UA Apollo Twin DUO

    Quote from sambrox

    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).


    Thank you, SamBro'.


    As I'm going with MOTU's AVB system the Apollo won't be an option, so "native modelling" it'll have to be. I think I've reached the point where I'm done obsessing about this stuff; I'm thinking, "What the heck - it'll be better than what I had before (crap stuff in the '90s) and that can't be a bad thing".


    Thanks again bro'.

    The ONE advantage so far for me is I can finally get a great sound in with some plugins I don't mind baking (less to add when mixing)
    I think I can actually sell my LA610. I've more testing to do, but that will help pay for all this if I can.
    The other thing is the Reverbs (Ocean Studio) is really something special for giving room to flat tracks that actually sound REAL. Very natural in a way you can't tell is faked.


    I've only had it a week but I must say, I actually LIKE it rather than think "Oh, it's a nice tool". Kind of like my Macbook. There's a "feeling" to it. Weird. Considering I don't like UA's model as a company at all (very quick hardware/software changes than render older stuff obsolete, so you have zero equity)


    But the sound.... It's like a drug, you fool yourself into thinking the cost is worth it, haha.

    The UAD stuff is really good. (they are the best plugins around) but they are not cheap.. as you need to spend a fortune in their platform first. - but since you have the Apollo that is sort of given you a headstart.
    Are they exactly like the H/W.. no. - are they affordable, Yes, are they great things to work with, Yes, do they sound great, Yes, can you make great sounding records with them.. Yes - thats a lot of YES's!!!


    They are good as Tracking > Mixing tools, Some have more weight than others. The Neve 1073EQ/pre is really extremely close. and carries that mid shift weight that no other emulation does. and for the love of god get the EMT verb!!. that was hands over heels better than my Briscatti M7 (that i sold as it was sitting in my rack never to powered on). - the Channel strips are good...Neve&Api and get the 1176/LA2A collection and you are set.


    But the good thing, you can demo any of the plugs for 14 days whenever you want... so spend some time doing so, and you will be able to hand pick your own tools!. - then wait.... as they do have sales often and you can save serious $$$


    Good luck with it all, and if you need any help with them, give me a shout. Ive been using them now for 3 years! (and have 90% of there plugins)

    I would need Andy's help with the 224.


    When I play around with it, it seems like a clangy metal thing that isn't "natural" to me, so I clearly don't know what i'm doing with it.


    Do you put it on a Buss and just bring it up a bit on any particular track?


    I guess it would help to hear a reference track using it to make sense of how much to use (I know it's mix dependent, but I'm probably putting on too much when I play with it)

    Something cool came out of all this.


    I find I'm not needing my LA-610, and I haven't used my M-One XL in forever. So when I pulled both of those out of the desk's rack mount, plus the routing rack, plus all the cables, I got rid of a LOT of clutter (cables, 4 u spaces)


    I was able to push the X-Touch back into the rack's cavity a bit, push the Apollo into the other cavity, an push the Kemper aside, and now I have lots of desk space too.


    Less, clutter, more space, simpler setup, and things to sell to recoup the costs. win^win

    I was going through the new H9 SpaceTime (released at NAMM) presets and got a rhythm idea so I pulled up Studio One 3 and started recording and the Apollo->Studio One 3 has such a short latency I can record using Input Monitoring on guitar.


    Never been able to do that before. Cool.

    Still waiting for that Apollo Twin USB, announced in September of last year. Release date has changed every month since the announcement. Now in March sometime........