UA Apollo Twin DUO

    Well...


    Audio Interface #4 and it actually works with no problems.
    (I'm still pinching myself to see if I'm not dreaming)


    Anyhow, been testing it and all. Digital with Kemper has no problems, but I stupidly haven't figured out how to keep the rest of the mix from printing on a take yet.
    One weird thing DID happen, where I pressed "Direct Monitoring" in the DAW, heard a snap and the signal was very distorted. I had to reset the UA and it went away and didn't happen again.


    Line in, sounds great. XLR too. The technology for using switchable Preamps is something else.


    I did test recordings with the 610A, B and Neve (not the API as online listening had it too dark and muddy for me) and the Neve 1073 stood out so I bought it and re-tested it with Vocals. OMG, it's just what they say about Neve's. It's like the frequencies that had harshness disappeared. I was like "whut?!" but they were there on "neutral" and the other two preamps but gone with the Neve.


    They bundled this with a BlueBird microphone. I'll have to test it against my TLM103. Because if it's good enough, I can sell the Neumann.
    Also, I was playing with the 610A and B's settings and it responds just like my LA610 hardware. That was a surprise. So I tried and then bought the LA2A bundle and will test that tomorrow and if the compressor is as good, I can sell THAT hardware unit too. Then this Apollo will pay for itself and then some (I don't need the 8 i/o version)


    So, I'm hoping this unit keeps working. It is solid as a brick. The metal is perhaps a tad thicker than the Kempers. And I like the locking power supply. Smart idea.


    The control software is very easy to work with. So far I've been able to figure most things out without reading the manual yet. (I'm one of those guys)


    I must say, I didn't like UA (for many many well deserved reasons) and I'm sure they will continue to piss me off royally, but they do make great sounding stuff. Just hope it's reliable. I emailed UA and ASKED them about reliability and they responded with a very thoughtful response that wasn't all hype and BS. Not scientific either, but they took my question seriously and answered with respect. I was impressed with Customer Service.


    It IS expensive though, but they bundled the Bluebird mic for an extra $100 and I saw an opportunity to either add to the Mic locker or replace the other condenser.


    My general impression, overall was: NEVE... WOW...


    If the real thing is like that, it's worth more than any gear I've worked with. I "get" it now. When Andy of TAF said he profiled with a Neve board I knew they had something special, but until you hear it, even in this emulation, it's quite evidently a holy grail of assuaging tone problems and adding something, as I've heard it said, "hyper-real"

    Man, I wish I could justify the spend for one of these. Even recording the Kemper direct I bet the Apollo Twin would be an improvement over my Scarlett 2i2.

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

    Well you can find an Audio Interface that does SPDIF (or even ADAT with a converter that costs in the $20 range, but you also need the ADAT cable, so maybe closer to $40-50 to do it) and it should be as good as it gets because it's all digital.


    Analog-wise the Apollo pre's are better, but many other ones are (Apogee, Audiology, RME) however it's HARD to notice the differences really since you carve everything up with EQ to make the Guitars much thinner. So a good EQ or EQ plugin (I like AirEQ by Eiosis) and knowing how to make the guitars sit in the mix are MORE important (check out Recording Revolution, a lot of free help for recording guitars using DAW plugins if you don't want to spend a dime)


    The NEVE that I'm talking about is something I noticed on my voice. I'm not a singer but I can hold a tune. That said, every singer (even Amy Winehouse and Adele) had/have frequencies in their voice that mixing engineers boost and cut to assuage or fit to the mix.


    But if you CAN "fix" things going in, that's a great start and the Neve 1073 seems to me to do that in a way I've never experienced.


    Bottom line, you can definitely get professional sounding guitars with the Kemper->Scarlett. My reason for going to something like the Apollo was the ability for Digital, better Pre's for VOX and ACG rather than EGTR, and I've had UA before so I knew the plugins were good. I was hoping they could replace some of my hardware and pay for itself (and it looks like that hunch is true)


    I might have had a bad experience with the Saffire and Clarett, but I would definitely recommend trying the Clarett. The mix software wa WAY better and it did sound great.


