Cascading UA Apollo Thunderbolt for 5.1 outs

[citysoundman]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience cascading multiple UA Apollo thunderbolt interfaces. I have a UA Twin MKII and would like to add outputs for mixing in 5.1. Buying a used Apollo 8 MKII might be an affordable way to do this.

I want to use my Twin MKII for dedicated L/R outs, and add C, Ls, Rs and LFE on the Apollo 8. Will I be able to achieve this using a PT Aggregate Output?

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by citysoundman

I'm wondering if anyone has experience cascading multiple UA Apollo thunderbolt interfaces. I have a UA Twin MKII and would like to add outputs for mixing in 5.1. Buying a used Apollo 8 MKII might be an affordable way to do this.

I want to use my Twin MKII for dedicated L/R outs, and add C, Ls, Rs and LFE on the Apollo 8. Will I be able to achieve this using a PT Aggregate Output?

You can cascade multiple UAD units via thunderbolt but you will only have monitor control output via one of the units. The other unit will only operate as individual line outputs not controlled by the hardware monitor knob. If you have another type of monitor controller, this will work.

BTW, the Apollo 8 already has enough analog output to handle 5.1 without the need to cascade. However, those additional outputs again are not controlled via the hardware monitor knob.

[citysoundman]

Thanks for the reply. Great point that the monitor controller won’t work on the additional interface. So cascading is not a good solution for me.


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[its2loud]

There is a workaround if you use an Avid Dock. You can setup a Master Fader in Pro Tools to be Eucon controlled and the monitor knob on the Dock will control this Master Fader as a kind of Monitor Control. This way you can still utilize all available outputs of the UAD hardware and not need to worry about monitor functionality the hardware.

[citysoundman]

Originally Posted by its2loud

There is a workaround if you use an Avid Dock. You can setup a Master Fader in Pro Tools to be Eucon controlled and the monitor knob on the Dock will control this Master Fader as a kind of Monitor Control. This way you can still utilize all available outputs of the UAD hardware and not need to worry about monitor functionality the hardware.

Thanks, yes it's a workaround, but using a master fader for monitoring volume wouldn't be my preferred workflow. On the other hand, is software monitor control for 5.1 (and higher) multichannel sessions something that can be achieved? Not just volume, but channel mute/solo, speaker dim, etc.?

I'm gonna give a read to the recent Production Expert article