UA Apollo First Look (user review)

[cowboycoalminer]

I usually low pass all electric guitars and acoustics or else they compete too much with the vocals. That's probably why you thought they where a little dull. Your right, it's a balancing act.

[MJB]

I'll have to try that, thanks Cowboy.

[PMoshay]

Originally Posted by Kcatthedog

Hey Peter,

Thx for all the data. I have apollo but an 09 imac i5 no TB. Nice computer but I bump into cpu problems and obvioulsy a new i7 with TB is appealing. I have 2 less than 1 year old owc 7200 drives running FW 800 but i wonder about jumping to SSD.

I hope other people will tell us about their rigs and TB configurations and peripherals: great learning opportunity !

Happing mobile recording !

Kcat

So far my experience with SSD drives is all great. I put a SanDisk Extreme 256GB in my Mac Pro tower as the system drive to test and see if it made it faster and i can confirm it made it work faster, although not at the same type of faster that the new Retina MBP gets with it's SSD (I'd assume Apple really tuned that machine in development with the SSD)
I am going to install a SanDisk Extreme 256GB in another bay in my tower for session playback to see if it's as great as I think it will be for my "mixing sessions drive."

I see platter drives being phased out eventually, but not completely. This will all be driven by demand and since they are advertising them and pushing them in so many devices lately, you can bet that the competition between companies will get heated and prices will really drop...... Specially when they start ramping up production of larger size drives. this is all good news for us.

I can only imagine the next version of the Apple Mac Pro.
Here's some of my guesses :
12-16 cores - 4 SSD bays - slim blue ray drive - 2-4 PCIe slots - 2-4 Thunderbolt - FW800 - USB 3.0 - up to 128GB ram - 802.11ac - Gigabit ethernet - smaller form factor with less power draw - 3 HDMI outs - I see them also possibly incorporating easy drive bays that can be inserted externally (that's my dream idea)

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by cowboycoalminer

I usually low pass all electric guitars and acoustics or else they compete too much with the vocals. That's probably why you thought they where a little dull. Your right, it's a balancing act.

Hey Cowboy and MJR,

So i understand what eqs do and I understand we hear kind of20-20k cycles and that every traCck overlays another layer of frequencies and too much sound energy in one place is most likely bad as it difficult to distinguish the different instruments from each other sonically, so we eq.

But there is something about the way people describe hi and low pass that confuses me ? So do i use the filter to let freq through that are above or below the threshold ?

So for example don't let some of the lower freq pass on acoustic tracks to leave space for the upper freq of the bass or to set tone on drums ?

It seems to me that what people are actually doing with the eq is kind of the opposite of what they describe ? or is it just me

Thx kcat

[Kcatthedog]

So I did a little research on eq and pass filters. Here's an interesting tutorial:

Home Recording Weekly: Subtractive EQ practices, High and low pass filters.

Kcat

[MJB]

Great link, thanks Kcat. This is exactly what's been happening to me. Too much high frequency energy buildup. Individual tracks sound OK, but put them all together and you hear the hiss like a steam pipe leaking. Does the Apollo have any good low pass/high pass filters? I also have Waves plugs, but haven't used them all yet, in case there's a killer Waves plug for anyone here is familiar with.

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by MJB

Great link, thanks Kcat. This is exactly what's been happening to me. Too much high frequency energy buildup. Individual tracks sound OK, but put them all together and you hear the hiss like a steam pipe leaking. Does the Apollo have any good low pass/high pass filters? I also have Waves plugs, but haven't used them all yet, in case there's a killer Waves plug for anyone here is familiar with.

You could check the eq plugs that came with the apollo or put it on your must have list if you purchase, most of the uA eq's have filters.

Kcat

[MJB]

I've been using the high pass filters on my Waves SSL plugs, and UAD the Pultec Pro lately. The UAD Pultec is pretty musical. Hopefully I'll get a better tracking method figured out, so my tracks are clean enough for others to work some magic on. All in good time I suppose. Just returned my Blackstar HT20 and bought a Paul Reed Smith SE30. it's a loud little critter though, so I don't know how often I'll be able to crank it up to a good natural breakup volume. Still, its a step up. I really want a Blankenship Leeds 21, but can't afford it right now. Man, if you ever play one, hide your credit cards.

[Clonkified]

How's the latency and drivers with the Apollo now on OS X?

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

How's the latency and drivers with the Apollo now on OS X?

Hey, i have been on thread since beginning as people got their apollo's don't think there have been any problems with latency or drivers. There is PT set up video on the UA site so its hard to get wrong. Latency will drop even lower with TB card soon to be released !

