I need advice from UAD users,

I am eyeing the UA Apollo Twin. It seems to be most affordable way to jump onto real high quality sound from the source up. They boast new preamps that adapt to the emulation of their UAD plugins, 2ms of latency regardless of buffer size in your DAW, UAD2 plugins (some vintage starter pack and Softube's amazing guitar and bass room emulations). And up to ten inputs with ADAT lightpipe, great for tracking drums. It ticks all the right boxes for a pack under a thousand dollars.

Here's my concern:

Should I get the Solo or Duo version? For around a hundred bucks more, of course, you get more processing power, duh! However, I'd like to hear from UA users how much one processor covers you. I mean, can you lay out a full mix of, say, 16 summing channels with DSP driven plugins with a solo processor? How easily can you max out one processor? Will the Duo version offer me a lot more ground for the money?

I got a 2010 3.06 Gb Core 2 Duo iMac with 16 Gb of RAM and a Core i7 @ 2.26 MacBook Pro from 2011 also with 16Gb of RAM.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice. This babe has just arrived at a major retailer in my country. I might break the bank (or a teller's arm if needed) .

Have a good day, fellas.

 

hello, mercurysoto,

can only suggest that you should, definitely, go for the duo (two processor) version... *yes*

this way you can use the somewhat new unison microphone preamplifier routing of (presently two of) their plug-ins (the old tube preamplifier, the api vision channel emulation), plus some of the other effects, equalisers, dynamics processors, etc. on your (two) inputs (with only one chip this is more risky, depends on the plug-ins in use)... *yes*

later, when you so decide, you can go for one or two octo card (plus, for notebooks, some box done by magma) with all the plug-ins they are producing... *yes*

the processing power of your computer is, largely, irrelevant (all the plug-ins use the digital signal processor chips in the interface box or on the only later intended to be bought cards)... *yes*

hope this helps, all the best...

 

Bigger is usually better under nearly all circumstances.

 

Thank you a lot for your advice. I'll definitely stretch for the Twin Duo. I'd like to be able to use the ADAT light pipe with processing across the ten inputs. I guess only the duo might be able to pull this job off. On the mixing side, everybody loves UAD plugins and if like to be able to use them across the board. I guess that'll require that I bounce and freeze at times, but heck, I'm going up the ladder.

One again, thank you.

 

bought the solo to get the preamps + a few essential plugs (compressors)

be careful when you jump to UAD. Any project will require more and more DSP. Just as a reminder, when you duplicate a track with plugs, the second track will require as much DSP power for the same effects...
So if you have 4 tracks with vocals (say background, alternative versions, whatever), a compressor that requires 15% of power will take 60% of your DSP...
To run the platform you've got to use also 12% of one DSP.

So it gives you an idea of the very small amount of plugs you can use with one DSP. If your project is already cleaned up, with each instance of compressor or EQ used once and effectively, then one DSP could well be enough, but during your creative process, you may need 4 or more DSP if you start duplicate tracks etc.

Now you may wonder why I took the solo version.
First because of money which I want to dedicate to other stuff (better microphone etc).
And second, because I don't like the dongle-philosophy of UAD plugs. If you have a laptop, you can't run your projects if your Apollo is not plugged-in. Say you want to hear it in a car, somewhere else to listen to it, you can't. And with an i7 processor, you can run dozen of powerful reverbs and so, but with one UAD DSP, it's hard to run more than 3 or 4. So it makes me think that the system is made to sell you more and more DSP, and prevent from running your stuff without the hardware only for copyright reasons because your i7 would handle plugs much better.
That being said, there are a few plugs which are difficult to avoid in a serious project (1176 emulation for example), so I am happy I get to use this plugs anyway.
Also I use this interface for live processing with 0-latency which I find absolutely great (listen to your processed voice in the mix with no latency while you sing live for example). For such purpose, you can use only 4 inserts. Which means that for live performance, 1 DSP is more than enough.

Now it's up to you. 2 DSP will certainly (just) shift the limitations, but you will experience the limitations anyway, this is how they sell you more and more DSPs.

 

Hey Shadow. I appreciate your sharing your experience. Just let me put it this way, ain't it a solid workflow to compose with native processing, where any multicore processor will deliver more than enough power (in my case, my life now), and once you know what you need from a compositional standpoint turn to UAD for summing your mix into final shape? If you think this way, then you enjoy a luxury summing mixer for less than $1000.00.

I definitely need the Duo for recording the whole ten channels at once since I mike drums, and is like to run at least a compressor per channel on the way in, plus the vocal or guitar input with a full channel strip and I guess it can handle it. BTW, for those interested, the Harmony Central newsletter has just arrived with a full review:

http://r.em.harmonycentral.com/r4.asp?r=2021109_24799&i=HC14053001_01012

Thanks a lot for your replies once again. I have already found a buyer for my aging MOTU Traveler along with my Aphex 107 preamp.

 

I jumped on the bandwagon. I am a new UA user. Now it's time to clean up the studio (hey, it's not a common day!). To be honest, I expected a bigger box though it is sturdy. BTW, the people at AU not only gave me the Analog Classics bundle, but also they gave me a Helios 69 EQ all for free! Fortunately I was lucky to find a buyer for my other interface and some other equipment I bundled it up with.

Best of luck to you, fellas.

 

you will also get some $75 coupons which will give you the opportunity to upgrade your 1176 or LA2A to version 2 for almost free (which is different and better contrary to Pultec version 2 where people continue to use the legacy version)