Apollo x8p
Customer Reviews
Apollo x8p
Only registered users can write reviews. Please, log in or create an account.
K. Praet
Apollo x8p
I was recording with an korg multitrack before i bought an apollo x8p.
The difference is night and day.
The clarity, the 'open' sound of the unit it self...
I like the customer service that comes along if a problem occurs.
Amazing sounding preamps and plugins!
UAD User
Best sounding mixes we've ever had
Unison pres are awesome, workflow is stress-free, TalkBack mics are very convenient. I want to add another x8p to the rig!
S. Roefs
Wow, just wow.
This thing is so versatile and excellent! I've worked with the Twin mkI and with the Antelope Orion32+ which are both awesome units, but the Apollo x8p is something else entirely! The detail in the sound is amazing, and the connections, routing and software are excellent. I'm a great fan of the Unison preamps and recording or monitoring through quality plugins is great. I've had many different setups in my studio, but the best thing about these Apollos (I've got multiple units linked) is that I've got everything in one place and it instantly works like a charm. Well done UA!
C. Ruehrdanz
Best Audio Product Ever Made
I've owned a ton of gear over the past 40 years and once owned a recording studio. I've had a Lexicon 480L, TC 6000, Tube Tech, Urei, LA2A, Neve, SSL, Empirical Labs and much more. After using the Apollo x8p for about a week now I'm glad I sold everything.
The x8p is one of the best sounding products I've ever used. When I dial up a setting on the Lexicon 480L insert it feels like the real thing. All the great reverbs I remember from the past sounding as great as ever. Same with the Neve pre.
All of the vintage style emulations I've tested so far are incredible. The SSL 4000 channel strip presets are wonderful. It's clear that a great deal of time and effort went into capturing the feel of the old gear and for some reason the plug-ins have much more presence than I'm used to in Pro Tools or other DAW's I've worked with in the past. I also really like the simplicity with which the console allows you to record with UAD inserts.
The cue mix flexibility is great too and it's nice having two independently addressable headphone outputs on the front.
It's clear to me that a great deal of thought and engineering went into this product. I added an Arrow for portable use and plan to add another x8p in the future. I like how seamless it is to expand.
This is a real winner and the UAD concept is outstanding.
J. Milaszewski
fantastic product
I really enjoy all the new gear from UA.
S. Haraldsen
So much power!
Loving how much this thing handle! And finally I can do my 5.1. gigs with UAD!
C. Benevides
Nothing Better than the x8p
As a music production teacher, I want my students using the best equipment available for our school budget. The Apollo x8p has been an amazing upgrade in our studio. The students are loving the Unison technology and getting a glimpse of using analog-style gear through Unison. The x8p is built like a tank and using console has been awesome!
M. Wallace
Best I/O option money can buy
Absolutely top of the line. We’re producing billboard charting records front to back with UAD Apollo gear.
J. van de Ven
Great unison pre’s
In addition to my 500 series racks with API and Neve pre’s the unison pre’s give me extra colors. So easy and fun.
C. Albright
The best way to add I/O
I have enough gear that I have been re patching my mixer and debating whether or not to buy a console sized mixer. I don’t have the space for that and I have an Apollo 8 duo. I initially thought I had to upgrade all my gear to expand my setup, but when I realized that x series was backwards compatible I ordered the 8p. I now have 12 dsp cores which feels like plenty for a mix in most cases. I will say that logic integration is not perfect and when I added the second interface the logic metronome bleeds into my recordings. I’m sure it just means I need to re map the I/o in logic. That said I feel like I can make amazing recordings that would have been pipe dreams when I started in the late 90s. Now if I can work out a time machine to bring this tech to my creativity back then...
B. Bradley
Best upgrade yet!
Having the Apollo 8p and Twin, it was a no brainer to move my home studio up a notch with more I/O and pristine recordings. Even with these old ears, the difference is noticeable. More 'pro' sounding for sure. A few things on my wish list that I'm sure UA will take care of in the near future! Very satisfied though.
R. Sutin
Perfect expansion for me
I already had an Apollo x8 that I use along with a Neve 5024 on the four line inputs. I wanted 8 more channels, so the x8p was perfect. It was easy to set up with my existing gear, so I was back in business quickly with the 16 channels I need for an upcoming project.
The only thing I would like better would be if they offered buyers who already have a UA unit a choice of some different freebie plugins when purchasing a second unit. I like the UA plugins and would have dug even a couple more with the new interface. The ones offered were the same as what I got with my x8.
