see a series of indicators that give visual feedback on the button positions (the mic indicator is lit, as well as the eight 10-stage LED meters. Incidentally, the top is black, not blue, but such are the vagaries of lighting in my low-budget “photo studio,” which has blue walls.

QafaH.jpg

The next shot shows the cool-looking illuminated UA logo (more eye candy), indicators for nternal clock, external clock, or UAD link, and the master output LED meters.

HWdGl.jpg

Toward the front panel right, you can see the Monitor level control with its own green swoosh, along with the dual headphone outs (with associated level controls) and on/off power switch.

qReVW.jpg

And of course, after the front panel comes the back panel.

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We'll look at the rear panel going from right to left, so that it mirrors the front panel shots.

First up are the four XLR mic inputs. These jacks are held in place with screws, so no, they don't wobble when you plug in. With budget units, it's common to secure connectors to the internal circuit board, then just have them poke through a panel. While this works, if you do a lot of plugging and unplugging, this can start to stress the circuit board at the point of connection with the connector. You won't have that problem here.

17SWU.jpg

Next up, here are the eight 1/4" input and eight 1/4" output jacks, along with the stereo monitor outs. As you can see they're secured in place with locking nuts - again, you can plug and unplug as much as you want. What you may not see is that the locking nuts are screwed over a plastic sleeve, thus isolating the TRS jack's ground from the chassis itself. This is best practice for balanced I/O and audio connections to minimize the chance for ground loops, and if UA's engineers thought no one would notice but they did it anyway...well, I noticed smile.gif

6iZtj.jpg
Moving further left, we arrive at Digital-Land. This has word clock I/O (with termination switch), S/PDIF on RCA jacks, and dual FireWire 800 ports.

grkLU.jpg
Our final rear-panel shot shows the ADAT I/O with two pairs of optical connectors, one pair for inputs and one for outputs. This uses the ADAT S/Mux protocol which allows 88.1 and 96kHz sample rates, which weren't part of the original spec, by splitting the eight channels into two groups of four. At lower sample rates, though, this doesn't mean you get 16 channels; you still only get eight, with input 1 providing the eight channel inputs, and output 2 mirroring output 1.

Also note the macho power connector - nothing flimsy here.

iQUZi.jpg

And that's enough to us started! Tomorrow I'll post the gear porn pictures of the innards.

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Apollo's build quality is excellent. It's designed in California and assembled in China, but more and more, I'm seeing really high-quality gear coming out of China. I've been told by several companies that the Chinese assembly plants will do exactly what you ask them to do, and some go so far as to have someone from their company living in China on-site to monitor the entire process with respect to quality control. I don't know if that's what UA is doing, but this is as well-assembled a piece of gear as has come across my desk in recent memory.

Here's an overall shot of the insides to give context to the pictures that follow.

3rfa6.jpg

By the way, the "tray" toward the top is where I presume the Thunderbolt I/O will slide in.

Following is a picture of the analog I/O board. The AD converters are Asahi Kasei AKM AK5388 chips; here's the description from their web site data sheet:

120dB 192kHz 24-Bit 4ch ADC
The AK5388 is a 24bit, 216kHz sampling 4-channel A/D converter for high-end audio systems. The modulator in the AK5388 uses AKM’s Enhanced Dual Bit architecture, enabling the AK5388 to realize high accuracy and low cost. The AK5388 achieves 120dB dynamic range and 110dB S/(N+D), and an optional mono mode extends dynamic range to 123dB. The AK5388’s digital filter features a modified FIR architecture that minimizes group delay while maintaining excellent linear phase response. So the device is suitable for professional audio applications including recording, sound reinforcement, effects processing, sound cards, and high-end A/V receivers.


And the DA converters are Cirrus CS4398 ICs for the main outs, and the AKM 4480 for the headphone outs.

Here's a description of the CS4398 from the
web site's landing page:

The CS4398 is a complete stereo audio 24-bit/192 kHz digital/analog converter (DAC) system. This D/A system includes digital de-emphasis, half dB step-size volume control, ATAPI channel mixing, selectable fast and slow roll off digital interpolation filters followed by an oversampled multibit Delta-Sigma modulator, which includes mismatch shaping technology that eliminates distortion due to capacitor mismatch. Following this stage is a multi-element switched capacitor stage and low-pass filter with differential analog outputs.

