For those of you lucky enough to own one of Universal Audio's tube-based hardware preamps, channel strips, or compressors, you will at some point need to deal with replacing the tubes in these units. How is this done? What tubes do you need? Read on my friends, and the answers to your questions will be revealed!

What is Apollo? Apollo is a high-resolution professional audio interface with FireWire and Thunderbolt connectivity, featuring superior sound quality and Realtime UAD Processing onboard. It features built-in UAD-2 DSP Acceleration, which allows Apollo to track, mix, and master with our full library of award-winning UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins with nearly instant sub-2ms latency. 

As of UAD Powered Plug-Ins Software v6.0, we're happy to announce enhanced Pro Tools compatibility, streamlining the way UAD Powered Plug-Ins function in Pro Tools. Here are some frequently asked questions, outlining the powerful new combination of UAD plug-ins and Pro Tools.

What is the UAD-2 Satellite?

UAD-2 Satellite is a FireWire 800/400 DSP accelerator that runs the growing library of UAD Powered Plug-Ins. UAD plug-ins are widely recognized as the highest quality tools for mixing and mastering, with an emphasis on emulations of classic analog gear.

So, what exactly is the UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins platform, anyway?

The UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins Platform is a range of very high-quality audio plug-ins, powered by dedicated hardware DSP accelerators (either PCIe/ExpressCard format or Firewire 400/800 format). UAD-2 plug-ins can be used in any VST, AU, or RTAS compatible audio software on Mac and PC.

The UAD software drivers will support up to four UAD-2 cards installed in the same computer; however, not all computers have four available PCIe slots. Mac Pro systems only offer three PCIe slots, for example. In this situation, the only option would be to use a PCIe expansion chassis.

The focus of this "Support Report" is metering. As a manufacturer of both analog and digital products, UA Customer Support receives many calls and e-mails concerning the union of these two distinctly different worlds. One of the most common points of confusion revolves around the difference in calibration between analog and digital metering.

Well, dear readers, there is quite a lot of confusion about the new 64-bit updates for Mac and Windows OS and host applications and exactly what it is they actually do for us. Many people are under the impression that a 64-bit OS will make their recordings sound better. Sorry, not true. It is true that the more bits used to represent an audio sample, the more dynamic range available, because dynamic range is proportional to word length, and frequency response is proportional to sampling frequency.

With all of the compressors and limiters, EQs, special processors, chorus and delays, and reverbs available from UA’s Online Store, we know that many new users look at the vast array of UAD plug-ins available and think, "Which should I use? Where do I start?"

Without further ado…