Universal Audio Apollo x16 Gen 2 Essentials+ Thunderbolt Audio Interface with UAD DSP

Powerful hybrid workflow

Apollo x16’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 x16’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.

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 x16 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 133dB DNR and -129dB THD+N specs speak for themselves. Moreover, Apollo x16 includes 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.

Assistive Auto-Gain and seamless sub management

Recording with Apollo x16 is easier than ever, thanks to its assistive Auto-Gain feature, which can be applied to multiple channels simultaneously to ensure proper levels all across the board. Best of all, you can deploy Auto-Gain on all the interface’s inputs — microphone, line-level, and hi-Z alike! Whether you’re working in stereo or 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos, having a monitoring setup with well-tuned low-end is crucial to crafting mixes that translate. That’s where Apollo x16’s Bass Management feature comes in, leveraging a real-time DSP-driven Linkwitz-Riley crossover to integrate and optimize your subwoofer seamlessly.

Native immersive audio support

Right out of the box, the Apollo x16 supports monitoring in immersive audio formats up to 9.1.6, including Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, and Sony 360 Reality Audio, via its analog outputs. Moreover, the Apollo x16 gives you access to monitor, calibration, and metering windows in the UAD Console application, enabling you to mix and monitor in a wide range of immersive and multichannel surround formats.

Lock-tight LUNA integration

Apollo x16 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 and track and overdub with UAD DSP-accelerated plug-ins in real time, 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.