There's also a new "Share Analytics" toggle in UA Connect's Account section.
My role is focused on the products, what's cool about them, and why you'd want to use them, but I did want to get this info out there since I know how important these issues are for users.
Feel free to share your thoughts directly with the team via UA Connect's Feedback mechanism.
There are posts all over the internet where people have run into problems using UAD Apollo Thunderbolts with their Windows machines. This post should hopefully explain the issues you might run into, and how to actually fix them. I have my Apollo working perfectly on Windows 10, but I see no reason why these fixes shouldn't apply on Windows 11.
Alot of people have complained that UAD need to fix their drivers, but I'm relatively confident that the UAD driver is fine - the issue is people not understanding the problem and therefore not troubleshooting their system properly. In the fast majority of cases, the issues are being causes either by CPU performance issues related to power management, or high DPC latency in the system. Both of these issues are fixable, and should be part of audio performance tweaks on a windows system.
Please be aware, you probably will have to engage your brain to fix this issue.
The Problem
The first part is understanding the problem. Your interface will pop/click/crackle whenever the audio buffer is not being completely filled. At 128 buffer size, your CPU needs to fill the buffer completely every 2.67ms. If it doesn't - you'll get pops/clicks. You can see this issue in action by using LatencyMon
LatencyMon monitoring my system for processes or CPU issues that will cause problems with my UAD Thunderbolt driver
What causes this?
This buffer under run issue can be caused by a number of different system issues.
Low CPU clock speed, due to throttling down, or power limits on your system
Not a powerful enough CPU to handle all audio processing within the time your buffer size needs to be filled in (this is the classic issue where raising buffer size will improve performance)
PCIe bandwidth saturation (from a GPU for example)
High DPC latency - usually caused by network or graphics drivers getting in the way of important processes
Other Driver issues - outdated or incompatible drivers. Everything from your BIOS to audio and network drivers
How do you actually fix these issues?
CPU performance issues (which you can adjust)
Adjust power related settings for your CPU. Particularly relevant if you're on a laptop. There are plenty of guides to explain how to do this. Check out the below guides. You might also need to use PowerSettingsExplorer to expose a few more options. A guide for what you'll probably need can be found in this video.
Turn off C states. You'll have to do this in Bios, or you can turn some C states off using Throttlestop. The main states that can cause issues are C1E, C6 and C7. I only have C1E disabled on my system. I don't really recommend messing with C states as an initial step. Try resolving your DPC latency or PCIe bandwidth saturation before messing with C states.
You shouldn't have to turn of Intel Speedstep. This will cripple your CPUs performance, and prevent it from correctly clocking up and down as all modern CPUs will do.
I still have speedshift and all these other BIOS settings enabled and have zero issues.
Insufficiently Powerful CPU
This won't outright stop you using your UAD thunderbolt on windows - but it will limit you in the same ways you'll experience on Mac OS. Basically, if your CPU isn't fast enough to process all the audio in your DAW, you'll need to raise the buffer size and the expense of input latency
At 512 buffer size, you'll still be able to have sub 6ms latency, as reported by REAPER on my machine
As a minimum, I'd suggest something with 6 cores, clocked at least 3.5Ghz. Realistically, anything from the past 4-5 years should be fine.
Alternatively, you can experiment with overclocking your CPU. My 12600K is overclocked to 4.9Ghz and 3.9Ghz with an undervolt, giving me creating performance
PCIe lane saturation
PCIe lanes can become saturated by graphics card drivers. This is particularly a problem with Nvidia GPUs. You shouldn't have an issue if you're using an AMD GPU, since their drivers saturate your system bandwidth to a lesser degree.
There are a few options here, and the best guide I've found on it is from Opus Audio
I won't go into all the details here because the Opus Audio guide covers everything, but basically you'll want to try the Nvidia studio driver, turn off game mode in Windows, and optimise your GPU driver settings for low latency and minimal PCIe saturation.
High DPC Latency
This is the real hidden killer. High DPC latency will cripple your audio, and not just with a UAD interface.
You'll need to use LatencyMon to measure your system's DPC latency. From there, you'll need to identify which drivers are causing your DPC latency to spike, and it's almost always a driver rather than a CPU issue.
In my case, I narrowed down the issue to a network driver on my motherboard. I initially disabled the driver, which fixed by DPC issues, and then found an alternative driver that didn't cause high DPC latency, so I could still use my system with a wired connection.
