Review of Universal Audio Volt | Engadget

The 21st century marked the beginning room maker. And in 2020 the music industry he finally agreed that the recordings in someone else’s room were as effective as the ones recorded in a multibillion-dollar studio. This, of course, has led many of them high-end studio equipment makers try and get involved in a studio game.

Very recent to jump with Universal Audio. It is a genre of more than 60 years, whose instruments have been used to record the most famous songs of all time. But, until recently the most affordable model the company created was $ 699 Apollo Solo – no money that a beginner or entertainer can fall for. The Volt the list, however, leaves out the DSP company chips and looks at providing startups with several unique twists. The result is a collection of low-cost connectors that should be on a regular home studio list.

Goodness

• Grapes in the style add a shape
• 76 Compressor is very good
• The handles are large and separated for easy use
• Attractive designs

worse

• Software programming is intermediate
• No exceptions to direct review

The Volt line includes five examples from $ 139 one-input Volt 1, up to $ 369 four voltages for Volt 476. audio and preamp with “Vintage” mode that attempts to replicate the sound of the UA 610 tube preamp.

I tried two midrange models: $ 189 Volt 2 and $ 299 Volt 276. Both are two inputs. What differentiates the “76” models from the original colors with other ergonomic tweaks and design, is the inclusion of a compress built in accordance with the company brand 1176 reduction amplifier.

Electrical equipment

Before you think about compressor, the difference between Volt 2 and 276 is obvious. 2 is simple and effective. It looks like a lot of other forms that are under $ 200. There are integrated TRS / XLR integrated inputs on the front, along with buttons to adjust the gain of each channel. Finally, there is a volume control connector, a headset and a light switch and off the direct control.

At the back are the input and output MIDI ports (something not found in the Apollo company’s high-end specs), studio-connected connectors, USB-C port, jack power 5V (essential for use with an iPad or other phone. Device) and, amazingly , switch on and off.

The rest of the Volt 2 is an empty box. On the plus side, if you have a small desk you can stick Volt 2 in a solid place or rest things on top of it, and still have a chance to adjust everything. On the downside, it can feel a bit clumsy, especially when you try to control what you enter. There are a few small LED lights next to each inlet that light up to warn you when you start pruning.

276, on the other hand, is beautiful and broad. But you need more desk space because most of the controls are on top. At the top right you will find large five-dimensional LEDs to see your levels. The discovery condom and superficial monitoring are larger, which makes it easier to record things.

Plus, the whole thing just has a lot of style. The metering LEDs are at small angles for easy viewing, and the parts are beautiful wood. Are these ingredients just right and good for a whopping $ 60? Honestly, they can be.

Competition

Once you think about compressor, I think the choice between the two is obvious, as long as your budget can handle it. The Volt 2 (and amplifier Volt 1) is a valuable, well-connected connection. But they are not unique. The Focusrite’s Scarlett series is stable, valuable and shares many of the same features. The third-generation Scarlett 2i2 is $ 170 ($ 20 less than Volt 2), shares all the connectivity options and has an “Air” mode, similar to the UA Vintage.

Most importantly, however, you may feel compelled to point out the difference between the two as your goal is to paint the words clean. With Air and Vintage turned off and gains on the preamp are reduced, both models produce clear visual effects. Is there a difference? Zedi. But they are very clever. I could not separate Volt, from Scarlett, to the Arturia Minifuse in the blind test. And I doubt your favorite audience and beginner can do that.

(If you want to be very frustrated with the noise level and the noise and frequent response, I recommend Julian Krause’s YouTube channel.)

Latency between all of these is very similar. I collected the places I had slept – Volt 2, Volt 276, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 second-gen, and Arturia MiniFuse 2 – connect them to my MacBook Pro (2019, quad-core Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM) and Dell XPS 15 (2019, quad-core Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM), set the models to 44,100Hz and buffer the size of 128 models I am measuring the amount of latency within Ableton Live 11. All four models provided the same latency of 12.2ms on Mac. At Dell, all Volts came in at only 8.89ms, MiniFuse at 9.89ms and Scarlett brought back at 12.9ms. While low latency is obviously good, no single number is too dangerous.

The difference becomes apparent when you make a profit and push the preamp on this feature. I connected my Fender Toronado and Atomic humbuckers directly to Volt 2, Volt 276, 2i4 and MiniFuse. I got the preamp benefit all the way through and fed them in a clean amp simulator at Ableton. Here the difference is noticeable, but not surprising – until you turn on the 276’s compressor.

The MiniFuse at full advantage is a bit sturdy and sounds like a full fuzz pedal. The Scarlett has slightly lower and slightly lower ends, but is still brutal. While the Volt 2 is smaller it touches the bottom end and puts more pressure in the middle and top. Compressor at 276 makes a big difference here, however. It softens the sides a bit and regulates very strong frequencies. It is worth noting that both of these sounds extremely painful at high frequencies with increasing profits. Once again, it is not uncommon for everyone to keep raising these preamples frequently.

Unfortunately, I did not have an SSL2 + test kit, which would be a better comparison of Volt 276.

76 Compressor