Getting ready to get a new Mac, and....

[Kolstad]

Yeah, I can see why USB 2.0 may not have enough bandwidth for the Apollo, but Windows only?? Mac's have USB 3.0 also, and anyone can install Windows 10 on their Mac, so what's that about?

[andygabrys]

Yeah, I can see why USB 2.0 may not have enough bandwidth for the Apollo, but Windows only?? Mac's have USB 3.0 also, and anyone can install Windows 10 on their Mac, so what's that about?

IDK. seems silly doesn't it? they could likely have my money for the USB 3.0 version.

[mojobone]

Hmm, yeah, the idea of the Apollo interface is beyond attractive/appealing, but the reality might be somewhat less so. User reviews gripe that the SHARC chips don't provide enough horsepower to run more than a few of the more power-hungry UA plugs, and UA's plugs are already notoriously power-hungry, which is partly why they're so good. Then again, how many UA plugs do you need to run in realtime? I opted for a very capable machine with lots of expansion options, which include some very sweet stuff that UA doesn't make, but I can still opt in, if needs be.

[andygabrys]

Hmm, yeah, the idea of the Apollo interface is beyond attractive/appealing, but the reality might be somewhat less so. User reviews gripe that the SHARC chips don't provide enough horsepower to run more than a few of the more power-hungry UA plugs, and UA's plugs are already notoriously power-hungry, which is partly why they're so good. Then again, how many UA plugs do you need to run in realtime? I opted for a very capable machine with lots of expansion options, which include some very sweet stuff that UA doesn't make, but I can still opt in, if needs be.

well its all relative. I have the quad PCI card. I can't speak to the low latency recording angle of the Apollo, but I am well aware of the processing power afforded by this card and how much resources the plugins take.

the power of the SHARC chips is what is. You can run bazillions of the older plugins (the 1176LN, the LA-2, the first gen Pultec, Fairchild etc). Its unlikely I would every run out of DSP on a 40 track mix with those three plugs on every channel (UA has an instance chart if you want to get really specific).

the issue lies in the newer versions of these plugs - the 1176 Classic Limiter collection, the LA-2 collection, the newer Pultecs, the newer Fairchild 660 and 670. And with a lot of the other plugs they have come up with in the last 4 or 5 years. The Studer A800, the Ampex (esp hungry for SHARC power), the Ocean Way reverb (very hungry), the Neve 1073 unison preamp model (very hungry) and as of late the AKG BX20 spring reverb (extremely hungry). Lots of others like the Empirical Labs Fatso and the manley Massive Passive are also pretty hungry. So you have to be strategic as to how you are employing these things. And honestly, printing tracks isn't that interesting to me. I like to have everything cooking and change-able in real time. Maybe unrealistic compared to using hardware, but that's just me.

Naturally the tendency is always there to buy the newer cool stuff. OTOH the prices of the cards have dropped too. The Quad used to be $1499. Now its $999. The Octo is $1499.

Using a good amount of UAD stuff and having some nice choices that run natively also works very well. Use some CPU and some UAD card.

[ComposerLDG]

Can't say for sure len911 but my research to date indicates exactly what Mojo says.

And the Apollo FireWire model (or the older Apollo quad with the thunderbolt card installed) do not seem to function as a multi interfac device - you either connect up via FireWire and have the use of the two ports on the unit for daisy chaining, or you use the thunderbolt ports for same. I am pretty sure if you use one you cannot use another, which is a shame.

Loren - there is a workaround for installing the NI libraries on El Capitan (google it), and there are also ways to get a copy of Yosemite either on eBay or via someone who already has it and install that on the new machine instead of using El Cap.

As an idea I have found that downloading a copy of each new Apple OS X and archiving it had been time worth spending as it allows you to be flexible in your setup. Naturally now that El Capitan has been released they have removed the download links for Yosemite, but it's still available via the above links.

Looks like the workaround is to remove El Capitan's new version of auval and install an older one, which fixes the validation issue. So far I haven't read any problems caused by doing that. The last thing you'd want is more issues. Anyway, that seems to fix the problem if you want to run El Capitan. Or as Andy said, just continue running Yosemite.

[mojobone]

I'm pretty sure they released a bugfix that makes the workaround obsolete. (per reports in R&T)

[ComposerLDG]

Well, OS X 10.11.1 beta 3 fixes it, but it's still in beta, not general release

[andygabrys]

Yeah, I can see why USB 2.0 may not have enough bandwidth for the Apollo, but Windows only?? Mac's have USB 3.0 also, and anyone can install Windows 10 on their Mac, so what's that about?

its unlikely that USB 2.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth for the Apollo - esp the Apollo Twin Duo. Its only got a max of 10 in (including the ADAT) and 6 or so out.

RME and Antelope have been using USB with little issues as long as they have well designed low latency drivers. like this one - http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Orion32

I think the reason why the Apollo is going either on Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 is due to the low latency monitor path when recording through the UAD plugs, which are resource intensive to begin with.

IDK. Just seems that way to me.

[mojobone]

Well, OS X 10.11.1 beta 3 fixes it, but it's still in beta, not general release

Thank you for the clarification; I think it was your post in another forum I was referring to.

[mojobone]

its unlikely that USB 2.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth for the Apollo.

Yep, especially considering that this runs via USB 2.0: http://www.antelopeaudio.com/en/product ... -interface