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1st Generation Apollo Firewire featuring Four Unison powered preamps for added tonal versatility while tracking, plus onboard DSP processing to run UA's world-class UAD-2 plugins. This all-in-one interface will take your recordings and mixes to the next level!
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As an Apollo owner myself, I can easily say the overall sound quality and plethora of creative options make the Apollo one of the most inspiring and fun-to-use pieces of gear in my studio! The producer in me loves the numerous great sounding guitar amp emulations, rich delays, and other tools that help me dial in truly unique sounds while recording. The engineer in me relies on the pristine conversion quality and painfully accurate hardware compressor and EQ emulations to create polished, translatable mixes. What more could you ask for? The Apollo is the real deal, plus some.
- Travis Hall, Sound Pure Pro Audio Specialist
Class-Leading 24-bit/192 kHz Sound Quality
Designed to play a central role in a modern Mac- or PC-based studio, Apollo incorporates a true “no compromise” approach to audio quality. Building upon decades of UA’s analog hardware heritage, it offers extremely high-resolution sonics, with the lowest THD and highest dynamic range in its class. Apollo’s premium mic preamps, top-end converters — and UA’s meticulous attention to circuit design — translate into greater accuracy and depth in your recordings, from tracking and overdubbing, to mixing and mastering.
Realtime UAD Plug-In Processing for Tracking, Mixing and Mastering
While Apollo’s “natural” sound is exceedingly open and transparent, it can quickly deliver a wide range of classic analog tones and color via its Realtime UAD Processing. Available with either DUO Core or QUAD Core processing onboard, this onboard DSP Acceleration allows for recording and mixing through UAD Powered Plug-Ins — with as low as sub-2ms latency — so that producers can quickly monitor, audition, and “print” audio using classic analog emulations from Ampex, Lexicon, Manley, Neve, Roland, SSL, Studer, and more.**
Want to place multiple 1176 compressors on your drum inputs, or record vocals through a classic Neve 1073 EQ, or even track the entire band through a Studer A800 tape machine in real time? No problem. With Realtime UAD processing, Apollo’s sonic options are virtually endless.
Thunderbolt™ I/O: The Next Generation of Connectivity
Apollo offers compatibility with Intel’s new Thunderbolt technology, as found on the newest iMacs, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and next-generation PCs.
Available via a user-installable dual-port Thunderbolt I/O Option Card (sold separately), Thunderbolt provides lower latency, reduced audio buffer size, improved performance, and greater UAD plug-in instances versus FireWire. And because Thunderbolt offers many times the bandwith of FireWire, it allows music producers to connect numerous devices in series with the Apollo interface — including hard drives, processors, and additional computer monitors — all with fast, flawless performance.
Deeper Integration with Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and more
Apollo’s Core Audio and ASIO* drivers ensure compatibility with all major DAWs, including Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Live, and more. Beyond this basic compatibility, Apollo’s included Console application and companion Console Recall plug-in (VST/AU/RTAS) provide control and recall of all interface and UAD plug-in settings within individual DAW sessions, even months and years later.
Elegant Hardware Design and Workflow
One key feature of Apollo isn’t really a “feature” at all. It’s the numerous design details that give you a fast, natural workflow — and better results. There are physical front-panel controls for all the most commonly used features, including Preamp and Monitor level knobs, channel selection, mic pad and low cut, phantom power, and even dual headphone outs with independent level control. Smart Hi-Z inputs on the front panel detect when you've connected your guitar or bass, and automatically enable hardware and software monitoring.
Sonically, Apollo's Mic inputs and Monitor outputs are digitally controlled analog, so you don't lose audio resolution when you adjust gain. High-resolution/high-contrast metering, derived from UA’s legendary 2192 interface, is designed to be viewable at nearly any angle. Finally, standalone operation means that you can use Apollo’s audio connections, and last-used DSP mixer settings, even without a computer connected.
Universal Audio Inc. was re-founded in 1999 by Bill's sons, James Putnam and Bill Putnam Jr., with two main goals: to faithfully reproduce classic analog recording equipment in the tradition of their father, and to design new digital recording tools with the sound and spirit of vintage analog technology. However, as Bill Jr. recounts, the genesis of "UA, part 2" is actually a bit more serendipitous.
Having grown up in the music industry, Bill Jr. and James ("Jim") Putnam naturally assumed that the music business is where they'd eventually end up. Jim, a touring musician and recording engineer, and their older brother Scott, a studio designer in Southern California, were the first to follow in Bill Sr.'s path. However, Bill Jr. took a more circuitous direction, working for a number of engineering companies before undertaking a doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. It was at Stanford that Bill Jr. became closely involved in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), specializing in signal processing. It was also at Stanford that Bill Jr. began to assemble a team of the best and brightest minds in the field — who continue to steer many of Universal Audio's engineering efforts to this day.
However, the precise event that led Bill and Jim to start (or "reinvent") Universal Audio in 1999 was unexpected. As Bill Jr. tells it, when Bill Sr. passed away in 1989, he and Jim were faced with the Herculean task of cleaning out their dad's workshop and storage areas. While going through Bill Sr.'s old test equipment, boxes of parts, bits and pieces of consoles, and half-cannibalized 1176 compressors, Jim came across their father’s old design notebook. The two spent the evening poring over his notes, realizing that this was the map to every technical problem their father had ever solved. It was at that moment that they decided to bring back Universal Audio and its classic products.
Fast forward a decade. Now with nearly 80 employees and legions of new customers worldwide, UA is headquartered near the Silicon Valley, in Scotts Valley, California — where our classic analog gear is still hand-built, one unit at a time. The lengths we go to deliver the exact sound and performance of classic analog audio gear is unparalleled; in fact, the goal is for UA's modern units to perform identically to well-maintained units built decades ago.
Of course, analog is only half the story. At Universal Audio, we employ the world's brightest DSP engineers and digital modeling authorities to develop our award-winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform, featuring the most authentic analog emulation plug-ins in the industry. Our DSP gurus work with the original hardware manufacturers — using their exact schematics, golden units, and experienced ears — to give UAD plug-ins warmth and harmonics in all the right places, just like analog.
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Onboard UAD-2 Processing
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