In the fall of 2006, I decided emo was out and IDM was in. Fueled by the hope of becoming the next Four Tet or Aphex Twin, I marched into my local Guitar Center and purchased an audio interface to convert my guitar and vocals into ones and zeroes, then mangle them in Ableton Live.
When I got home, I plugged a brand-new M-Audio Fast Track Pro into my Windows desktop and immediately hit a brick wall of audio driver configuration hell. I eventually got the thing to work after hours of troubleshooting, but latency—the gap between when you make a sound and when it hits your computer—rendered the box unusable.
I was tempted to throw the Fast Track out the window and sample the sound of it hitting the pavement with an analog tape recorder. Instead, I went back to Guitar Center, traded the interface for a Line 6 DL4 delay pedal, and set my sights on ripping off Explosions in the Sky in a proper band setting.
Had something quick and painless like the Universal Audio Volt 876 existed at the time, who knows where my life would be now. I probably wouldn’t be opening for Four Tet and Fred Again … at the O2 Academy, but my entrée into computer-based music would have gone much more smoothly than it did in 2006.
Audio interfaces have come a long way since then. Prices are down, quality is way up, and latency is negligible in most home studio environments. Interfaces that pair with proprietary software and drivers still exist, but the genius of class compliance—meaning you can plug a device into your computer without needing the aforementioned—makes it easy for audio gear manufacturers to build boxes that are effortlessly plug-and-play on most operating systems. Even iOS and Android, in many cases. Anyone can find a decent-sounding interface on Amazon for $200 or less and plug it into their iPhone, then plug in a cheap mic and mumble their way to TikTok superstardom.
For most of the 2010s, this was not the case with interfaces manufactured by Universal Audio. The Scotts Valley, California, company became legendary in the ’60s and ’70s among audiophiles and studio engineers on the back of essential hardware units like the 610 preamp and the 1176 compressor.
In 2012, Universal Audio launched its Apollo series of interfaces, which were immediately lauded by the “prosumer” klatch for their high-quality preamps, durable components, and the vast ecosystem of plug-ins that offloaded processing power from your underpowered home computer onto the interfaces themselves. As enticing as all this was, there was a catch: You needed the hardware plugged in to run the software, and vice versa. The “walled garden” approach pioneered by Apple reared its ugly head in the world of music gear.
Though the winds of the industry were blowing more and more in the direction of affordable and technically accessible gear, it was still a surprise to hear in 2021 that Universal Audio planned an entry in the class-compliant interface market with the Volt series. The company finally trusted users’ insistence on bringing their own plugins and software to the party, and its Volt 276 became an immediate hit. It’s accessible, portable, and affordable, and its pair of preamps are top-shelf at this price point. Plug it into just about any phone or computer, fire up a digital audio workstation (DAW) like Logic or Loopy Pro, and the green lights on channels 1 and 2 bounce up and down delightfully as you howl into your mic or strum on your guitar.
Input channels fill up fast, and the process of plugging and unplugging things can be a major roadblock when you’re itching to get new ideas recorded as quickly as possible. On the heels of the 276’s success, Universal Audio pushes its Volt series to its limit with the 876, which boasts eight analog inputs in a single rack-mount unit.
The fact that a class-compliant interface with these specs exists in the first place is a minor miracle, as most manufacturers cannot resist the urge to marry hardware functionality to proprietary software when their unit hits eight or more inputs (and a $1,000-plus price tag to match).
While the Volt 876 pairs well with the accompanying Console software that will be familiar to anyone who’s used an Apollo interface, it also works just fine without it. Immediately after unboxing, I powered it up with the included IEC power cable—a standard connector instead of a clunky wall wart!—and connected it to my iPhone 16 Pro Max via the provided USB-C cable. I opened up Loopy Pro, added an audio input, and plugged my guitar straight into one of the two XLR/instrument combo jacks on the front of the unit. After a quick gain adjustment, the bright, spiky tone of my Fender Telecaster came to life through the headphones I plugged into one of the two front-mounted quarter-inch TRS monitor jacks. It worked flawlessly, and I wept tears of joy. My struggle to find a quality audio interface that works seamlessly on iOS had reached its conclusion.
