Lets have real talk about audio interfaces

[rod_zero]

I've done a lot of research. I'm going to get the Behringer UMC404HD, because it's very cheap (£90.00) but has great preamps. Not sure why people assume spending thousands on a USB interface is going to make their sound more magical and higher quality.

It won't, the difference on sound is minimal.

Driver and support on the other hand... is the difference between "it works or not". And difference between brands is quite big, even some expensive brands are quite mediocre at this like Antelope, some others drop support fast as Apogee.

[Ed A.]

I'd be surprised if the Behringer UMC404HD required drivers and couldn't be used class compliant. Besides sound quality, that's the main thing I look for in an audio interface.

[fernee]

[/quote]
Set the Mix knob on the audio interface fully CW (so it's pointing at PB). Don't activate direct monitor in the DAW, just arm the track and you should only hear the sound being processed.
[/quote]

With the mic knob fully CW to the PB, I can’t hear anything in the track, not the direct or the effect...

[Etienne1973]

With the mic knob fully CW to the PB, I can’t hear anything in the track, not the direct or the effect...

You successfully disabled hardware monitoring. If you don't hear any sound at this point. All good!

Now you should only have to enable 'Live Input Monitoring' in Waveform 8.

Step 2. Enable Live Input Monitor
Now make sure the input is selected and look for the Live Input Monitoring option in Properties. Click to enable it. You should hear the input going through Waveform and back out to your speakers (or headphones).

[Etienne1973]

... some others drop support fast as Apogee.

Do you have/had an Apogee Ensemble MK1 or Duet FireWire?

[rod_zero]

... some others drop support fast as Apogee.

Do you have/had an Apogee Ensemble MK1 or Duet FireWire?

Nope, had a First generation One

[Etienne1973]

... some others drop support fast as Apogee.

Do you have/had an Apogee Ensemble MK1 or Duet FireWire?

Nope, had a First generation One

Isn't One Mk1 still supported? AFAIK FireWire interfaces aren't supported anymore.

[EnochLight]

I've done a lot of research. I'm going to get the Behringer UMC404HD, because it's very cheap (£90.00) but has great preamps. Not sure why people assume spending thousands on a USB interface is going to make their sound more magical and higher quality.

More often than not, it's the quality of drivers and support of said hardware that is just as important. £90.00 is indeed super affordable for an audio interface, especially for one that has pre-amps that rate somewhat decent... but you will NEVER get the sort of driver performance and support from Behringer that you would from (say for instance) RME.

That said, at £90.00 - that's so little money that you can just buy a new interface once they drop support.

[fernee]

Etienne1973, thanks, it’s working, I can hear the guitar processed through Waveform, and the vocals too....
It’s true what they say, Behringer it’s cheap, and looks like a great piece of hardware gear, just... it doesn’t have a proper user manual, and the support sucks!!!
A simple thing like what happened to me, ends being a frustrating situation, anyway, thanks again to everybody in the forum.

[pdxindy]

Yup... BabyFace Pro is it... I have one for traveling. Compact, runs off of my laptop usb power. Sounds very good, easy to use and rock solid.

I always had issues with audio interfaces until I tried RME.

[starflakeprj]

I have the Arturia AudioFuse, but I wouldn't buy it again. As I haven't had the possibility to test it with other hardware, I'm not sure it's my interface or my computer which is the problem.

I'm routing my Windows system audio through my AudioFuse and when watching (for instance) a YouTube video and in the same time working in any of my DAWs, the sound can suddenly drop and the video stops playing. The sound keeps playing in my DAW, but to get the sound back from my system (may be any other non-ASIO application) I need to power off the AudioFuse and power it on again.

This seem to happen sometimes when the CPU load rises (does not have to spike), but it can also happen just when switching applications, or opening another tab in Chrome.

My old Roland QUAD-CAPTURE UA-55 did not act like this, and it is an old interface that cost 1/3 of what AudioFuse cost. Arturia is not much of a help, just the "standard" tips on how to optimize. They won't listen when I tell them I didn't have any troubles similar to this with my old interface, on the same hardware (and Windows 10 Pro 64-bit), with drivers and a firmware from 2014.

It seems like AudioFuse more or less is abandoned when it comes to drivers and firmwares. It has been on the market for a year or so, but the latest firmware was released in July 2018, and the software in September 2018.

To comment on my own comment. I was in contact with Arturia, twice, about my AudioFuse, and the problems I had. Both times they gave me newbie-nonsense stuff to try out, but they wouldn't agree there is something wrong with the firmware or the drivers.

Recently, I think last week, I found there was a new update of the control center, containing both new firmware and new drivers. And guess what? I haven't run into these problems after that update. Arturia is pretty much the same as Native Instruments in this regard, they would NEVER admit when something is wrong with their products. Unfortunately.

Glad my interface is working now though.

[samsam]

If you're on a Mac for music, I'd wholeheartedly recommend MOTU.

Still using Ultralite Mark 1 with latest OS.

[The Noodlist]

If you're on a Mac for music, I'd wholeheartedly recommend MOTU.

Still using Ultralite Mark 1 with latest OS.

Does the PSU get hot? Noisy?
Traveler MKI seems to get very hot, only just noticed.

[samsam]

^ I don't use an external PSU, bus powered.

[AdvancedFollower]

I've done a lot of research. I'm going to get the Behringer UMC404HD, because it's very cheap (£90.00) but has great preamps. Not sure why people assume spending thousands on a USB interface is going to make their sound more magical and higher quality.

More often than not, it's the quality of drivers and support of said hardware that is just as important. £90.00 is indeed super affordable for an audio interface, especially for one that has pre-amps that rate somewhat decent... but you will NEVER get the sort of driver performance and support from Behringer that you would from (say for instance) RME.

That said, at £90.00 - that's so little money that you can just buy a new interface once they drop support.

What exactly should I be looking for in terms of this poor driver performance? It works exactly as expected, producing clear audio with no crashes, dropouts or noticeable latency, just like my previous PreSonus Audiobox and the M-Audio Delta I had before that. It's also class compliant, so you don't really need any additional drivers, although I downloaded them anyway because you get a nifty little utility to quickly set the buffer size, sample rate etc.