Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo USB Heritage Edition Audio Interface (APLTWXDU-HE)

The best for podcasts. Sounds amazing

Awesome audio interface - LIGHT years ahead of the Scarlett 4i4 Gen 4 that it kicked off my desk.However, there are numerous technical hurdles, and the software is VERY complex. The hurdles can be overcome, and the software can be learned, but if you aren't dedicated to making it work or learning how to work it, I would look towards a less complicated product.

UAD doesn’t include a USB cable with this device and do not include any specific recommendations for purchasing. I went through half a dozen cables bought on Amazon ranging from generic to overpriced name brand, USB3 & 4 rated. None of them worked. The only cable I was able to get work was a random 3 foot one from a junk drawer that I believe came with an external hard drive.Now, should you manage to get the perfect USB cable and Windows recognizes the Apollo, you get to deal with their software — which screams of being designed by hardware people, excluding the most obvious quality-of-life features you would expect from software. Literal design standards like drag and drop are completely ignored. Want to rearrange your channel sliders? Just grab one and reorder it right? Like moving a tab in excel right? No. You can only hide it. Comments from UAD? “Maybe someday”. Which by the way is their only response to the many basic features they fail to provide but their competitors at half the price seem to be able to implement perfectly well — that is if they have any comment at all.I won’t even get into UAD’s awful WDM audio drivers which make it difficult if not impossible to use with basic software like Zoom or Discord — without using a 3rd party program.Oh yeah, also, the physical mute button is not configurable and only affects the monitored signal. That means you can’t just reach over and hit mute on the Apollo that is conveniently located at arms length on your desk. Rather you have to get your mouse and mute in whatever software you are using (or set up a hotkey). This according to Apollo is “as designed”.Stay away from UAD and especially stay away from USB UAD products if you are looking at producing music on and with a PC. They produce products for a very small niche of their actual customer base and look at you like you are the problem when you present them with any expectations.Don’t take my word for it. Do some googling. You will notice a pattern. Year after year, people with the same problems and nothing but platitudes and non-answers from UAD. Look at the amount of used/like new/new in box listings on Reverb selling near retail price. The best products should be hard to find used because people never get rid of them. Not the case here.

Expensive, but, worth it

works great on windows 11 easy install no issuemake sure you check out the UAD website for information on which USB C cable to get since it does include one with this apollo

Excellent product, keep in mind that you must buy a USB C cable of 10 GBPS or higher. In my case I bought of 10GBPS.

I have used the UAD Twin USB for several years. It has worked and sounded awesome with the UAD plug ins. The two stars is because when it worked, it was great. Now the bad - UAD changed their software delivery and installation platform through a new tool called UA Connect. As a Windows user (can't speak for Mac), this has been devastating. UA Console took days to get an install with the newest update. I could not get it to work right after the install. I cannot install Luna. There are pages of articles that UAD has out to get things to work with your computer and one was to remove my antivirus - seriously? The company has lost any concept of positive customer experience! I have $2K invested in this and plug-ins and I can't get it to work. If you are looking for a plug and play solution to quality music recording - then beware of UAD!

tl;dr - if you're a Windows 10 laptop user, make sure you're comfortable changing BIOS settings and overall tech troubleshooting before buying. Longer Story - After a UAD firmware update, there was a terrible crackling sound through the headphones and monitors with playback that made the thing unusable; this problem didn't exist before the firmware update. After hours self-troubleshooting, then hours of Google and YouTube research, I discovered that disabling C states in my BIOS was the way to make it work again (shout out to ColdSpace Music for figuring this out and posting it on YouTube). If you don't mind the occasional headache and panic attack, this is an awesome piece of gear - despite all the problems, I've always found a fix (so far, fingers crossed). Knowing what I know now, I'd still buy this again. But if you're the type of person who wants something decent that works reliably, get a Focusrite instead. I own both; I use the Focusrite when the Apollo is misbehaving and I don't have the bandwidth to troubleshoot while in the middle of a project.