@melgueil: "I am accustomed to quality. Apollo thus far has not let me down"

can't you be more objective We are all learning about apollo and ua plug; look forward to hear more from you.

@swartzfeger Multiple comps:

that is pretty std practise to harness the different response characteristics of different comps in line, the la2a imparts that smoothness but does not catch all the transients, so then people plug in the 1176 too and, of course, this also lets you impart more or less distortion too.

I am with ragan if it sounds right, it is right and how can there by any wrong way to get to it sounding right ? also, experimenting may create a brand new way of doing something, I say go for it !

I see slap is still selling his apollo I wish he would hang in with it more I was looking forward to him posting some more of his work; really enjoyed those older clips and was curious to see what he would do with the ua plugs. But monitoring and sound is very personal so I hope has/gets gear that works for him and I know that feeling.

I bought a hi end mike online ( rode classic mkii) yesterday never heard it live so fingers crossed. I'll post a shoot out though apollo pre with my 102, at4033 and the new one next weekend . On paper it should be very nice (jenson tranny, telefunken old stock tube, but mixed reviews; we'll see. Unlike cowboy, my search goes on !

I'll be using it mostly to mix, and perhaps track a few guitars here and there. I'm starting my own mixing room this summer, and I feel HD Native is the best investment for me right now. Thanks for all the replies guys! I might look into the Apollo if it gets a PT card.

I'd go for an Apollo personally It's more than capable of low latency monitoring and mixing all in the box. You'll never want to part with UAD2 plugins thats for sure. They are one of the best for good reason.

Just my opinion of course.

Listening my brand new Adam AX7's right now, (technically, they're 4 months old, I bought them from a guy last night who's ears were a little too big for his wallet). First track, cowboy's new track, and it just screams Movie Soundtrack to me.

Funny, I think I'm that guy too, just on the other side today, ears bigger than my wallet.

I'm curious to see what changes I make to my mixes now, sometime I think I've over plugged, and also need to back reverb levels down. When I solo an acoustic guitar with the EMT 140, it sounds awash in verb, but when I play the track, that goes away, hmm..

I think I'll start listening to my mixes on every different system I can more than I've been doing. I felt a little saddened that we all work so hard on mixing this wonderful music and how all too often it ends up being crushed to an mp3 and then poured through the nasty spout of a little white ear bud from an iPod.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Ragan, Kcat, thank you. I'm in the 'moving beyond preset' mode with compressors and really trying to understand what they're doing, fundamentally. And developing 'tastes', I suppose. I like medium-to-heavyish compression on vocals, do not compression much at all on guitars, love bass squashed a good deal and drums I'm using less and less compression as I spend more time with mixes.

And one thing, I need to start slapping my hand when putting a compressor on the mix bus "just because."

Cowboy, I'm with ya on on the squashed music. And great tip on the DBX -- I remember when I first bought my UAD-2, that was always my first goto individual/track compressor.

@Melgueil -- I'm interested on your feedback of the ULN-2 vs. Apollo when it comes to the pres, the AD/DA, the +dsp vs UA plugins etc. I came *this close* to pulling the trigger on a used ULN-2 before I finally settled on the Apollo.

That Metric Halo box is 10 years old and still pretty much best in class!

I personally feel there is too much hype on the ULN2, I used on for about a year and preferred both my 192 and the Aurora to it.

I used it for remote recording. The pre's are fantastic though. I loved the unit at first, but feel that was psychological for me due to all the hype I had heard before buying it.

The plugs that you get with it were useable, but just for tracking with.

Just my opinion.

I'm also considering getting a Quad card for my Mac, so I'll have the best of both worlds

if you have been wondering how our friend Iamjohngalt's system; his apollo and 2192 are getting along and whether he can frigin groove on the drums; I think this kind of answers that question; oh ya !!

WARM GROOVE - YouTube

nice playing dude, sounds fine !!

I bought a pair 2 weeks ago from the Disney Lot, apparently they were in a machine room used for playback. I got them both for $500. They sound amazing! I actually prefer them over the Air 20 series I use on a dailey basis! Of course I also have NS10s and those are my preferred, but I was actually surprised how the AX7's were very NS10ish.....anyways, nice purchase!

Oh I just completed a DIY PULTEC, very smooooooooth!

How many hours did you have in it? RecPro? I was thinking of doing one myself this summer.

I ended up doing the Drip Electronics build. It's sounds so good, I love it. I put about 8 hours into each one, I built a matched pair

Mojave have put up a bunch of sessions done on lots of UA gear including the Apollo. Only heard a few but so far but sounding sweet.

mojaveaudio - YouTube

Did you see that mix contest with the Fab Dupont video earlier in this thread? I'd rather get the kind of performance he got from that vocalist than someone singing with perfect mic technique.

Also, compressors feeding into each other is the entire concept of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. I believe the new Slate Virtual Buss Compressor will actually chain 3 compressors into each other.

Some users have reported that the Brainworx plug-ins sound different on the UAD than they do native. It's widely understood that the SPL Transient Designer sounds different on the UAD than native but I think they're different algorithms. Sonnox told me their EQ sounds identical on the UAD as it does natively, I haven't confirmed this for myself but I'll probably do some extensive testing when the UAD Inflator gets released.

Anyway, for the most part, it comes down to the algorithms and the programmers having access to as much processing as they need to get the job done.

Touché ...

