BIG Studio Upgrade: UA Apollo X16

[@miguel_the_miko]

Simply beautiful but be careful Claudio, those Apollo's tend to heat up quite a bit so a ventilation rack spacer is advised 👍

[@oldfinnishfarmer]

I have three Apollo Quad interfaces daisychained and yeah, they really put out some heat when they’re on. Luckily I have 1U ventilation spacers in between units to get that heat out 😅

[@Unders]

Warmest place in the home studio, we all huddle around the apollo at christmas.

[@KhrisRoyal]

I was coming to say the same thing. These things are furnaces

[@mousehouse4617]

Haven't a clue what they do but they look awsome and make you happy Claudio that's fantastic!

[@moondog5553]

I'm poor but it's nice to be able to witness nice gear on videos like these

[@Surge_Arrester]

About comments that Apollo 16 producing heat, this means it has several heat sinkers built in to dissipate the heat produce by the electronic elements. In the Installation Notes of the manual says the following "may be needed to keep the ambient temperature below 104ºF (40ºC)", which means for Apollo 16 optimum operation, the location where Apollo 16 is installed may be needed to keep at 104ºF (40ºC). I enjoy watching this video.

[@aaronocomedy3343]

Serious point, get a 1u rack fan between those. It's gonna get hot!

[@budgetguitarist]

As a budget home studio owner, here's what I can say - there IS a difference between entry level and UA. I went from an entry level Tascam box to a UA Apollo solo, and the difference in sound quality is noticeable. For those of us who can't afford the 16 channel version, the 2 channel Solo sounds just as good and also comes with some plugins. It's worth it.

[@parasiteunit]

Yeah, as a rule with Audio interfaces - get the very best you can afford... I'd venture even if you have to lower your sights when it comes to production tools such as plugin effects and signal processing (EQ and compression for example - it's great having a 7 band fully parametric EQ, but not vital. A 4 band with a sweeping mid range will still get you enough control for a good mix). Accept too, that with a budget - compromise is a necessity. IMO - this list should be a prioritised one. Also, to add, this list will change through time... Computer system: desktop over laptop - unless you need the portability, desktop. If you really need something that can be moved quicker than a desktop - a reasonable balance between those two points is a good AIO PC. Luggable though... wouldn't say super portable as a laptop. Still easier to move than a tower desktop PC. Audio interface.... It's worth getting something flexible to cover most needs, than spend potentially more on solutions that are more limited in scope. Again, a standalone 2in/2out audio interface may not be the best solution to your needs... but a sixteen channel mixer with 192khz 24 bit may be great, but when you only ever use a maximum of seven channels... Not that optimal. Example: The most adaptive and useful interface I have is the BR-800 running on a Linux system. 4 channels of input, phantom power, the ability to assign internal effects to each Chanel, a dedicated guitar input, being able to hear the Audio stream and assign different inputs, without a reset needed and the ability to run as a standalone mixer/recorder via mains or battery (a few hours on fully charged batteries).... Oh it's not the best quality by a good distance (the mic preamps aren't as clean as they should be and the phono outputs give it a 'budget' feel). However it will give 24bit 44.1 kHz audio. Which is more than enough to do live stuff and cook up a demo that's broadcast quality. That's a compromise I can live with. Also, to add - with audio equipment, it's often more advantageous to have a smaller equipment list, but KNOW it well so you get the full potential out of it rather than having a shed full of stuff you've still learning after years and honestly, missing out on its full potential.

[@whyaskmenoely25]

There is a difference between entry and Apollo and it is noticable if you're experienced. However, interface preamps and converters have gotten soooo clean that the difference is so marginal. Its kind of shocking. When I upgraded from the M-Audio Mtrack MkII to the Apollo Twin X, first thing I did was record clean and compared it to older recordings from the mtrack. Yes there was a difference, but barely. Across the board, any modern interface will record to similar quality as the next because technology has gotten that good. So it really just comes down to skill, not interface tier. What I paid for when I upgraded to the Apollo was the package it offered. You get entry into the UAD ecosystem's faithfully created plugins, extra connectivity and the most important selling point of Apollo - unison preamps. The Apollo is worth it alone just for unison.

[@budgetguitarist]

@@whyaskmenoely25 Well put! Since getting my Solo, I pretty much ONLY use the UA plugins for compression, limiting, and reverb on vocals. The UA plugins simply sound better than any of my other plugins.

[@mikerinehart]

I can't imagine Claudio ever has a bad day.

[@janklas7079]

Wait until the bill of that plugin subscription arrives.

[@Wolfbabypuppylove]

@@janklas7079 On top of his leccy bill

[@morphoice]

Fine setup! Love my Appollos. And ever since the upgrade to multicore cables and five patchbays, life is so much easier.