Here's a description of the AA4480 from the web site data sheet:

High performance 32-Bit DAC
AK4480 is a 32-bit DAC which corresponds to DVD-Audio systems. An internal circuit includes newly developed 32bit Digital Filter for better sound quality achieving low distortion characteristics and wide dynamic range. The AK4480 has full differential SCF outputs, removing the need for AC coupling capacitors and increasing performance for systems with excessive clock jitter. The AK4480 accepts 216kHz PCM data and 1-bit DSD data, ideal for a wide range of applications including DVD-Audio and SACD.


The mic preamps are Burr-Brown PGA2500 digitally-controlled mic pres. These are pretty costly chips and I believe they're also used in some RME interfaces. Here's an excerpt from the data sheet:

Burr-Brown PGA2500 digitally-controlled mic pres
The PGA2500 is a digitally-controlled, analog microphone preamplifier designed for use as a front end for high- performance audio analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The PGA2500 features include low noise, wide dynamic range, and a differential signal path. An on-chip DC servo loop is employed to minimize DC offset, while a common-mode servo function may be used to enhance common-mode rejection.

The PGA2500 features a gain range of 10dB through 65dB (1dB/step), along with a unity gain setting. The wide gain range allows the PGA2500 to be used with a variety of microphones. Gain settings and internal functions are programmed using a 16-bit control word, which is loaded using a simple serial port interface. A serial data output pin provides support for daisy-chained connection of multiple PGA2500 devices. Four programmable digital outputs are provided for controlling the external switching of input pads, phantom power, high pass filters, and polarity reversal functions. The PGA2500 requires both +5V and −5V power supplies.


For the non-technical, here's the translation: UA didn't skimp on the preamps.

SFErL.jpg

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I didn't take a picture of the FireWire components, but UA is using a Texas Instruments chip set, which is pretty much the de facto FireWire silicon for audio gear. Next up, here's a picture of the power supply.

plHHc.jpg

Who cares about power supplies, right? Well, I do. They are the heart of any piece of gear, and they work hard. Granted that circuits don't fail very often these days, but when they do, often it's the power supply due to being constantly stressed. So, I was happy to see you could swap out the power supply board in minutes. I appreciate stuff like that smile.gif

Now here's another little touch. There are three multiconductor ribbon cables used inside Apollo, which terminate (of course) in six connectors. In an ideal world, no piece of gear would need any connectors - they're mechanical parts, so they can come loose and with cheaper connectors, corrode. (Several times I've been considered a tech genius for fixing a piece of gear, when all I did was pull out the connectors and re-seat them!). So it was nice to open up Apollo and not see cables all over the place. Also, there were no fixes or jumpers on the top of the circuit board.

However, now it's time for a Hartley Peavey story. When I first visited the Peavey factory, I saw the big electrolytic capacitors on some power amps being hot-glued to the chassis so they wouldn't move. That seemed sort of excessive to me, which I mentioned to Hartley. His response? "Craig, when these things leave the factory, I never want to see them come back here again." Well, someone at UA subscribes to the Hartley Peavey Theory of Securing Components, because there's a dab of what appears to be silicone securing the ribbon cable male plugs to the female jacks. Here's a close-up.

kgEq6.jpg

So in other words, the connector just plain isn't going to come loose. But if you ever need to disconnect it, you can.

Yes, I realize I'm a geek.

Moving on...here's the rear of the front panel, where you can see a different multiconductor plug being secured.

nVR3Z.jpg

And finally...the piece de resistance. The large square IC in the center is a XILINX Spartan-6 FPGA, but what really matters to us are the four smaller chips surrounding it. These are the SHARC ADSP-21469 chips from Analog Devices that provide the DSP of a Quad card (four chips...quad..geddit?). They're extremely powerful, fourth-generation digital signal processors. If you want to know, there's a comprehensive data sheet online.

lYPc9.jpg

Okay, that's probably enough gear porn for now. I realize that some peoples' eyes probably started glazing over about 25% of the way through the previous post, but I'm sure others are checking this out and going "Hey, that's a pretty impressive roster of components." And it is. Apollo has excellent build quality; I don't see anywhere that corners were cut.

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Now that we’ve seen all the pretty pictures of the hardware, let’s look at the software—the console, to be specific.

