Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Hi
I'm thinking/planning to sell me HD Native + Omni and get Apollo 8p.

I heard a lot of good things about the current Apollo but I'm still not sure if Apollo 8p is equal or better than omni from sound quality perspective.

I need your input please and also I want to know what is process to transfer protools HD license to another ilok and avid accounts.

Regards,
AK

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

From everything I understand about the Apollo, even though the newer version has better digital to analog conversion, it's still not on par with the Omni. That being said, the biggest motivator for moving to the Apollo would be the utilization of their plug-ins. If you expect to rely heavily upon the utilization of their plug-ins, then the Apollo is compelling, if comparing simply to conversion, I would stick with the Omni.

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Thank you for your reply, yes I'm talking about the convertors and also mic pres.

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Hate to go agai st Barry as he knows a lot but we have 5 Apollo interfaces and OMNI and incan say that even the older silver Apollo Quads kills OMNI all day long in everything and i would go so far to say you will hear a Juuuuuuuuge difference (Donald Trump Voice) :D

However for some odd reason our Manley Ref C mic and Ref Gold loves the OMNI pres and not even our brand new 8P or Quad comes close without utilizing the UAD-2 Pre plugins like Neve and SSL/API and even with anyone of them on the input OMNI still rocks with them Manley mics.

It is all a tst and test thing. You should go try them somewhere or lend one from a dealer and try at home with the rest of your gear but overall Apollo interfaces smokes OMNI as the preamps in OMNI are old and a bit muddy.

All this is IMHO of course and others may disagree ;)

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Will the UA Satellite thunderbolt quad units work (to augment plug-ins) without the Apollo interfaces? I like a few of their plugins, but already have a Focusrite Clarett 8PreX and an Apollo Element 46, both thunderbolt. Wondering if they will still daisy-chain and just work as plug-ins with the competitor's interfaces so I can use the UA plugins.

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Yes, we had the Satellite units first and had to get it to use their UAD-2 plugins so yes the Satellites works great without any Apollo interface :-)

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Thanks.

Impressed by the Cooper Time Cube used along with the Brainworx NSEQ-2 EQ, the Friedman, Engl, and Fuchs gtr sims, as well as the Softube JMP 2203 and WT800.

Would the Apollo be necessary to track those plugs live, or does the Satellite have enough low-latency to work as a plugin with another's thunderbolt interface? Looks like the Apollo software console has a dedicated low-latency channel.

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

Highly questionable. I Say no but i am sure someone somewhere have done it with headache to boot :eek:

You need an Apollo interface with unison pre to track with the plugins without going craycray. IMHO of course.

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

If you wish to track with UA plugins, then Apollo is the ONLY way to go. I own a UA Quad card and every single UA plugin reports at least 1100 sample of latency, making it a "no go" for tracking with their plugins. In the Apollo, you can use the plugins with near-zero latency and you can choose to monitor without printing the plugins, or you can print them(which I would do nearly all of the time). The only drawback(for me) is that the Apollo mixer software only allows for 4 headphone mixes, so if that's enough for you(I need 6), then Apollo is a great choice.

Back to the sound quality; both hardware options are totally capable of making great recordings, as long as the engineer is capable(IOW, give a good engineer an SM57 and an Mbox and you will get a great recording. But give a bad engineer a million-dollar setup and you'll probably get a bad recording):o

Re: Moving from HD Omni to Apollo 8p ??
 

I wonder if what you're seeing with the Manley is due to input impedance differences between the Omni and 8P?