Apollo x4
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Apollo x4
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R. Krapels
EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE PURCHASE AND UNIVERSAL AUDIO SUPPORT
Where to begin,.......
I recently purchase a Universal Audio Apollo x4 QUAD Thunderbolt 3 Audio Interface (Refurbished/New) on Reverb.com directly from Universal Audio.
I received the unit a few weeks ago (I am based in Bangkok, Thailand) and I immediately noticed the box and "picture frame" inside the box as well as the box containing the adapter looked very used, pretty beat up is more accurate, I would say. And then along the away I also discovered a tiny chip on the jogwheel and some scuffing,on the right side of the unit. Then after hooking it up and downloading the software I noticed my unit was paired with an Apollo Twin MK II according to the hardware configuration in Luna/Console, I can delete the Twin, but it comes back every time I restart the software (I don't own an Apollo Twin). In any case it became pretty clear to me that this was in fact a year old (if not older) 2nd hand unit that was repaired or something then dumped back into its old beat up box and passed of as Refurbished/NEW/B-Stock on the Reverb website. All the images of the item in the listing were stock photos of a new Apollo X4, unit even though Reverb requires sellers to post photos of the actual unit and highlight any damage that the item may have, so that potential buyers are aware of the condition the item is in. I basically paid $ 1,599.00 for a device that could in fact be almost 2 years old, it's just too much money for something that old.
So then I complained on Reverb and opened a ticket directly on the Reverb website and theres was a bit of back and forth for about a week and then all communication stopped UAD stopped, possibly because they didn't like what I had to say. Also Reverb decided they couldn't support my claim either because I had bought the item in the US and then forwarded it to Bangkok, Thailand.
I am not sure what else to do here, I am simply asking for a partial refund, which could be money, credit, plugins or whatever because I am not planning to send the device back to California and incur the additional shipping charges (back and forth) and more duties and taxes etc. just to get another 2nd hand unit that may look slightly better. Quite frankly I am wondering why the world's leader in Thunderbolt audio interfaces, analog recording hardware, and UAD audio plug-ins would want or need to sell used old devices for premium prices in such a misleading way on Reverb, it just doesn't suit a company of this stature, I am appalled and disappointed but the way this has been handled by UAD so far and I sincerely hope they will reach out to me a.s.a.p. and make this right.
J. monlleo
A safe bet!
i had the apollo mark 2 and i had to sell it due to financial problems, i recovered a year later and i bought the apollo x4, a great advance, a pristine sound, better conversion and 4 preamps with unison, a safe bet!
F. fournot
NEWS FROM APOLLO 4
As I said previously,I'm actually working with fabulous musicians for musics and songs which will appear all along an international music road movie film. Before recording and mastering in Paris and/or London studios, I wanted to have at disposal a perfect machine which enable us to prepare our works and put it at best level. I've found it with apollo x4.
BUT NOW, WHEN ONE OF THE Pink Floyd musicians, after listening, write that this song is "Rich in emotion, well played and have very good sound" , then I'm certain it was definitly a very good choice. (Certified)
J. Aguilar
15 día de conocer mi Apollo x4
Me sorprendió muchísimo la tecnología Unison, trabajar a 0 latencia es una sensación super agradable. Los procesos tiene una respuesta clara y cálida en el sonido. Atienden a detalles que mejoran el flujo de trabajo, el fácil acceso a funciones como: cambio de par de monitores, a cambio la señal de audífonos, el micrófono agregado para hablar en cabina, crean el ambiente ideal para producción muy agradable. Me gustó mucho la posibilidad de procesar la señal desde el momento de su captura, esto ahorra muchos recursos de la computadora y tiempo. Lastimosamente que cuando uno queda enamorado de Unison. Ahora tengo la sensación de querer más capacidad para procesar plugiin de UA. Estoy muy satisfecho con mi compra y 100% recomendado. Saludos desde Guatemala.
B. Conrad
Kind of underwhelming
I’m upset that Universal Audio hasn’t made its software and hardware completely compatible with apples Big Sur and m 1. I recently upgraded thinking I wouldn’t have any issues coming from my Apollo twin to the Apollo x4. I did the latest update after not being able to hear sound through the interface on my system sounds outside my daw and now can’t get any of the software to recognize the drives.
F. fournot
Try a little tenderness...
I'm actually working with fabulous musicians for musics and songs which will appear all along an international music road movie film. Before recording and mastering in Paris or London studios, I wanted to have at disposal a perfect machine which enable us to prepare our works and put it at best level. I've found it with apollo x4. Owner of an old good Raindirk 32, , and listening on Tannoy classic monitor, Arrow is wide enough for us and in accordance with the machines witch are now in all world studios. As I said, I've found it. Thanks UAD
A. Addario
X4 - The Perfect Portable Powerhouse!
