My addiction to buying hardware equipment has finally come to an end. The Apollo X 6 was my last purchase. People you have to wake up from the vicious circle. Let's be honest. Is an X 6 or another interface or maybe a cheap microphone/preamp or channel strip shit or not that good? Or is it because perhaps the talent in front of the entire chain is actually not a great talent. About 2 years ago I bought a used Horch RM2J MK 2 and when I connected it to my Apollo Twin, I thought to myself wow, the microphone sounds really fat and good, but there were always short interruptions in between and I thought it could work But now I've spent 2000 euros on a microphone like this and it seems like there's something wrong with it. I decided to go to a recording studio and have a recording engineer test its functionality, which I did. When I came into his studio with the microphone the sound engineer was completely thrilled by the sound of the microphone and he told me that he could tell me from his own experience that it was one of the best tube microphones that he had heard during his time as a sound engineer. After a few more tests and voice samples, he found that everything was fine with the microphone and he told me if I wanted to sell it at some point he would give me the amount I spent on him. Then I asked him if the microphone here works without the dropouts and crackling noises, why did I hear them at home. He asked me whether I had connected the Horch correctly to my Apollo. I said I went into MIC/LINE 1 with the XLR cable. He told me that when you connect the Horch to your Apollo on the back, you have to make sure you're on line and he thought so Most likely the popping noises and humming noises came from the Apollo being set to mic and not line, which I could confirm. When I got home I did exactly as he had told me to set it up that way and lo and behold the noises haven't been heard since then. I didn't even know how to set it up and blamed the microphone and the interface, well. Today I'm glad that I visited his studio back then (when I thought there was something wrong with the microphone). Because for the 3 hours I spent in his studio, he only charged me for one hour and that one hour was the one where we put the microphone through its paces. The remaining 2 hours he showed me a few songs that were recorded in his studio and which he mixed and mastered. When I listened to a few of his mixed songs I couldn't believe my ears at how good his finished mixes sounded. It sounded so professional and musical that I was amazed. I asked him how much all of the hardware equipment that was lying around in his listening room cost when he bought it. Then he started: His Motu interface around 200 euros, his Klark Technik compressor around 250 dollars, his Focusrite isa 428 around 1400 euros, his monitoring monitors both together around 1200 euros, his most expensive microphone I think he said made him 600 euros from the Avantone 12, etc.
I couldn't believe the cheap equipment he was working with, there were no familiar names at all, no usual suspects in his recording studio, but the guy was so confident in what he was doing and you could hear the results in his mixes. I recorded my voice on his Avantone CV 12 because I was so excited about his mixes that I wanted to try it on my own voice and see how he edited them. And when the voice landed in his logic Pro DAW, he started to spice up my voice using various effects such as EQ, delay, reverb, and a few other effects and tricks etc. in his DAW. After he edited my vocal audio recording track with effects until it sounded right to his ears, I couldn't quite believe my ears how he brought the voice to the forefront and how present it was and yet sounded so natural. So for me this was the biggest revelation and I came to the decision that in the future I would invest more money in his studio to learn from this man rather than spend unnecessary more money on music equipment that was turning me more and more into a poor man. At that time I still had the Apollo Twin Duo USB, the Silverfave version. Nothing against the Apollo USB version. I had bought a used gaming PC from my work colleague at the time and had often had connection problems with the Apollo. You can say what you want, but I hear more and more often that the Apollos never really liked working together with Windows and the same thing vice versa and I don't think that will change in the future. In short, the Apollos especially the X series are simply made for the Mac, amen. And that was also the reason why I recently bought the Apollo run.
I would also like to thank Universal Audio for developing and releasing a great tool for us. What more could you want, even if mine doesn't have any hardware equipment, you have everything in one box if you know what you're doing. It is an amazing piece of hardware equipment the Apollo The entire recording chain and sitting in front of the monitoring monitors is much more important in order to reach your goal than worrying about whether the Twin, the X6, X8p or the X16 is better or any other audio interface.
Please watch this video, it is in German but you can translate it into English on YouTube below the video. The guy produces records for well-known rappers like Kool Savas and many other well-known German singers. He says in the video that he records and mixes everything in the box and he also explains exactly how he does it.
https://youtu.be/i3CF78QBxT8?si=myeUZrWuZzL4DJFk https://youtu.be/eHZ1Q43gbLI?si=FdYoS7YZUFXsjqXQ
Just to open the eyes
Just FYI, I don't work for Universal Audio I just celebrate your Apollo X series. And yes, to my ears the Apollo X6 sounds better than my Apollo Twin Duo USB Silverface version that I sold a few weeks ago in terms of the AD and DA sides. Yes, you pay the price but in my opinion you get a lot for it and something reasonable. This is just my personal opinion so please don't draw your bows or point your arrows at me. If anyone is interested. I will soon compare my Dangerous AD+ with the AD side of the Apollo X6 and share my experience with you. The AD+ is very high resolution and has a large 3D soundstage. If after the A/B comparisons it turns out that my X 6 is not far from the AD+ in terms of conversion, I will sell the AD+ and start saving my money for a car. Exciting, exciting.
.....now if I had a 16 channel Burl Mothership for tracking drums and larger sessions, that would probably be a nice step up, but two channels wasn’t worth it too me.
