This video will cover the basics for Universal Audio Apollo interfaces and UAD console to the old software. I will be using an Apollo Twin but, the principles apply to the entire Apollo line. First, you need to know that the power supply is lockable, which is great because it prevents you from pulling it. But there’s a trick to it. So, when you plug it in make sure you go all the way down and twist. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. But now you can’t pull it out, which is great. Then the thunderbolt connection, and let’s look at the inputs and outputs. This is your headphone outputs. This is in case you want to record a guitar or a bass. It’s HI-Z input. It acts as your DI, so you don’t need a DI. It’s built-in. And then, in the back, this is for your microphones. You can have up to two microphones or you can also use these inputs. Since they’re combo jacks, you can plug in a stereo keyboard in it. And then, your monitor outputs for your speakers. And then this is an extra pair of outputs in case you want to do reamping or fancy stuff like that. And, it’s also an optical in if you want to extend more inputs. Today, we’re just going to do a quick vocal and show you how to set yourself up, so you can do your vocal at pace and never have to deal with someone like me again. So, this is the UAD Console 2.0 and I’m going to show you how it works. Because you will spend quite a bit of time here getting your tones. If you’re using an Apollo or the Apollo 16, you’ll see additional input channels and routing options. But again, the basic principles apply to all Apollo interfaces. This is an abstraction of what the twin can do. So, these are your inputs and this is your monitor section. On the input side, as you can see: two inputs. You can make them mic online as I showed you, when I showed you the inputs. You can also do it here, by the way. You select preamp, and you can say mic online. So, you can really do it in the tactical way, or you can do it with your mouse. I like to do it tactile way. The cool thing also is that when you plug in your guitar in here, it knows and it will switch automatically to the DI mode. You don’t have to do anything. This is your monitor section. This is where you decide what you hear. For example, here this is your main speaker level. Which, by the way, you can also control from here. Which is nice. And then, here, you can decide what you listen to, what sources you listen to, you can mute them. So basically, this is command center for the Twin, for what you listen to. Here, these meters here, you need to know these are output meters. This shows you what you set out of the Twin. The Apollo Twin lets you use plugins in realtime on your vocal while you’re recording. So, you’ve used plugins before, you put in a little reverb on your snare drum in your DAW, and go “pshhh!” So, for example, say you are plugging in your microphone into the twin, and you want to sing, and you feel like you need a little compression. You can take your compressor. Say for example, the LA-2A, which is a classic for recording vocals. Now this is going to affect your vocal in realtime without latency. No delay. You’ll be able to hear yourself just as if you were using hardware, but in software. Okay. Here on the right, you need to know this. There’s a box called “Insert Effects.” Insert Effects are these effects right here. You have two options. You can have them just as a monitor, which means that you only hear what they do, but it doesn’t get recorded to your DAW. Or, you can switch the record option here. It gets red. Which means that whatever you hear gets recorded. So, if you feel bold and you think you know what you’re doing, you should record your effects so you don’t have to do as much processing later. Or if you feel a little tentative, or maybe you just want to record a very clean signal and do the effects later, you have to be on monitor. So you have to understand what this does. In Console 2.0, you also have the option of setting the insert effect record ready to a function on an individual, channel, by channel basis. Which means that you can actually decide on an instrument basis whether you’re recording the effects, or just listening to them. Which is very practical. So, these are the basics. Let’s do a vocal pass so you see how it feels in action. I’m going to plug everything back in. Your headphones and then, these are for your monitors for listening. later. And plug the microphone. -How do I adjust the gain on the microphone? -Very good question. You have two options. You can do it the tactile way, or you can do it the mouse way. I like the tactile way. You hit preamp, and then you can choose either Channel 1 or Channel 2. And then, you can choose your input to be line or mic. Obviously this is a microphone. This is a condenser microphone, so you can use these buttons to kind of choose what you want to do with it. For example, the condenser microphone needs phantom power. So, you can turn the phantom on. And then, I recommend you use a high-pass filter because you don’t need all that thirty and forty and fifty hertz on your vocal. The high-pass filter would get rid of all the rumble at the very bottom. Air conditioners, people walking above you, if you live in Manhattan, things like that. And then, for the gain, since you have this channel selected, just use the knob Or, if you’re mousy you can use the mouse. I use the knob. So, you have your meter right here and you can adjust your level singing in the microphone, looking at the meter. And then since you’re economically well set, you can adjust your level while you’re looking at a meter like this. Here’s the way I like to think about the work flow. Switch to you DAW, put your track in record. The way I like to function is I like to make sure that my track, my background track, is at the right level. -Okay. -And then once I have that right level in my headphones, then I adjust my microphone gain. Okay, so let’s do that. So put your headphones on, and as you know this is your headphone control because you have headphones selected here. So you can set your track to go and pick your level. -Okay. Alright. -Cool, awesome. So now you know that you’re comfortable with the level in your headphones, and then now you can switch to preamp. So all you have to do is press play. Okay, can you try? -Testing, testing, a little louder? Okay, hello, hello, hello, hello? Okay, that’s good. -Great. So right now, we’re in monitor which means that compressor, you’re listening to, but you’re not recording. Let’s record it, and then let me show you how this works. It’s