This is just another audio interface with on board DSP. There is nothing new here. And nothing that TC Electronic and RME haven't been doing for years. You can effects at the tracking stage on all RME gear.

EDIT

3000 usd (with the thunderbolt card) is too rich for my blood. 1999 for the duo WITH the TB card would really be pushing it. Oh well, I'll just have to settle for my lowly i7 860 with a gazillion plugs (I already own)

it's new because the dsp tuns about 10x more variety of fx than ANY other comparable product, besides of course tdm pro tools (or whatever it's called these days)

now that i have realised effects are after ad, not *quite* as exciting,

but...

it looks like a nice interface and i'll be following it nonetheless.

Looks like they're mimicking the Sonic core Xite (which has already been out almost 3 years).

Looks like they laid down a quad card, added Thunderbolt I/O and some A/D.

I'll know more when I get to NAMM in a few hours to check it out.

Greg

I just bought a Satellite Quad and have been really surprised at the quality of the plugins/emulations. Especially the Studer tape, Lexicon and EMT reverbs, and the Roland RE-201 tape echo.

I own several very good tape and reverb plugins but none of them have left me with my mouth open like this. I'm now considering selling my beloved Lexicon MPX-1 (similar to PCM80) and Roland DEP-5.

The extra bandwidth from the Thunderbolt would be nice, too... Running 24 ins + a UAD-2 Quad over firewire is pretty full on.

I wonder what the converter quality will be like ... I recently bought Duet2 from Apogee and it was a _really_ clear difference from my previous soundcard that was Presonus Firebox. I listened them side to side. Firebox was like there was a veil in the sound. No matter what some of the people here say, but some of the converters are really better than other ones (even between two modern soundcards, some people say that all the modern converters are awesome and good enough)

as a UAD user and someone who doesn't really go for the whole "MAC Vs PC" shenanigans... (as if a Mac isn't a personal computer anyway)... This whole MAC elitism thing is very offputting for me. They aren't going to release Windows drivers for the Satellite, and the Apollo won't be Windows compatiable for many months... I mean, RME can write awesome stable drivers that don't fcuck out on the Windows OS, so what's the go here? One fruit to rule them all!? They just release some broad and lame excuse not to work on Windows drivers. Oh, Firewire is too unstable on Windows... well, my Fireface 400 will tell you otherwise.

Fucck you Universal Audio


* Soapbox not included

There's not just the converters of course. The analog stages that follow the DAC and drive your output cables/headphone outputs are important - plenty of room for the introduction of unpleasant artifacts - as are clock signals.

sonic core nor creamware ever bothered with mac osx. or maybe there was ONE release I can;t remember, for power pc.

At least UAD will fully support both platforms, with only a minor windows delay.


And i was a pulsar user for many years and was as much of a gear junkie as i am now, and had many of the still touted effects, and alot of them are simply not on UAD quality.

That said, the scope platform still interests me and always has, if there was a mac version.

A few years ago (before 64-bit) I bought a really nice Audio Interface (Echo Mona) with some quality Mic pre's. When 64-bit PC's were released, Echo provided new 64-bit drivers for their older products, up until the Echo Mona. I lucked out. Anyone that had an older model than the Mona was out of luck as far as getting 64-bit drivers. This made me realize how closely I got to owning a great unit with great mic pre's that I may have had to start using as a door stopper, since I moved on from XP to Windows 7 64-bit...

It got me thinking, and since that day I have decided that I will not be buying any expensive Audio Interfaces again in the future. Rather, when I can afford it, I will buy an expensive microphone preamp (that doesn't use drivers, so I can keep using it for many many years to come). I will get a cheaper audio interface to use it with so that when the Audio Interface becomes obsolete, and no new drivers are provided for it, I can replace it with a new Audio Interface and continue to use my fancy microphone preamp along with it.

I'd be very wary spending a lot of money on an audio interface that may not have a driver that can operate it in the future. You find yourself stuck with great mic pre's you can't even use unless you stick with a system that supports the driver. Just something to think about..

