Life Under The Music

Audio-interface with onboard  DSP in 2024? Absolutely!

Universal Audio Apollo 

Why would you want onboard DSP in your audio interface in 2024? 

With the introduction of Apple silicon Macs in 2021 and the massive CPU boosts that accompanied the M1 pro chipsets, bedroom producers have never been in a more luxurious position when it comes to running audio plugins in their DAWs. 

So this really does beg the question – why you would fork-out over $2k for a dual-input audio interface when the same company sells its base model (no onboard DSP) for under $400?

The answer is actually pretty simple.

  • The preamps are incredible
  • You can track with virtually no latency
  • You can run emulations of analogue classics in real-time while tracking
  • If you use Universal Audio’s Luna DAW, you can track with plugins using onboard DSP and mix using their native versions using your computer’s CPU.
Close up of Apollo Controls
Pros:Excellent build quality
Pro quality preamp and converters
UAD 2 plugins are incredible
Integration with Luna is intuitive and innovative
Cons:Onboard DSP is limited
You will spend hundreds on more plugins because they are worth every cent.

Setup 

After the wow factor of unboxing this beautifully designed interface, setup is a bit more effort than one would expect. There is no lighting bolt cable included – many others have commented about this misstep elsewhere. Once you have installed the UAD software, which is quite a big download, you must go through quite a lengthy process of allowing the software and hardware permissions to access your computer. It’s not quite the simple download, connect and install routine you may be used to but Universal Audio’s FAQs do a reasonable job of guiding you through the process.

Console 

For anyone who has used analogue mixers before, the accompanying console software will look very familiar and is very powerful and intuitive to use.

A recent update has helped users identify plugins they own so you no longer have to guess which ones will open and which will ask if you want to start a demo. All of the UAD plugins allow you to access a fully featured demo for 14 days and this resets with every purchase you make.

Console takes care of all your audio routing needs and is where the real magic happens.

Unison

The top pane on the channel strip title unison is where you can insert a preamp from various famous brans including API, Neve and Universal Audio. These preamps will emulate the real deal and change gain structures and input impedance to match the original. 

Inserts

The insert panel further down the channel strip allows you to insert effects or EQ for that particular input.

If you are looking to conserve DSP or apply effects on a bus, scroll further down to the AUX section where you can control the amount of signal being sent to the two stereo auxiliary inputs.

AUX

Aux 1 and Aux 2 are located on the far right hand side of the console application.

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