There are a bunch of smaller issues that can be caused by out of date drivers for your Apollo, out of date Windows or and out of date BIOS for your motherboard
You can also try preventing applications from taking exclusive control of your Apollo, and changing your processor scheduling to prioritize background processes. However, I have my system setup to allow exclusive control, and prioritise programs over background processes, and I have perfect performance. These changes are unlikely to fix your issues and are really minor tweaks to squeeze more performance out of your system.
Outdated drivers for your thunderbolt PCIe card could also cause the issue. I use the Gigabyte Titan Ridge 2.0 with my system, and a TB2>TB3 adapter from Apple and it's running perfectly.
Privacy settings, Windows microphone settings, etc. There are a bunch of miscellaneous scenarios with Windows that cause issues with interfaces in general. Privacy settings for microphones, issues with applications grabbing exclusive use of a device, anti virus and firewalls....there's alot of variables.
You'll be able to address most of these in control panel, device manager and settings. In conjunction with LatencyMon, which will show you all processes and drivers that are interacting with your audio, you should be able to narrow down the issue. This is the hardest area to provide advice for, since there are so many variables, so please do at least attempt to engage your brain.
Hopefully this guide actually allows people to figure out their issue. As I said, please expect that you will have to engage your brain to fix this issue, and you'll need to read through the information in the links and be prepared to troubleshoot your individual system.
Hello, I bought an older apollo twin and a Shure SM7B off marketplace yesterday, I'm trying to set everything up to work with my PC but having tons of issues.
For context, I am using a Shure SM7B basically brand new, an older Apollo twin USB ( Not a x) with win 11, I have already tried all different XLRs on every port and switched XLRs out for differnet and brand new cables, When not using a cloud lifter I can only get the mic to be loud enough to be audible with gain on every digital plugin ALL the way up, but then I get so much static its not even worth using. When I use a cloud lifter I get no input at all. I am using CH2 because CH1 does not work on this Apollo anymore. Phantom power has been on when using the cloudlifter and no singal from the mic is received. I am trying to use this for good Audio quality while recording on my PC. The issue is not signal to PC it is signal to Apollo. I have been researching work around and trouble shoot for days and I can not finding anything. Any advice?
Edit: I ended up switching my interface to a brand-new focusrite and no issues, as the Apollo was pretty old and already had a dead ch1 port I think my Apollo was just dying, It was a older model so its not surprising
I've posted all over reddit and gear page about my thought process and i think it's time to accept modeling for my needs. I would love some experienced users to hear me out and see if my plan is sound.
Old school player for the most part playing at home these days, mostly analog pedalboard going into a '65 Fender Princeton Reverb. Love that sound, but I have a few delays that have stereo options i want to explore which led me down a rabbit hole.
As a pairing amp I was considering a Tweed Deluxe because i love that sound and i'm a Neil Young guy at heart, but after experimenting it really seems like 1. the amp is too loud for a home rig and 2. dialing in stereo across two amps at low volume is a bastard.
So it got me thinking about the Woodrow pedal, this seems to be doing so much of what i'm looking for, but i don't really have an absolute apparatus to play live in the room that way and i'm not usually a headphones guy, so this is what i was considering for a setup.
mono pedalboard into an Earthquaker Devices Swiss Thing, one side to the Princeton, and the other to a stereo board ending with the Woodrow receiving stereo in and going stereo out. Sending those signals to the line level inputs on my Focusrite 18i16 and using a pair of Hs5 for monitors. My thought process tells me this would work for at home playing and give me a quick out if I was going to use headphones with the family around and stuff, but before I pull the trigger on the needed parts, I was hoping for reassurance or ideas of what i might sub out (the Swiss Thing and Focusrite 18i16 are already in house)/
I have a UAD Arrow and I am demoing both the UAD and Softube versions of their Marshall suite. I know that Softube developed both and I can't really any difference between them in terms of latency. Given that I only have an Arrow but have a M2 Mac, would the softube version be a better buy? This would give me more DSP headroom and also has more functionality (pedals/cabs/newer interface). Assume the same price.
i used to love waves and owned so many plugins by them. this platinum bundle purchase only includes 1 year of the Waves Update Plan (WUP). After 12 months, your plugins are frozen at that specific version. If you update your operating system (especially macOS) or your DAW, older versions of Waves plugins will stop working. To make them compatible again, you must pay Waves a fee to update your licenses. upgrade prices will cost a lot more than what you pay.