What happens when a new operating system is released? Windows 256-bit? Will this unit run on that system? probably not. That's why it's better, in my opinion, to just buy a nice microphone pre amp that is not tied to drivers and then buy a modest Audio Interface to use the Pre-amp with...

With the success Soniccore had with the Xite, and the open-Scope announcement, there could be a Mac version (or even a Linux version) in it's future - since it would just be up to some developer building for the DSP environment.

But anyways, the Apollo looks good, but from what I know of Thunderbolt - the PCIe card / firewire/Thunderbolt adapter card is too expensive - but it gains them entry - just like the new MOTU interface (also being touted as the 'first' to incorporate Thunderbolt).

I couldn't get ANY of the UAD guys to tell me which A/D convertors they are using.

I'm sorry, but the whole thing looked a bit hodge-podge. (And I like UAD's plugins).
Nevertheless, if it works as intended, then UA will have some success with it.

Greg

p.s. I'd love to see UA join the open-Scope development team. Now THAT would be an interface!

Soniccore has been saying they'll release a mac version "soon" since 2007-08.
I think at some point in 2010 they removed the statement that the mac version is upcoming. Not sure if its up anymore on their website. I have been very interested in the xite-1 since the nord modular got discontinued.

The UAD Apollo indeed looks very nice. I am in the market for a new interface, but have decided to wait a few months to see how it all shapes up, with what I expect to be at least a few more thunderbolt interface releases in the coming months.

I wonder why everyone think it is awesome real time effect box? Sure it's 2ms and that is super fast (note that this is being possible on scope cards for about 10 years) but keep in mind that UAD still does not have any kind of chainer shell. Which mean more effects you add per channel, more delay you have (unlike Scope system which sport awesome chainer - you can stack up to 8 different effects with the SAME near zero delay).

So basically on apollo if you put one eq, one compressor after it, you won't be able to track at 2ms, you'll get 4ms. Then add another one etc.etc.
That's far from being real time. Add to that that some of UAD plugins does sport different latency times. Add to that that they are still not clear is that 2ms only on 96khz (i think it is) or on 44khz. If it is only at 96khz then this does mean that quad card is actually a duo card and duo card is actually a single uad card. Because when working at 96 khz quad card can not run so many plugins. Uad duo even less.


Note that i am not trying to piss on product or that i am Scope fanboy. It just seems weird to me that they promote product as something groundbreaking (surely with thunderbolt part) while similar and better systems regarding "realtime" DSP processing exist for years now.

I'm not sure about this "chainer shell" concept, but as far as I'm aware UAD plugs run at a standard 256 samples right across the board...?

I can't believe I've never heard of Scope... just checking it out now...

All this stuff was a bit more viable when computers were weak and plugins were average sounding. Now with all this circuit modelling, and 6 core beasts...

So, I'm in the process of finding native versions for my UAD plugs. It's a bit difficult with many of the plugs, but I'm a bit over this crap. Needing ANOTHER device just to run a bit of software. If I can find a native VOG, a convincing 88RS equiv, moog filter, the RE-201, EP-34 and the EMT 140...

...damn, UAD got me by the balls

Amazing isn't it - I've been at 3ms for the last 11 years, only having to go higher when VSTis crap out my CPU with clicks. Oh, and the 3ms is because of ASIO - without the DAW (Cubase) it's almost real-time.

Oh and sqigls, it's not just about DSP vs CPU these days, it's about quality, workflow, integration. If you have lots of hardware Scope is great for integrating that into a computer set-up.

The routing for me is one of the main things (as well as the sound and quality of the synths, effects, etc.). I'm a visual/old-fashioned kind of guy and if I want to plug a synth into a dirt box into a flanger into a Leslie then back into the synth I can do all that as if I had the boxes, with (virtual) cables from one to the next.

Or I can just build my own synths and effects with the Modular IV synth.

It's a studio in a box, so having a box and a computer really isn't much of a hardship for the quality and quantity of stuff you get.
Last edited by Mr Arkadin on Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:59 am; edited 1 time in total