IK Multimedia

Verdict
For VeUA quality at an afordable price.
Intuitive with an easy to use, plug-and-
play design
Great design
Against No scope for expansion
beyond the limited I/O
Lovely hi-end sound from a pair of low-
priced interfaces
9/10
audio interfaces roundup / reviews <
November 2022 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 79
Universal Audio used to focus on the
high-end market with interfaces that
boasted both a quality signal low and
also acted as hosts and accelerators for
the company’s very well regarded
plugin range.
That changed with the Volt range, a
set of four units that eschew the plugin
hosting in favour of value and more
standard features. The more expensive
176 and 276 fall just outside of our price
cap but the Volt 1 & 2 ofer most of what
they deliver, with the exception of their
extra 1176-style compression.
Both Volts 1 and 2 are plug-and-play
USBC interfaces that ofer UA’s excellent
preamps on their combi inputs, with
one input available on the Volt 1 and two
on the Volt 2. These ofer a great vintage
tube sound on your inputs, giving
recordings a richness rarely heard in
this price range.
The Volt interface range is a radical
departure for UA, ofering an afordable
taste of the brand’s key ingredients.
They’re incompatible with plugins from
the UAD store but they absolutely
deserve to shake up the budget
interface market with a great design, a
plug-and-play worklow and hard-to-
beat audio conversion.
uaudio.com
Universal Audio
Volt 1&2 £105 & £144
CONNECTIVITY: USBC | AUDIO RESOLUTION: 24-bit/192kHz | ANALOGUE INPUTS: 1/2 | ANALOGUE OUTPUTS: 2 | DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY: None | MIDI I/O: Yes |
SOFTWARE BUNDLE HIGHLIGHTS: Marshall Plexi Classic Ampliier, Live 11 Lite, Melodyne Essential and Ampeg SVTVR bass amp
CMU314.rev_interfaces_roundup.indd 79CMU314.rev_interfaces_roundup.indd 79 20/09/2022 16:2720/09/2022 16:27