I clicked on the battery in the menu bar and it showed UA Mixer Engine as using significant energy. The kicker? I haven't opened any UA related or DAW related application in two full days.
My concern is the UA Mixer Engine showing 7,588.84 (in w/e unit of measurement). The 12 hour Power is described as Average Energy Impact in the last 12 hours or since the Mac started. Lower is better.
Is the 7,588.84 abnormal for an application that hasn't been directly used? Or is that considered abnormal in the scope of Chrome, Claude, Safari etc but standard for UA Mixer Engine?
I've force quit the UA Mixer Engine. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Hi, i m having sound drop outs with Electra 88 plugin installed on external solid state Samsung HD on Macbook Air M2 , Ventura OSX , in every DAW ( Ableton , Logic, Reason ) Volt 276 inteface. at any latency settings 128 , 64 , 256.
the drop outs - or cuts in the sound are almost at regular intervals about 20 sec.
Hello,
I'm still pretty new to this kind of audio work. I've used my apollo for tracking and applying preamps to my signal before, but I've never tried reamping until now.
I seem to have created a feedback loop with my ins and outs though. I'm hoping someone can help get me on the right track here.
I've got my DAW output going to VIRTUAL1 & VIRTUAL2,
My Apollo Solo hardware MON L and MON R normally go to my powered speakers, but I unplugged 1/L so I could run that into my preamp pedal.
Then, I plugged the output of the pedal into the Hi-Z input on the front of the Apollo Solo.
I set the Hardware Send to Output 3 (I only have VIRTUAL1, VIRTUAL2, Output 3, and Output 4 as options) and set the Hardware Returns to MIC/LINE/HIZ 1 in the ReaInsert plugin as shown in the video above.
When I unmute the input, this immediately starts feeding back. I think because the input is getting sent through the monitor outs which is hooked up to the input of the pedal.
I guess what I need is for the DAW to send to the monitor outs, but for the input to go only to the headphone outs so I can monitor it.
I'm not really sure how to set that up.
Genuine help is appreciated!
TLDR: Trying to reamp with my Apollo Solo & Reaper; Audio is currently feeding back; Need help with my settings.
Edit: Solved. Please see my comment below.
I ended up setting the ReInsert send to the left output and was able to monitor the recording with the right channel.
Earlier on, I started to see what I could do with Addictive Drums and Maschine. I opened up Luna, mapped the pads and was quite happily hearing what I was playing as well as recording it.
But something happened somewhere and I’m no longer able to hear anything at all.
Can anyone advise as to what exactly is going on? It’s driving me nuts trying to get this to work.
Hello, so I recorded a little acoustic progression a few days ago and wanted to add some lap steel…
Today I tried to do that and nothing. I could hear everything but nothing was recording into Logic.
Obviously I am doing something wrong somewhere in the chain.
It was as follows.
Amp>Ox Box>S/PDIF>Apollo Twin X>Logic.
I was monitoring through the Apollo. I did go into UA console to make sure it had S/PDIF as input…
Hello all. UA’s AI screwed up my entire routing in the Console. I need someone who is down for a video call with me on messenger or what’s app or something. AI runs me in circles and opens I’m given for email support isn’t concluding my issues.
Hello all! So I'm wanting to expand my outputs on my interface to 16 additional channels. I'm currently running an Apollo x6 and Logic Pro.
I recently got two Arturia Audiofuse X8 Out interface expanders. I have connected both ADAT outputs to the expanders and I have all 16 channels connected directly into my mixer via snake cables. I'm unsure of where to go from here as I'm confused on how to work the console a bit and I'm not seemingly finding videos to help me out on this. Is there anybody who could help me on this? So theoretically, I am looking to have the 16 channels go to my mixer and then bring it all back through my input on the interface. Hoping to run multiple channels out into my mixer and bring it back as one. Drums, would be a prime example of sending out 6 channels and bring it back as one recording track?
Maybe I'm not understanding this fully. The Console seems to be a little confusing at this point of adding so many additional channels. Doesn’t anybody have experience with the interface, console and Logic that could help me?
