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Post by lolo on Aug 12, 2013 20:17:32 GMT -6
I Know!!!!! We found out last week, and she asked me nicely to please not spend any money on the studio.  This will be our first one But we have a couple of shows coming up in 3 weeks, that might be my ticket. I'll just tell her we're doing these for free  or Mr Taxman can be nice this year. Really interested in this unit though. |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 15, 2013 7:33:25 GMT -6
The Apollo is good enough to confront you with the limits of your skill. I'm not anywhere near as experienced as a full time engineer might be. That means I work with my ears when it comes to plugs, but for those who really know the hardware UAD is emulating, it's an amazing tool. In many shootouts, the stock Apollo has more than held it's own. When compared to the BLA Apollo, Apollo w/ d-box, and with different preamps, it's usually picked as a winner at least 25%, more like 33% of the time. That's statistically preference, not inferiority. A few of the UAD plugs are game changers. The EMT 140 feels like hardware, the Ampex ATR 102 lives on my 2 bus. You can just switch a preset, and have the benefit of experienced producers and engineers at your fingertips in an instant. Having a track done, then scrolling through a few presets is amazing. Quite frequently, one fits the track, and you've got a much more complete production in one click of your mouse. The LA2A compressor is serious too. Short of getting the actual hardware, that thing jus handles most mic issues beautifully, especially when using mics that might be considered less than stellar. It's like getting 50% of the way to what a C12 might do for a vocal.
Why not search around for one being sold second hand.
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Post by lolo on Aug 15, 2013 8:10:22 GMT -6
Cheers MJB. About to sell some gear to fund this bad boy. Haven't seen many used ones. Esp not in Australia. Not happy to let my BAE 1073 go. Good excuse to buy a heritage 1073jr down the track wont go to crazy with the plugs, as im pretty happy with the plugs I have atm. will def het the new 1176,La2a, emt140 and 201 Space echo. Regarding the Ampex. For me slate VTM is a must have. Esp when you mix into it on the 2 buss from the start. getting a pretty good sound with 2 x VP28's - Slate VCC - Slate VBC - Slate VTM on the 2 buss. Will later add 2 x Kush Electra's or 2 x LilpEq's for the 2 buss. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Aug 15, 2013 8:37:54 GMT -6
I honestly think I like the UAD Ampex better...definitely more tweakability.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 15, 2013 12:39:59 GMT -6
I hope you do go for it lolo. John's right, much as the VTM is one helluvan attractive piece that many use successfully, I had it, and returned it. The UAD Ampex is a a significant step up the ladder. It's not easy to describe the difference in two very similar things, but having worked with tape for 15 years everyday, I can tell you, te Ampex is just plain right. I don't hear any of that digital glare that typically seems to grow and grow, track by track. The presets are killer too. Find one or two favorites, and you've just increased your mixdown options considerably.
I demo'd the 250 reverb, and felt that it didn't bring anything so special to the table. I already have Waves reverbs, and Apple's verbs are quite useful and clean, even the free verb UAD gives you works just fine in small doses.. The thing is, the EMT 140 just feels like the damn plate, I'm not kidding, I've used them, heard them, and this emulation borders on spooky, and you have plate size options too. Beats moving a 14' plate down in a basement any day.. Dark Side of the Moon, you got it. Rich and natural tone for acoustic guitar, just crazy vibe instantly. I use the EMT 140 on most instruments, and the ReLab on vocals. Works beautifully.
Trust me, the LA2 will just slay you..The Fatso's serious too.
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Post by lolo on Aug 17, 2013 8:31:03 GMT -6
Anyone using the Apollo with Windows? Working well?
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Post by Johnkenn on Aug 18, 2013 12:53:31 GMT -6
I'm lost on the pc side.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 18, 2013 16:25:10 GMT -6
That's always been the dark side to me. II've used Apple products since the macintosh was 512k. I've never seem any kind of complaints in over a year regarding the Apollo and Windows, so I think you're fine.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2013 20:53:15 GMT -6
If making a choice for myself, I wouldn't buy any box with built in DSP and plugs. I bought the lesser of the MR series with the same attitude. At this point, the only direction truly up to me is to Apogee.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 18, 2013 21:19:06 GMT -6
Heartfelt, which Apogee?
