Andertons Synths, Keys and Tech: Apollo Power Moves at Angelic – Universal Audio Behind the Scenes

Forget the mountain of vintage rack gear – the Andertones at Angelic Studios are running the show with a swarm of Universal Audio Apollo interfaces. Three Apollo X8Ps and a Twin, all Gen 2, are racked up and linked, feeding 26 channels straight to the laptop. The SSL’s just a glorified volume knob, folks – all the action’s happening in the Apollo ecosystem, with a 6176 channel strip for a bit of old-school grit.

The real trick? With everything piped through UA’s Luna DAW, reconfiguring the whole studio sound is a one-button affair. You want to switch from one session vibe to another? No sweat – the crew can rebuild the sonic front end in seconds, patching in everything from the library and leaving the analog dinosaurs in their glass cases. It’s quick, it’s brutal, and it makes the studio dance to their tune.

Vintage sound, modern brains: the team’s not faffing about with dusty consoles. Instead, they’re using UAD plugins to cook up the exact tones you’d get out of a Helios desk from 1977 or a crunchy ‘80s SSL, depending on the track. Need a woody, saturated vibe? Dial up the Helios Unison plugin. Want that ’80s snap? Layer in some SSL channel strips and classic compression.

This isn’t just about nostalgia – it’s weaponised recall. When the band jumps to another song, the whole rig morphs on command, swapping preamps, EQs and tape flavours like synth patches. It’s a time machine in a rack, letting them commit sounds like the old days, but with modern studio speed. If you want to hear how convincing the emulations get, you’ll need to catch the actual video – words can’t shake the walls like a good tape sim on a drum bus.

Recording three songs in a single day sounds like a fever dream for most mortals, but with this UA-powered setup, it’s just another Tuesday. The key is ruthless efficiency: with everything preset and patchable from the Luna brain, the team can flip between song setups without tearing apart the whole studio. Drums, guitars, vocals – each gets their own recallable palace.

Monitoring is sorted with Apollo’s four cue mixes, giving each player a custom headphone blend. Need to swap drum kits or tweak effects? File, open, done. If you’re after that magic combination of speed and flexibility, this system is a street weapon – and honestly, most of us would need three miracles and a week just to repatch half this lot.

The mic locker at Angelic isn’t just for show – it’s a festival of UA’s latest, from modelling mics to tube monsters. Drums get the full works: 87-style mics with fat switches for thunderous kicks, Bock 167 tubes as overheads (voiced dark for that vintage sizzle), and a lone Coles 4038 for old-school ribbon crunch. Toms and snare are tracked with UA’s Standard Series, dialling in everything from 70s dynamics to crisp snare snap, while a stereo room mic grabs ambience like a rave crowd sweeper.

Guitarists don’t get left out. Lee’s rig runs through a UA OX Amp Top Box – the secret sauce behind those Andertons TV guitar sounds, now deployed in the wild. The pedalboard’s in play, but the OX handles the heavy lifting, channelling the tone straight into the mix. Pete’s setup is equally tricked out, with stereo OX feeds and all the purple a Prince tribute act could handle.

Vocals? That’s where the UA Bock 251 steps up. This handmade Californian tube mic is all about that sweet, airy top end and rich harmonics, blending C12 and U47 DNA for a sound that’ll make any singer want to move in. The team cycles through mic models and polar patterns on the fly, making the session flow without ever swapping hardware. If you want to see (and hear) how all these choices stack up, the video’s where the magic really lands.