UAD Apollo Twin MKII and Logic Pro X - getting them to work together

[Sasquatchian]

I've been using Apollo for four plus years now and at first none of it made any sense and then as soon as we went into lockdown I sat down with it for a week vowing to not come up for air until I got it all to work. After about three days it started to come together and some time later I started learning about the Unison plugins, and once I started using them and slowly adding more of them, I've kind of settled for most musical instruments that I record - accordion and guitar primarily, that their Neve 88SR Unison preamp combined with a great Lauten-Audio tube amp and it just sounds better than recording with the native x8p preamps.

When I've tried recording without the Unison plugin and dropping the same plugin on the track in Logic, it both does not sound the same and it doesn't sound as good either. Whatever they're doing in that Unison slot is actually working and working well, in my experience. The same applies to when I'm recording my Telecaster directly to the Apollo. I am now using the Unison Fender '55 Tweed plugin, getting a great sound and recording that. When I try recording the Tele through the native preamps and using the Fender plugin, it's not even close. So as far as not wanting to bake in effects early on, I get it, but there is also something real to be gotten from using the Unison system.

Those aren't the only two that I use but they are the ones I use most often.

[Bookstorecowboy]

I did get it all sorted out eventually.
I do still have problems with this unit from time to time, though. For example, two days ago it just would not produce any sound. The sound was there (I could see the wave form), but no sound was coming out.
I had to turn it on and off, which is of course the classic solution to any computer problem. But I have to admit that I spent 30 minutes fussing before trying that simple solution, which worked right away.
It does seem that if you go on Youtube and search for "UA Apollo produces no sound" or anything of that kind, you will find videos for these problems that often go into rather elaborate sequences of problem-solving. The UAD forum is also full of such problems.
In sum, I would not wish this unit on anyone else. I've just been using it so long that I feel that starting over with some new DAI would be a curse. The devil you know, you know.

[mondoslug]

Originally Posted by jim1960

When I had my Apollo interfaces (silverplate then an X8p then an X16), I never used Console and recorded everything in my daw. My computer then was a 2017 iMac with 32gb ram. I never found a good reason to use Console and I was happier not having to deal with that extra layer of software while recording. Latency wasn't an issue for me and I'm not sure why it is for the OP. I suspect there may be ways to reduce latency that he wasn't employing.

Although I find myself disagreeing with you about some things about recording...I'm with ya here, If I'm using any UA plugs & or including a Unison Plug in console, I turn Console's mixer channel down, put PT on 64 and record straight into PT. It's never really a problem UNLESS I'm overdubbing into a ridiculously high plugin count PT mix, then I may use Console the way they advertise it, hate doing that though.

[Doug Young]

One thing to consider with these issues is whether it's actually the UA system, or just the complications of a computer-based system. I just this past week saw a friend post a similar complaint on facebook - using Logic/Mac/Apollo. He said he was using it with a guitar plugged into the 1/4 inputs and all was fine, then he plugged in a mic, and suddenly, Logic wasn't seeing any input. Hmm. I didn't have any suggestions and shortly he posted he got it working, without saying why. I ran into him this weekend and asked what the solution was:

Turned out that he tripped over what seems to be a new feature of Apple and/or Logic, one I've seen myself. You walk in the room while Logic is running, and a dialog pops up asking if you'd like to use the new interface it just discovered - my iPhone! My friend had just seen an annoying dialog pop up and he dismissed it without even looking at it, so he actually accepted and had switched Logic to using his phone as the interface. So of course no sound was coming out of the Apollo. So no fault at all of the UA gear, just a combination of user error and a not always helpful "feature" of Apple and/or Logic.

This is just one example of the kinds of issues we can run into with even a seemingly simple computer based setup. For those who don't have the patience to deal with device conflicts, oddball system software behavior and so on, an all-in-one recorder like some of the Zoom's might be a more trouble-free option. I've had an Apollo for at least a decade, and it's never given me a problem (knock on wood). I'm sure any piece of gear can have defects, but sometimes with a multi-piece system, there are multiple places to place any blame. For me, most of the time, when I do have an issue, the error ends being what they call a PIC error - "Person In Chair" :-)

[Sasquatchian]

I think that when I first set up my Apollo's I had to go into the Mac sound preferences (now called Settings) and set UAD Thunderbolt (I think that's how it's listed) as both the input and the output and once I did that I never had to do it again, and I have never had my phone try and butt in and call itself an interface. And if I'm using that computer without the Apollo or the Genelecs powered on it automatically switches back to the computer for audio and seamlessly back to the Apollo when I switch that on.

[Doug Young]

Interestingly, I just had it happen to me a few minutes ago. It seems to be new behavior, probably after some Apple update. Unlike my friend, I don't make the mistake of saying "yes", but I also have tended to be too fast to dismiss it. This time I noticed a checkbox that said "never connect to this interface", so I checked it this time. Hopefully I won't see that again....

[Sasquatchian]

Well, I'm still on Monterey on both of the M1 MBP's. I tend to not update right away and even less often when there is technical software involved, unless, of course, you're buying a new machine and have no choice in the matter. Ventura and now Sonoma have been absolute nightmares on my max'd out Mac Studio which is primarily a Photoshop computer with Apple somehow making it impossible to network volumes from other computers in the photo studio. Updating to Sonoma fixed that but completely broke printing the right colors to my large format Epson, so I have to copy files to the laptop and print from there.

Everyone has different tech difficulties but somehow they are all likely related.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Sasquatchian

Well, I'm still on Monterey on both of the M1 MBP's. I tend to not update right away and even less often when there is technical software involved, unless, of course, you're buying a new machine and have no choice in the matter. Ventura and now Sonoma have been absolute nightmares on my max'd out Mac Studio which is primarily a Photoshop computer with Apple somehow making it impossible to network volumes from other computers in the photo studio. Updating to Sonoma fixed that but completely broke printing the right colors to my large format Epson, so I have to copy files to the laptop and print from there.

Everyone has different tech difficulties but somehow they are all likely related.

I'm on Ventura, and I suspect that's when I started to see this. I forget why, but I had to update for something (TurboTax, maybe?). But it sounds like you're seeing my point - there are lots of possible issues with a computer-based system, they may not always be the fault of one specific piece of attached gear.

[Bookstorecowboy]

I probably should make it a rule not to update until a completely new system is released, and then update to the previous system.