The Apollo is in another league when it comes to using UAD's plug ins. The ability to print all the plugs you have available with no latency is really something else, once you get used to doing that. Oh, and in general, UAD's plugs are in another league too. I have almost every Waves plug made, and hardly touch them now. Slate is up to some good things lately though.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2013 22:15:24 GMT -6
I guess I have a difference stance in plugs and haven't perceived UADs ownership of the field. I also never print plugs. Never lacked the processor power to have to do so
Symphony or the X series
Besides, the MR faired excellent in comparison to the Orpheus. I don't understand the displeasure in the MR outside of connectibity. What don't you like, again?
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 18, 2013 23:23:13 GMT -6
The Symphony sounds excellent, perhaps a pinch sweeter than the Apollo, cowboycoalminer would be the best source for more details when comparing the two. I'm not familiar with the X series. I have every Waves plug known to man, a few Slate plugs, and after working with UAD, I can flatly say I think they're in a league of their own. It might take a while working with them for you to feel the differences, but once you perceive them, they become obvious. The EMT 140 is spooky real sometimes, the Ampex is killer, and I used to work with Ampex and Otari tape machines all the time. The LA2 is as good as a plug compressor can be at this time, I'd much rather have a real one, but it's so good, I'm making records with it. The printing with plugs things was so far away from my normal way of working, it took me a year before I even tried, and I tell you, it's a skill worth developing a little. It's alway harder to make decisions earlier, but once you get used to it, it frees up a lot of DSP space. I use it sparingly, but to great effect when I do.
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Post by lolo on Aug 19, 2013 5:21:42 GMT -6
I guess I have a difference stance in plugs and haven't perceived UADs ownership of the field. I also never print plugs. Never lacked the processor power to have to do so Symphony or the X series Besides, the MR faired excellent in comparison to the Orpheus. I don't understand the displeasure in the MR outside of connectibity. What don't you like, again? I do like the Mr 816. Just the inability to bypass all the Pre's is my only concern. Use more and more analog gear. Also as im going spdif out to my Dangerous music source and i think that sacrifices 2 out's. looked into RME as well. Still like the idea of the apollo. thinks I'm gonna wait a bit and see if something new comes out, or see if any good deals come up. Another option is to keep the steiny and go adat into another 8 I/O Ad/da. with the apollo I have to get a new firewire cards as well. Doenst support firewire 400. Only support 2 cards |
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Post by lolo on Aug 19, 2013 5:29:25 GMT -6
The Symphony sounds excellent, perhaps a pinch sweeter than the Apollo, cowboycoalminer would be the best source for more details when comparing the two. I'm not familiar with the X series. I have every Waves plug known to man, a few Slate plugs, and after working with UAD, I can flatly say I think they're in a league of their own. It might take a while working with them for you to feel the differences, but once you perceive them, they become obvious. The EMT 140 is spooky real sometimes, the Ampex is killer, and I used to work with Ampex and Otari tape machines all the time. The LA2 is as good as a plug compressor can be at this time, I'd much rather have a real one, but it's so good, I'm making records with it. The printing with plugs things was so far away from my normal way of working, it took me a year before I even tried, and I tell you, it's a skill worth developing a little. It's alway harder to make decisions earlier, but once you get used to it, it frees up a lot of DSP space. I use it sparingly, but to great effect when I do. i know the UA plugs are great. And if I'm not going the apollo route I will definitely look into getting a Uad 2 card. But some of those waves plugs you have are very good. Gain staiging is really important with the waves stuff. Some of the best mixing engineers use these plugs daily. Dont overlook them. I would still like to get a apollo though. Just a bit scared to buy and it wont work with my system. I have read alot of PC guys struggle with this bad boy. And i'm not in a city where I can just try one and return. cheers for the reply's guys |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 19, 2013 7:41:49 GMT -6
Good luck lolo, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you get one. Thanks for mentioning the Waves plugs. I only noticed last night I have the SSL 2 bus compressor. The plugs were a gift from a friend when I first got started. At that time, I'd never so much as instantiated a plug in before, so my learning curve was steep, and it's taken me a while to find my way around. I'm going to compare it to Slate's Grey demo I ave, just to see..