This is the main way of interacting with Apollo, other than the front panel controls. If you want to use Apollo as a stand-alone digital mixer, the Console is your interface for that application as well. Of course this also interacts with your DAW; most audio interfaces have some kind of mixer applet, but Apollo’s is very comprehensive as it also hosts the UAD plug-ins and has busing. UA says that the console is intended to provide the workflow of a typical analog console (they sure do like that analog stuff), so part of this review will be to assess the influence of the console on workflow.

A unique aspect is that Apollo comes with a Console Recall plug-in (VST, RTAS, AU) that optionally inserts in your DAW. It lets you change Apollo’s Monitor controls from within the DAW, enable recording into your DAW through the UA plug-ins in real time, and save/load console configurations that are unique to a specific project. Unlike most plug-ins, it doesn’t do any processing within your DAW; it’s just convenient to be able to insert it as you would a standard plug-ins. Besides, where else in a DAW session could you insert something like this? idn_smilie.gif

Anyway, here’s an overview of the console. It’s pretty sizable, so this obviously doesn’t show the whole thing. You scroll left or right to see additional channels (analog, ADAT, S/PDIF).

What you’re seeing here are the first four ins, which can be mic, line, or instrument. Remember that the XLR jacks aren't combo jacks, so if you want to use line connections for the first four ins, you'd use the 1/4" phone TRS jacks shown previously in the rear panel view. Similarly, the front panel instrument inputs feed the first two inputs.

To the right of these four channels you can see one of the “standard” line channels. ADAT and S/PDIF channels are the same, except there’s no need for choosing a reference of +4dB/-10dB. So if you do the math, the total number of available inputs is:

  • 8 analog line ins, of which 4 can be mic ins; of these, 2 can be instrument ins
  • 8 ADAT optical inputs @ 44.1/48/88.2/96kHz, 4 @ 176.4/192kHz)
  • 2 S/PDIF ins (i.e., stereo S/PDIF)


Qox83.png
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Referring to the screenshot, the top of the mic pre channel strip duplicates what's on the front panel: mic/line switch, highpass filter, +48V phantom power, pad, phase (polarity) flip, and link, which does stereo linking of channel pairs (1+2, 3+4, etc.). Communication between Apollo and the Console is bi-directional - for example, if you enable the front panel pad switch, the Console pad button follows and vice-versa.

Below that are four insert slots. These are for inserting - tra la! - the UAD-2 plug-ins. Each slot has an enable/bypass button.

3nAsQ.png

Of course, the Big Deal with these inserts is that the plug-ins are in series with the input path - yes, you can route the input through the plug-ins in real time. The obvious use is recording with effects, but an equally obvious use is for live performance. If you're a laptop jockey using Apollo with something like Ableton Live, you can use Live for the backing tracks or fader-slamming remixes while feeding in a mic and/or other instruments.

Moving further down the strip, there are two aux sends with pans. If you suspect that maybe you can put UAD-2 plug-ins in the aux bus returns, you're right (as we'll see when you check out the right side of the console).

Below that are monitor (cue) controls for the two headphone jacks, with the monitors enabled by the HP 1 and HP 2 buttons. Like the sends, there are level and pan controls. Note that this also gives you a physical aux bus of sorts - you can send signal to a headphone jack, pull out of that to go into something like a classic hardware reverb, then return that into two of the analog inputs.

The bottom section has the expected fader, panpot, and solo and mute buttons. However, there's a neat little twist in that if you right-click on a fader or panpot, you can copy the mix to the headphone or aux mixes. This is really convenient if you're monitoring while overdubbing; you can copy the mix to the headphone out, then tweak the headphone cue levels to bring individual inputs up or down.

lIHui.png

Next, we'll move along to the console's output section.

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Quote Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe

View Post

I'm super-interested in this one! snacks.gif

 

Me too. In a way, it's not what I expected...particularly the mixer aspect. I was expecting a much more basic implementation. The idea of having aux buses with UA plugs goes way beyond the usual audio interface applet.
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As we mentioned channel strips, Apollo has a cool feature for the inserts. Instead of opening up each plug-in's GUI individually, you can also open them in a channel strip view, where you can see all the GUI's at once.

kRWWt.png

This is very convenient; those who are into Sonar's Pro Channel or Reason's Rack Extensions already know the benefits of being able to open up plug-ins within a unified environment. However note that if you stack a bunch of large GUIs, then you could end up with a view that's taller than your monitor can accommodate. In this case, the top of the strip can't go any higher than your screen, so you may need to open up the lowest device's interface by itself if you can't see it.

