Apollo FireWire

I performed my first mixdown using the UAD Apollo, utilizing the Fatso, SSL Stereo Bus Compressor, Pultec EQ, and Manley Massively Passive EQ.
The client was pleased, and we performed the remix live later that week the WTF festival in Oregon.
Rock solid so far.

Totally cool. Excellent piece of hardware. Enjoying every moment working with Apollo. Best purchase ever.
Keep up the good work guys.

La pièce maitresse de mon studio ! la possibilité d'enregistrer avec les plug in est incroyable. Mes tracks ne sonneront plus jamais comme avant.
la qualité des preamps sont vraiment impressionnante je ne m'attendais pas à cela. j'ai combiné la apollo avec mon LA-610 et je suis aux anges pour ce qui est de la qualité.
J'ai hate d'acheter de nouveaux Software pour les combiner à la apollo. tel que le studer800 qui semble être apprécier de tous. le seul point négatif que j'apporterais est la difficulté que j'ai eu pour router des mixs dans les headphones. je travaille avec cubase 6.5 et j'ai eu quelques difficultés. Mais tout le reste compense à merveille ce léger détaille que l'on réussi à régler sans trop se casser la tête ! merci UAD

Things to accomplish:
-Streamline my workflow .... CHECK!
-Improve sound quality ..... CHECK!
-Eliminate consistency issues (drivers, I/O protocol etc.) ...... CHECK!
-Impress clientele ...... CHECK!
-Impress myself and other engineers. ...... CHECK!

I couldn't be happier with the Apollo. It has everything I need and nothing I don't!

Thanks again for making such a killer piece!

-Zak Denham-
One By One Studios

Hello team UA.
My Best Regards for your company.
Amazing and great product Apollo.
Brilliant.

Sergey Franc A&T Trade Russia Ltd.

This is my first Hi end piece of gear, i know that probably there's some other equipment that could be even more Hi end than this but, Apollo is just great, ti sounds very open and with 3d depth, comparing the preamps with the UA 710, this are a little less robust in sound terms, but with the unique ability of process with plugins you can get similar results, i tested it with a LA 2A instance and it sounded terrific!!

No comments on the possibility of using UAD Plugins!...That's a win from the start...Pultec Eq...OMG!!!...nice to be able tu crank the knobs and not get crapped sound!

Solid 5!...

I'm sure most of the specifics have been covered by people with notable names, so I'll be succinct.

This box is FUCKING AWESOME.

I just purchased a UA Apollo. Of course the first thing we do when we get a new interface is listen to all our mixes done with the old hardware. Well, I was blown away at the clarity & detail the Apollo brought to my system & I was coming from an RME Fireface 400 that I was really happy with. But the Apollo just really opened up the top end, added an extra level or definition to the midrange (for the first time my dynaudio BM5s are not sounding boxy in the mids!) & opened the soundfield's width & depth.

I just just completed my first album mix through the Apollo & the UAD plugins included & I must say the mixes are sounding great. They're translating better & faster. Less mix corrections are needed as making better choices right off!

I come from the 'Old School' of recording, having opened a Midwest Jingle Production company in 1980.

In the studio we ran a Studer A800, Lexicon 480L's, Roland Tape Echos, vintage Neumann 47's, you name it, we had it.

Many of these tools are now software inside UAD-2 QUAD's inside our MACs.

Recently I replaced our RME interface with an Apollo DUO.

I've always been impressed with RME ... there is still nothing I would say badly about the Fireface 800.

But now my entire world of recording has changed as I hear the sound coming from the control room monitors with the Apollo in place.

Even the stereo imaging is night and day compared to what I've been use to over the past years.

I would write much more but they allow only 750 characters

Im really happy with my Apollo Quad. My studio has never sounded better. My acoustic guitar, running through its pick up and a series of plug ins sounds unbelievable, with hardly any discernible latency. Working in Pro Tools is seamless. Ive never been more satisfied with an audio interface and it is now the cornerstone of my home studio. I love turning it on every time.

Once I'd hooked up my apollo I sat down with the intention of having a quick listen to my reference tracks before testing out the pre's/plug-ins etc. 3 hours later I was still listening with my jaw on the floor!

