Apollo Twin MKII

    http://www.delamar.de/test/uni…lo-twin-mkii-testbericht/
    I did google translate for English.


    Well, its announced I guess. I figured as much with the recent reduction in Apollo Twin prices, down $180


    So we have:
    1) New choice of color (grey)
    2) Better AD/DA (this is kind of a kick in the teeth for current owners, how UA create planned obsolescence)
    etc, etc.
    3) much much more expensive ( no shock there with it being Appl.. uh UA)


    I'd like to see:
    1) USB ports (come on, it's thunderbolt, plenty of throughput available)
    2) MIDI , hello, it's SUPPOSED to be a friggin' audio interface and it's only half of one IMO w/o it.


    Well, let's just go there, I'd like to see native UA plugins w/o a big piece of metal requiring an outlet nearby, but it is what it is.

    Well there are always some patterns:


    1) the BEST gear/emulations, until the better/more realer stuff comes out
    2) Crazy expensive
    3) unimplemented items that are standard elsewhere else
    4) unique offerings that are industry eye-opening
    5) cumbersome solution for a problem you never had (namely, lack of processing power)

    Well, the way I see it is that my Apollo will only be obsolete when I can no longer buy the newest plug-ins or it's not supported by my OS of choice or the DAW I want to use. Coming out with a newer version with marginal differences doesn't make the old one obsolete as long as it is supported equally by the company. It took a long time for UA to formally obsolete the UAD-1 cards, and they gave ample time and incentives for users to upgrade. I had 3 UAD-1's and didn't feel angry when UAD-2 came out. It was a real upgrade, not a marketing upgrade. Also, I've spent much less money upgrading the UAD platform than other software platforms, and I owned the very first Mackie branded cards.


    I could look at this MKII another way. UA slapped a coat of grey paint on the MKI and raised the price. Better converters? What year is this, 2003?. It's been a really long time since the quality of my converters made an impact on my recordings. This looks to me like it is just a marketing upgrade. To put it in perspective, the UAD platform has been around since 1999, and there have only been one true obsolescence when the UAD-2 was released. In 1999 I was still using an ADAT and a DAT as part of my rig.


    Compare this with a truly evil company like Digi/Avid.

    I hate emojis, but I hate being misunderstood more. :)

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    Klappy,


    The issue with the UAD-1 was killing the license transfer server, since they control your license, not you.


    The other planned obsolescence has been the plugins that used to be exact emulations, then became Legacy when newer more realer emulations came along, then now, being killed off entirely. Try keeping those old plugins when you grab the new software for your NEW plugins. The old ones will be gone. Too bad, so sad, they determine when you are done with hardware and software, not you.


    But they'll give you $50 off the $300 price for 30 days to move over to the newer ones. At the best time of the year too, January!

    db, I'm not totally disagreeing with you. No doubt there are some things that UA could do better, but I'd put them somewhere in the middle on the spectrum of evil, with Kemper being among the best and Digi and Waves being among the worst.


    With the software version I'm running now, I still have all my legacy plug-ins, along with some upgraded models that only cost me $50 each (not $250). If doing the latest software upgrade will cause me to loose my legacy plug-ins, then I won't be upgrading. But I look at UA as a "rack replacement" solution. I have a virtual rack of amazing pres, EQ, and compressors that would have cost $50,000 in the physical world. I don't really care about any of the plugins they've come out with recently, like the awful amp sims. If I can't keep upgrading, then that's unfortunate, but I already have an amazing sounding interface with an amazing rack of outboard. I paid my money and have my "outboard". As long as I can keep using what I have now, then I won't be too upset. I can see that UA can tend to chafe the user that wants to stay current on everything, but that user isn't really me.


    That being said, if I were still on UAD-1 on a Windows 98 box running Cubase VST5 and wanted to go modern, I'd probably pick up an Apollo and an Ultimate Bundle for $6K and just live with that for another 10 years without any expectation of my system getting any better in the future. 10-15 years ago, $6K would get you a high end 2in/2out interface that probably didn't sound any better than a modern Apollo. We're living in times where upgrading is producing diminishing returns.

    I hate emojis, but I hate being misunderstood more. :)

    Like 2