User Manual

Apollo 8 Hardware Manual Introduction 5

Four Mic Preamps with Unison™ Technology

Apollo 8 comes equipped with four Unison-enabled mic preamps, letting you track

projects with colorful mic preamp sounds from Neve, API, and Universal Audio. An

Apollo breakthrough, Unison technology nails the tone of these sought-after tube and

solid state mic preamps — including their impedance, gain stage “sweet spots,” and

component-level circuit behaviors.

The secret to Unison is its hardware-software integration between Apollo’s mic preamps

and its onboard UAD-2 processing. Simply place a selected tube or solid state preamp

plug-in on your desired mic input, and record in real time through stunning emulations

like the bundled UA 610-B Tube Preamp plug-in, or the Neve 1073 and API 212L.

Impedance and Gain Matching

Apollo 8 also includes Unison technology on its front panel instrument inputs, giving you

dead-on emulations of guitar and bass amps like the Fender ‘55 Tweed Deluxe, Marshall

Plexi Super Lead 1959, and Ampeg B-15N Bass Ampliﬁer, as well as iconic stompboxes.

Improved Monitoring and Workﬂow

Apollo 8 features a host of front-panel upgrades over the original Apollo, including Alt

Speakers, Dim, and Mono functions as well as input and output metering capabilities.

Expands Your System

Thanks to Apollo Expanded software, users of Thunderbolt-equipped Apollo Twin, Apollo

8, Apollo 8p, and Apollo 16 audio interfaces can combine up to four Apollos and six

total UAD-2 devices — adding I/O and DSP as your studio grows. Apollo Expanded also

provides seamless integration with previous generation Apollos over Thunderbolt.

A Sleek New App

With Apollo 8’s Console 2.0 application — a complete re-imagining of Apollo’s original

Console software — you can take advantage of over 25 new user-requested features such

as Channel Strip presets, Drag & Drop functionality, dynamically resizable windows, and

more.