a very simple process, which is why it’s great for vocals. Because you’re busy singing and thinking about your song, you don’t want to have to have 20 controls. Peak reduction is how much compression you’re going to use, and then gain is the make up gain, actually. And I realize it’s counterintuitive because we tend to think from left to right. So first, you can press and then you make up the gain, but this is the way they did it in the 60’s. And since these are very accurate reproductions of that sound, and that look, that’s the way they did it. So think of it this way: This is the amount of compression you want and this is the gain after if you need to add gain because you compress a lot. If you are a man, you do not compress too much. –Okay, so what about reverb? Well what if I want to add some of that on? -Okay good question. For reverb, there’s two ways. You can put a reverb plug-in right here, after you compress it, for example. You can hear it, but that means it’s gonna get recorded. – Yeah, okay I don’t want to record it. -If you don’t want to record it, and add it later, you can use this console system. This is laid out like a regular console. So you have aux sends, and then you have aux receives right here. So this is your reverb. It’s on Aux 1 and 2. You just send a little bit of it here, and maybe you choose a preset like, say nice vocal. -Hello? Okay that’s good. Yeah I like that. -So, either you put it right on the channel but then you record it since we are in record mode, right here. Or, you just use the Aux and Aux receive system and you just listen to it. Comfy? -Yeah. -Let’s record. So I’ll switch to Pro Tools whenever you are ready. [Music] -Can we try a different reverb? Like maybe one that’s a little bit bigger and fuller? -Yep. So what you do, or first thing I would do is try a different preset because that’s fast. So they have nice vocal. Let’s try that. When you use a reverb in a send or return environment like this, you have to be absolutely sure that it’s set to 100% wet, so that none of the directional is part of the return. Some of these presets are not set up for that, so you always have to check. The other thing that would be good for you to check is the length of it. This is where the length is in the real verb so check it out. You like the length of it right now? -Hello, hello? Check. Yeah, actually that’s pretty nice. -Okay, if you want it longer you can go here. -Hello, hello, check, check? I liked a little bit before. -Okay, so we’re gonna go before. And of course, if you want more or less of it, you could choose here. -Hello, hello, check, check? That’s nice. -Okay, great. Let me show you something else. They just came up with new technology called Unison Technology, that lets you change the sound of the preamp. Right now, you have a very clean, modern, super fast preamp and it sounded great. You can dig a little deeper, and use some of old-school microphone preamp emulations that they come up with. This one comes with the Apollo. It’s called the UA 610B, and that’s an imitation of an old 60s preamp that sounds really smooth and very round. And so, you can really model the sound of the Box to your liking. So how does this sound, for example? -Hello, hello, hello? Oh that’s nice. -Okay, great. The great thing about this is you can shape the tone of the box to your liking. So for example, you could use unison technology and have this older more vintage sound for your lead vocal. And then, maybe use really clean modern, no emulation, for your background vocals. The other thing that’s great about this is that the UAD console lets you take a snapshot. So, I can take a snapshot of the whole console. The preamp, compression, reverb sans, reverb type, Everything can be saved. So, I can call this, for example, “Amber Lead.” Next time you want to track a lead vocal and you remember you like the sound, you just recall the preset. Everything comes back exactly the way it was. -And I could save like background vocal settings too? -You could do that too. Which would allow you to switch back and forth between the background in the same session, without having to remember anything which is pretty awesome. -That’s nice. -Yes. Before we record everything that suggests the tone of the track, the Twin will power the realtime plug-ins like we just saw. But, you can also use the same plugins in your DAW. One of my favorite ones is to Pultec, and I’ll put it on your track. This is the emulation of a super classic EQ from the 50’s 60’s and there’s no graph on it, so it can be intimidating. But the fact of the matter is, is you can’t really mess up with it. It’s really beautiful. It’s that simple. You can’t look at it, you have to listen to it. Which is the beauty of this plugin. Okay I love this. Another plug-in that comes bundled with the Analog Classics is the 1176. And there’s two of them, and sometimes people get confused. So there’s two, this one called the LN. That’s a great limiter. It takes a second to learn it, but it has a very special sound. So classic. They also have another version called the SE. Basically, these two plugins are emulating the same hardware. They just have slight differences in sound to allow for the SE to have more instances and you can use more of them without taxing the DSP as much. -What about the LA-2 that we use before? Can I use that at the same time? -Absolutely. You can use any plug-in either in realtime or in the DAW. So for example, if I want to add an LA2, I can add it here on your track, and you’ll notice that it’s still active here in realtime on your vocal. So you can both have it on your playback, and on the overall time. Let me get rid of all these compressors on your track before we record. Otherwise it’ll feel funny and you ready to go? -Yeah. [Music]
Nice, probably the best demonstration I've seen so far of the Apollo workflow in action. UA has really changed the game with these Apollo's… can't wait to get the 16 one day for drum tracking
What kind of mic are you using
How would you get a drum track to play along with thanks
Double-treat: an excellent tutorial topped off with utterly compelling vocals. sigh
So she recorded all the BG harmonies and didnt know how to use the plugins? Maybe she has Alzheimers and forgot she went thru all this already to record the harmonies? Yea tricks. I just got tricked into buying an interface and a bunch of plugins only to find out the plugins dont work without the interface? This is new to me so maybe Im wrong but when I try and load a UA plugin without the interface connected, I get a disabled message. I hope Im wrong. . .