Purchased for portable recording, specifically for a smaller desktop version of my Apollo 8. After some finagalling with the TB3-2 connector, got it hooked up properly to the existing 8 and 8p.
Very happy with the purchase!
F. Gálvez
UA-Apollo x4
The best decision I've made in a long time. Without a doubt the best of its kind!
E. Medynsky
UA-Apollo x4
I doubted this purchase for a long time, but still I decided to buy it. And you know what I'll tell you. This is the best interface I've ever seen. Do not hesitate for a second in buying this device.
The world's best sound quality, beauty of design and ease of operation are all apollo x4.
Perhaps I found my best interface!
U. Shree
Very Good SoundCard/ LOVE THIS
Very nice controls, good buildup, Amazing plugins , Pre Amps are powerfull & sound transformation ratio is really good.
M. Paxman
Excellent Upgrade
Well worth the upgrade from my original apollo twin - lots more juice to run plug-ins and the extra inputs and outputs are a big help. Is great with tools and logic. Well built and not expensive for what it is.
P. Singh
Love this gear
I have so much to learn. Nevertheless, I've already recognized the premier sound quality of the Apollo and UA gear. I've also been able to appreciate the intuitive, user friendly ability to interact and utilize the gear. I'm a beginner with all this stuff - This gear makes access to pro quality audio attainable - It's really quite amazing...
P. Singh
Love this gear
I have so much to learn. Nevertheless, I've already recognized the premier sound quality of the Apollo and UA gear. I've also been able to appreciate the intuitive, user friendly ability to interact and utilize the gear. I'm a beginner with all this stuff - This gear makes access to pro quality audio attainable - It's really quite amazing...
P. FAVIER
Super interface
Apollo x4 HE est une interface audio de très haute qualité avec un ensemble de plug-in de très haute facture. Je l'utilise en console avec Logic Pro ou seule avec LUNA qui est fourni gratuitement et qui permet des enregistrements de très bonne qualité.
T. Gregoire
Nice but expensive
I needed nothing less than 4 inpouts. I'm very happy with the pres and i appreciate the high quality of manufacture. Only negative point is the price's increase due to the AKM trouble.
R. Neville
Amazing
I wanted a rack mount interface but decided to go with this instead because it’s portable and I absolutely love it. 4 unison mic pres, 2 monitor outs and 4 more line outs. Plenty packed in this box. I also just ordered an octo satellite and waiting for that to come in!
J. Egge
Meets all expectations, and considering what's here, is a solid value
Yes, it's expensive compared to other interfaces, but if you're buying a UA interface, hopefully you already understand why. You really can't replicate what's being offered here in one ecosystem. The plugins are unbeatable, and the latency is nearly nonexistent. With everything you're getting considered, I actually feel like it's a great value.
I initially bought an Apollo Twin X duo, which was great, but quickly realized I really needed more DSP power for what I'm doing. Rather than buy a Satellite that would have ended up with a total price tag equal to the x4, I realized that just getting the x4 was the smart way to go. Having two more Unison pres is handy.
If working within the Apollo ecosystem, if you ever have a need for more than two ins, the x4 is the way to go. With an x4 and an x8 rack, you can have enough XLR ins and pres to mic a full drum kit, and have the nice control unit in front of you. The scalability and consistency in sound and full use of plugins on all channels is excellent.
I've only got a dozen or so plugins, but every one of them is fantastic, and having my computer only have to worry about what my DAW is doing, not running a bunch of plugins, is really nice, plus the UAD plugins are outstanding and I like working in one ecosystem for that as much as possible. Considering how much it would cost me to get the kind of production value with hardware that I can get out of these units and a few hundred in plugins, I feel the whole system is a great value. I could never afford these hardware units, and I can get drums that sound as huge and powerful as my favorite albums. I never dreamed I'd have the ability to get sound this good at home for what these have cost.
You can absolutely spend 10% of the cost of this unit and get recording into a computer, but you're buying the ecosystem here, and the x4 is a very solid starting point to dive in. Enough mic pres just in this unit to do a live recording of acoustic instruments and room mics, or live recordings of multiple instruments, or even just the convenience of leaving your favorite setups and favorite mics hooked up without having to re-do your studio setup every time by running new cables and setting up different plugins is worth it. The time saved in having channels and mics already staged lets me get into playing and focusing on making music with a minimum of effort.