    I also have an Apogee One that sounds fantastic compared to the Saffire, so if you can live with a MONO preamp, that's not a shabby option in the least if you're on Mac. Essentially it's more a persons inability to setup recording and mixing properly rather than the equipment. So check out Recording Revolution and you will thank me for it later (as I did Ingolf who tuned me into it. BTW, Happy Birthday, Ingolf!)

    I'm still surprised I hear so little about the Komplete Audio 6. Fantastic little interface: great preamps/dacs, flexible routing, S/PDIF.


    Can't recommend it enough for the price.

    @skoczy Yes it has, but it is optical..


    Here Günther explains, how he is using it
    Kemper spdif in uad apollo twin ?


    @db9091 i quote from your opening post: "... Digital with Kemper has no problems .."
    How did you connect it? with an converter? Which one do you use?


    I like the Twin, but it has a few disadvantages that made it sit on desk without being used for the most part.


    My main beef is the missing "loopback" function in the mixer. My main audio interface was/is the RME Fireface. It's mixing software has a loopback function/switch that allows you to assign the system audio to an input channel on the mixer. With that I can play to a backing track and record both - my guitar and the loopbacked track - directly into Quicktime or even Skype - which is very nice for quick stuff or education.


    I do like UA's "studio" plug-ins a lot: They have awesome room and tape-echo simulations, also some of the pre-amps are very good. But most of the plug-ins use up the DSP of the Apollo quickly.


    I also had the idea of using the amp plug-ins when I am on vacation or from my other computer, but I have to say that the guitar sims fall way behind Kemper - at least as my skills and tweaking knowledge is concerned.


    Bottom line: very good pre-amps, very good sims of studio gear, okay sim of guitar amps, DSP on the Apollo twin gets eaten up quickly, not enough hardware inputs for the money (imo).


    Depending on what you need I have to suggest taking a look at the RME fireface UCX. Awesome and extremely flexible - the mixer software is superb - you can even run it on an ipad.


    Just my 2 (or in this case maybe 3) cents.
    Happy New Year everyone!

    90% of the game is half-mental.

    @db9091 nice one, glad its working out for you. - in regards to the printing, this is a I/O issue, you will need to route individual channels to your daw, and have a "monitor mix" setup as well as a L/R print channel. - I don't own one of these but the same principles apply to good I/O/DAC's - not sure what your in/out count is. - but if you have 8 then 4 of those would be your monitor path and stereo mix/print path,


    Funny side note:-


    If you got yourself a Variax guitar.. and decided to sing a cover song.. then essentially, you would be Emulating someone, with a emulated guitar, into a emulated device for emulated tracking into an emulated guitar sound! : )


    Wooh, Go emulation studios! : )

    skoczy, bigHF; I'm using this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/…&InitialSearch=yes&sts=pi
    $16 bucks and soooooooo robust I'm sure every major studio is using it, lol. But hey, it works. For now.
    Some units only have ADAT so you need a "Coaxial -> Optical" or SPDIF->ADAT
    They have the opposite, so read and look at the photo's carefully before buying such a cheap one-way unit.


    benvigil: I agree. There are MANY hidden audio interfaces that don't come up in the first few page of searching any search engine because they are prioritized either by advertisement, popularity or rating. But If you are doing Digital, even a very cheap unit will give top notch results from the Kemper. Someone at Sweetwater DID tell thought that not ALL units are exactly the same clock. IDK what that means. He seemed to suggest that going 44.1Hz -> 44.1Hz may not be exactly identical with all units and you'll get pops/clicks. (versus silence if you choose 44.1->48.0 a common initial problems for newbies looking to hear the Kemper digitally)


