Page 43 - The score

Yes, It’s here, the first publicly available
thunderbolt 3 equipped audio interface.
Welcome the baby of the Universal Audio
kingdom, The Arrow. UNIVERSAL AUDIO
If you, like me in my geekdom, frequently troll
the world of ProAudio forums, you will have
seen several arguments about how pro audio
interfaces do not actually need bandwidth
in excess of what is available from USB THE ARROW
2. While this may be true, thunderbolt 3
is a whole new paradigm because of one
primary reason - it’s capability to deliver
power.
Universal Audio’s technology has resulted in arguably A review by
the most versatile audio interfaces on the market today. MT Aditya
Their revolutionary unison technology preamp modelling compression,
enables you to emulate the sound of legendary analog gear EQ and reverb.
with incredible accuracy. The Unison plug-in actually Stage performers - vocalists
adjusts the preamp circuit itself, including parameters or guitarists - pay attention - this vastly
such as impedance, analog gain structure, and much more. simplifies your rig. All this at an entry level price
When you adjust the Arrow's preamp gain knob and physical point.
controls, the plug-in adjusts the preamp's behavior to match
the target preamp. So you're not simply filtering your audio There are some things to be aware of though, before you
to approximate the character of a famous preamp — your purchase one. You do need a thunderbolt 3 equipped
microphone is now interacting with the Arrow's input the computer, like the 2016-17 Touch bar MacBook Pros or some
same way it would behave with the "modelled" preamplifier. of the latest Razer windows laptops. Thunderbolt 3 will not
work when connected to a thunderbolt 2 port of previous
But this technology requires a massive amount of power, generation MacBook pros. While the thunderbolt 3 format
which has never before been deliverable over bus-power, so uses the same connector as USB-C, a generic USB-C cable
even their portable desktop interface, the Apollo Twin, needs is not capable of delivering thunderbolt 3 protocol, an issue
an external power supply.
thats caused a lot of confusion in the market, which makes
But with the Arrow, Universal audio opens the door to me wish UA had included a thunderbolt 3 cable in the box.
explore the phenomenal potential of the thunderbolt 3
format, which is now capable of providing enough power While UA essentially designed this interface for the entry
level college musician, I truly believe they are going to see
to build a bus-powered, truly portable interface, that comes
with Unison technology. some strong demand from professional sound engineers, like
me, who travel a lot and need to access UA plugins on the go.
I cannot contain my excitement for the possibilities this The thunderbolt format also means that the Arrow can be
entails. This means I can be outdoors, in the most amazing daisy chained, just like all other UA interfaces, so essentially,
locations, and record music on a console emulation of my this can also function as the monitor controller for your rack
choice, without having to worry about power sources, with mount UA Apollo interface (for which thunderbolt 3 option
best in class A/D-D/A conversion (by a mile). cards are now available, FYI).
The arrow comes in a nice-neat-small form factor, with a The Arrow is for me, the coolest portable, future-proofed
headphone output, a DI-line in, 2 Unison pre-amps, a pair of interface available on the market today. This is barely the
monitor outputs, a Solo Core for UA processing and comes beginning of the possibilities that thunderbolt 3 enables
included with the Analog classics plugin bundle . While a though, and I trust that not before long, we will see much
Solo core might not seem like much, it is enough to run the more powerful interfaces from Universal audio, with several
top of the line Unison enabled API or SSL console emulations, cores of UAD-2 processing available over bus power - the wet
or a custom channel strip with your choice guitar amp, dream of the 21st century sound engineer.

The Score Magazine 41
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