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Old 02-07-2018, 06:04 AM
digiot digiot is offline
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: NYC,NY
Posts: 481
Default Re: Best Thunderbolt Interface?

Quote:
Originally Posted by VRW View Post
Itīs based on twenty years of experience with most of the semi pro and pro interfaces on the market. Many of them I have owned myself, others I have worked with or have seen colleagues and friends working with.

I have owned nearly every Digidesign/Avid interface they came up with except PT HD hardware systems which I only used to work with (was too expensive and not necessary to spend that much money when I could use it in larger facilities anyway),
RME semi pro and pro interfaces in my former Windows days, Apogee stuff from small to pro, Focusrite interfaces etc.

Finally, after being very skeptical about the whole hype for quite a long time, I got to the UA stuff. The main reason was that I had loved my Apogees for their sound quality but I had started to hate them for their drivers and other technical issues by that time.
Same like with the Digidesign stuff before. Remember the Core Audio drama they never have really solved etc.?

And I tell you something, which of course is my personal experience only, I have not had the smallest issue or any problem with the UA Apollo Thunderbolt and the Octo satellite in about 3 years I have used it so far. Not one single driver problem,
not one single software problem, not one single error message caused by the UA stuff. And no hardware issue of course.

Through all versions of macOS (and there were a couple of) and through all versions of PT11/12 the UA stuff was rock solid. For me, based on my own experiences and the ones of my colleagues and friends, this is simply amazing. No other interface except the
former Digidesign HD hardware gear delivered such a trouble free, well working, stable performance in all the years. Well, yeah, RME gear on Windows systems was/is similar to that.

And let's get to the audio quality/the quality of the converters.
As mentioned already besides the Digidesign HD gear and some crazy priced high end converters like Prism converters back in the day etc. the Apogee stuff was my reference for years when it came to audio conversion. I had loved my Rosetta 200 (which btw
sounded a lot better than the 800) and all the other Apogee gear I had owned and used.

This was the reason to get all the new Apogee gear after I had decided to give up on my Digi003 once. Way too many problems with all the new versions of OS and all the new hardware then. Again, the Symphony stuff I only have worked with, not owned myself.
Any other Apogees I have had.

Unfortunately over time the Apogees started having serious driver and software issues and even some ridiculous hardware problems.

That's when I was ready to try the UA gear at last. I already had heard a lot of good things about it but was still skeptical when Christopher here convinced me to give it a try finally. And he definitely knows what he is talking about.
I have never looked back.

To me even the converters/the audio quality of the UA interfaces tops the Apogees and several other high end gear. The audio quality of the new mk2 series simply blew me away when I set up a small but professional recording facility for a friend last summer.
I haven't heard such conversion quality from stuff below 5-6k yet.

That's it.

I never would recommend that UA stuff that much if I would not have been more than impressed and convinced by it over the last 3 years. In conjunction with Pro Tools 12 Native/HD software (I use it with both myself) as well as with Logic Pro X and Cubase 9 Pro
from time to time. But the UA interfaces work well with any other audio application I have ever used it with. Simply cool. Unlike Digidesign/Avid hardware and many others. Even some current boxes.

So itīs based on simply really positive personal experience after having used so many others over the years.

Sure there are a lot options out there for audio interfaces but I have never experienced such a great combination of audio quality, stable performance and trouble free drivers/software besides the big and super expensive HD hardware systems.

The UA plug ins, the Unison preamps/channels in particular, are really nice ones but thatīs not the main reason for me personally to recommend the UA interfaces.


Cheers.
Thank you so much for the honest reply.

I have been down the same road as you. Been using Protools from inception.
From SoundTools to ProtoolsHDX.
I have tried to rid myself from Protools DSP systems many times. I switched from the Mix24 system to a native system but ended up with an HD system anyway because at the time Native was just to weak. Then I did the same thing when Protools switched to PCIe HD systems. Went native and came running back to HD again. When HDX came out I held out for a long time and moved to a "hybrid" system, Using Protools10HD to track and a native Protools system to mix and compose. this is where I went through all the different interfaces. And eventually I gave in again and switched to HDX. Like you I held Apogee as the standard, from the AD8000 on my Mix system to the AD16X on my HD Systems. At one point I switched to the Symphony I/O but was disappointed in the way it sounded compared to my other Apogee's.

So my take on solid drivers might be somewhat different from yours. Let me explain. The reason why I keep coming back to DSP based Protools systems is not because it sounds better. Its because I like its workflow. I can track, sometimes up to 20 inputs at once, add Plug-ins and monitor of the system latency free without having to resort to using 3rd party mixing applications and separate monitor mixes.
I was able to do the same thing with RME PCIe cards and to certain extend with the RME UFX on fast computers. The problem with those was that as soon as I started taxing the processor (especially VI's) it all came crashing down.

When Thunderbolt was introduced I tried it all over again, got one of the first Apollo (silver face) with a Thunderbolt card to try. Only to find out the Thunderbolt card was just a firewire over Thunderbolt converter! Tried the Lynx Aurora with Thunderbolt option which came pretty close but at the time was just as expensive as using HD hardware. UAD fixed the Thunderbolt issue with the newer (black face) interfaces so I tried again. Out of all the "newer" Thunderbolt interfaces I tried (Apogee, Antelope, Apollo and Lynx) The Apollo had the highest latencies when monitoring through Protools!? And this is without even adding their plugins. So from my perspective they make the worst drivers of all of them. I have yet to try the new Lynx AuroraN series but I am sure it is as good if not better then the old ones but their pricing is insanely high. I am waiting on delivery of an new RME UFX+ and have pretty high hopes.

So in conclusion, I believe that "the best" interface is really subject to the users expectations and workflow. My particular workflow is really just a continuation of old tape and in-line console based workflows. You didn't have to patch in a second sub mixer so you could hear what was being recorded at the same time as what was on tape. The same goes for Digi/Avid DSP based systems.
At the end of the day for me, as long as I throw money at it the DSP workflow still works
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