[@mgldnb]

Love this oldschool dnb vibe while unboxing

[@Tjw-qf2of]

SO HAPPY, FUNNY, AND SILLY! NICE BREAK FOR BECAUSE I GOT A REAL TOUGH DOCUMENT DONE TODAY, AND THEIRE iARE LOTS MORE TO DO! MIX GETS SO MUCH DONE WITH SUCH EASE AND CHARM! I SAW A PHOTO OF HIM WHEN YOUNGER AND HE LOOKED LIKE A HANDSOME ANGEL WITH SHORT CURLY HAIR! THAT PHOTO HELPED ME UNDERSTAND HIS SOUL MORE, WHICH REMINDS ME OF PURE INNOCENCE. I said to be careful in the studio when doing setup, and when hevsigns off I lover you and take care, he seems real.

[@tuncbilekmedya]

Your energy is as good as the great sound you provided. Thank you Bro.

[@964tractorboy]

Doctor Mix wins again. That Galaxy Tape Echo plug-in is immense! Your enthusiasm is so infectious... love it.

[@Intermernet]

UA are on my short list. They make absolutely amazing kit, and their plugin tech is amazing. I'm currently sticking with RME though. The support and absolute bomb-proof nature of their interfaces has never let me down. On paper they seem like they're not as featured as the competition, but in reality they're transparent, low latency, absolutely reliable machines that are built like tanks.

[@HammyHavoc]

Yes, currently loving my RME RayDat. Whilst the DSP of the UA stuff is very interesting, in 2022, with high core counts, and plenty of physical I/O, I don't feel like I'm ever limited by available resources. RayDat even works beautifully on Linux too, but I don't think the same can be said for UA.

[@PC0067]

Moi j'ai une RME Fireface 800. Elle n'est plus fabriquée pourtant quand tu demande un conseil on te répond avec joie.

[@kedias2147]

I have been using this equipment for over 6 months it works great it has a lot of requirements for the Thunderbolt 3 cable the cable must be of the highest quality I wish you pleasant work and best regards

[@platzpatron5476]

thats bull. i use a 30$ cable and it has been working fine. yes, you can not use any old USB-C cable, which thunderbolt 3 shares the connector with, but get an alright cable for a good price and youre golden.

[@sven]

I wanna see an A/B test between the real Shadow Hills and the UA-Plugin

[@somedood6621]

Good idea

[@tx3851]

Love your vidoes and enthusiasm....I went from UAD to Focusrite Red, never looked back....

[@PatrickRosenbalm]

Kickin" !!! All that red and black clothing... Now I'm going to have to listen to some Kraftwerk..... Boing Boom Tschak!! Looks like you guys are getting ready to pop some corn at the end!

[@jacksp8de]

Awesome! I just got an Apollo X4 and it’s amazing!!

[@dspoet1]

I thought you have an Apogee Symphony.

[@jacksp8de]

@@dspoet1 I got them both hooked up but going back and forth because I love the workflow of the Apollo and the sound is good but the apogee seems more clear with more stereo separation. Can’t go wrong with either tho

[@vdub4216]

I love how you are given not 1, but 2 of the best units from Universal Audio, a 32 channel wet dream, and they end up in Studio B 🤣

[@janklas7079]

Studio BadAss.

[@Peter-rz9ub]

DR. MIX you are the best, forgot the rest.......

[@sanches2]

Ma-a-a-n you have the energy of that Hammy squirrel from Over the hedge movie. And when you get a new dsp you are like Hammy on redbull :) Congrats on the new tool, wishing you many happy hours of work with it!

[@TalhaVocoding]

As a teenager who slowly builds up their own recording studio Claudio is one of my biggest inspirations when i design and set up it! (And yes he is right sometimes we got poked by the jacks right in the eye 😂)

[@mimidhof2179]

For these device on this moment they are offering one L22 of Townsend Lab microphone for each one of these Apollo 16X. That's a very good deal. But you don't have the Unison preamp wich are really nice too!

[@AGDugros]

One of the best interface!

[@adrianoconnor3020]

enjoy Claudio,the space echo was one of the first ones I saw as well

[@scottfrentzel2248]

....any dude who refers electronic music gear as "sexy" is a friend of mine!! Even takes a massive wiff of the brand new plastic aroma. What a man's man

[@jayarecordsofficial]

5:10 goosebumps

[@DJARTUSH]

Fantastic plugins 👍

[@mdj9996]

You are supposed to leave an empty slot above each Apollo. They get hot! The vents are on the top

[@mrsayang]

exactly, true man. I guess he doesn't care since he didn't buy the 2 x16s. After he overcooked them he gets new ones from UA.

[@LipazMusic]

I’m sitting in my home studio with my Apollo X6 and TB3 Quad Satellite, bought a bunch of plugins… dear UA, I’m happy to switch Satellite to two X16 anytime… :)))

[@Doctormix]

Niiiiice!!!

