I’m saving up my Amazon-affiliated money to buy an UA Apollo Solo. It’s basically $700 and has two channels in and two out, as well as a headphone jack. Why so much money?
I have a Tascam US 16 X 8 interface, which has 16 inputs and 8 outputs. I got it new for around $300. What’s the difference?
The Apollo Solo has a processor which can do effects. So does the Tascam. The Solo has reverb. The Tascam doesn’t. The Solo will let you monitor with effects on but NOT print (send to be recorded) the effects. The Tascam doesn’t.
What makes a good vocal recording? The vocalist. But also, the vocalist needs to like the sound they’re hearing in their headphones. Often that means adding some compression and some reverb. But you should not record a vocal with reverb because you won’t be able to edit it later without it sounding wacky.
I can do that now. I send the audio from my mic into a Yamaha mixer. On the mic channel, I enable the compressor, and send the signal to the built-in reverb channel. Then I enable the reverb on the main stereo out but not on the group stereo out. I have the track audio coming into another channel, and I send the track audio to the main out but not the group out. In the headphones, I hear the vocal with compression and reverb, as well as the track audio (drums, guitars, bass, keys.). But the group out is only sending vocals with compression, nothing else. I send the group out to my Tascam.
Why not just use plugins on the computer and monitor that way? Because the latency is too high and it throws off my timing. What’s wrong with the way I’m doing it? I’m sending the signal through a preamp in the Yamaha and another preamp in the Tascam, so the signal isn’t exactly pristine. It’s “good enough,” but it’s not great.
Why not take the dry output from the Tascam and send THAT into a mixer, plus the track audio, and add the effects there, at the monitor stage? Because you’ll end up with hum and strange noises resulting from the crazy ass loop you made in your recording process.
The Apollo Solo has a CPU in it. It can basically add compression and reverb to your vocal while you sing, but only send what you want to the computer to be recorded. So there’s one less preamp in the audio path. For this I will pay $800.
I find it hard to believe that Tascam or Focusrite can’t create something similar for half the money. But it seems to be the case.
It’s not that simple, of course – UA probably has the best preamp and the best AD converters in the business. You’re getting the best. You’re also getting some of the best plugins. For pro studios, the Solo would be considered low end, because it can only do two channels and they might want 64.
One day, someone will figure this out and make a much less expensive version. But I probably won’t mind, because when you buy top quality stuff, you’re usually happy with your purchase for longer.
