Universal Audio Apollo x4 Heritage Edition 12×18 Thunderbolt 3 Audio Interface

Track and mix with powerful QUAD Core processing

There are times when your computer doesn’t have enough power and speed to run all the plug-ins your recording session requires. That’s where UA’s powerful 4-core QUAD Core processor comes in. This processor enables you to track in real time with Neve, Manley, or API channel strips, or run large UAD plug-in counts while mixing in your DAW. The engineers here at Sweetwater appreciate being able to inject guitars with the tube warmth of a Pultec EQ, add the musical limiting of an LA-2A to a vocal, and pump up drums with an 1176 or Fairchild 670 — all in real time. It’s the closest thing to having the real hardware.

Elite-class AD/DA conversion offers ultra-pristine sound

Apollos have always sounded great, but the Apollo x4’s AD/DA conversion takes it to the next level. When they were designing the latest generation of Apollos, UA engineers auditioned the latest leading-edge AD/DA technology, ultimately pairing elite-class 24-bit/192kHz converters with overhauled analog circuitry. The result is an ultra-pristine signal path with 127dB dynamic range. Dive in, and you’ll hear for it yourself — the Apollo x4’s AD/DA rivals any high-end standalone converter on the market.

Capture the sound of legendary preamps with Unison technology

The Apollo x4’s Unison preamp technology goes so far beyond traditional software modeling and emulations that it’s really in a category all its own. In essence, Unison is a bidirectional communication between the Apollo x4’s mic preamp and a Unison-capable plug-in, such as the included 610-B plug-in that re-creates the sound of UA’s classic 610 tube preamp.

The plug-in actually adjusts the preamp circuit itself, including parameters such as impedance, analog gain structure, and much more. When you adjust the Apollo x4’s preamp gain knob and physical controls, the plug-in adjusts the preamp’s behavior to match the target preamp. So you’re not simply filtering your audio to approximate the character of a famous preamp — your microphone is now interacting with the Apollo x4’s input the same way it would behave with the “modeled” preamplifier.

UAD plug-ins astounded the recording world with their incredible ability to sound like analog processors, eliminating the need for large racks of gear in the studio. Unison preamp technology will do the same thing for your mic inputs, eliminating the need to collect and maintain expensive hardware preamps just for sonic variety.

Thunderbolt: ultra-low latency and unrivaled bandwidth

Thunderbolt is one of the most important technologies to impact audio production in years, and UA was one of the first to adopt it. Thanks to its blazing-fast connectivity, Thunderbolt offers lower latency and greater stability than USB or FireWire, clocking in with the speed and ultra-fast performance of a PCI Express system. In fact, the Apollo x4’s Thunderbolt 3 connection runs projects with high track counts at latencies of less than 2ms! On top of that, up to four Apollo interfaces can be networked over Thunderbolt to add fast, high-bandwidth I/O and DSP to your studio.