UA device for live guitar? I have an Apollo 8... & Rant: specialized UA pedals

[mcjustin]

I dig my Apollo 8 for guitar and bass*, and would like to use it for live performance. I'd probably want to send it to a neutral-sounding power amp and DI to the sound board. The thing is, I don't want to haul my Apollo 8 to the typical club/bar that I play in, it just seems too fragile and expensive for that.

For this use case, I just need 1-2 unison pre and 2-4 cores.

What current UA product would work well for this? Apollo Twin?

Rant: the UA pedals seem like a bunch of redundant / future trash hardware to me. Why not offer a pedal that can handle a few plugins, no matter the type? It's the same ARM processor, isn't it?

I expect all this has been discussed quite a bit here but I'm not finding current info...

* Dig it for vocals too, of course, but I wouldn't try to use it for that live.

 

[mcjustin]

 

[LesBrown]

I just need 1-2 unison pre and 2-4 cores.

What current UA product would work well for this? Apollo Twin?

Yes. If I was looking for 1-2 unison pre and 2-4 cores, the Apollo Twin would be my pick.

 

[mcjustin]

I'd love to hear from folks who have used a Twin at a gig for a relatively simple situation like this, especially with the hope of using the Twin standalone (vs needing to use a computer with it).

 

[LesBrown]

I would not consider using a headless audio interface as my only amp at a gig. But ymmv.

 

[stakeoutstudios]

UAFX pedals have a totally different processor architecture to Apollos, and sound incredible. For sure I’d recommend trying the amp pedals before dismissing them. They are far far beyond the UAD-2 guitar amps available for Apollo, and far beyond ‘plug-ins in a box’. You could make that argument of Styron, Kemper, AXE FX etc, but UAFX really are a cut above sonically, and that’s not just hype.

I’d use any of the UAFX amps in place of my real amps, they are that good. Lion is my favourite, but of course choice depends on the tones you are looking for.

 

[flandybob]

There are so many all in one dedicated solutions for this, line6, fractal, fender etc. Why not use something that is specifically made for this? Sure the sound would be different, but especially in a live setting, any amp modeler can be made to sound good with today’s offerings

 

[Matt Hepworth]

What current UA product would work well for this? Apollo Twin?

Twin, yes.

Why not offer a pedal that can handle a few plugins, no matter the type? It's the same ARM processor, isn't it?

No, Apollos and UAD products use SHARC. UAFX uses ARM. Dedicated DSP vs a CPU. One's a bullet bike and the other is a 3/4 tonne pickup.

 

[klong]

Don't bother with it unless you really want to commit to bringing your laptop on stage. Just get a modeler if you need a lot of flexibility, or checkout the Tonex one if you just need good amp sounds, or the UAFX pedals if you don't mind spending a bit more for one pedal that just nails a specific sound.