[@galgogergo]

Watch out! - You need to have 1U of rack space above/beneath them as far as I know! They might cook themselves otherwise. But ask UA for advice on this thing! Apart from this, congrats on your new interfaces :) What happened to the Yamaha Nuage? When are you going to invest in some proper monitoring? :) (ATCs for example)

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The Nuage is in his personal studio. This is the mixing/mastering studio.

[@mrsayang]

YES, I am sure he will blow up both of the X16´s over time. I have an x16 and it gets really hot, but I left 1U cooling space above AND below my X16 in my rack. I do recommend that to every Apollo x user, otherwise you will cook this thing and over time it will be history.

[@aaroncampmusic]

Love it! I have an Aurora(n) for my mixing studio and an Apollo x8p for my mobile rig. Having seen your Fairchild 670 video of the hardware and your reaction to the UA plug, I think that says a lot!

[@bartes101]

Welcome to the Apollo club my friend, only good times allowed from here... :)

[@africanrevolution3551]

FIRE!!!!!! the studio is FIRE!!!!! quick question if you don't mind me asking; are you using external converters with the X16 or just the X16 converters? Thanks.

[@ryananthony4840]

Holy crap, those are $4k EACH!

[@UnstoppableTramp]

Amazing studio mate, great sounds I'm hearing

[@Wolfbabypuppylove]

Nice Scan product placement.

[@jtf2dan]

The way digital music creation is evolving is mind blowing. I find often I am overwhelmed by the complexity and the amount of details to be learned. Such a steep learning curve, but I guess if you have the time and incentive anything is possible. thanks for sharing the pains of doing the hook ups and wiring connections....it is inevitable with that much gear! no pain, no gain! LOL Wishing you many happy years of music making with your new stuff!

[@jtf2dan]

...although the speed at which things are developing it may just be many happy months of music making with the new gear before it gets replaced...LOL

[@jtf2dan]

also loved the Fairchild compression...the Beatles used them in their recordings as well....

[@HammyHavoc]

UAD2 goes back to 2008. Apollo to 2012. This is hardly new tech, just yet another revision of it. Things are more simplistic than ever before, so I don't see why you would say the learning curve is steep either. GUIs are extremely user-friendly in 2022. It's never been so easy.

[@bigdap100]

Excellent, ✅✅✅ are you mixing and mastering with it using the native clock?? How do you like the conversion?

[@watchtheskies]

Ooooh, your Shadow Hills compressor is so pretty! 🙃

[@Chillywillystyle]

Dude, love it! This makes me happy for you guys! I could totally see myself buying this exact setup because this is legitimately A+ awesome!

[@preciseaudioblog]

As a Apollo Twin Duo user since 2018, now a days I would go for other brand. Just my humble opinion...

[@mixedbydk]

oh man i 100% feel your pleasure lol thats pure nurdism! sooo me =) love it

[@kennethwilson1984]

What converters are you replacing ?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Very nice, they sound great! I missed this video premiere - it's studio move weekend, and everything is torn apart!!!

[@wrenkler]

Moving the screen back might have made a bigger difference for the sound then changing the audio interfaces *might not :)

[@chacals841]

Cool, i know do the first stuff you did, put the screen pod, plug it, but, all the work after, no, then, i need to learn th rest.

[@JeffyG]

That power track on the wall, behind your desk, looks really nice. Is that custom or something you bought? 😮

[@MichoCoban]

Would love to know more about the track you are demoing in this video

[@sednerpjonathan2989]

Wow brutal la interface

[@TNRRecords]

I always wanted a Apollo d sub version and some plug-ins

[@dspoet1]

Nice of UAD to gift you with two X16s

[@Mr.Facebox]

New intro moves!!! 🕺

[@guitarsolos89]

Dang it the cliffhanger, u were about to get into the good stuff 😆

[@JunkSoap]

Hi Claudio ! Unfortunately most of us synth-heads can't afford such gear :S Maybe one of these days you could make a video about solutions to record 16 / 32 tracks at different price ranges... ;)

[@HammyHavoc]

Solution: RayDat with whatever ADAT AD/DA your budget buys.

[@justinn9769]

Congrats!

[@elabecker8491]

Hi, congrats for the new UA interfaces! Can you please share about those speaker stands that you've got there? I see that they can each hold 3 speakers and that's exactly what I'm looking for but I'm yet to come across something so elegant and sleek like yours. Thanks!

[@Doctormix]

They are an integral part of the Modson desk

[@elabecker8491]

@@Doctormix Thanks a LOT Dr. Mix

[@lexadon1040]

Nice studio and Great vid, congrats on the upgrade. How has the driver stability on windows been with the apollo's?