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I'm not one to get too excited about photos of the inside of gear but... wow. Very nice.

So, I have a basic confusion here with regards to the use of the software, the mix app. Same as with RME's Totalmix. Do you need to use the mixer app when you're using Pro Tools? It seems with RME, you do. Is this so with this AU piece? Do I really need to instantiate the UA plugs in the UA software? Or enable an input in the UA software?

For me, I want one central place of control. Pro Tools. So... are you required to boot up the UA software when using the hardware?

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Quote Originally Posted by Lee Knight View Post
I'm not one to get too excited about photos of the inside of gear but... wow. Very nice.

So, I have a basic confusion here with regards to the use of the software, the mix app. Same as with RME's Totalmix. Do you need to use the mixer app when you're using Pro Tools? It seems with RME, you do. Is this so with this AU piece? Do I really need to instantiate the UA plugs in the UA software? Or enable an input in the UA software?

For me, I want one central place of control. Pro Tools. So... are you required to boot up the UA software when using the hardware?
Excellent question! I'm glad you brought it up, and now is a good time to cover this. Apollo can actually be used in several different ways. I do not have Pro Tools installed on my Mac, only Windows, so I've been testing with DP and Ableton Live. However, with Pro Tools opened up to other interfaces, I assume the following applies.

No console + DAW. The interface presents its in and outs to the DAW, and you do all your selecting of ins, outs, and routings within your DAW, as with any standard audio interface. You can use the front panel buttons to adjust mic gain levels and such. However, while the console is transparent to you, if you inserted plug-ins they will be loaded next time you open the console. So, if you absolutely don't want to use the console, open it and make sure you don't have any plug-ins inserted. OTOH this can be used to your advantage - if you want "tape recording" insert an ATR-102 in every channel insert, set it up the way you want, then close the console and don't think about them any more. Ditto if you want to have "always on" limiting to prevent overloading your DAW. Note that in this scenario, you can still use all the UAD-2 plug-ins as plug-ins within Pro Tools.

No console, no DAW, no computer. The interface will remember level, pan, etc. settings so you can use it as a stand-alone digital mixer. However, in this scenario, you can't have plug-ins inserted within Apollo.

Console + DAW. The strength here is that you can do zero-latency monitoring (or technically, what UA calls buffer-free monitoring) through plug-ins and either commit the processed sound to your DAW, or simply monitor the processed sound but print the dry sound to the DAW. So if you have a vocalist who really wants to hear reverb, EQ, and compression in the headphones, you can do so with virtually no latency and without having to monitor through the computer. You can still use the UAD-2 plug-ins in your DAW; they don't care whether you insert them in the Apollo hardware, or in the DAW's inserts. Another advantage is you can do a complex mix and send either individual channels or a mixed output to your DAW.

The main issue is that you don't want to do software monitoring through the computer if you're doing hardware monitoring through Apollo.

Console with computer, no DAW. This is the scenario if you want to use Apollo as a mixer for live performance. It gives you access to all the routing, aux busing, monitoring, insert plug-ins, etc.
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Hey Craig (and all)

Wow, this review is getting a great start. Love the photos. Just wanted to drop a note and let you know we'll be on the thread from time to time to answer questions you might have. Enjoy the weekend.

Lev Perrey
Director of Product Management
Universal Audio

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Welcome, Lev...I see they're sending in the "A Team" to monitor the Pro Review. smile.gif

Make sure you correct me if I get anything wrong!! Apollo has a lot of nooks and crannies. There have been a couple of times where I almost said "it can't do X" but then realized it could.

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Quote Originally Posted by Anderton

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Well, someone at UA subscribes to the Hartley Peavey Theory of Securing Components, because there's a dab of what appears to be silicone securing the ribbon cable male plugs to the female jacks. ... So in other words, the connector just plain isn't going to come loose. But if you ever need to disconnect it, you can.

 

Hot glue, I'm betting. We used to do this in the industrial PC's my old company would build. A big customer had a couple of connectors shake loose during shipping, so we just starting hot-glueing them in. Works like a champ. It's usually serious overkill, but doesn't hurt anything and MAY save having to take the cover off to re-seat the cable.
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Just curious -- does the mixer app allow you to record direct to a stereo audio file? There are many times when I'd like to just record something, and not having to fire up a separate DAW application would be nice.