E. Gilmore
Perfection!!!
I work with Mike Stern for 6 years now, both as his bass player and his recording sessions guy. Everything you ever dreamed of is in that box, the plugins are top notch, The preamps are as clear as a bell.
This is the real deal, and this is as good as it gets.
I. Rosenberg
Great but perhaps not great value
I needed a 4 input audio interface to record and produce my own songs but was hesitant to get UAD because (1) I have a very fast Mac so figured I don't need the outboard DSP, (2) I already have a bunch of plugins that get the job done (Fabfilter, Waves, etc), (3) UAD is expensive relative to other interfaces that have similar sound quality, and (4) I didn't have any burning desire to have vintage pre-amp or compressor plugins that are 95% of the way there in terms of realism vs 80% or whatever available elsewhere (I'd rather spend my energy making great arrangements and musical ideas but maybe I'm just not deep enough down the gear rabbit hole yet).
I first purchased the Audient id44 which is actually an outstanding value vs the higher priced Apollo. I think the id44 input / output sound quality is just as good (maybe even better? I didn't A/B closely but this was a cursory impression) and it's well-built and has independent knobs for each channel vs the one-knob design of the x4. However, I found that I was missing the ability to hear my vocals with compression and reverb in my headphone mix with low latency in complicated mixes where the buffer size is higher. Headphone mix reverb can be achieved through an aux track in the DAW with predelay set to minimum, blended with the direct signal, but I found it difficult to hear my own vocals in the headphone mix on it without compression on the direct signal because I have a big dynamic range and even when I cranked the headphone volume knob, I couldn't quite hear myself.
So I took the plunge and paid significantly more for the Apollo x4. They are both great interfaces but I love the fact that I can just set my session to 1024 buffer size, have heavy compression and reverb in my headphone mix (not printed) and have no latency as I sing into the session. It's just easy and I can easily hear myself as loud as I want relative to the mix as I'm tracking vocals. The included plugins are good - I don't have a discerning enough ear to care much about the character of the 1176 / LA2A / vintage EQ emulation vs just throwing FabFilter Pro C / Pro-Q / CLA Vocals / CLA-2A on it. But the plugins are nice.
Having the four inputs is great because I can plug my Korg Kronos in (two inputs), a guitar, and a mic and not have to keep patching cables in and out. And I can sing and record the keyboard audio at the same time. Not a need-to-have of course - there are workarounds you can do - but this is pretty seamless. The hardware feels super well made, the software works well, the audio quality is great. I personally haven't yet used the UAD plugins much within the session yet and mostly am just using them for headphone monitoring or printing a pre-amp / light compressor vocal chain to the track from the console. The reason is I'm on a laptop and I like to move around, edit in bed, on the couch, outside, etc and it's annoying to have to have the device attached for the UAD plugins to work in a session.
Another minor nice benefit of the x4 is because the physical knob positions are digital (lights indicate where the knob is turned), you can save the configuration in the Console if you want to record at the same levels later and recall it easily vs the Audient where the physical pre-amp knobs are traditional knobs so aren't saveable from the Audient console app.
You definitely can't go wrong with the Apollo x4 if you have the cash but it may be overkill for some and it's definitely a bit of an unnecessary luxury. You can make great music on a much cheaper piece of gear and cheaper plugins, particularly if you have a modern computer that has horsepower - but I do find this device gets rid of some friction and just works seamlessly which is nice.
I haven't tried Luna so won't opine but from what I've seen, I can't imagine it will be a fruitful endeavor for UA.
One minor gripe - I wish the console app let you automatically output the stereo 1/2 from Logic into a virtual channel so it could be adjusted up and down in both the headphone mix and studio monitor mix. You can't adjust the level of the DAW output specifically unless you set up a virtual channel to stereo outs 7/8 or 9/10, which is a fine workaround but then if you are working away from the Apollo, there is no 7/8 or 9/10 in the Macbook Speaker I/O so I don't hear an output when I unplug and i have to reroute everything to Stereo 1/2 when away from the Apollo. Maybe there's a better way to handle this but I've definitely had a few little hiccups like this that are sometimes fixable if you search around but there's a little bit of a learning curve.
J. Okonji
Power House
Just an add up from my previous review.. this Apollo x4 is a power house, you know what I meant' if you're a sound engineer and understand how to use... but don't say I didn't warn you, Universal Audio are waiting to shave your account with does powerful Plugins too. I don't blame them anyway' cause they know we still gonna make them powerful music too.
I don't mind to be an ambassador, Am impressed with this device...Ka-ching