Recording - July 2016 - 36

...where we bring you follow-up articles
with application hints and upgrade news
about gear already reviewed in Recording

An Engineer/Guitarist's Experiences
with the Universal Audio Apollo 8p
...including comparing the new Softube
Marshall JMP 2203 plug-in to the real thing
by Alex Hawley

The Apollo recording interfaces were first
introduced in 2012 by Universal Audio.
Apollo combines UA's sought-after microphone preamps, digital converter design,
and powerful DSP-based UAD-2 plug-in
technology, all in one box. As a recording
engineer by day and a guitar player by
night, I've always been very interested in
this line of interfaces, but never had the
opportunity to try one for myself.
Paul Vnuk Jr. reviewed the Apollo 8p in
our March 2016 issue, and gave a very
detailed explanation of the technical specs
and upgrades in the newest generation of
Apollo interfaces. In this article, I'm going to
describe my experiences as a first-time
Apollo user, and focus on the features that
make it such a powerful platform for guitarists and bassists recording from home.
Up and running
Installing the Apollo was a very simple
and quick process-unbox, power on,
connect via Thunderbolt. I'm currently running Mac OS X 10.11 on a 2013 iMac
with a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 processor
and 16 GB of RAM.
The installation process was equally
straightforward. After all of the software
and firmware updates are installed, the registration page opens. Apollo comes bundled with UAD's Realtime Analog Classics
36

RECORDING JULY 2016

bundle: the UA 610-B microphone preamp,
RAW distortion pedal, Amp Room
Essentials by Softube, UA's own RealVerb
Pro and several Precision plug-ins, as well
as "legacy versions"-now superseded by
upgraded versions, but still great-sounding
on their own-including the Teletronix LA2A Leveling Amplifier and 1176SE/LN
Limiting Amplifiers, Fairchild 670
Compressor, and Pultec Pro EQ plug-ins.
As a new user to the Apollo, you get special discounts on extra plug-ins from UA's
online store. Offers include any three plugins for $399, any six for $799, or any ten
for $1199. This will be, without question,
the most difficult (yet fun) decision during
the registration process! I went with the
Neve 1073 Channel Strip, Lexicon 224
Digital Reverb, and Marshall JMP 2203
guitar amp; later on you'll read my detailed
tone review of the JMP 2203 plug-in.
1

Console 2.0
After completing registration, I opened
up Console 2.0, Apollo's software interface, and started making some noise.
Console 2.0 is easily one of the most functional and intuitive software mixers that I
have used on an audio interface. It navigates like a normal mixer without worrying about any layers of pages or overly
complex matrix routings.
From the Console screen, you have
access to analog, digital and virtual inputs.
It is laid out exactly as a mixer is, with
mic/line input gain on the top, with 48V,
HPF, polarity, and pad controls. Each channel includes inserts for multiple plug-ins, aux
sends, and a virtual pan pot and fader. For
this report, I want to draw attention to one
insert in particular...
The PREAMP slot, just below the
mic/line controls, is a special plug-in slot
that activates the Apollo's Unison technology. UA's Unison preamps are the cutting
edge in terms of modeling technology;
they combine UA's circuit modeling with a
variable gain stage and impedance
matching. This creates a very realistic
model of the analog preamp or guitar
amplifier, emulating the critical input properties found in the actual hardware.
Inserting a preamp plug-in here will give
you the sound of a Neve 1073, Neve
88RS, API Vision Channel Strip, or the UA610 on your microphone. Unison technology also applies to the Hi-Z inputs; plugging
a guitar or bass into the Hi-Z input gives
you the option to enable Unison technology with one of UA's modeled stomp boxes
or amplifiers. Not all plug-ins are Unisonenhanced yet, but many are.
I love how Console 2.0 lets me customize frequently-used console setups. This
way, when I'm just recording some guitar
parts at home and not using every channel
for recording the full band, I can have a
core audio preset that only shows me the
channels I need, hiding the others with a
simple key command. You can instantly
save and recall your settings from a previous recording session, or even just pull up
a previously saved go-to signal chain on a
particular channel with one click.
On the far right of the Console screen,
you have the option to either print your signal chain to the DAW or just monitor the
UAD processing and not print it to the
recording (as of 2.0 this is selectable per
channel). Note that the signal sent to the
DAW is post-unison, pre-fader and mute, so
any mix tweaks made with the Console
faders will not affect the signal being recorded in the DAW. For this reason, while
recording with UAD processing on the way

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2016