Description
A Special Edition of Universal Audio’s Acclaimed Apollo Twin X QUAD Interface w/ QUAD Core Processing and a Bundled UAD Plug-In Package Worth over $1,300. Apollo Twin X QUAD Heritage Edition has all the benefits of the acclaimed Apollo Twin X, including elite-class A/D and D/A conversion, QUAD Core realtime UAD plug-in processing, Unison-enabled mic preamps, and full LUNA Recording System integration. And it goes a step further, with a software suite of 5 award-winning UAD plug-in titles, featuring Collections from Teletronix, Pultec, and UA.
From the manufacturer
Heritage Edition – An Included Suite of Premium UAD Plug‑in Titles
Featuring 5 premium UAD plug-ins — including complete Collections of our award-winning Teletronix and UA 1176 compressors, Pultec EQs, UA 610 mic preamps, and more — Apollo Heritage Edition gives you a curated analog studio, right out of the box.
Key Features
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Elite Class ConversionRecord and mix with elite-class A/D and D/A conversion — with the widest dynamic range and lowest noise of any desktop interface |
Unison Enabled PreampsUp to four Unison-enabled preamps — track with near-zero latency through preamp emulations from Helios, Neve, API, Manley, and more |
Onboard UAD ProcessingTrack and mix in realtime with included Teletronix LA‑2A and 1176 compressors, Pultec EQs, 610‑B Tube Preamp, and more |
Thunderbolt 3 ConnectivityCascade up to 4 Apollo interfaces and 6 UAD-2 devices over Thunderbolt, adding DSP and I/O as your studio grows |
LUNA Recording System
Included free is LUNA, Universal Audio’s groundbreaking music production application for Mac, turning your Apollo into a fully integrated recording system.
GP –
Quality is stellarThis is by far one of the best upgrades I’ve acquired over the years of recording professionally. It’s built like a tank and is quiet. Gets a bit warm, but very well ventilated. The plug-ins help bring the price up for sure.Be prepared if you’re a Windows user like me! I first needed to purchase a Thunderbolt cable and knew this in advance. UAD needs to add this to the package! Getting set up for Windows (11) on a Thunderbolt ported laptop was ridiculously stressful and complicated. I needed to venture into the bios and missed a few details. Otherwise, if you’re a Mac user it should be like butter.
Exit –
Unbelievable quality, but issues with Windows 10I was sold on the UAD line for years, but only recently could I actually buy one the variants. I initially wanted to get a used UAD-1 or UAD-2 PCI Solo card, but as soon as the Apollo series was launched, I was drooling. I built a computer specifically for this device, picking a Gigabyte Gaming motherboard as that was the line that they claimed years ago was compatible. Since their information was outdated even then and motherboards continually are replaced with new ones, I went with the current Z270X Gaming 7 variant. This board also had Thunderbolt 3 onboard, so no need for an add-on.The unit needs some software, such as the UAD console, to be installed. It claims to support WDM, but in my experience, it’s not what you would expect from such an expensive product by such a legendary company.On my first attempt to use it, I could here computer audio for half a second and then it would stop. In fact, if it was a Youtube video, the video would immediately hang after that half second of audio made it through. After troubleshooting, I realized that if you right-click on the volume control on the taskbar, then select “Sounds”, then “Playback”, I could disable the Apollo and reenable it and it would begin working uninterrupted, and the spinning Youtube video would instantly start playing again.This was very odd, but there is a drawback to this “work around”, there is intermittent noise and any inputs on the Apollo are destroyed by far more noise. Basically, it’s unusable to record if you do the disable/enable trick.That said, just turning it on and using Pro Tools, it works flawlessly. Essentially the WDM audio will not be available, but recording via the 2 inputs as well as the 8 ADAT lightpipe channels has none of the noise that occurs if you do the disable/enable trick.Support is a bit of a joke if you want to speak to a human. Their website states that it’s 4 days a week from 9am to 1pm PST, but that’s not true, it’s only 11am to 1pm—only 2 hours for 4 days a week! The person I spoke with was friendly enough, but he didn’t even own an Apollo device himself. I’m awaiting contact from support for more troubleshooting, but I’ve disabled all the BIOS settings requested, set my processor to a static speed, and everything under the sun that is suggested on forums, but nothing has worked.There are plenty of people complaining about Windows 10 support, so be aware of this.All that said, it’s still work it for me. This unit gives the ability to record 10 channels of audio (using the ADAT input for 8), supports Unison for real-time emulation of some preamps like Avalon, gives easy control of input, monitor, and phone levels, and comes with some of the most iconic compressor/limiters. This is what I was after all along, the ability to emulate multiple LA-2As and 1176s, rather than pay $2000 to $4000 for a hardware unit for only one channel.I’ve since gone plugin crazy, thanks to the terrific holiday sales that were happening and acquired pretty much everything that I could want. Now, I can emulate awesome sounding bass and guitar amps, add some classic sounding reverbs, and even do some vocoding.All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the performance, but I do have a huge point of contention with the poor Windows 10 support. Still, the pros outweigh the cons, and my mixes are exploding with quality that I never could achieve before with knock off plugins like Reaper has built in. There is such a massive difference, I can’t ever go back.