[@JimCardoza]

I wonder if this means UA will be releasing LUNA on windows soon? 🤔

[@MrVinylistic]

Nice video! When I saw you under the desk I can say from myself - with every new piece of equipment you have to crawl under the studio table for, it gets harder and you realize how old you are.....hehehe😂😂😂

[@Alan.RecRoom]

That Galaxy Tape Echo reminds me of Yazoo- Only You.

[@ludovicferrando8394]

Hello Dr.Mix, I saw getting an Antelope in another video. How was your experience user ? I was thinking getting an orion gen 4+ but a little bit scared with the drivers stability. How would you compare both of the converters between UAD and Antelope. Thank you

[@chordsinspace]

Ha ha "you will be crawling under things and you will poke your eye out with jacks" so bloomin true.

[@henriquematias1986]

The stereo image is wider? I don’t understand how a soundcard will change that? Is that about the speaker position only?

[@magi115]

one would assume that this interface is more targeted at professional studio setup's that utilize a patchbay because of the single set of monitor outputs and the DB-25 analog inputs and outputs (not at all practical unless used with a patchbay).

[@karemmatar]

By the way ! You didn’t know the. Limitation to use all the. Output of the Apollo? As sub group or more cues for. More. Headphones ??

[@SIBIRIAKcom]

the most important thing is to make sure that there is enough red t-shirts for everybody in the studio.

[@MaraldBes]

nice... and enjoy the new toys .. (got the find these tracks, apple music link??)

[@lorenzoibz]

Hi, What about the track we are listening to? Is it out yet? Where can i buy it? Thanks

[@vedmakesmusic]

why do u have to get 2 apollo x16s? bcaz I i think you can connect one system at a time.. i don't know with apollo.. i want to know more!! ❤❤The system is awesome!!!

[@seanminifie4474]

Hey Dr Mix, you helped me with my problem. Could you please send me 1/2 dozen of those yellow sized screws please.

[@LiveSetup1976]

I❤️you positive freak

[@martinbradbury5920]

Cool setup man

[@ВиталийВ-щ2ф]

Very cool!

[@maartijnbovendeert453]

Amazing to see how you respond to the uad and the plugins in the same way I purchased, installed and listened to my UAD- 1e somewhere around 2006: a just jaw dropping difference in sound. And always the great service of the guys at UAD. Great stuff!

[@iamzackknight]

prefer the Apollo twins...the preamps are totally different in the x8/x16

[@ehav]

The X16 doesn't have preamps.

[@TheOliveradams]

x16 has no pre-amps but have even a better S/N ratio then the x8 , and the x8 has a better S/N then the Twin .

[@stratoemi17]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@gabrielegelfofx]

Next year upgrade: Mac Studio M2 Ultra or Mac Pro 8.1 M3 Extreme + 10Gb Synology raid 5 nas.

[@FabioDaniele]

Great choice! 👍

[@starsky101]

This is probably the most confusing part of a studio to me, next to a patch bay. I know and use an audio interface, but what’s plugged into your two? All the instruments from studio A? I just can’t see any in studio B 🤔

[@bboymac84]

Love your show!!

[@matteogrosso4471]

GRANDISSIMO!

[@ricardopineda8224]

Great video, you're so funny.

[@benoitpiret9065]

Aren’t computers like M2 max able to replace DSPs now?

[@masterspud583]

Everything looks good from above but I need a lot of cabling that needs dressing.

[@AlinTrinca]

I really want that track mate. Where can I buy it?

[@nvp-music]

Shadow hills😍

[@Fimpiekijke]

😂😂😂now I expect some space sounds🤟

[@mechanicom]

So now you’re producing melodic house and techno? 🙃❤️

[@whytwokey1]

why do you don't choose "Viewsonic" or Mac monitor ?

[@louiesito9106]

Great video

[@tonycannatamusic]

You should have grabbed 2 Lynx Aurora N 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@mateivanyi1245]

where are the dsubs connected? I mean what devices. Thx!

[@etiennegopro7688]

Very nice et Voilà ☺☺

[@razorsharpbt124]

Doctor Mixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!

[@Stickbug23]

I will gladly take that old monitor off your hands 😉

[@walterliedgens6448]

The Apollo X machines may be very beautiful, please don't get me wrong, of course I begrudge you these machines. But these machines are very expensive and I think too expensive for a private studio. Especially since these machines, as you can see in the studio, have D-SUB connections, with which I've had very bad experiences. In addition, you apparently have to buy the associated plug-ins separately, which completely rules out the purchase of these machines anyway. Conclusion: Acquisition and further purchases of these machines for a private studio are pointless.

[@jimjones1505]

Dsp is cool but there are much better convert chips out there that makes a big difference…lavery,,Hilo, burl when it’s all .over..

[@kd4379]

Why don’t you use MADI or Dante?

[@jrodrigo1984]

I like it...