Powerful hybrid workflow

Apollo x8’s onboard HEXA Core processor enables you to track in real-time with Neve, Manley, or API channel strips or run high UAD plug-in counts while mixing in your DAW with zero strain on your host computer. Once you’re 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, you’ll wonder how you got along without UA’s industry-leading DSP-accelerated plug-ins. What’s more, since you can also run your UAD plug-ins natively, you’ll be able to combine Apollo x8’s integrated processing with your host computer’s native processing to create a robust hybrid workflow capable of tackling even larger sessions with even more complex plug-in chains.

Leading-edge Unison preamps

Apollo x8’s Unison preamp technology enables you to track in real-time through faithful emulations of classic gear from Neve, Manley, API, and dozens more, giving you the same rich analog textures used on the greatest recordings of all time. Unison goes far beyond traditional software modeling, however, in that it adjusts the preamp circuit itself, including parameters such as impedance, analog gain structure, and much more. When you adjust the Apollo x8’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 Apollo x8’s input the same way it would behave with the modeled preamplifier.

Elite-class AD/DA with enhanced monitoring

When they were designing the second-generation Apollo X interfaces, UA’s engineers set out to craft the highest-quality elite-class 24-bit/192kHz AD/DA conversion of any Apollo yet. After giving Apollo x8 a serious listen here at Sweetwater, we firmly believe that they succeeded; its ultra-pristine signal path is audibly apparent, and even on paper, its 130dB DNR and -127dB THD+N specs speak for themselves. Moreover, Apollo x8 includes an optional add-on for Apollo Monitor Correction, which allows you to apply Sonarworks SoundID Reference profiles to UA’s precision EQ filters running in real-time on Apollo’s onboard DSP. Whether you listen on your studio monitors or through a high-end set of headphones, you’ll hear every detail of your mix with the utmost accuracy.

Lock-tight LUNA integration

Apollo x8 boasts ultra-tight hardware/software integration with Universal Audio’s free LUNA DAW software, enabling you to take control of your interface’s monitoring, talkback, and headphone systems, track and overdub with UAD DSP-accelerated plug-ins in real time, and benefit from full software-based control over Apollo’s Unison mic preamps, all without leaving your production software. LUNA also includes Accelerated Realtime Monitoring, which supplies fast analog-style tracking and overdubbing using Apollo’s onboard processing. You also get unlimited track counts, contextual editing and browsing, UAD and AU plug-in compatibility, a session auto-save function, and AAF importing. This software also supports LUNA extensions, which bake directly into LUNA’s mixer — no need to instantiate a bunch of plug-ins. LUNA is the closest you’ll come to an analog workflow in the software realm. It delivers spot-on analog sound, along with the creative immediacy of real-time processing.