Mike leavy –
Apollo is awesome… Amazon packing not so much..I must say I was nervous based on the reviews about receiving defective products. Mine came in perfect working condition without a scratch. My only complaint is how Amazon packaged the item in the box. All they did was throw the Apollo’s box in one of their boxes and nothing else. Not bubble wrap, foam peanuts or anything. Just banging around in transit. My guess is those who received non-working units was due to the terrible packing by Amazon. 4 Stars just because of Amazons packing.
Mark Pcola –
Received 30 plugins Awesome with the unit.This thing is Awesome love it..The plugins are the best and real time recording with ARM.
Gavin –
YES, this works with windows, but…I see a lot of complaints and issues when people buy the Apollo Twin X Duo thunderbolt version for their windows computer.(Device review at the bottom)First off I can not say this does or doesn’t work for Windows laptops.As far as desktops go, you need a motherboard that either allows thunderbolt 3 or 4 (not just USB-C). I have an Asus motherboard “PRIME Z490-A” which allowed me to buy a “Asus Thunderboltex 4” physical card upgrade to my system. Upon plugging it in to the motherboard properly and I turning it on in the motherboard bios this Apollo device worked perfectly fine without issues.In short, this works on windows desktops. I’ve recorded in Pro Tools, I’ve used this producing in FL. At this moment of review the device struggles to work with FL, but works fine when changing the device to asio4all and making the UAD the out and in. (Still wouldn’t record in FL that’s why I have Pro Tools)Make sure you have “Thunderbolt 3” and can transmit data back and fourth in that port before you purchase this for a windows only machine.————————DEVICE REVIEW:As far as the device review goes. Wow, I’m amazed at the quality. Build, software, and sound is insane hands down.The ability to add a touch of compression and De-Essers to your voice before touching the interface noise in a recording chain is next level for someone without the ability to have a huge physical outboard rack.For someone just getting into producing or recording, this is definitely a professional device. I would get a Focusrite starting out personally because of price, but the upgrade from that to this is a light year of difference in sound quality for the recordings and playback.Hopefully this helps someone out.Have a nice day!
Dane Reid –
Not for Everybody. Windows Users BewareI bought this knowing all the specs and researching it on the website. According to USD, my computer matched the requirements to run this Apollo. But when I got it, there was cracking and other audio issues. UAD say they have tested this with Windows 10 & 11. In my case, running a specked out Dell XPS 15 9500, it did not work. I hated to return it but UAD is not committed to Windows users and it’s obvious. They refuse to integrate with Windows audio drivers (although they are an old standard) and they didn’t even try to build Luna, their DAW for Windows. I own an Apollo Arrow and a Twin USB and they run fine. My attempt to upgrade failed
mamuka chkheidze –
Item was great, packaging was scary.This item works and looks great.Sound quality is as it should be. Can’t say anything more, it is what I was expecting.The reason I gave it 3 stars is the way amazon handled the packaging. It was dropped in the box twice of it’s size without anything to fill emptiness. I am an international buyer so this item was shipped in Europe, it crossed pacific ocean like this. I was scared of trying turning it on, cause if it were damaged I could not return it from here… I was lucky this time, but I am not recommending buying item this delicate and pricy like this from amazon if you are outside of US, cause it may damaged during shipping and you can’t do anything about it.Amazon should improve it’s packaging service for sure.P.S. Who knows, maybe it is damaged and I will find out it later. I will update this post if that will be the case.
Roger Lane –
Next LevelUpgrading from a low budget consumer interface (UMC202HD), the difference is night and day. Conversion, dynamic range, preamps, noise, io and software are all top notch. Clean gain on inputs and outputs. Stereo imaging is more defined. Plug-ins are pricey but some of the best available next to actual hardware. I produce and engineer hip hop and this interface more than anything helped me focus more on the music because it takes care of so many redundant technical aspects.This interface alone won’t solve all your problems but it will make so many things across the board so much better and more convenient. If you can afford to enter the UAD ecosystem, make this purchase. You will not be disappointed.
Erick –
Once you go Quad, you never go backGreat sound, plugins and features with this Apollo Twin X Quad. Never can go wrong with this unit
Daniel –
Awesome but there some scratchesThe media could not be loaded.
I just got my product and from opening it I already see a couple scratches which is weird because I just bought it ? I haven’t tried it but I’ll update you guys on it.