This is an excellent review. I heard UAD upgraded the converters for the new Apollo but wasn't convinced they would demonstrate a noticeable difference. Boy, was I wrong. Even with RUclips's compression you can clearly hear how much cleaner the drum tracks sound with the newer model. The old Apollo sounds like there is a considerable amount of smearing across the frequencies. This video really drives home how much UAD improved upon their product line. Well done!
That difference on the ride portion is 100% the drummer just hitting the cymbal differently, not representative of any difference between the audio interfaces
I like my silver Apollo quad, it does not have combi jacks so I can leave more devices plugged in to the unit and just switch from xlr to trs at the touch of a button.
I know this comment may not be about the comparison of the two apollos but I will say this. The Apollo black face has DA conversion that is on par with the Apogee Symphony that I used to have. I totally love the Apollo 8. Best interface I have ever had in my opinion. Combine that with the new school of UAD plugs w/unison modeled at every stage and you have a set up with no excuses.
.Sorry at 9:00 minutes where you say the difference is more noticable theres a problem because these are not the same drum performance. The drummer is playing one beat pattern on A and another different beat pattern on B. There you have it.
I have one of these and I'm looking to purchase a mount for this and my Furman power conditioner, plus future upgrades. I see breathing ports on the Apollo. My question is, how do I properly mount these to allow proper breathing? Is it necessary to space them out inside the rack mount? I see here, yours are stacked.
I'm listening to this through laptop speakers and hear a massive difference between the 2.. the 8p being a lot snappier and punchier on the transients.. nice stuff, great improvement for an already great sounding unit!
The other question is how youtube quality affected this. I hope that difference is not huge in real life, because I feel like I've made a bargain already and bought original Apollo 8 Duo for 500GBP. I'll get known in a few days.
I got the new Apollo this week and can tell everybody theres a big difference between old and new ,the old one is more hiped in the top end and at first i was really confused cause I had so much headroom I had to re-eq a couple of settings but when I heard the results its the close Ived gotten to the radio quality. Worth the money in my book.
Thanks for making this video. Would you consider doing a similar comparison between the blackface Apollo 8 and blackface Apollo 16? Supposedly there is a difference?
I would imagine it would be in your DAW. Since, at least in protools the faders are only for volume not recording levels. You do recording levels on your interface. On a regular interface you touch Physical knobs but with Apollo you use software.
Nice review. You can definitely hear it with the ride cymbal sections. The older UA sounds woofier and the newer UA sounds a tad cleaner. I just picked up a Silver apollo 8 for the B room at our studio. It should be fine for what were using it for.
Would be a great device if it wasn't crippled with lack of I/O. ADAT only allows 8 in/out, or 2 SDPIF, compared to 16 + 2 S/PDIF (18 total) offered on Thunderbolt devices from MOTU, Apogee, Antelope and others. Most of those also start are with more base converters, the Apollo shares it's Mic/Line/HiZ inputs while MOTU for instance includes 8 line in's in addition to it's Mic pres. Of course you can cascade multiple Apollos' but you're now getting into ridiculous money compared to Pre's/ADC's with ADAT out only. At $3k MADI would have been a nice addition as well.
I have the 8Pre and the silver quad - the 8pre is not worth the upgrade sonically or output routing wise. If you want to use the black8Pre -as the Master/Monitor (obviously because it’ New and supposed to be better) Then you will only have three stereo Cue Outs . In other words Apollo 8pre-only has six outs, where the silver has eight.. not mentioned in this video. Remember having multiple Apollos doesn’t mean you get more outputs at the same time only the outputs of the “Master” are used So when I track full band I use my silver as the master so I can have 4 headphone mixes. Then mixing doing outboard Summing I use the silver so I can have eight outs opposed to six Also I’ve had issues having them play nice with each other when tracking 10 tracks or more at a time..
yes they are now!! before i had to use bootcamp to trick imac and still use windows but now i have a pc ryzen setup working with apollo i just used a X570 asrock board with the built in tb3 port :) took them long enough
Did you have any trouble? I have a Pc with ryzen 5 processor and msi motherboard been thinking about getting the new apollo x but heard nothing but bad things about using them on pcs
I saw a difference more clearly when listening on SPL Crimson, but now when I swap to Apollo 8, there is not that much of a difference. I don't know why. Still I think RUclips steals a lot of quality to compare thing like that.
They are both great either one is professional. I worked on Avid HD systems and I would not mind using these. However, I am going to get the 8 because it makes things easier, less EQ.
This is an excellent review. I heard UAD upgraded the converters for the new Apollo but wasn't convinced they would demonstrate a noticeable difference. Boy, was I wrong. Even with RUclips's compression you can clearly hear how much cleaner the drum tracks sound with the newer model. The old Apollo sounds like there is a considerable amount of smearing across the frequencies. This video really drives home how much UAD improved upon their product line. Well done!
Yup
That difference on the ride portion is 100% the drummer just hitting the cymbal differently, not representative of any difference between the audio interfaces
I like my silver Apollo quad, it does not have combi jacks so I can leave more devices plugged in to the unit and just switch from xlr to trs at the touch of a button.
@Alessandro Karsyn how does that relate to this topic?
i guess it's kind of randomly asking but do anyone know a good website to stream newly released movies online ?
@Gannon Ben Lately I have been using Flixzone. You can find it by googling :)
@Guillermo Trace yup, I have been watching on FlixZone for months myself :D
@Guillermo Trace thank you, I went there and it seems to work :) Appreciate it !!
I know this comment may not be about the comparison of the two apollos but I will say this. The Apollo black face has DA conversion that is on par with the Apogee Symphony that I used to have. I totally love the Apollo 8. Best interface I have ever had in my opinion. Combine that with the new school of UAD plugs w/unison modeled at every stage and you have a set up with no excuses.
