Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite TB3 Octo

If you need a kick to boost your UA system processing power, this is the no brainer option. I would guess the other scenario would be to use it standalone to add support for UA plugins to an existing system, particularly useful in a mobile solution.

Unboxed it, plugged it in my Apollo x8p, switched on: it popped up the registration web page. Overall I was done with all of that in about 2 minutes, and up and running. Could not have been simpler than that.
Handling the unit it also feels sturdy, which seems relevant if you use it a lot in mobile scenarios.
The Quad unit is cheaper but I'd recommend the extra investment for the Octo. This is especially true if this is the only UA processing unit you use: 4 DSPs is not a lot, and if you run at higher sample rates you will definitely run out of juice sooner than you like.

I bought an Apollo x8 and have been in love ever since. But part of being in love is the selection of plug-ins. I only have 37 plug-ins, which is somewhat modest by pro audio standards. But quickly my productions at home were taxing my fully-loaded MacBook Pro. I read that the Satellite is really necessary if you're serious about your home recording. And I am.

Set-up is dead-simple. After I loaded one of my more complex projects (from Ableton Live) there was a little jittery freak-out with my CPU meter going all over the place. But after about 45-60 seconds everything calmed down and my project playback was 100% glitch-free with PLENTY of CPU headroom to spare. It's an expensive "add-on" but, again, if you're serious, it's worth it.

I own a quad-core FW800 apollo rack unit which I recently upgraded with a TB3 expansion card and now I am having lots of fun exploring Luna. This TB Octo is a great addition to it and now with 12 DSP chips at my disposal I can get a lot more happening mixing with UAD plugins with lots of DSP headroom.

What I didn't realize first is that the TB3 Octo unit can be used without a UAD audio interface which means I can take with me whenever I am traveling and have my UAD plugings at my disposal on a laptop.

What is also cool is that is actually smaller, more compact than it may seem when looking at the pictures, same hight as apollo rack units and is quite light-weight so no issues using it on the go. If one's laptop is not super powerful, this unit will take a lot of processing onto itself and save laptop CPU from overheating, which is another pro for considering investing in this.

Cannot be happier with this purchase! Thanks a lot, Thomann Team for a superb customer service and experience!