R. Udairam
Phenomenal Kit
I come from the world of audio production and post production audio. I was using before my Universal Audio Apollo x8p an Avid Fast Track Duo, which now serves as a portable interface. The differences are huge. For one, I noticed much clearer sound, which I can only attribute to the UAD-2 processing that is in the x8p. Not to mention that each sample rate has its own dedicated crystals! Its just a beautiful piece of kit; very good at handling surround mixes. The pre-amp in this interface is incredible! Also love using the plugins that came with this interface. Absolutely a fan of the Pultec Pro Legacy plugin, the 1176 SE, and the Fairchild 670 Legacy models. Overall score: 10/10
p. magklis
I believe its the best !
I have upgraded from focusrite clarett 8prex and i saw huge difference! Of course its almost 3 times more expensive but it worths every penny! The plug ins that were given free is fantastic. Though i believe the the plugin library is a little expensive! Nevertheless, i will surely buy more plugins. The unison pre amps i believe its the best arsenal of this unit. Thanks
N. Butler
Stunning, powerful, and slightly challenging to integrate
First of all, what an amazing piece of gear, and all of the hype about the sonics is real. The expanded monitoring capabilities for headphone mixes is awesome, and overall, I’m a super happy camper.
That said, I had a time integrating this unit into my ecosystem.
For background: I already own an 8p, a twin duo, and two satellites - running on a 2012 model Mac Mini and a 2015 model MacBook Pro. I just hit a spot where I needed the additional inputs for my studio, and found that the 8p that would have matched my existing one had just been taken off the market. I thought that it would be cool to get into the x series of Apollos, but was worried about integrating, since everything I own is thunderbolt 2, but after assurances from my Sweetwater rep and researching the UAD website, I felt safe.
Well... it turns out that the 8xp wouldn’t talk to my computer with the aftermarket thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter Sweetwater told me I had to have, so on a Sunday afternoon with a major client arriving in the morning, I ran to the nearest Apple store (a mere hour away) to buy the Apple thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapters.
After returning back to my studio, the Apple adapter allowed my computer to talk to the 8xp, but not the rest of my Apollo system.
Eventually I learned this: I have to use the Apple adapter on the way in, and the aftermarket adapter from Startec on the way out, and it all talks!
I guess all’s well that ends well, but I could have done without the panic and sweat and uncertainty.
UAD User
Excellent
Having owned a Twin Duo I knew the quality of UAD, I am blown away by the clarity of this device. Having access to Unison Plugins is a game changer for me.
J. Bernardo
Amazing Interface
The Best audio interface so far that i have! Great plugins specially the unison technology!
翔. 平野
Great interface!!
This is the Greatest interface.
UAD plugins also great.
I can use NEVE,API,MANLEY,etc.,preamps by UNISON technology.
This is good to experiment for the music.
J. ZDORA
This is the best Apollo X unit for the money
8 unison inputs, 8 ADAT inputs, 10 analog outputs, 8 ADAT outputs, 2 headphone outputs. Not even the x16 has that much flexibility. I have 4 of the x8p for 32 total unison preamps (and another possible 32 ADAT inputs on tap if I ever record a symphony or something lol). I honestly wouldnt ever use the spdif or adat's, though. The Unison preamps simply sound better than anything Ive stuck into the ADAT jacks. Im not even talking about using Unison ready plugins. Just using the naked UAD preamp, the quality difference between it and many other pro/consumer preamps is an obvious win for UAD.
Ive had my studio engineer brethren come and test my kit out and Ive gotten honest smug approval reactions from the guys that own very, VERY expensive consoles. If you dont have the 100k++ to plop down for the real thing, this will honestly get you 97% of the way there. If you know how to record a sound with the correct gain staging, that will take you the other 3% and you will have so much more flexibility at your hands (with Unison preamp plugins and inserts) than anyone who owns a single piece of physical hardware. Yes, hardware rules. No mistaking that. But think about cost, maintenance, availability to ALL channels simultaneously, variance between different hardware units and most importantly: engineering skill. Spend the time to Get Good and you will overcome the hardware to software gap.
