Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII

A scaled-down alternative to Universal
Audio’s lagship Apollo 8 and 16, the original
Apollo Twin (10/10,
204) has been giving
‘the rest of us’ access to those mythical Unison
preamps, irst-class I/O and swanky UAD plugins
for three years now. The new Apollo Twin MkII is
essentially more of the same, but with a few
minor improvements, and an optional DSP
upgrade. Let’s start with what’s stayed the same.
Still a desktop-format 2-in/-6-out interface
with 24-bit/192kHz capabilities, the Apollo Twin
MkII would be almost indistinguishable from the
original were it not now black rather than silver.
It connects to your Mac or PC via Thunderbolt,
but it has to be powered from the wall; and while
the original Twin (still available) could be had in
a USB 3 version, it’s not clear whether the MkII
will follow suit.
The back panel and front edge house two
combi Mic/Line inputs, a Hi-Z quarter-inch guitar
input (overriding Mic/Line 1 when occupied),
four quarter-inch output jacks (two Monitor, two
Line), stereo S/PDIF out, Headphones out and a
TOSLINK port for adding up to eight analogue
inputs via ADAT.
The top panel centres on a satisfyingly
oversized knob, controlling Monitor or Preamp
input levels, as selected with the two buttons
lanking it; and six Option buttons, contextualised
by an LED icon strip, that again change function
depending on whether the unit is in Monitor or
Preamp mode. Input and output metering are
provided by four ive-segment LED ladders.
In Unison
Also a ‘DSP box’ for powering UAD plugin efects
(VST/AU/AAX/RTAS), the Apollo Twin MkII
features the same gamechanging Unison
preamps as its predecessor, fed by the Mic/Line
and Hi-Z ins. These enable a gradually
expanding subset of UA’s classic hardware
emulation plugins to be inserted directly into
Universal Audio
Apollo Twin MkII £590+
One of our favourite products of the last few years gets a tidy if not
transformative upgrade. So this is how you improve on perfection…
each input path, physically reconiguring the
preamp’s impedance and gain staging – prior
to their regular algorithmic modelling of
valves, transistors, amps, EQ, etc – for near-zero-
latency monitoring and/or recording through
them. In a nutshell, it’s like singing into a real
preamp, or playing guitar through a real
distortion pedal, with no perceptible delay
between input and output. Direct monitoring
with plugins, in other words.
When we irst reviewed the Twin, there
were only three Unison plugins available – the
UA 610B (bundled), the UA 610A and the API
Vision. Since then, they’ve been joined by the
Manley Voxbox, Neve 1073 and 88RS; eight
guitar and bass amps by Ampeg, Fender and
Marshall; and three distortion stompboxes,
including the bundled Pro Co Rat emulation,
Raw. All of them sound and feel great, and
Unison remains a huge and unique selling point
for the Apollo Twin MkII.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
86 / COMPUTER MUSIC / May 2017
> reviews / universal audio apollo twin mkii
CMU242.rev_apollotwin2.indd 86 3/1/17 12:32 PM