UAD ARROW
If, like us, you dream of recording and mixing with UAD-2 plugins on the plane or by the pool, your prayers have just been answered…
With their stellar performance and access to the increasingly huge range of superb UAD-2 analogue hardware emulation plugins, Universal Audio’s Apollo audio interfaces are among the music technology industry’s biggest success stories. However, being externally powered, recording and mixing ‘on the go’ with them has never been an option – until now!
With Arrow, UA are at last offering what essentially amounts to a compact, bus-powered Apollo – no mains plug required. Not only that, but they’ve also made it their most affordable interface yet, at £140 less than the cheapest Apollo. Consequently, you get a bit less I/O than you do with Apollo, and no Core Duo or Quad DSP options, but, crucially, no compromises have been made when it comes to features and functionality. There’s a Solo Core chip for powering the 14 included UAD-2 plugins (see Playing the Classics) and any others you might choose to buy, two Unison-enabled mic preamps, and the high quality converters for which Universal Audio are known. In other words, it’s pretty much the full Apollo/UAD-2 experience in a unit you can use anywhere.
Take aim
As we’ve come to expect from Universal Audio (and, indeed, have every right to in any audio interface at this price point), Arrow is very well built – satisfyingly chunky, with a solid matt metal casing. It’s also nicely compact, with an 18x12cm footprint, and surprisingly light at just 0.63kg. Eminently portable, then.
Arrow is a Thunderbolt 3 device – the first of its kind, in fact. Thunderbolt 3 uses the same connector type as USB-C but isn’t the same thing, so potential Arrow owners should make sure that what appears to be the right port on their computer isn’t in fact USB-C. For Mac users, this is very straightforward: the current generation of MacBook Pro, iMac and iMac Pro include compatible Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, but the 12" MacBook’s identical-looking hole is only USB-C and thus won’t work with Arrow. For PC users, the situation is less clear cut, of course, but there are now quite a few Thunderbolt 3-packing machines on the market, so just be very clear on your specs before you buy.
The stated reason for the use of Thunderbolt 3 rather than 1 or 2 is that it enables the bus powering that’s key to Arrow’s portability. The data transfer side of things is fully backwards compatible all the way back to Thunderbolt 1, however, so you could use an externally powered Thunderbolt 3 dock to connect Arrow to a Thunderbolt 1/2 computer. Naturally, though, UA point out that this particular setup isn’t fully tested or officially supported. Plus, of course, mobility is one of Arrow’s big selling points, so if you’re going to lumber yourself with a power supply and dock, it might be worth
“With Arrow, UA are at last offering what essentially amounts to a bus-powered Apollo – no mains required”