Recording - August 2014 - 14

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

The Universal Audio Apollo made a big splash when it was launched
into the marketplace in 2012. A 24-bit/192 kHz rackmount audio interface, it boasts 8 analog inputs, 14 analog outputs, 10 channels of digital I/O, and FireWire (Thunderbolt with an add-in card). It also has 4
ultra-clean microphone preamps onboard, control room monitoring, and
a built-in UAD-2 DSP processing engine. The UAD-2 allows UAD plug-ins
to be used seamlessly during tracking or mixdown. Reviewer Darwin
Grosse took the original Apollo for a test flight in our January 2013 issue
and gave it "A" level certification. Darwin found it solid, flexible, and
great-sounding on any and all source material, and since then the Apollo
continues to be a big deal in the pro audio universe.
The next stage of the Apollo mission launched in 2013 with the Apollo
16. While it did away with the onboard mic pres and had fewer frontpanel controls, it offered twice the analog I/O of the original with 16 x
16 channels of analog over D-Sub connectors. It also had built-in UAD2 processing, multi-unit MADI cascading, and more.
While great for professional tracking rooms, larger project studios,
and mobile production rigs, the existing models are a bit big (and
spendy) for small production suites, home recording enthusiasts, and the
average singer-songwriter. Many musicians and engineers would love to
have the power of the Apollo, but don't need such high channel counts...
and with that, let me introduce you to the brand new Apollo Twin!

All three Apollo devices use the same Console software that Darwin introduced us to in his Apollo review,
so I will not get too in-depth here. I will say that it looks
fantastic (see the screenshot) and offers out-of-the-box
simplicity that can easily be expanded to add features
that rival those on many hardware mixers. You can add
UAD plug-ins to every input and output channel as
inserts, or add global Aux sends.

Universal Audio Apollo Twin
The power of the Apollo in a portable format-with new tricks to amaze you
Small yet mighty
The Apollo Twin is a desktop unit measuring 6.31 x 5.86 x 2.60 inches. Its slightly sloping top panel is dressed in a brushed silver that matches the finish of most current Macs; the match is deliberate, since the
Apollo Twin is currently a Mac-only interface, requiring a Thunderbolt
port and OS X 10.8 or 10.9. All converters, mic preamps and internal
components on the Apollo Twin are exactly the same as those found on
the original Apollo rack.
At its center is a large silver control wheel with great balance and
resistance. Inlaid around the wheel is a set of multi-function LED displays
for metering, parameter settings, and more. Below this is a row of buttons for input selection, highpass filter, +48V phantom power, 20 dB
pad, phase reverse, and channel linking, as well as buttons for preamp
and monitor selection.
Functionally one of the Apollo Twin's best attributes is the way it balances its feature set with ease of use. I have been using this box for
weeks now and have never cracked a manual once!
Hardware and software
The Apollo Twin is billed as a 2-in/6-out device (actually as many as
10 inputs, see below), and most of its connections are on the back. Its two
analog inputs are switchable between line and mic level and are handled
by a pair of XLR-TRS combination jacks. It has four balanced TRS outputs
on the rear, two for monitors and two additional line-level outputs.
An optical input lets you add 2 channels of S/PDIF or up to 8 channels of ADAT digital input if desired. Also on the back are connections
for power (a wall wart with a locking connector) and Thunderbolt (cable
not included... phooey!). Two more 1/4" jacks are on the front of the unit:
a headphone output and a self-switching instrument input.
14

RECORDING August 2014

This really is one of the best audio interface software
mixers I have ever used. A big reason is that its GUI
looks like a mixer, rather than a tricky game of Tetris or
a spreadsheet... like much of the competition!
UAD Options
A direct descendant of the UAD Satellite boxes, the
Apollo Twin adds DSP crunch to its I/O. There are currently two available options for the Twin, a SOLO with
one Analog Devices SHARC DSP chip and a DUO with
two. (The rack Apollos offer a DUO or a 4-chip QUAD
configuration; the 8-chip OCTO format is not yet available for the Apollo interfaces.)
The Apollo Twin comes with UA's Realtime Analog
Classics plug-in bundle. This includes the new 610-B
Tube Preamp and EQ (more on this below), Softube's
Amp Room Essentials, legacy versions of UA's
1176SE/LN Limiting Amplifiers, Pultec Pro Equalizers,
and Teletronix LA-2A, as well as the UA CS-1 Precision
Channel and RealVerb Pro.

Recording - August 2014

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