Universal Audio Apollo X4 Thunderbolt 3 Audio Interface

It completely redefined my way of producing. Delivery was incredibly fast. The Apollo x4 is a beast of an interface and even so the UaD plugins included in the bundle.

This thing does what it does really, really well. The question you have to ask yourself, prior to investing in this system, is whether or not you are ready to take your music production entirely online. If you plan to keep at least one foot in the analog world, the idea of virtual-izing EVERyTHING may not appeal to you. Sure, in theory you can still use outboard gear, but what's the point? There are a few things that annoy me about UA and their philosophy. For instance, I had trouble installing the software, due to no fault of my own. I had a brand new computer with a brand new OS, and getting Console, the UA control surface for the Apollo, installed was an ordeal, during which UA's customer support was missing in action. They were simply not ready, and that is not ... MoreThis thing does what it does really, really well. The question you have to ask yourself, prior to investing in this system, is whether or not you are ready to take your music production entirely online. If you plan to keep at least one foot in the analog world, the idea of virtual-izing EVERyTHING may not appeal to you. Sure, in theory you can still use outboard gear, but what's the point? There are a few things that annoy me about UA and their philosophy. For instance, I had trouble installing the software, due to no fault of my own. I had a brand new computer with a brand new OS, and getting Console, the UA control surface for the Apollo, installed was an ordeal, during which UA's customer support was missing in action. They were simply not ready, and that is not cool. I had to figure it out by myself, and that included running obscure Terminal commands and other non-user-friendly shenanigans, which were really well hidden on their website. I wish they'd invest in flawless customer assistance, and I believe they could save the money to do so if they stopped producing their rather embarrassing funny commercials with hilarious 70s characters. Once everything was up and running, I feel like I experienced a quantum leap in the quality of my recordings. After having compromised earlier with the meek Solo version of this device, I now finally have the necessary DSP power to run multiple EQs, compressors and other emulations while tracking. I'm now getting that sound without any hassle. One last gripe: Console does not respect some very basic Mac App rules, such as the simple and important hide command. You can't get rid of the thing. That seems like a silly, and frankly arrogant oversight, which has been persisting for years, btw. So UA are not the best at listening to their users. It's their way or the highway. I'm dreading the day my expensive plugins are not recognized for some freakish reason, and I am losing years of work because of it. None of my complaints are enough to give the Apollo x4 a lower score than I love it. Just know that I also hate it at times. But hey, maybe that's what love is really all about.

I use this product for vocal mostly and I couldn't be happier with the way the quality of the unison preamps changed the game for me and I came from using the apogee duet 2! This blew it out of the water for me... really happy with the UA Apollo X4