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Post by lolo on Aug 19, 2013 8:19:22 GMT -6
Slate VBC grey kills the Waves SSL though imo. Some of the other waves plugs are gold though. Thanks for the advice on the Apollo MJB. I'll Wait a bit and see how this PC compatibility pans out. Not in a hurry. Can still make good sounding songs on the Steiny without a doubt. The RME UFX also looks like a good contender |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 19, 2013 11:02:33 GMT -6
It's a difficult thing to quantify, but the Apollo has a little something extra at its price point. There are better pieces available for everything the Apollo does, at higher prices of course. But the particular plateau the Apollo gets you to is one you can grow from. And if you outgrow the Apollo, than it's done its job well. I don't think there'a a way to outgrow it though, you can alway use it as a hub for great plugs and for printing effects, even if you had a Neve board and Burl digital processors. Studios here have Apollos, nestled right next to their SSL boards, so it's a handy little sucker.
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Post by 4trakheadstak on Aug 20, 2013 14:18:09 GMT -6
I've been using an Apollo Quad on an i7 Windows 7 Pro rig with Protools 10.2, Cubase 7, and Wavelab ver. something or other? for almost 9 months and I love it. It takes a little getting used to the workflow of the latency free monitoring but it beats the alternative by miles!
I'm curious of the BLA mod. Seems like it would be well worth it in the long run but I need another 8 inputs more right now so I will have to hold off for a bit on BLA.
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Post by lolo on Aug 20, 2013 18:50:48 GMT -6
I've been using an Apollo Quad on an i7 Windows 7 Pro rig with Protools 10.2, Cubase 7, and Wavelab ver. something or other? for almost 9 months and I love it. It takes a little getting used to the workflow of the latency free monitoring but it beats the alternative by miles! I'm curious of the BLA mod. Seems like it would be well worth it in the long run but I need another 8 inputs more right now so I will have to hold off for a bit on BLA. What firewire card are you using? |
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Post by 4trakheadstak on Aug 23, 2013 13:10:37 GMT -6
SIIG card that UAD recommends. I bought it from amazon.
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Post by Mark Kano on Sept 13, 2013 6:56:29 GMT -6
This may have been answered somewhere else, but what do you do if you want to track with a guitar emulation or virtual instrument inside of pro tools while using the Apollo? Can you pull up instruments/plugs from PT from within the Apollo monitoring console? Obviously it wouldn't be zero latency, but if you have your buffer at say 32 in PT does this still work out to be a usable scenario? I've been an mbox user since day one for the sake of simplicity, but I'm starting to crave a more pro setup...although my mbox does have its own version of "pro" built right in:)
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 13, 2013 8:12:50 GMT -6
Absolutely - that's what it's built to do. Wouldn't even think you would have to get down to 32 either. I didn't end up buying the Oceanway plug, but it was pretty cool to track acoustics with it...kinda set them in the room. The Apollo is a great setup...Sounds great. Wish they would make a $4K box with Burl though...I'd buy that in a heartbeat.
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Post by Mark Kano on Sept 13, 2013 8:36:37 GMT -6
Thanks John! That's good to know. I think I'm still wanting to have an all in one box for ad/da, headphone, monitor and interface duties, so the Apollo is looking pretty darn good.
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Post by popmann on Sept 13, 2013 13:39:27 GMT -6
This may have been answered somewhere else, but what do you do if you want to track with a guitar emulation or virtual instrument inside of pro tools while using the Apollo? Can you pull up instruments/plugs from PT from within the Apollo monitoring console? Obviously it wouldn't be zero latency, but if you have your buffer at say 32 in PT does this still work out to be a usable scenario? I've been an mbox user since day one for the sake of simplicity, but I'm starting to crave a more pro setup...although my mbox does have its own version of "pro" built right in:) John...I think you might want to reread this. I am NOT aware that you can pull up Avid instruments in hardware console. So, yes, it effectively makes NO difference in monitoring software instruments. You still need your super low buffer. You still need the session at a compromised sample rate. The Apollo's low latency monitoring is simple a hardware mixer in the unit (like all interfaces have not made by Avid)...the DIFFERENCE is that it can run UAD2 plug ins in that mix "live" without buffering--allowing you to work with the plug ins for cue mixing like they're hardware units. NOTHING....NO...advantage to software instruments. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 13, 2013 13:55:37 GMT -6
Oh - you're right...I just scanned...I should really consider reading the posts before I respond...  You can only use the UAD software with zero latency, but you can't pull up any other software in the UAD Console except UAD plugs. If you wanted to track using Amplitube or something, you could plug in to the DI of the Apollo and effect the DI sound however you want, but then you would have to use the plug with latency just like any other interface. |
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This will be our first one
