Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII

As for the rest of the UAD plugins bundled
with the Apollo Twin MkII, you still get the
Realtime Analog Classics collection, comprising
14 compressors, EQs, amp sims, distortions and
reverbs, including the more-than-serviceable
Legacy versions of the 1176, LA2A and EQP1A,
the acclaimed RealVerb Pro, and a lite version
of Softube’s Amp Room Bundle. Many, many
more are available through the UAD store,
ranging in price from £75 to £299, and since
they’re all installed with the UAD software
(weighing in at about 2GB) whether you like it or
not, you can activate the two-week demo of
each at your leisure.
Twins, Basil, Twins!
So, apart from the colour change, what else is
new? Well, UA have apparently beefed up the
AD/DA converters, for even more dynamic
range and less distortion, but the MkI was so
outstanding in this department that you’ll be
hard pushed to tell the diference – it’s still the
cleanest, most transparent-sounding interface
in its price range. More dramatically, the MkII
has been granted a massive boost to the
onboard DSPs. The original Twin maxed out at
the two-core Duo version, but the MkII can be
had in Solo, Duo and Quad editions, each
doubling the power and, consequently, UAD
plugin counts of the one below. So, whereas
the Duo can handle 18 stereo instances of the
Pultec EQP1A Legacy, for example, before
conking out, the Quad manages hosts up to
36 of the buggers.
Other than that, the MkII sees a reinement of
its studio worklow with the addition of a talkback
mic and front panel access to a few of the
monitoring functions of the Console software
(see It’s not just the hardware). In Monitor mode,
four of the Option buttons – which weren’t used
at all by MkI – now come into play, necessitating
the addition of a new row of icons to the LED
strip, which has been made a bit deeper to
accommodate them. The Talk button activates
the talkback mic (the tiny hole below the knob),
which can be sent to the outputs of your choice
for control room communication or quick
recording of notes and cues. The Dim button
lowers the monitor output level, the Mute switch
kills it entirely, and the Mono button switches
between stereo and mono output for playback
system compatibility checking. Very nice.
Finally, the Alt and FCN buttons are linked
to Console’s monitor switching and ‘cascaded’
(up to four Apollos can be linked) routing
options, respectively.
Apollo’s creed
Apart from the Quad Core option, the Apollo
Twin MkII is the very deinition of an iterative
upgrade. If you’re already a happy owner of MkI,
the talkback mic and extra monitoring control
alone aren’t reasons enough to reinvest. If,
however, you’ve been hankering for more DSP
than your existing Twin afords you, your day
has come – have at it. And, of course,
newcomers to the world of Apollo and UAD now
get even more for their money, which can only
be a good thing.
Given how much we loved the original Apollo
Twin, it’ll come as no surprise that the MkII again
wins our highest possible recommendation. Far,
far more than possibly the best audio interface
ever made, this is a musically empowering
hardware/software hybrid, capable of elevating
even the humblest of home and project studios
to genuinely professional-quality heights.
Web www.uaudio.com
Info Solo, £ 590; Duo, £760; Quad, £1100
Verdict
For Incredible audio quality
Real-time tracking and monitoring
through Unison plugins
Superb UAD2 plugins
New Quad Core option
Talkback mic & extra monitoring options
Against Thunderbolt only, currently
Thunderbolt cable not included!
With Unison preamps and full access to
the UAD catalogue, the Apollo Twin MkII
does more than just amazing interfacing
1 0 / 1 0
Alternatively
UA Satellite Thunderbolt Quad
N/A » N/A » £590
If you just want UAD DSP-powered
plugins, this is a cheaper option
Slate Digital VRS-8
N/A » N/A » $1999
The forthcoming hub of Slate’s
Virtual Recording Studio claims
zero-latency recording/monitoring
All members of the Apollo family are
conigured and handled using the
excellent Console software application,
which looks like a mixing desk with up
to 14 Input channel strips (four of them
‘Virtual’ ones, visible as hardware
outputs in your DAW), two auxiliary
efects channels, and Control Room
section and Monitor sections. As well as
the auxiliary buses and main Monitor
bus, signals can be routed to Line outs
3/4 and the Headphones bus for
discrete cue mixing.
Each of the two Analog Inputs has a
Unison insert point, and every channel,
including the Talkback mic, can host up
to four regular UAD efects plugins,
making Console a useful standalone
mixer. The plugins browser that pops
up when an insert point is clicked
shows the entire UAD range by default,
with no discrimination between those
you own and those you don’t, and
although you can ‘Hide’ the latter in
the Console Settings, it feels like there
should be an option to just ilter them
all in and out in the browser itself
– there are a lot of them, after all.
That aside, seamlessly designed,
utterly rock solid and very easy to use,
Console is as high-quality as audio
interface control/mixer apps get.
It’s not just the hardware
The back of the Apollo Twin MkII is completely
unchanged from that of its predecessor
Console is a powerful mixing and control application that lets you into the guts of the unit
“If you’ve been
hankering for more
DSP than your existing
Twin afords you,
your day has come”
May 2017 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 87
universal audio apollo twin mkii / reviews <
CMU242.rev_apollotwin2.indd 87 3/1/17 12:32 PM