    bigHF: I had the RME Babyface and it sounded fantastic. Only issue was I didn't like the complexity of the mix software. As you know this is the way many have gone. But ironically, I find the Apollo's mix software to be perhaps too simple. I'll read the manual before making a judgement. The Saffire was not intuitive for me. The Clarett was easy peasy, loved it. The Audient was also very intuitive. But if you need lots of I/O options (i.e., not a hobbyist but real studio) I get why the RME control is perfect. Just has a learning curve I don't want since I have that with so many pieces of tech. But I agree, they are a superb Audio Interface company. The DSP on the Apollo does get eaten up so you need to bake your FX to free it up. But it does have 2 SHARCS which is the same as the AXE FXII which uses only 1 SHARC for effects, so that tells you how much emulation is going on in something like the Neve 1073. I've had Neve plugins before, but NOTHING comes even close to this one. And, like I said, I have UA LA-610 hardware and the emulation of the 610 controls (tube gain, eq) and the LA2A is exactly similar to what I'm used to. It's eerie. On the UP side, baking your FX on the front end does make mixing easier: less choices! ;)


    LATENCY: With the Clarett it sounded like Rockabilly slap-back on Input Monitoring which is what I'm used to with PreSonus, Maybe there is a setting I missed to get it lower as I only had it a few days. Saffire also slapback. Apogee is closer to ADT. Audient was barely noticeable and neither is the Apollo, so I'm pleased that the routing is nothing to worry about. It's WEIRD putting on Input Monitoring and hearing almost no latency. barely noticeable, and definitely capable of tracking this way (although I don't see why you'd want to do that with Direct Monitoring available)


    $$$$: I must say, jeez, put your hands in your pockets with this thing or else you'll buy the plugin store! Especially with the "holiday sales" where everything was 60% off, another $50 Christmas and another $25 Holiday coupon that kept showing up on individual purchases! (maybe that wasn't such a good thing. Now I'll have a Bill-Hangover.)


    Vocal Plugins: But I put the Neve 1073 and a Fairchild 660 on a previous vocal take I wasn't too happy about and it was like day/night what it did. Up in the mix, smoothed out frequencies w/o EQ carving, just some preset I chose from the many available from "famous" producers. All the track had previously was comping and (not embarrassed to say) some pitch corrections. You gotta deal with off pitch when you sing 3 times a year. Otherwise the dog looks at me funny. "Thank You, Melodyne!"


    I'm pining for the Struder tape plugin but I gotta sell my car first...

    I hooked up the Kemper to track and it sounded bleh. I put the headphones to the Kemper: Awesome.


    When this happens, I know something with the I/O ain't right. Toyed between Digital/Line/XLR, no difference in the "bleh"


    So I did a Factory Reset and wah-lah, everything sounded PERFECT!


    Does this happen to anyone else? I've had to do it from time to time. I assume it's me messing with things and the reset corrects them. The KPA is pretty deep when you think about it.


    Factory reset on the Kemper?

    Yes, the Kemper's.


    I said it wrong. It's "Init Global's" under the SYSTEM button.


    If what's coming out the backend doesn't sound like what I'm hearing in Headphones OR what I'm hearing in Headphones on my fav guitar/profile I know something setting isn't right.


    Maybe I'm Sleep-Kempering the output settings!

    I'm working with the UAD Apollo Twin for quite a while now, it's a great audio-interface and I never had any troubles. I don't need a lot of inputs and outputs, so I don't need the bigger brother. All the years before I worked exclusively with RME, from Hammerfall to Fireface 400.


    db9091 already mentioned all the features and advantages of the Twin Duo, I really like the UAD-Plugins, I bought some stuff like the Studer tape machine, softube amps and more, awesome stuff. But even the basic plugins coming with the interface are a great enrichment. I never bought a UAS-plugin for the regular price, UAD always offers some specials or coupons.


    Big plus: With 2 SHARCS and Thunderbolt it's much faster and much more stable than other interfaces, I did recording sessions in hotel rooms during a tour using my little Macbook Air (Cubase) and it worked really fine. At home I'm using a 27" iMac with SSDs for audio.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

    Can't help but wonder how Slate's VMS, which obviously includes a flat mic pre and various software mic and pre emulations, would compare to a real 1073 plus any of the mics modelled.


    I cancelled a near-two-year-old lay-buy for a 1073 DPX recently upon hearing about the Slate product's "imminent" release (still waiting...). I figured, why spend 8 grand when I can spend 1 and a half?