Old one seem to have more presence , not sure if intentional or just different circuitry.
I agree, more body in a way. Especially when he played the third demo. I have the FireWire, I just may upgrade to a Thunderbolt card.
I kinda liked the sonic vibe of the older interface
I agree, more body in a way. Especially when he played the third demo. I have the FireWire, I just may upgrade to a Thunderbolt card.
.Sorry at 9:00 minutes where you say the difference is more noticable theres a problem because these are not the same drum performance. The drummer is playing one beat pattern on A and another different beat pattern on B. There you have it.
I have one of these and I'm looking to purchase a mount for this and my Furman power conditioner, plus future upgrades. I see breathing ports on the Apollo. My question is, how do I properly mount these to allow proper breathing? Is it necessary to space them out inside the rack mount? I see here, yours are stacked.
The New Apollo has a much wider stereo image. The overheads of the silver Apollo almost felt phasy.
It seems to me, that springs on snare are more clear with new Apollo. Don't yout hink?
I'm listening to this through laptop speakers and hear a massive difference between the 2.. the 8p being a lot snappier and punchier on the transients.. nice stuff, great improvement for an already great sounding unit!
Thanks for this. Kinda bummed as an owner of the original Duo :(
The other question is how youtube quality affected this. I hope that difference is not huge in real life, because I feel like I've made a bargain already and bought original Apollo 8 Duo for 500GBP. I'll get known in a few days.
So did it was a bargain ?
I got the new Apollo this week and can tell everybody theres a big difference between old and new ,the old one is more hiped in the top end and at first i was really confused cause I had so much headroom I had to re-eq a couple of settings but when I heard the results its the close Ived gotten to the radio quality. Worth the money in my book.
Are thoese copy/pasted tracks, or recorded separately - one with old Apollo and other with new Apollo?
Thanks for making this video. Would you consider doing a similar comparison between the blackface Apollo 8 and blackface Apollo 16? Supposedly there is a difference?
When the new skate interface is available if you can get your hands one for a review will be fantastic.
how do you turn up the monitoring volume of the vocals via the console without effecting the recording level into the daw
Yea I have the duo and don't know how to just turn up my vocals and not the overall volume
I would imagine it would be in your DAW. Since, at least in protools the faders are only for volume not recording levels. You do recording levels on your interface. On a regular interface you touch Physical knobs but with Apollo you use software.
Nice review. You can definitely hear it with the ride cymbal sections. The older UA sounds woofier and the newer UA sounds a tad cleaner. I just picked up a Silver apollo 8 for the B room at our studio. It should be fine for what were using it for.
Would be a great device if it wasn't crippled with lack of I/O. ADAT only allows 8 in/out, or 2 SDPIF, compared to 16 + 2 S/PDIF (18 total) offered on Thunderbolt devices from MOTU, Apogee, Antelope and others. Most of those also start are with more base converters, the Apollo shares it's Mic/Line/HiZ inputs while MOTU for instance includes 8 line in's in addition to it's Mic pres.
Of course you can cascade multiple Apollos' but you're now getting into ridiculous money compared to Pre's/ADC's with ADAT out only. At $3k MADI would have been a nice addition as well.
Ok no info for console 2.0 for firewire ?
I know the question is old, but there is a new answer to it. Yes, C2.0 is available for Firewire now.
Great review,heard the diffeences quite well on my system...they are subtle but at the same time pronounced.
I have the 8Pre and the silver quad - the 8pre is not worth the upgrade sonically or output routing wise. If you want to use the black8Pre -as the Master/Monitor (obviously because it’ New and supposed to be better)
Then you will only have three stereo Cue Outs . In other words Apollo 8pre-only has six outs, where the silver has eight.. not mentioned in this video.
Remember having multiple Apollos doesn’t mean you get more outputs at the same time only the outputs of the “Master” are used
So when I track full band I use my silver as the master so I can have 4 headphone mixes.
Then mixing doing outboard Summing I use the silver so I can have eight outs opposed to six
Also I’ve had issues having them play nice with each other when tracking 10 tracks or more at a time..
still 32 bit plugins?
Yep, the new one sounds a bit better. Doubt I'm going to be upgrading any time soon as I am currently on PC. Great walk through and demonstration!
Excellent demonstration, very clear, thank you...
yes they are now!! before i had to use bootcamp to trick imac and still use windows but now i have a pc ryzen setup working with apollo i just used a X570 asrock board with the built in tb3 port :) took them long enough
Did you have any trouble? I have a Pc with ryzen 5 processor and msi motherboard been thinking about getting the new apollo x but heard nothing but bad things about using them on pcs
usb?
This video helped me out on my decision, thanks
I saw a difference more clearly when listening on SPL Crimson, but now when I swap to Apollo 8, there is not that much of a difference. I don't know why. Still I think RUclips steals a lot of quality to compare thing like that.
Same quality.
Small difference on the top end, but still same quality
THANK YOU
Completely useless test unless you're recording simultaneously, which he acknowledges.
You look like Alan Parson 😂 🙏🙏😎
Nice vid the converts are soo much cleaner and deeper in bass.
Sweeeet :))) Great job UAD guys! so.... I need 48 in 48 out... Ooops time to robe out some bank!
Not agree. I feel different miking. I think Apollo 8p is better.
They are both great either one is professional. I worked on Avid HD systems and I would not mind using these. However, I am going to get the 8 because it makes things easier, less EQ.
Pro video - well done!!
7:11 LOL
Dig it
This UAD company is so unhelpful no one has any idea how to use it everytime you type help in RUclips or the try to sell you the bloody product