Ha....I guess what happened was originally the ULN-2 / GR combo was a step up from what I had before, enough that I was able to leave behind any concerns about the quality of the gear and just get on with the business of the music. Confident that the gear was always giving me what I wanted, sound-wise. Since that has been my set up, if there is some sort of downshift, I`d likely see it, but so far I really haven't. So goodness so far. That said, very early to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Cdlt

I would tend to agree with you. There has been too much hype on that unit. That does not mean it is not a good box because it is, but I just have other needs now. Since I have them both, at some point I`ll do some A/B'ing.

Cdlt

Nice Pultec. I like the original look. Did the chassis come as part of a kit?

Some really nice mic projects on Group DIY right now. Unbelievable finish on some of the kits.

@melgueil i hope my comment was understood as humour. I completely understand we each have our own legitimate perspective and I appreciate yours, although i find it harder to appreciate some people's more negative ones: the apollo to me seems well balanced between design, performance and price.

@ericD really appreciate your inside the business perspective and interesting insights: as every box is different, it makes sense to me that algos running on different sustems/platforms might sound different too.

Good point about the SH comp explaining that xtr smoothness people need to compare its output to the combination of an optal and ic comp with different trannys, although i knew they were in line i hadn't thought its just like running one into a second comp as we had just been discussing.

i don't know if it is intended to be pushed like an 1176, but intended more for the 2 buss and for mastering, do you think that explains some of the negativity about the SH?

Ordered myself a Quad Satellite. Going to work more and more at higher sample rates hopefully, especially for quieter and less crowded mixes where i feel it can be more apparent. In larger and fuller mixes i've not found the difference to be worth the DSP drop.

Anyone know how much in voucher codes you get with a satellite? Last time i think i read it as $50, but i think it used to be $100. I've got a $25 thank you voucher valid on anything in store and i really want to grab the new LA2A.

@Besottedly

Hey! Sorry, I only just realized that someone had responded to my post!

I am familiar with Studio Monitor Express, and how to set it up. However, I haven't been able to get it to really control my Apollo Console. I attempted when I first got my Apollo, but after screwing with it for a while, decided that I had work to do and moved on with my life haha!

However, if I could control my headphone mixes and my master mix with my MC Control, it would CHANGE MY LIFE.

Really just wondering if anyone else has possibly gotten this up and running, or something similar... Did I mention I'm on PC? Oh ya that's a good time too . although I gotta say, both units work FANTASTICALLY with my Windows 7 64-Bit OS.

On my new Adam A7X's, above the volume knob theres an off, 0db and 14db notation, no +4 marking, so I'd have to guess at that. Using the Apollo as my master volume, where should I set the monitor volume?

Really depends. 0dB means the gain is at unity and is not adding or removing anything from the incoming signal.

Of course, having your monitor outs at full volume gives you +4dBu, but the level would be far too loud. This is how i have mine set, although in between the two units i have a passive control (TC Pilot) which lets me dial the volume between nothing and full volume. This is considered the best way to achieve the best quality without having to drop the bit depth of the audio from the interface which is what happens when you start dropping the level from the DAW. Not sure how this works with the Apollo though, seeing as though it is digitally controlled analogue.

But in your case, 0dB on the ADAMS and use the monitor controller on the Apollo as intended. Just be sure to watch your levels at all times.!

+4 is line level which you wouldn't want to send to powered monitors. But that's what the monitor control on the Apollo is for (attenuate a line level signal). I'd recommend buying a cheap db meter at radio shack and adjusting volume to that. I like to mix around 80 db or less for the initial mix which allows me to work longer. Ill put the finishing touches on a bit louder and change volumes to try and hear what's happening everywhere.

Beautiful day to do some tracking in the sun, fellas!

Max, or close.

I think I got you. Anyway, loving my Apollo so far. UA could sell this box at cost + zero and still turn a profit on the plugs, which leads me to believe we are actually getting a lot more interface for the money than we realize. The price here may be deceiving. That seems to be the bet with the 16 - which is clearly climbing in the ring in a higher weight class. Oh yeah, and the plugs ...

What`s not to like ?

Cdlt

Thats the name of an iphone $5 app that gives numeric and graphic volume and freq analysis: works great !

Like cowboy i keep things typically around 80-85 db and use the freq analysis and also the free blue cat on the 2 bus and group busses when setting eq's. i know use my ears but with shift command lets me see all the groups graphically if i want.

Note to dbox users: remember your volume control is on stun b4 turning on monitors if you have disconnected your dbox !

Thanks guys. Hmm, Kcat, I forgot I have the Blue Cat suite, I'll take a look and see what's up with those levels, frequencies..

So - I joined the Apollo club again. Sold my Symphony and got an Apollo Quad. Haven't hooked it up yet, but looking forward to it. Times are lean in the music industry, so I decided to simplify. I think I'm going to scale down and use only the Apollo for everything...after all, I'm just doing demo's...My wife better watch out, though...If I make some money, I'm gonna buy a damn console next time...

Don't worry Johnkenn, you can do so much with just the Apollo, the other things you might like to have, for instance a Preamp, Dbox, mixer, are all icing on a very tasty cake. Using a preamp recently proved how nice, but how incremental those changes are, when compared to switching from something like an Apogee Duet to an Apollo. With all the plugins UAD has created, I think with some skill and patience, you can get almost any sound you want. See, I don't have that level of engineering skill, so the add ons to the home system will help me a lot.