Kcat

[MJB]

I did Aplle's Mountain Lion upgrade, and so far, it's working fine. So, all those who might be concerned about their plugs not working after switching to the new OS, go for it. It's an elegant interface, once you get used to the new features. One thing, sometimes it takes one or two tries before my drum program, (Superior Drummer) stays in time when I open up a project I've recorded. Should I use different latency settings for tracking and playback? Could that be the reason it takes a few times for the drums to lock on?

[euphoria89]

Just another quick guitar clip, again using just Apollo pre's, with the Kiwi/4047 combo (80% of the mix is Kiwi for all tracks) EMT140 Plate C @ 2s, Studer A800, VCC, 33609 and Ampex for processing.

This was played on my new 32 year old Guild D40 which i got a couple of days ago. Has a beautiful midrange that i've never been able to capture quite as nicely as this guitar makes it. It's the most beautiful guitar i think i've had the pleasure of playing and recording for a long time. Very easy to get a great sound. Sounds just like the sound i have had in my head for a long time for this particular track anyway.

It's a new track we're working on. Video of it here
Renaissance Man (Practice) - YouTube

[Kcatthedog]

Hey Mjr glad your comfy on the bleeding edge. You just never know with uncertified SW updates. If you have almost full functionality but a couple of hickups you're lucky !!

Check out the DUC on avid site maybe other posts there ?

Euphoria89 wow to my ear there is nothing quite as sweet rich and clear as a good guild: sounds like you got a keeper ! Look forwRd to hearing more ! Did you get the article on sdcs?

Kcat

[Kcatthedog]

[copycat]

Originally Posted by MJB

I did Aplle's Mountain Lion upgrade, and so far, it's working fine. So, all those who might be concerned about their plugs not working after switching to the new OS, go for it. It's an elegant interface, once you get used to the new features. One thing, sometimes it takes one or two tries before my drum program, (Superior Drummer) stays in time when I open up a project I've recorded. Should I use different latency settings for tracking and playback? Could that be the reason it takes a few times for the drums to lock on?

If the "cached" button is on in SD you can get that problem. So you like the new cat. I'm always waiting a few months to avoid the initial bugs.

[euphoria89]

Originally Posted by Kcatthedog

Hey Mjr glad your comfy on the bleeding edge. You just never know with uncertified SW updates. If you have almost full functionality but a couple of hickups you're lucky !!

Check out the DUC on avid site maybe other posts there ?

Euphoria89 wow to my ear there is nothing quite as sweet rich and clear as a good guild: sounds like you got a keeper ! Look forwRd to hearing more ! Did you get the article on sdcs?

Kcat

I had a good read of it yes, many thanks. Good article. I think i'm gonna opt for a pair of MC930s when i can afford it, which at this rate will a long way away. In the mean time, i'm going to take a punt on a stock MK012 just to get me started. Might not be my cup of tea, but they seem incredibly handy to have around, especially for the amount of live/location recording i'm doing recently. Seems everyone agrees that it sounds quite a bit more expensive than it actually does, so i'm sure i cant go too far wrong. I'm not too picky about mics anyway, as long as the noise isn't terrible, and the response all over the shot!

Guild is a beauty. I've had it for just over a week, and i'd be gutted if anything happened to it. I much prefer it over the D28, and its so different than my Taylor, i cant exactly compare them. It sounds great through all of my mics (even the cheap ones), which is great its something the other guitars can be really picky about, especially the Taylor which is incredibly bright in comparison, and the Martin quite harsh in the upper midrange when strummed with new strings. The Guild seems happy with every mic and pre combination, which is a real big help in letting me focus on other stuff. I'm so thrilled that i managed to get it second hand for a good price, and that i havent had to wait 32 years to get the sound i'm now hearing, because i want to record quite a bit sooner than that!

Our bass player has just acquired an acoustic upright bass. Never recorded one before, so it might make it on to some of our new tunes if he can translate his playing style across. Really hope he can, as there's nothing like the sound of an acoustic bass, especially when the rest of the band is purely acoustic. Really looking forward to that.

Will also be recording my aunt and uncles band the 15-16th sept, which will be a mixture of live and separate tracking. I think we may end up doing just two tracks. With only one acoustic and a cajon drum plus a couple of vocals, they want it to sound as full and rich as can be, which is going to be a bit of challenge on my end, but i'm hopeful i can pull it off. It's mostly all covers, but they do have quite a unique approach to their songs. Link to some tunes here: Everything But The Bass - YouTube

[Kcatthedog]

Hey Euphoria89,

All round i think guilds are one of the best guitars glad your happy.