    That question goes to the heart of the one I pose here for spec-you-titty-lation. I feel as if I've cheated myself out of my long-dreamed-about Neve and I s'pose it'd be nice to know that the emulations will get me at least most of the way there...


    Sorry for straying slightly OT.

    I'm a big Slate fan, have all their plugins and his drum libraries, will be purchasing the VMS and possibly an MTi2, and although my only experience with UAD's plugs was with the first generation, I'd always reach for Slate first. Having said that, the Apollo Twin ticks all my boxes for a home recording interface and the preamp modelling is intriguing. With that said, modelling can only ever be an emulation of the hardware. You get the added bonus of consistency (no two hardware units will ever sound exactly the same), but it will only ever be 99% of the way there (as with the KPA).

    Slate does goo work if you can stand the long wait times for new products!.


    I have a QUAD card in my studio just for UAD plugs. and I can say great things about them. - Yes I have some of the real Hardware they have, and whilst the UAD are close..but for the price one can argue that the 20% difference is really non important!. - bottom line, the UAD offers quality. - its why a LOT of big stuios use them over waves/and anything else..


    @db9091 if your looking for a great pre on a budget. - may I suggest you look at the Focusrite Liquid Channel. (it has 40 captured PRE's/Comps) just like the kemper does really. but full adjustable - its not cheap, and it only has 1 input (single channel) - however, I compared the Neve pre to my own neve pre's here. and there was VERY little in it.


    Just a 2cents
    A

    IMHO, comparing UAD plugins with Slate plugins (or other ones in the same price league, with UAD's being the most expensive ones) has a lot to do with what you expect and the convenience factor.
    And when @sambrox says he reaches out for Slate first I would bet that one reason for this is because they are native.
    I'm mostly running Logic X Pro or Ableton Live 9.5 suite on a MacBook Pro, and I own a UAD-2 Satellite Duo and own quite some plugins from UAD.
    When I'm sketching out ideas, I exclusively use native, non-UAD plugins from Logic or Ableton (my interface is a Focusrite Saffire Pro 14) because it's more convenient for me to not plug in the UAD-2 satellite.
    Only when working on recordings more seriously I'm using the UAD plugins (my favourites are the EMT 250 reverb, the Neve RS88 channel strip and the Studer tape emulation). But frankly speaking, I could definitely not tell if a recording was made with the Logic Platinum compressor or with the Neve channel strip.
    And therefore I'm hard pressed this time to record and mix our next album with native plugin, but still undecided about it.

    Native is a big advantage, @Ingolf
    I owned a Liquid Mix 32 and while I was very happy with the DSP freeing up CPU back then (and the emulations were OK), having to carry the hardware back and forth between home and studio was an annoyance.

    You know, I thought I was pining for that Struder tape plugin, but like my Waves better.


    So I demos a few UAD plugins to see what suited me for vocals since that's my least confident area. So these are what I chose:


    1) Neve 88RS Channel Strip - I saw Ingolf mention this and looked into it and really liked what it did. On top of the 1073 it brought it up in the mix in a nice way w/o interfering with what was already printed.
    2) Ocean Way Studios - All I can say is "wow". I forgot the Lexicon 224 or any other plate/reverb existed after playing around with this. It sounds so friggin real and fits in w/o sounding like an added effect (which is what a lot of plates sound like to me, very metallic, which, well I guess they are, haha)
    3) Millennia NSEQ-2 - I have a CD that I really like of David Elias that is Folk and sounds as clear as a bell going 80 mph with a convertible so I KNEW there was something special about how it was recorded. They said this piece of gear was it. When I toyed with it, that's what I heard, a clarity that brought the vocal into the mix more with less mud and not sacrificing what I liked or coloring it.


    So that should do me entirely for a while. The Logic Pro X internal plugins are very good. But there is something just so much more natural about the Ocean Way plugin that finally, to my ears, sounded "right". That's what it's all about for me.


    ANDY, I looked at that Focusrite Liquid piece of gear and It's on my radar, but probably not in this lifetime, lol. At that price I should just hire you! ;) But it's very cool to know what's out there and a larger step that pro's take to. Thanks for the input!