An interface is only as good as its preamps and converters, and the 876 is at the top of the heap in this segment of the market. The preamps are crisp and spacious without any fake-sounding sizzle, and low-end sources like bass guitars and kick drums sound clear and impactful. The 32-bit/192-kHz A-D and D-A conversion is about as good as it gets for the price. Are you better off with a rack of high-end outboard preamps and compressors? Of course, but most audio engineers who are inclined to go for that type of setup are probably not the target market for this piece, which is just a click above entry level when compared to the rest of Universal Audio’s expansive catalog of home recording gear.
Simplicity is an obvious strong suit of the 876, and it has a handful of essential options that are easily accessible on the front panel. Press one of the eight channel selectors to choose which input you’re adjusting, then use the clicky gain knob on the left to adjust its preamp gain. Phantom power and phase inversion are available, and you can toggle the impedance of the front-mounted inputs from line to instrument level in case you want to plug in a guitar, synth, or other instrument that’s not a mic.
Each channel also has access to some of Universal Audio’s secret sauce courtesy of yet another suite of buttons. The first is Vintage, which passes the selected channel through an onboard emulation of the iconic 610 tube preamp found on a retro Universal Audio mixing console. It’s subtle and hard to notice unless it’s A/B’ed against a track without it, but I found myself leaving it on at all times when recording vocals and guitars. It rounded off the chiming brightness of my Telecaster, and it smoothed out the harshness of the somewhat erratic vocals my band's guitar player brings to the mix. It’s no substitute for a proper blend of EQ and compression in your DAW, but it’s a nice added bonus that makes things sound 25 percent better without any effort whatsoever.
The second “magic” button near the channel selector is labeled “76 Comp,” and it selects one of three settings for the 1176 compressor emulation on each channel. “Fast” is a nice fail-safe mode that quickly squashes transients in uneven rhythmic sources, “GTR” is a tad slower and works wonders on sustained guitar chords and solos dripped in wet effects and feedback, and “VOC” is a relatively transparent option that smooths out peak-y vocal performances. Your mileage will vary with these settings, but it won’t take long to find a favorite that’s always on in most sessions.
An array of eight quarter-inch line-level outputs takes up a third of the unit's backside, with channels 1 and 2 acting as your default main outputs, and UA’s Console app–currently available only on MacOS–makes it easy to dial granular adjustments to routing as needed. A pair of 8 ADAT ins and outs can sync with external gear via word clock, and all digital channels show up in iOS or desktop DAWS–no drivers or Console connection needed. 5-pin MIDI I/O is also on hand to sync synths and other outboard digital gear.
Spending just shy of a grand on a recording interface is no small investment for a burgeoning bedroom producer, but the expansion opportunities that are built so seamlessly into the 876 mean you’ll be set for at least a few years as your collection of instruments and collaborators expands. When compared to popular units with similar input/output, you’re essentially paying a few hundred dollars or so more for a few key features: reliable class compliance, the superior build quality one would expect from Universal Audio, and the somewhat gimmicky bells and whistles that adorn each of its eight channels.
I can speak from personal experience that finally being able to end my quest for an interface with robust I/O and above-average preamps is a major achievement I didn’t think was possible. I use the magical buttons on each channel every time I plug something into the 876, but I’m also that guy who thinks “Gaucho” is an annoying listen, so do what you will with that.
These days, an inordinate amount of audio tools are marketed as solutions for problems most musicians with dangerous cases of Gear Acquisition Syndrome, aka “GAS,” don’t even know they have. Pretty much every musician needs a quick and reliable way to record their ideas, and it’s hard to argue against the Volt 876 being the exact tool for the job for most folks who just want things to sound good without a whole lot of extra fuss. At $999, it’s definitely in the “Buy nice or buy twice” bucket, but this could be the last interface you buy for some time unless you need 50 channels to record an orchestra on your iPad in the near future. If you don’t expect that to happen, do yourself a favor and cough up a few hundred dollars extra and use the 876 as the centerpiece of your recording rig.
Source: Wired