The hexa core's are enough for you to run the industries very best preamp plugins in the Unison slot, then 2 more "heavy DSP usage" plugins in the Insert slot for all 8 Unison inputs. I had a mix of Neve, Helios, API and UAD preamps running into several classic comps and limiters which then all separately ran into individual tape sim plugins. I was hitting the 90% tile of usage for my DSP engine but I did not get any errors from the Console or hear any slow-down or artifacts in my recorded audio. If you spend the time and tweak this stuff to fit that particular drum kit and player and room, taking the sounds directly to tape (record the inserts directly to your DAW) then you will have an insane amount of flexibility to record a collection of sounds that could not be created with even the best multi-hundred-thousand-dollar studio (unless you have every single preamp and compressor and eq and own at least 8 of each!).
The flexibility is bewildering at first and you might get lost. If you can stick with it and take it all in, you can do almost anything. Just follow good gain staging and microphone placement techniques and you will already be most of the way there. Also remember that you can go light on the Unison and Insert plugins and then go crazy with the exact same plugin chain later on inside your DAW durring mix-down. Stacking 2 of the same plugin is A-OK and will give you some really dramatic results. Taking your first iteration of these plugins to tape means that you have freed up all of your DSP so you can now re-use that hexa-core processor in your mixing stage.
Im truly enjoying my experience with this setup. There is still so much to learn and so much to experiment with but having the options to try out different things is exciting and I welcome the challenge. I love coming up with an idea and then trying it out!
On the basis of flexibility of inputs, quality of the raw sound (no plugins) and interface usability, this unit already wins. Add in the Unison tech and the UAD plugin library and youre pretty much looking at the best there is (shy of owning half a million dollars worth of gear).
J. ZDORA
This is the best Apollo X unit for the money
8 unison inputs, 8 ADAT inputs, 10 analog outputs, 8 ADAT outputs, 2 headphone outputs. Not even the x16 has that much flexibility. I have 4 of the x8p for 32 total unison preamps (and another possible 32 ADAT inputs on tap if I ever record a symphony or something lol). I honestly wouldnt ever use the spdif or adat's, though. The Unison preamps simply sound better than anything Ive stuck into the ADAT jacks. Im not even talking about using Unison ready plugins. Just using the naked UAD preamp, the quality difference between it and many other pro/consumer preamps is an obvious win for UAD.
Ive had my studio engineer brethren come and test my kit out and Ive gotten honest smug approval reactions from the guys that own very, VERY expensive consoles. If you dont have the 100k++ to plop down for the real thing, this will honestly get you 97% of the way there. If you know how to record a sound with the correct gain staging, that will take you the other 3% and you will have so much more flexibility at your hands (with Unison preamp plugins and inserts) than anyone who owns a single piece of physical hardware. Yes, hardware rules. No mistaking that. But think about cost, maintenance, availability to ALL channels simultaneously, variance between different hardware units and most importantly: engineering skill. Spend the time to Get Good and you will overcome the hardware to software gap.
The hexa core's are enough for you to run the industries very best preamp plugins in the Unison slot, then 2 more "heavy DSP usage" plugins in the Insert slot for all 8 Unison inputs. I had a mix of Neve, Helios, API and UAD preamps running into several classic comps and limiters which then all separately ran into individual tape sim plugins. I was hitting the 90% tile of usage for my DSP engine but I did not get any errors from the Console or hear any slow-down or artifacts in my recorded audio. If you spend the time and tweak this stuff to fit that particular drum kit and player and room, taking the sounds directly to tape (record the inserts directly to your DAW) then you will have an insane amount of flexibility to record a collection of sounds that could not be created with even the best multi-hundred-thousand-dollar studio (unless then had every single preamp and compressor and eq and they had at least 8 of each!).
The flexibility is bewildering at first and you might get lost. If you can stick with it and take it all in, you can do almost anything. Just follow good gain staging and microphone placement techniques and you will already be most of the way there. Also remember that you can go light on the Unison and Insert plugins and then go crazy with the exact same plugin chain later on inside your DAW durring mix-down. Stacking 2 of the same plugin is A-OK and will give you some really dramatic results. Taking your first iteration of these plugins to tape means that you have freed up all of your DSP so you can now re-use that hexa-core processor in your mixing stage.
Im truly enjoying my experience with this setup. There is still so much to learn and so much to experiment with but having the options to try out different things is exciting and I welcome the challenge. I love coming up with an idea and then trying it out!
On the basis of flexibility of inputs, quality of the raw sound (no plugins) and interface usability, this unit already wins. Add in the Unison tech and the UAD plugin library and youre pretty much looking at the best there is (shy of owning half a million dollars worth of gear).