This is amazing .
What is the point of using the console to monitor effects? Wouldn’t you just do that in the DAW since you can use all the same plugins in it? I understand adding sends in the console to hear the effects in real time but for if you aren’t recording the effects and putting them on after, wouldn’t you just do that in the DAW, not the console????
That is not mastered, that is a Lauten Audio Atlantis FC-387. and yes they sound that good tracking. Now I doubt he sat everything up from scratch on the video, he had to do some off-video setup, but yea, that mic is that good.
I have learned so much in this small video. Thanks!
Very happy with the time and effort made for this tutorial. Good Stuff!
wow thanks sir this is the best demo on youtube…
Hi, excellent way of putting this across, very easy to follow! Thank you! Would it be possible to hire you for a one hour session online?
Do we have this interfaces in Algeria?
Great explanation but it demonstrates just how complicated and time consuming this process can be.
I can’t get mine to show it says no devices found. I did all the troubleshooting and it did not work! I’m about to return it
Why is the meter red on the Apollo when I hit preamp?
I need this
Does anyone else go into a A/D converter (pro one) before going into their DAW or does everyone just use the converters on the Apollo Twin?
Fabulous Fab!
Beautiful Voice and song…
How do you run that program like that for monitoring and then record in cubase
Please what's the name of the microphone she used for the recording ??
Thank you 👍👍👍👍
I am UAD Apollo guy, and I really love everything about it…I have my account, my orders and probably I am going to stay on UAD as long as I breath..and I like the way how Fab explains and do things…
amazing! thank you so much for this tuto. merci 🙂
I love my Apollo Twin. Its an amzing Interface
i am considering buying this for my home studio for better sound quality
Would you put Auto-Tune on an AUX insert like the reverb and delay? I don't want to record the auto-tune but i do have compressors that i want to record on the other inserts.
Nice voice:)
Wonderful interface, beautiful song!
Console still does not obey some of the most basic Mac commands, like command-h for hiding the main window or command-w for closing a plug-in window. This makes the screen clutter quickly, especially on a laptop. A touch of amateurism in an otherwise professional feeling piece of software.
What a beautifull woman! :O
So, stupid question I'm sure but I want to make sure. If desired I can use this as a standard dac/headphone amp with my pc, right? The headphone out isn't limited to monitoring what's being input into the interface?
write down on such a kit, record -3 is this normal? or loud?I
Best demo I’ve seen
Crazy, I have so many of UAD EQ's.
1:41 seeing this headphone cable hurts me
One great thing about the UAD videos is that, not only is the sound amazing, they have great artists, too! Either that, or they just make everyone sound good. Think it's a bit of both. That song is as impressive as Unison sound.
Yes I'm happy about the technology but the fact that music has been simplified to where anybody can record quality on a lil box is a bit depressing. There is just no way you can get the feeling you get when you record in a professional studio with all rhe,real hardware but this is great too. I guess. Smh
can you record just hearing (monitoring) the compressor without recording it AND after you recorded it and after checked the sound and the recording, add it (the compressor) to the recorded track?
or if you record without applying compression in the moment, you can’t add it after..?
thanks
@12:26 "Don't you remember, we lighted farts" such powerful lyrics.
Should I setup my console before recording? What’s the purpose of this? I just got my Apollo and I work in pro tools 12 and I would like to have the best optimal settings for my music recordings. How should I setup my console? I’d like some nice settings I could save and not touch ever again.
GREAT VIDEO
So everybody else, before you do a demo video watch this one. Superb explanation. Concise, efficient and UNDERSTANDABLE!
I just ordered the Twin MK2, really excited!
One thing, I’m used to the MagSafe on Macbook Pro, it has saved my comp from hitting the floor a few times. 😅 Now, if that power cable was locked safe… I don’t get it. Anyone?
ummm this guy totally plugged in that mic with phantom power on! yikes! good thing it still works.
