Using audio interface (Behringer UMC204HD) with Waveform (12)

[Peter Widdicombe]

Windows 11
System - Sound - Input devices
Make sure you know which device it is. In my case it uses USB Audio device
Select the device for input...
- set volume
- set 2 channel and your preferred bit rate and depth. For some, it defaults to 1-channel.
- generally recommended to turn OFF sound enhancement. It might set some auto-gain and effects that you don't want Windows to play around with.

Before making changes, always advisable to note what they were before you start, so you can revert if you don't like it...

[irpacynot]

I have a UMC204HD and use Tracktion 13 and am surprised with the issues you are having. I see you are on Windows, have you downloaded and installed the Behringer ASIO drivers? They are much better than the inbuilt Waveform drivers.

https://www.behringer.com/product.html? ... e=0805-AAS

I got the one that is listed for Windows 10/11 on that very same page. That's what's installed. Should I maybe change a particular setting inside of Waveform, you think?

[Peter Widdicombe]

I actually use a UCA222 https://www.behringer.com/product.html? ... e=0805-AAG alongside a mixer; which has some advantages to many mixers' built-in USB . The build-in USB on low-end mixers is often just an inflexible main-mix only feed, and input from that USB piped directly to the master bus, often with no level control.

With this little outboard unit instead...
1. I can treat it as an AUX input or better still use a spare stereo input so I can control level, mute, EQ if needed
2. I can input to the DAW from an alternate source other than the main output - like a second stereo bus or control room

This way, I can LISTEN to the mix plus; the instrument I'm recording with no DAW processing or latency; but have the input to the DAW being only the channel(s) I want to record. I might rethink and probably should have just got something like the UMC-type interface, but when I just want to play bass, guitar, synth the settings and EQ from the mixer are all there, and I only have to unmute the channel(s) I want, and play without firing up the computer ...

I DID find on my newer laptop that the input level from the little USB audio was lower on the new computer; so tweaked the settings in Windows to "pump up the volume" coming in from that USB interface. I may have had to do that on my older laptop as well, but it was Windows 8.1, from so long ago I don't remember

[irpacynot]

Let me ask another question specifically about the Behringer interface: is the USB plug not supposed to plug into the Behringer completely flush? 'Cause it only goes in about half way, with half the metal of the plug outside the plug input. I triple checked with a flash light to make sure there wasn't anything in there, and there isn't.

[irpacynot]

Ended up biting the bullet, and moving onto Waveform 13. The only ASIO driver that would allow me to lower the latency down to 2 ms was the Behringer (the latency was undoable for me without it), but it kept crashing Waveform 12. WF13 seems to be holding up. Don't care for some of the new interface stuff, but I'm sure I'll get used to it .

[irpacynot]

There are audio settings for devices embedded deep within the bowels of windows settings, that allow you to adjust "microphone gain" within the audio devices. Windows 10 wasn't bad, but Win11 was more difficult, and I did find, for some reason, that I had to boost gain more on my "USB audio device" - a Behringer UCA222.

Remember, ASIO4all is a driver that INTERFACES between a DAW and the actual Windows device, so Windows still rears it's ugly head and you don't get to bypass it completely !

(I presume other manufacturer's ASIO work similarly; although some may be able to bypass Windows completely ??)

Let me ask you, since you also use a Behringer audio interface...

On their Youtube channel, they suggest using the mix button to put the output for playback only, so that there's no latency heard while you're recording. However, when I do that, I can't hear the click track from Waveform, or anything else for that matter. If I turn off live monitoring in Waveform, then of course, I can't hear myself recording the track. Certain performances I want to be very subtle and/or at a lite dynamic, so being able to hear myself through the headphones on the interface is kind of necessary.

Is that not truly the case with the mix button on the interface? I've tried tinkering with the A/B button and alternating the mix button for both channels 1 and 2 (using the UMC204HD), but to no avail.

[Peter Widdicombe]

The UCA222 and UFO202 are REALLY basic devices. The 202 has a switch to select RIAA phone, or Line level only (along with a headphone volume); and the 222 has "monitor on/off" which I've only ever used in OFF position to avoid feedback.

Actually, the 202 is less desirable (but can be found...), in that it defaults to monitoring the input back to the output unless you take the cover off and cut some traces on the circuit. It's real purpose was for scanning LP's to the USB interface, I presume.