I've only used the apollo for one tracking session so far and I have to say that I picked up on so much more before I hit record. I re-visited some mixes yet to be sent off to master and ended up changing a lot!

I can't wait to use this more - one very happy customer. Thanks, Dave

+ nice unit powered with uad plugins
+ good monitor d-a converters
+ low latency plug in usage (only uad plugins)
+ good preamps
+ stable drivers

- no aes/ebu
- no midi
- scale of the monitor output knob by low levels
- no monitor output readout (like rme ufx)
- no dim button
- pushing the mono botton by 0dbfs masters ends with horrible overs
- slow drivers by using virtual instruments (i really hope that the thunderbolt option gives me the same performance like rme and my old motu soundcard).

I was done with the Mbox2. I was tired of being limited by it's capabilities and possibilities. When I swapped it with my new Apollo Quad I could not believe it. It was if there was a magician in my room making things sound soo much more beautifully than they had the chance to before. I honestly don't think i'll need another interface for a long time. There's no going back or anywhere else for that matter... UA and the people who work for them are and will be Top Notch forever in my book. No more waiting for hours on the phone to get a chance to ask someone some questions and get some quality help with whatever problems you may be experiencing. Awesome website with everything you need right there, easy to get to and simple to understand

«:::P:::» «:::E:::» «:::R:::» «:::F:::» «:::E:::» «:::C:::» «:::T:::»

- It sounds awesome.

- I'm having problems with the Pro-reverb plugins that comes with the unit, it crashes my Pro-tools 50% of the time.

- One thing that bugs me a lot: you can't change the name of the channel on the console which can become a pain in the ass when you record a full band...

- I'm not having any latency problem right now and I've tracked a whole band LIVE.

- The pluggins I've tried so far sound perfect.

Great addition to my studio. The ability to audition UA plugins without using a DAW is probably the best feature. Low latency monitoring when recording in ProTools and the ability to use Apollo as just a processor while running your I/O through another workstation make it a very flexible unit that can add to rather than replace current hardware. Thunderbolt capability will hopefully solve most FW issues. A hardware mixer or iPad Console App to match the Console software would be a great addition.

Hello everyone,
my system
macpro neahalem 2009
snow leopard 10;6.8
Cubase6
it works very good.
It is one of the best high-resolution computer audio interface that I was able to used.
The preamps is transparent and clear for my voice.
Converters are very good.
It is really cool to be able to use my plug-gins on my analog line inputs , I appreciate the concept (with 1,1MS Analog Round-Trip Latency )whaaouh!!
I wait a plugin voucher for the treatment of the voice(harmony,choir,double etc).
sorry for my English I'm from France.
for me this hardware can win TEC 2012-2013

its fantastic, i absolutely love it

great converters, very good conversion, plus dsp power

its the perfect workstation for me

i fully recommend it to anyone

Appearance:
The UA Team has done a great job with the overall appearance and feel of the new Apollo. The front panel is very clean and organized well.

Durability:
The 1U model is held together with steel and aluminum plates. You can toss this thing around. Guaranteed it will still hold together.

Functionality:
The unit works seamlessly with the very popular "console" app provided. The routing that can be done in the back end and integrated with your DAW is amazing.

Sound:
Whether you're running old or new mixes, or even songs from your itunes library this unit does a great job at clearing things up and making your music come to life.

Cons:
Would have loved to have seen more "Free" UAD plugins, considering the price.

Four Stars because this a groundbreaking product but could be made even better.

A complaint right away is that UA still ships this product with software that has a known bug (the Reverb aux crash). I had to find out the hard way (ie, experience the crash).

I'm looking forward to the Thunderbolt connectivity (and hoping it is reasonably priced). The Firewire interrupt detected messages can be annoying and the bandwith allocation is something I'd love never to have to worry about. Hopefully Thunderbolt will be an improvement on those fronts.

It would be nice to view the Apollo as a hard drive on the desktop that could clearly be ejected in a safe manner.

Still, an amazing machine. Lucky to have it.