I like how all of a sudden that final mix that was recorded on a whole different system just crashed in outta nowhere lmao.
10:39 are these plugins all free if you buy the apollo twin ?
Ich bin verliebt 🙂
Is it cold in here or did her voice just give me chills.
good demo, but her acting is nauseating. shut up and stick to singing. you may be pretty and have a good voice, but you shit acting makes you look dumb
What mic is that?
I’m probably missing something simple, but how is he monitoring the vocal recording from the DAW as she records? . She’s got a mix in her headphones but wouldn’t the mic pick up output from the monitors?
Are there any issues with overloading while tracking through plugins with the Apollo twin solo? Do I need the Duo to do this without any issues?
i like his watch !!
How do I create a snapshot on my console?
Wow! Dude Should be a professor! This is so helpful, just got a Twin, I will never record another album without a UAD interface! Never! The UAD mic pres are the best in the world period!
I used the exact same reverb and settings and when set the reverb mix at 100% wet it sounds like crap.
I love the apollo twin i was test in the musicstore sound is so great but i have a pc dont have Thunderbolt cant use it :-(. I got on my pc 6 port of usb 3, 1 usb typ c
The best thing I believe is to live it on recording with a high pass filter..So u don’t get confuse,but I love the mic pre…
🙏🏼
I rarely comment, but this vid was awesome. Please continue making more. Great production .. sound and video!
very cool song! amazing!
Hi everyone, I have a new protective cover for this interface on my channel. Thanks.
Excellent video, 1 sticking point question: near the end we see the "I" is selected in Pro Tools while recording; isn't one of the entire points to show you that, since you are monitoring completely from the Apollo, you need not (also) monitor via your DAW? Why is the "I" enabled then? Isn't this redundant if using the Apollo?
Is there a way to record the Aux send/Aux Receive signal?
Can we use our own plugins or do they have to be the ones supplied by UAW?
love build studio and us your gear but need sponsor
Just got mine. Super excited to put it to use!
Publicité mensongère… Putain c grave
AMAZING
Great Demo/Tutorial, not too fast or too slow and easy to follow.
I’m so glad I got this instead of the focu uhm… yea. I haven’t even used it yet. I’m excited. I pray I get the sound Ive been searching for these past months!
This Fab guy is VERRYY good at explaining things .. need more videos with him, they’re so informative and interesting!!!
My microphone isnt making any sound or recording (brand new neumann tlm103) it’s plugged in and all, can anybody help me please ?
1:06 passive aggressive to himself, nice little psychotic gem here
Nobody explained how to actually use the “console settings Alt Count” to change output and route the headphones/monitor mixes it takes time to learn that and there is no information on the true purpose of using this very important feature…. I wish to see a video on that truly explaining the extended features of why you use this when recording vocals and how since it took me hours to figure out not being transparent.
how do u expand the Apollo Twin Duo to get additional xlr mic inputs?
How many inputs can the apollo twin record simultaneously?
An easy question for you guys. Can I play music on my PC by choosing the Apollo Twin Duo MK2 as a playback device, and listen to that music through the headphone jack in the Apollo, basically using the unit sometimes a headphone amp out of Windows? Btw my Senheiser headphones have 600Ohm impedance. Thank you.
Quel bonheur d'ecouter un français
i watched this video about 72 times lol
Really good hands on review. Thanks
mansplaining 101
This is solo or dual?
This video is completely unfair to the competition. If Amber Skye hooked up two rusty soup cans with some kite twine, I am sure I would find it superior to equipment costing $100,000.00
How is a guy supposed to make an objective decision here?
why wont my mic work?? no sounds going through
Which Apollo Twin Thunderbolt did you use? Solo, Solo MKII, Duo MKII or Quad? Will I get the same results for my vocals with Apollo Twin Solo MKI? How did make vocals sound so big with wonderful reverb? Thanks
So the plugins they have used in this recording are included in the package for Free?
Great track.. Vocals are awesome. Love the UA gear. Looks like that's the way to go these days.
Thanks for this very straightforward intro to the Apollo. I'm a newbie and find your videos helpful!
Nice video, but for the frensh Fab fan Xd it's better when he talk in french 😉
nice video love us your gear u sponsors with new home studio
I am a complete newbie with Apollo and I want to record but I don´t know how to switch to DAW recording software from the main console. Please can you advice me how? Thank a lot. Petr
Great video! Fab is so good at teaching.
Just bought the Apollo! Super helpful.
I've got to get me one! Lol!
I bought the newest one the black one. It was a big step up from my old digi design mini 2. 😁
The UA pre suits her velvet voice perfectly. What a difference when compared with the first pre.
Great demo. I just got the Apollo 16 (silver) and I'm just digging into it.