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Quote Originally Posted by poserp

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Just curious -- does the mixer app allow you to record direct to a stereo audio file? There are many times when I'd like to just record something, and not having to fire up a separate DAW application would be nice.

 

Unless Universal Audio is hiding something from me, you need to use Apollo in conjunction with an audio recording application if you want to record audio.
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In the screen shot, the two Aux Returns are to the left, and the Master strip to the right. Remember that the aux buses are intended primarily for internal applications, and the processors used for it are provided by the powered plug-ins.

5ZsMK.png

The Aux returns are what you'd expect. The four insert slots work the same way as they do for the individual channels. The Output menu chooses where the Aux return outputs will be sent. Typically this would be Apollo's monitor bus, but you can send them to the analog, ADAT, or S/PDIF hardware outs if you'd like. This would allow for processing by external hardware units which you would then return to the line inputs; however in this case I assume you would need to adjust compensation manually, as there are no provisions to "ping" outside hardware and adjust any compensation automatically.

You can mute each return or sum to mono, as well as send them independently to the headphones. Note that the meters (aux and channel) have a peak hold time of off, 1, 3, 5, or 10 seconds. Any clip indicators have the same options, but also allow for an infinite hold - very convenient if there's clipping when you're not looking at a meter.

As to the Master strip, of course you have the cool meters at the top. Below that is the DSP metering, which will be familiar to those who use powered plug-in cards. This shows the amount of DSP and memory being used, as well as the FireWire bandwidth. I'm still somewhat surprised there are no inserts to put plug-ins on the master output, but I assume UA had their reasons. This would be helpful for a live situation where you wanted to add a processor like limiting or EQ to the entire mix.

The Insert Effects switch chooses how channels are routed to your DAW. In Record mode, the channels are routed through the insert effects on the way to your DAW, thus "printing" the signal with effects. In Monitor mode, you can monitor the effects, but the dry signal gets sent to the DAW. This is useful if you want to play while hearing what the effects will sound like, but aren't ready to commit to particular effects settings.

Below that, you'll see the headphone options. You can sum to mono, and drive the headphones either from the monitor signal, or from the headphone cue buses. As they're independent, an engineer could listen through headphones to the overall mix, while someone doing an overdub could listen on the other headphones, and hear a custom mix (e.g., more drums, or - of course! - more cowbell).

Input View shows/hides three different sections of the console (analog, ADAT, or S/PDIF channels) so you can narrow the view to the task at hand; you can also select whether the channel metering is pre- or post-fader. This doesn't apply to the aux or output meters.

Finally, we reach the "big knob" part of our show. Source chooses which output gets routed to the physical monitor outputs. The Global buttons are also straightforward: Mono makes it easy to check whether your stereo signal is going to survive in mono, Solo Clear turns off solo on any channels that are in solo mode (but if you toggle it back to active, Apollo remembers which channels were soloed, and restores that state). Mute is what you click when the phone rings if you can't push on the interface's front panel monitor control, which also mutes the output. When you mute with either option, the skirt around the knob turns bright red so you don't end up in an embarrassing "hmmm, why am I not hearing anything?" situation because you don't remember going into mute mode.

The Console Recall section lets you save and load Console settings...and that's pretty much it.

However, note the little drop-menu in the upper right. This chooses a particular Apollo if units are being aggregated. Aggregating on the Mac tended to be a little flaky back in the day, but people who use aggregation tell me it's been cleaned up and works well.

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Hi Craig,
I’m very curious how this unit works with other 0 latency vst plugins. Let’s say I want to combine compressors from UAD with waves doubler and delay, followed by IR reverbs such as LiquidSonics Reverberate etc, etc and I want to be using all of it with 8 inputs and perform live…
How reliable would it be in this scenario?

Also, when will this unit be available for windows platforms?
Thank you

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Quote Originally Posted by Sonic_Liberator View Post
Hi Craig,
I’m very curious how this unit works with other 0 latency vst plugins. Let’s say I want to combine compressors from UAD with waves doubler and delay, followed by IR reverbs such as LiquidSonics Reverberate etc, etc and I want to be using all of it with 8 inputs and perform live…
How reliable would it be in this scenario?
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean combining UA and other plug-ins with a DAW, or having the UA plug-ins running in Apollo and the other plug-ins in your DAW...or some UA plugs in Apollo, some in your DAW, and other plug-ins in your DAW?

Also, when will this unit be available for windows platforms?
UA says "summer." They did specify 2012, though smile.gif
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