Herzlich Willkommen

This companey in Germany sells new matched pairs for about 250 E and will ship to your door. Shipping to me in Cdn was 50 E GB must be half that.

They sell the stereo mike clip as well.

If you haven't listened try the michael joli site as he mods the 012 !

Which sound pretty nice and all in your about 1/3 price of neumann
And to my ear plus 75% of neumann sound.

I want one good sdc too but it will be very hard not to buy the matched pair and ship from WG.

Happy shopping ! Curious about your string choice for the guild ?

Kcat

[77James]

Just wanted to share my experience. I tried to upgrade to Mountain Lion on the Mac Mini Server and it couldn't find the drivers for the Apollo, or any sound drivers. Had to force quit system preferences to get rid of the beach ball of death and reboot several times and finally after a long time on the phone with Apple, went on line to download system recovery for Lion (since the system recovery on the other drive was also updated to Mountain Lion, and am hoping in a while I will be back where I was yesterday. Hopefully it will just mean a lost day. Moral of the story, every system is different but if you have a Mac Mini Server, an Apollo, and Euphonix MC Control and Artist Mix, you may want to wait. I know several people have had success with Mountain Lion and Apollo so it could be the Euphonix or it could be the fact that I'm using a server but if you have the same set up (which up till today has worked flawlessly) stick to Lion.

77

[77James]

Never thought I'd be so happy to be back where I was yesterday but back to Lion and after a some authorizations and a few setting changes, fully operational again. My guess is that it had something to do with the Euphonix control surfaces but for now I think I'll just stick with Lion. I'll do a clean install on another drive somewhere down the road but I'm just glad to be up and running again.
77

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by 77James

Never thought I'd be so happy to be back where I was yesterday but back to Lion and after a some authorizations and a few setting changes, fully operational again. My guess is that it had something to do with the Euphonix control surfaces but for now I think I'll just stick with Lion. I'll do a clean install on another drive somewhere down the road but I'm just glad to be up and running again.
77

Hey James77,

that must be a relief. I will never early adopt again and even after companies say software is compliant I will wait and see. IF your system is ruing fine whats the hurry let the market work a new OS for a bit and watch the net you will find out if there are problems.

The fact that UA is taking so long to say ML and UA are fully compliant I think speaks legions !!


I thought snow leopard was best !

kcat

[Clonkified]

Hi everybody,

I tried to post this on the UAD forums, but they aren't particularly responsive. I currently have an Mbox 3 Pro, which is great and offers a lot of functionality for a low price point. However, I'm contemplating upgrading to a box with more I/O along with better quality. The Apollo looks awfully intriguing, but I had a few questions I'm hoping you all could help with:

- How are the OS X drivers in terms of stability and latency? Are you guys able to run at low buffer sizes (128 and lower)? I play a lot of VIs and guitar, so latency is very important. I have a 8-core Mac Pro.

- Does Console allow me to mix a cue mix into the headphones? For example, music down, vocals up when recording a vocalist?

- Anybody hooked it up to a D-Box? Is it working ok? Want to get it for the monitor control especially (switch between 2 pairs).

- How's the sound quality of the converters and preamps compared to other units in the same price range (UFX, Ensemble, MH 2882)? As long as it is comparable, I'm fine.

- Finally, I've never used UAD plugins and have bought a number of native plugins (Waves, FabFilter, Sonnox, SoundToys, Softube). There's a considerable investment there - I know I don't HAVE to use the UAD part of the Apollo, but I think that'd be like getting a Ferrari to only drive it in school zones. Any suggestions for me in this regard? What are some of the irreplaceable plugins from your perspective on UAD? Is investing a QUAD worth it from a future perspective?

Thank you!! Really appreciate it!

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

Hi everybody,

I tried to post this on the UAD forums, but they aren't particularly responsive. I currently have an Mbox 3 Pro, which is great and offers a lot of functionality for a low price point. However, I'm contemplating upgrading to a box with more I/O along with better quality. The Apollo looks awfully intriguing, but I had a few questions I'm hoping you all could help with:

- How are the OS X drivers in terms of stability and latency? Are you guys able to run at low buffer sizes (128 and lower)? I play a lot of VIs and guitar, so latency is very important. I have a 8-core Mac Pro.

- Does Console allow me to mix a cue mix into the headphones? For example, music down, vocals up when recording a vocalist?

- Anybody hooked it up to a D-Box? Is it working ok? Want to get it for the monitor control especially (switch between 2 pairs).

- How's the sound quality of the converters and preamps compared to other units in the same price range (UFX, Ensemble, MH 2882)? As long as it is comparable, I'm fine.

