UAD Apollo Twin as Standalone DSP with PT HD?

[outoftune]

anyone know if the UA apollo twin can be used as a standalone DSP for a PT HD Native setup?

i'm using an Avid OMNI and PT HD Native Thunderbolt

[nst7]

Do you mean routing audio to and from the Twin's UAD processing the same way that you would use a UAD card or UAD satellite? This may be possible. I know it is with the Apollo.

But if that's all your doing, you might as well just get a UAD card or UAD satellite unit. Otherwise you'd be wasting your money on the other features of the Twin, which can not be used if you're using your HD Native system. For example, there's no way to integrate the I/O of the Twin if you're using the HD Native system.

Now if you want to use the Twin instead of the HD Native system as a portable interface, such as when you're on location with a laptop, then that might make sense. In that case, you would just use the Twin as your interface with the HD software.

[outoftune]

yes i would like to use the Twin's UAD the same way you would a satellite or UAD card.

im happy with my I/O in my HD and am looking for a portable "on the go" interface with a laptop.

figured that if i can use the DSP with pro tools HD, its a better deal to buy the apollo twin instead of something like an apogee duet.

[Blues Bird]

Originally Posted by nst7

... For example, there's no way to integrate the I/O of the Twin if you're using the HD Native system...

Wouldn't this be possible with PT Aggregate I/O?

I would like to use a Apollo Twin for guitar recording: Monitoring the guitar signal through the Twin because on my HD Native system I can only go allow as 64 with the buffer and this feels a little uncomfortable for tight playing...

[nst7]

Originally Posted by Blues Bird

Wouldn't this be possible with PT Aggregate I/O?

I would like to use a Apollo Twin for guitar recording: Monitoring the guitar signal through the Twin because on my HD Native system I can only go allow as 64 with the buffer and this feels a little uncomfortable for tight playing...

HD systems will not aggregate with any other interface.

If you want to record/monitor through the Twin, you would need to switch to that as your interface, then switch back to HD Native for everything else when you're done.

But I'm also baffled that you feel a 64 buffer on HD Native is not quick enough. It's ridiculously fast for me.

[Blues Bird]

Originally Posted by nst7

HD systems will not aggregate with any other interface.

If you want to record/monitor through the Twin, you would need to switch to that as your interface, then switch back to HD Native for everything else when you're done.

But I'm also baffled that you feel a 64 buffer on HD Native is not quick enough. It's ridiculously fast for me.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately switching the interfaces is not an option, since I have two HD 16 I/O which are wired to patchbays and a monitor system - so a change on the fly is not possible...

Regarding the buffer I was not quite clear: When I used the Scuffham amp simulation the 64 buffer is enough, but the other day I checked out the new (and pretty, pretty good) UAD Bluesbreaker simulation and things started to feel slow... Maybe it has something to do with the plugin's own latency? Anyway, playing was not so much fun timing wise...

So maybe a workaround would be, to route the twin's analog outputs to the HD I/O, route the twins monitor outs to my monitor section, mute the guitar channel in PT and in the monitor section mix the playback signal from HD I/O with the guitar signal from the UAD Twin. Kind of cumbersome and one more D/A + A/D conversion for the guitar signal...

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by Blues Bird

, but the other day I checked out the new (and pretty, pretty good) UAD Bluesbreaker simulation and things started to feel slow... Maybe it has something to do with the plugin's own latency? Anyway, playing was not so much fun timing wise...

When using UAD plugs in PT, you're subject to twice the buffer (out and back), plus UA's latency. You can try their "live mode" (little microphone icon in the UI) to see if that's any better.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by nst7

But I'm also baffled that you feel a 64 buffer on HD Native is not quick enough. It's ridiculously fast for me.

what....64 is amazingly low.


I want to know how you guys are running 64......b/c by the end of the mix I am pushing 128 or 256 land depending.....

and I thought I had a fast computer.... 6core i7 3.2ghz with 16gb of ram and 5gb disk cache'd

[mrtomcat]

Originally Posted by YYR123

what....64 is amazingly low.


I want to know how you guys are running 64......b/c by the end of the mix I am pushing 128 or 256 land depending.....

and I thought I had a fast computer.... 6core i7 3.2ghz with 16gb of ram and 5gb disk cache'd

You record at 64 and once you mix you move the buffer up...once you mix latency isn't an issue anymore (unless you use hardware inserts and then you should really be on an HDX system)

[Marco Migliari]

The UAD Apollo Twin should behave like all the other Apollo interfaces - the Apollo Console is always operational even if ProTools isn't up and the DSP is shared between what is used on the Console and what is called up by plugins within ProTools. I'm taking delivery of my new Twin Duo next month and should be able to investigate more in depth, but I believe that if you use it in conjuction with a ProTools HD/HDX system, you cannot bring audio from ProTools into the Console unless you run ProTools HD software without the hardware, i.e. using the Apollo Twin as your ProTools interface.

However, since the Twin features an optical input, nothing is stopping you from using the OMNI's optical output to feed up to 8 channels of audio into the Console, but you won't be able to pipe any outputs into ProTools since the Twin doesn't feature any digital outputs.

My plan is to use the Twin as a stand-alone FX box with my laptop and run analogue outputs into my main ProTools HD rig, and also as a mobile recording rig with up to 10 inputs using a Focusrite ISA 828 with the digital card.