Recording - August 2014 - 16

Universal Audio Apollo Twin

Tracking or mixdown? Yes!
For a while now, UAD cards have had a
low-latency mode that allows you to track or
monitor through your favorite plug-ins in real
time. This setting comes at a price: higher
CPU drain on your computer as well as the
DSP chips themselves. So it was surprising
to find that Universal Audio has worked
some serious magic on the Apollo Twin; it
allows you to load up as many plug-ins as
your DSP chips can hold, yet still track and
monitor through them in real time, with next
to no latency.
Now you can track live through an
1176LN, LA-2A, or a Trident A-Range EQ,
or lay down tracks direct to Studer or Ampex
tape. Even more impressive, you can track
live through an amp model like the Chandler
GAV19T that I reviewed in our July 2014
issue-a review which, by the way, was
mostly done on the Apollo Twin.
Equally great is that you can now track live
through one of Universal Audio's brand new
physically modeled microphone preamps!
...wait, did he just say modeled microphone preamps?
Working in Unison
The Apollo Twin isn't just a handy, smaller repackaging of existing tech. Its truly
groundbreaking news is a new preamp
technology called Unison. In simple terms,
UA's Unison preamps can now emulate
what UA calls the gain stage "sweet
spots" found in classic mic preamps, as
well as component-level behaviors at the
input stage. Plug-ins designed for the
Unison preamp, UA explains, now directly control the actual physical hardware of
the Apollo's preamps, tweaking their
impedance and gain structure for more
convincing emulations!
This technology is not just limited to the
Apollo Twin, either. The Unison technology
was already built into the original Apollo,
and with the latest firmware upgrade it's
now gone live in those units as well. (Note
that the Apollo 16 doesn't have Unison, simply because it has no mic preamps.)
UA kicked off this new technology with
the release of their abovementioned 610
mic pre and eq model, which is available
in two versions: the included 610-B, as
well as an additionally available vintageflavored 610-A. UA's API Vision channel
strip likewise makes use of the Unison
technology with its 212L mic pre, and as
of press time there is also a brand-new
and ultra-powerful update to the plug-in
version of the classic Neve 1073. Look for
reviews in an upcoming issue.
16

RECORDING August 2014

Getting started
Hookup and installation of the Apollo Twin
is quick and painless. If necessary, it automatically handles firmware updates, and the
whole process of authorization takes less than
10 minutes. If you already own other UAD
products the process is even quicker.
Speaking of other UAD products, there
are a few things to note about how the
Apollo Twin plays with other interfaces.
Currently the Apollo Twin cannot be used or
cascaded with other Twin units or other
Apollo devices (or the older ExpressCard
Laptop/SOLO); however, it can be used
with UAD-2 Satellite and UAD-2 PCIe cards,
as long as the PCIe cards are housed in a

it lives comfortably in the background and
is all but invisible to your DAW and your
own typical working methods.
As for the sound, the Apollo Twin
sounds fantastic and clean. Like any good
modern interface, it does not really have
much of a sound, and its preamps in their
"natural" state (without Unison-based
plug-ins controlling them) are of the clean
and clear variety.
Conclusions
Overall I am very impressed with the
Apollo Twin's straightforward and simpleto-use desktop design. I feel it represents
one of the best values available for compact, in-the-box audio production.
The Apollo Twin is not exactly inexpensive, but when you consider that a few
years ago a UAD-2 Duo Satellite cost
$699, getting the equivalent of a highend 2 x 6 audio interface-with Unison
vastly increasing its musicality!-for just
$200 more is not just a bargain, it's practically criminal!
I admit I am a longtime UAD user (since
the days of the Mackie-branded UAD-1
card), and I simply would not want to mix
without my favorite Universal Audio plugins. The fact that UA has married said
plug-ins to such an elegant, simple, and
yet powerful compact audio interface
makes this setup a no-brainer.
Prices: Apollo Twin SOLO, $699;
Apollo Twin DUO, $899
More from: Universal Audio,
www.uaudio.com
Paul Vnuk Jr. (paul@recordingmag.com)
is a recording and live sound engineer,
sound designer, and performing/recording musician, living and working in
Milwaukee.

Thunderbolt enclosure. Check the Apollo
Twin FAQ on UA's website for more details.
In use
The Apollo Twin is simply a joy to use. I
used to be a "track it dry and add compression and EQ later" kind of guy, especially when it came to plug-ins. However,
with the quality found in UA's upgraded
Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection,
1176 Classic Limiter Plug-In Collection,
and the API Vision Channel strip, to name
a few, I have been treating these plug-ins
just as I would the real thing, applying light
compression and EQ on the way into the
box. The Apollo console makes it easy to
set up 'confidence monitoring' effects, like
a tape delay and plate reverb that a vocalist can monitor through when doing takes.
As Darwin found in his Apollo rack
review, the software mixer can be stored
and recalled on a song-by-song basis, and
synchronized with your DAW via Console
Recall. Once the Apollo Console is set up,

UA 610 Tube Preamp and
EQ Plug-In Collection
The new UA 610 Preamp and EQ collection sells for $249 ($149 for current
610-B plug-in owners) and consists of two
610 mic preamp variants for use on any
UAD-2 equipped system.
Originally introduced in the early 1960s,
the tube-based 610 modular preamp was
one of UA founder Bill Putnam's earliest
and most successful designs. They were
originally part of the various 610 consoles
built for his own studios in Chicago and
later in Los Angeles, but he was soon commissioned by other studios (like Wally
Heider Studios, now Hyde Street Studios, in
San Francisco) to supply them. Everyone
from Sinatra to the Beach Boys and beyond
had hit records cut on those desks.
Unlike the ubiquitous 1176 limiter, however, the 610 never caught on as a massmarket item until after Universal Audio's

http://www.uaudio.com

Recording - August 2014

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