- Finally, I've never used UAD plugins and have bought a number of native plugins (Waves, FabFilter, Sonnox, SoundToys, Softube). There's a considerable investment there - I know I don't HAVE to use the UAD part of the Apollo, but I think that'd be like getting a Ferrari to only drive it in school zones. Any suggestions for me in this regard? What are some of the irreplaceable plugins from your perspective on UAD? Is investing a QUAD worth it from a future perspective?

Thank you!! Really appreciate it!

Hey welcome,

Its a long read but i think all your questions have been answered before here .

Latency one of the lowest and will be lower with TB card
Drivers don't think there has been a problem but use approved gear
Console 2 different cue mixes plus maybe more flexability to come UA just surveyed owners about new features and cue mixes , more flexibility and routing were explored
Converters very good maybe better than expected and comparable to more expensive units, neutral colour in plugs to taste
UA plugs some of the best, guess you have to listen and decide for yourself they regularly go on sale which helps

Basically throughout the whole thread almost 250k hits, i think 2 people said they were returning theirs : one seemed defective. The other said they had driver/set up issues but frankly i wondered whether that was true or maybe they had an unapproved piece of gear ?

The recent sound on sound review is certainly positive as was the pro tool expert review. Actually Russ said he wasn't going to return it !

Back in the thread people talked about using it with D box.

Good luck.

Kcat

[cowboycoalminer]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65640533/Int...e%20Mystic.wav

Tracked this yesterday. My desk is still having surgery so it's a box mix

Best
C

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by cowboycoalminer

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65640533/Int...e%20Mystic.wav

Tracked this yesterday. My desk is still having surgery so it's a box mix

Best
C

+1 nice departure cowboy ! You sustained that nice mystic vibe all the way through and I really appreciated the layering and texture added nice depth and space movement but always clear , tasteful and musical well done what's next a country version of little wing ?

Kcat

[daverock]

Just to chime in, I've been running Apollo on mountain lion since its release on two hd partitions. Out of nerves I updated one partition to test. That partition had protools, live, logic and cubase on. All the latest versions. All ran fine.

I contacted uad, they said they don't officially support ml, but it will work. In their 6.3 release they even made the installer compatible.

I use it with a dbox too.

[cowboycoalminer]

Originally Posted by Kcatthedog

what's next a country version of little wing ?

Kcat

No. Livin For The City by Lavelle White

No joke. Tracking that today for my sister to sing

[Kcatthedog]

Originally Posted by cowboycoalminer

No. Livin For The City by Lavelle White

No joke. Tracking that today for my sister to sing

Son we got to get you back on moonshine you are losing your roots !!!

Great can't wait !

was out listening to the dusty drifters last night, the local bluegrass band ,they sure could use some fine fiddling !!

kcat

[cowboycoalminer]

Started tracking it tonight. I did a scratch vocal so I could track around it but it's too high for me so I did it in an octave. I'll post the finished version after she comes next weekend. This is the beginning of a session, raw and one shots. Overdubs, layers, stacking all comes next. This barebones mix is cool to listen to though.

Peace
C
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65640533/Liv...0Track%203.wav

[MJB]

I think it sounds cool, and could work nicely in many situations.

[Clonkified]

Took a quick first listen and run through my Apollo Quad this evening. Coming from an Mbox 3 Pro, I'll compare it to that:

- Set up was really quick. Authorized and everything within 15 minutes. Nice to get the Pultec Pro for free. Hardware looks great. I wish the preamp and volume knobs felt a little sturdier though. I also prefer the Mbox's smooth big volume knob to the Apollo's detented one.

- First thing I noticed was the separation and detail when listening back to music on the Apollo. The tails of everything were so much clearer. The Mbox Pro is quite good, but now it feels like a bit of a let down listening back through it...couldn't really define it at first, but the difference is definitely there. I'm getting a Dangerous D-Box, so I imagine it's D/A will be even better.

- Console app looks cool...but what is with the basic routing? There is no way for me to lower the DAW level when recording in the console? I don't see any way of doing different mixes for the other outputs, especially headphones. The Mbox app kills the Apollo Console in this regard. I know this is a big issue though, so I hope UA addresses it ASAP.

- Really wish the Console plugin list allowed me to see only what I've authorized, would make it much easier to find stuff. Same issue I have in PT and Logic.

- Why can't the Hi-Z inputs take in TRS like all of my other gear? Only works with unbalanced TS.

- Seemed perfectly stable at 128 buffer size in Logic.

Those are some initial thoughts - need to do a proper run through over the course of the next few weeks.