Universal Audio Apollo x4 Heritage Edition

If you want legendary UA sound quality and processing but feel that Apollo X interfaces are beyond your reach, think again! The Universal Audio Apollo x4’s performance rivals its larger brethren, but eschews extraneous features like 5.1 surround monitoring and +24dBu operation for a streamlined, desktop design that’s tailor-made for project studios. Track and mix with spot-on emulations of tried-and-true studio classics, thanks to UA’s powerful QUAD Core processor. Experience top-shelf sound quality, by way of the Apollo x4’s upgraded elite-class AD/DA conversion. Four Unison preamps allow you to track through models of the industry’s most legendary gear. The Apollo x4 Heritage Edition comes with a premium suite of 10 award-winning plug-ins titles, along with the Realtime Analog Classics Plus bundle, arming you with accurate emulations of vintage analog hardware. Beyond that, you get sub-2ms latency and ample expandability, thanks to the Apollo x4’s ultra-fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Finally, the Apollo x4 boasts compatibility with UA’s LUNA software, giving you a tightly integrated recording, editing, and mixing environment, with full software-based control over your interface’s parameters, global console and tape emulations, and advanced real-time tracking. If there was ever a time to upgrade to an Apollo, now’s the time!

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.

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. You don’t even need a brand-new computer — the Apollo x4’s built-in Thunderbolt 3 port is backward-compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 Macs (does not support Thunderbolt 1 or 2 on Windows — adapter sold separately).

Universal Audio Apollo x4 Heritage Edition Features:

• 12-in/18-out Thunderbolt 3 audio interface for Mac or PC, with onboard UAD-2 QUAD Core processing
• Upgraded elite-class AD/DA conversion supplies an ultra-pristine signal path with 127dB dynamic range
• 4 Unison preamps allow you to track through models of the industry’s most legendary hardware
• Integrated talkback for easy communication and slating takes
• Ultra-fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity provides less than 2ms of latency and ample expandability
• Includes a premium plug-in suite of 10 award-winning UAD plug-ins, along with the Realtime Analog Classics Plus plug-in bundle with accurate emulations of vintage analog hardware
• Track and monitor through plug-ins with no latency
• Compatible with UA’s LUNA software for ultra-tight hardware/software integration
• Backward-compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 Macs (does not support Thunderbolt 1 or 2 on Windows — adapter sold separately)