The best audio interfaces to buy today
- Audient iD4. The best audio interface for smaller budgets.
- SSL 2+ Get 'that SSL sound' at an amazing price.
- Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2.
- Mackie Onyx Producer 2.2.
- Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 3rd Gen.
- Steinberg UR22C.
- IK Multimedia iRig Pro Duo.
- Arturia AudioFuse.
- Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII. The ultimate best audio interface.
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. The best budget audio interface.
- Arturia AudioFuse 8Pre. A premium 8-channel option.
- M-Audio M-Track 2X2. A cheap yet powerful audio interface.
- TASCAM US-2×2.
- Behringer U-Control UCA222.
- Steinberg UR22C.
- Apogee Element 46.
Thanks for your help! I have an SM7B, and it does take quite a bit of gain to get it up to the proper level, but you don't absolutely need a preamp to go with it. With a preamp like the Apollo Twin MK II, you should be able to get plenty of gain to get a clean signal. The preamps would be more for coloring the sound.
Right out of the box, Apollo Twin MkII provides a suite of incredible analog emulation plug-ins including the world's only authentic Teletronix LA-2A, 1176LN, Pultec EQs, and the Unison-enabled UA 610-B Tube Preamp.
Apollo Twin is a high-resolution professional audio interface with superior sound quality and Realtime UAD Processing. It features built-in UAD-2 DSP Acceleration, which allows you to track, mix, and master with our full library of award-winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins with sub-2ms latency.
Right out of the box, Apollo Twin MkII provides a suite of incredible analog emulation plug-ins including the world's only authentic Teletronix LA-2A, 1176LN, Pultec EQs, and the Unison-enabled UA 610-B Tube Preamp.
UAD is combining processing power with the converters. The plug ins for there processing power is another cost with them. It's only expensive when you can't afford it. Go into pro studios and you'll see Apogee and UA everywhere, it's not gear aimed at hobbyists.
Apollo Twin MkII is a ground-up redesign of the hugely popular professional desktop recording interface for Mac and Windows — delivering enhanced audio conversion with the tone, feel, and flow of analog recording.
Apollo Twin USB works exclusively on Windows, Apollo Twin Thunderbolt works exclusively on Macs. Both Apollo Twin versions have the same feature set in terms of I/O, sonic performance and general functionality.
The Apollo Twin USB DUO works over USB instead. You need USB3, Windows 7 or 8.1 or later. The UAD plug-ins as always work for various hosts, including Pro Tools – you get VST, RTAS, and AAX 64 on Windows. Now, the bad news: the USB version works only on Windows.
"On Apollo Twin, the 48V Phantom Power supply is designed to provide up to 60mA of power. So each mic could draw up to 30mA of power each."
Apollo Twin is compatible with all Apple Mac computers that have an available Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 2, or Thunderbolt 3 port.
The steps below will guide you through the process of installing the UAD software, registering your Apollo Twin, and authorizing your UAD plug-ins.
- Connect and power Apollo Twin.
- Download the UAD software.
- Install the UAD software.
- Register your Apollo Twin.
- Authorize your Apollo Twin.
An audio interface is a piece of hardware that expands and improves the sonic capabilities of a computer. Some audio interfaces give you the ability to connect professional microphones, instruments and other kinds of signals to a computer, and output a variety of signals as well.
With its ergonomic desktop design, rugged aluminum construction, and front panel headphone and instrument connections, Apollo Twin has all the right tools, all in the right place. Thunderbolt cable sold separately. Apollo Twin includes the "Real time Analog Classics" UAD plug-in bundle. All other plug-ins are sold.
Universal Audio Apollo Twin. The Apollo Twin brings impressive sound quality and UA plug-ins to the desktop, along with unusually versatile mic preamps! The latest addition to Universal Audio's growing Apollo family is a desktop audio interface which incorporates their UAD2 Powered Plug-ins platform.
Connect and power Apollo Twin
Before installing the UAD software, connect your Apollo Twin to a Thunderbolt 3 enabled USB-C port on your PC via a Thunderbolt cable and qualified Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter, then power on the Apollo Twin.The steps below will guide you through the process of installing the UAD software, registering your Apollo Twin, and authorizing your UAD plug-ins.
- Connect and power Apollo Twin.
- Download the UAD software.
- Install the UAD software.
- Register your Apollo Twin.
- Authorize your Apollo Twin.
Sure there are so many other great plugins however in most instances they rob your computer of power with very few instances of the plugin. This has been my experience so yes the UAD is 100 percent worth it if you use allot of plugs. 100 percent worth it.
You do not need an Apollo to run UAD plugins - you just need UAD DSP, whether it's in an Apollo box, or a Satellite box, or in an external or internal card. As long as you have some UAD DSP, authorised for your plugins, your UAD plugins will run fine, regardless of which device you use for audio I/O.
Here's a roundup of my ten go-to plugins as well as some mix tips for each.
- Studer A800. If I had to choose just one plugin from UAD, this would be it.
- Neve 33609 Compressor/Limiter.
- Neve 1073.
- Manley Massive Passive.
- Harrison 32C.
- LA-2A Collection.
- Ampex ATR-102.
- dbx 160.
The UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins Platform is a range of very high-quality audio plug-ins, powered by dedicated hardware DSP accelerators (either PCIe format or Firewire 400/800 format).
UAD Powered plugins are using Host CPU instead of DSP-Card
the UAD2-DUO PCIe card.It typically indicates that there is not enough DSP available on your UAD device(s) to load the plug-in you are attempting to load, or in rarer cases it can indicate that the DSP load limit setting on the Configuration tab of the UAD Control Panel has been manually set lower than 100% and exceeded.
You can combine up to (4) UAD-2 DSP Accelerators within the same system, depending on your available PCIe and/or FireWire ports / bandwidth. Doing so will let you run even more UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins at the same time.
Right out of the box, Apollo Twin MkII provides a suite of incredible analog emulation plug-ins including the world's only authentic Teletronix LA-2A, 1176LN, Pultec EQs, and the Unison-enabled UA 610-B Tube Preamp.
The quad will handle about four UAD plugins, (maybe another one depending on the plugin) before running out of processing power, which has been fine for two tracks. Of course you can bus to a single track for economy. I like the UAD plug ins, which there are a lot of.
Here's the plug-ins that were included with the ARROW I purchased: Ampeg SVTRVR Classic bass amp, Marshall Plexi Classic guitar amp, RAW distortion pedal, RealVerb-Pro reverb, Putec EQP-Legacy and 1-A legacy EQ, Teletronix LA-2A compressor, UA 1176 LN & SE legacy limiters, CS-1 channel strip, Precision Channel strip,
