Some balance about the UA Apollo....

Testify, Wiz!

I haven’t been on Apollo platform for years, but I had SF and BF and thought they were really great. If I had wanted more of an all-in-one solution, I’d still be using Apollo.

No offense, it’s not about balance but preference.

If you prefer the X and Luna: that’s great, others may feel differently.

One is not right (balanced) and the other wrong, (unbalanced).

It is about balance in my view as an owner of the system....because there is a lot of discussion about it and a lot of it sort of negative...and I am using it everyday....

There was a question from a user in the last couple of days, about getting an Apollo and some of the advice was to wait for a new one...

So to me balancing the discussion was important to me.... my work is free to view/listen to at my website...they can listen to that and decide if the sonics are something they like or dislike....

No offence taken...

cheers

Wiz

I get around 5ms latency at 128 samples tracking through some plugs in Reaper with my motu interfaces. Occasionally with really high track counts, like 30+ with some amp sims and stuff, I might have to increase to 256 samples and I get around 10ms of latency. Barely perceptible.

I generally don't track with reverbs or stuff like Soothe because the PID latency on those is really high and can cause an audible delay.

Otherwise yeah, I track all the time with most of my plugs already in place in my template.

Probably.

And yes, it's really great that we have options for every budget. Apollos and Satellites are affordable as well, if you think about other "more pro" options.

I'm right there with you, Wiz. The Apollo system works great for me and I think it sounds great too.

I often pull up a "finished" mix session with 50-60 full of plugs, including on the mix bus, and track an overdub with 1.1 ms latency, even with a really nice reverb or delay being monitored. I can have my buffer set to 2048 and it's rock solid with 1.1 ms latency. I actually was able to do that with a 2012 Macbook Pro too and it was no problem. I've never been able to get that low of latency under that kind of load with native systems, but I haven't tried it with the newer Apple Silicon computers yet. With native systems I always had to disable some plugins, and I couldn't track with reverbs without delay. I think the only thing that can compete latency-wise is HDX, and it costs twice as much money. I put that money into microphones and monitors instead and I'm glad I did.

I think the converters sound great. I slightly prefer the sound of the Apogee Symphony AD, but these days when you're buying an interface, you're buying into an ecosystem, and all the other factors still make the Apollo a winner for me. The DA on the Apollo X series blows away a lot of the DACs that top mastering engineers were using 20 years ago. I'm sure a Hilo would be even more transparent, but I work just fine with the Apollo X DAC.

I still haven't used Luna. I know I'm in the minority on this, but I find it easy to work with UA Console and Pro Tools. I came up at a time in studios when we were using LFACs as a front end to record into Pro Tools, and this is basically the same workflow but with software. In Pro Tools I'm always switching between the mix and edit windows, this just adds a third window with the same quick keys. I'm super fast with both Pro Tools and Console and it's easy for me. I'm sure Luna is an even better workflow and I'm excited to give it a try when I have time.

What’s an LFAC?

Large Format Analog Console.  

Only for old timers.....  

Who you calling old ?

I probably come across as a massive hater given the amount of shit I talk, but I can’t deny that I loved the Apollo ecosystem when I had one. It was really hard to move away from it as it basically became second nature to me over the 5 or 6 years I had mine.

I’m actually very jealous of Apollo owners who are able to get great recordings/mixes. I’ve heard many awesome tracks made with Apollos, and it was always insanely frustrating because I was never able to make mine sound the way I wanted.

But still, the plugins are fantastic, tracking through Console is an almost flawless experience, and the Unison pres are a really cool concept, even if I ended up not really using them.

If you’re getting great sounds with your Apollo, more power to you. Keep doing what you’re doing. I totally respect that and secretly wish it would have worked for me.

Balance.... what balance?? We are talking about converters in 2004 i mean 2024..... 

Well I’m not that young…I know and love consoles…but I’ve never seen them referred to with that acronym