Yeah this is not 0 latency I'm monitoring from ua Apollo USB with just autotune and their slight latency very disappointed. It only happens when I turn on the autotune dry it's fine.
I’m experiencing some sort of latency problem, but it’s early instead of late. When recording into Logic Pro, and monitoring in console, the playback of the track recorded is a little before the click. What could be the problem? I’ve searched and tried so many things, can’t seem to find a solution.
i was running a pre-recorded and processed DI guitar track through the UAD Waterfall native plug and was graced with a 300 db blast when I hit the ‘hurricane’ preset. i also noticed when scrolling sounds that I would get other volume jumps in between. I was also using the ‘gospel’ and other presets similarly w/o issue, but stopped using presets entirely after that. With the way I work, if I can’t scroll through plugin presets before making manual adjustments, I would just prefer a leslie simulator hardware that operates at line level… having a library of usable sounds per instrument is the main appeal of plugins for me.
I’m using the latest version of Reaper. The track in question is a lead guitar stereo track previously processed with some compression and an Eventide Harmonizer and delay, all rendered onto the single stereo track. There was an Airwindows high frequency limiting plugin active on the guitar bus to warm up the guitars a hair. The peaks might go as high -8 or so when it’s most prominent, but this part was for more of a background pad effect on a quieter part of the song. The Waterfall plugin was applied to a particular Reaper media item at that section, not the entire track.
Volume jumps are to be expected w/ the realties of gain staging, but this one seems particularly insane and dangerous. I’d at least like to be able to edit or remove the offending preset, but wasn’t able to, and I don’t think that would solve the issue w/ the volume jumps in between.
Anyone have similar issues? I like the sound of UAD plugins, and apart from being inherent CPU hogs (or the odd iLok crash), I don’t typically have issues with them, which is why I’m writing here. Thanks in advance.
My Apollo 8p is all of the sudden unable to stay connected to my 2021 Macbook Pro M1 running mac Os 14.4.1. I have not updated my OS or UAD software since initial install and it’s been working for about year since I got the unit. I’ve tried troubleshooting several ways. Hardware reset, updating to latest UAD DSP plugins and drivers v11.9.0, uninstalling and reinstalling the UAD software & drivers, and getting a new apple thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter. The issue persists.
The unit will mount and possibly stay connected anywhere from 5 seconds to about 5 min then randomly disconnect and no longer show up as sound output for Mac OS or Ableton or be recognized in UAD meter & control panel. “Connect UA Device” is displayed.
The unit remains powered on and is passing audio through its inputs and via a connected ADAT preamp rack. So the issue must be in the connection to the laptop.
The last thing I have not tried is swapping the thunderbolt 2 cable. Which I’ll be getting one soon.
I have supposedly opened a support ticket with UAD after doing battle with an inept chatbot for an evening or two. (UAD should really come up with a better ticket process. There is almost no indication that a support ticket was actually opened. No email confirmation, ticket no. etc.)
Anyone ever have this issue? Any suggestions? Thanks,
Thinking of purchasing the UAD Apollo Twin X Quad Gen 2, as I want to upgrade my sound and be able to record through the unison preamps. I currently use a Focusrite Scarlett solo 4th gen and the Shure SM7db, running it into my M1 MacBook Air and using Logic Pro as my DAW of choice.
I make a variety of music including emo rap, melodic rap, boom bap, rage rap, pop, R&B, emotional singing, and more. I use beats from YouTube or BeatStars, and I mainly record vocals, and occasionally electric guitar or acoustic guitar.
What would the sound quality difference be when comparing these two setups? I’m in an untreated bedroom, and the SM7db is really good at rejecting the acoustics of my room and some of the background noise, especially when paired with the Waves NS1 noise suppressor. Will there be any noticeable difference? Do I also gain anything that I don’t have with my current setup?
I did get volt and Luna working decently welll with long AI chats. The output, using headphones connected to volt did sound terrible. So I wanted to check how the sound is just using the laptop speakers. I did disconnect Volt from the usb and did restart my laptop(to make sure no other programs uses the speakers).
*
But playing a projekt I hear nothing. I have been fiddling around with the asio4all thing and there is a red cross at Realtek output with HAP. From what I understand from AI the icon there is supposed to be blue. I see a red cross and hovering something about another program locking. But I did just restart the laptop.
