U-Control Uca202 Usb Audio Interface

I had this item in my wishlist for a long time and finally bought it. Totally worth its price. I use it with Audio Technica M20x monitor headphones and it's a very good combination.

review: Ultra-Low Latency 2 In/2 Out USB/Audio Interface with Digital Output Got this to do a quick and simple job recording vinyls to my laptop. Stereo L/R recording works. sample rate 48khz at 16bit res. Auto detected driver from win10. Matched it with free software Audacity. Initially had trouble recording stereo -- kept recording in mono. Ended up being windows not audacity . The trick for me was to CLOSE software (audacity) then open windows Sound manager -> Recording -> Mic properties -> Advanced -> pick a TWO CHANNEL recording format mode. For some strange reason when the driver auto installed, it picked ONE CHANNEL MONO recording only. And no matter what i did in Audacity, it would only record MONO. This trick allowed me to record in independent L / R channels. I was about to return this product as a defect until i realised this wasnt setup properly by default. Anyway, a few things about this product 1. nice clean simply recording -- i have no complaints. I wouldnt call this the most cleaning audio interface (like my steinberg box) but for the size and portability, its darn good. 2. headphone direct monitoring with no latency -- nice that it has this switch. very handy when youre trying to monitor the recording. 3. Also used as a DAC so you can OUtPUT to the audio interface to send the audio to external amp (via output RCA ) or just headphones from the unit 4. Headphone DAC has a small dial to control volume of headphone monitoring (nice!) for the price, portability, and function, this cannot be beat.

Interfaz sencillo, de buen precio, pero potente en prestaciones. -Sampling de 48khz, superior a CD -Gran potencia de salida, bastante mas alta que una Focusrite. y menos ruido. -Entrada de linea para grabar de una fuente analógica. -Minijack para monitoreo con auriculares -No necesita drivers, ¡PLUG'N PLAY total! -¡Funciona hasta en mi telefono android! También en Raspberry y Linux -No pesa ni ocupa nada -Salida optica (Toslink) de regalo No puede falta en cualquier caja de herramientas.

It's a great little unit, sounds good and does the job it's designed for real well. It you are using it on windows, just check you sound settings for the device as microsoft seems to have decided that a stereo device should be set to mono as it's default, which is real weird as windows knows & tells you it's a stereo microphone but still decides to remix it down to mono if you don't change you sound settings. Other than the windows issues, I've had no problem with the hardware, it's been plugged and unplugged lots of times without an issues. I would happy by any of the Behringer 202 range again.

PS - 28 April 2014. In some of the reviews that I have read some of the correspondents have reported difficulty getting the Behringer UCA202 U Control to record in stereo and some are having difficulty adjusting the volume levels. Sometimes you have to adjust the sound settings in the control panel on a laptop or PC. You have to tell your computer to record in two channels instead of one for stereo. Go into the sounds window and select " Microphone 2 USB codec" with the device plugged in to a USB connexion. Select recording and advanced and set the device to 2 channel CD quality. I use Audacity software. You need to check that Audacity is recording in two channels for stereo recording rather than one channel for mono. You go into "Preferences" which is in the "Edit" menu and then set the USB recording device to stereo in the recording box. If you are having problems setting up the recording volumes then Audacity can be adjusted with the microphone slider which is on the tool bar. This works fine for me with a line level output from my amplifier - I do not use the phono pre-amp from my turntable kit when I record an LP or single. If this fails (or where you do not have a line output from your amp) you could try the headphone output which is usually located on the front of the amplifier. If you turn the amplifier volume control right down then it will attenuate the output level. Using a combination of the Audacity microphone slider and the headphone output you should be able to adjust the volume of the recording level to make sure the recording is loud enough but does not distort. In the view menu you can set Audacity to "show" clipping" . This will display a vertical red line on sections of the recording where the volume levels are too high and therefore the music will sound distorted - this is a very useful tool. I have never used a MAC PC but I would think that it has similar methods of controlling whether you record in stereo or not by using a sound control feature. I would guess that other types of recording software similar to Audacity need to be set up to record and playback in stereo or mono according to your choice. If the above does not work then you are faced with the possibility that some of your equipment is not working correctly from a physical point of view. You could check the connections have been fitted correctly or use alternative equipment to find out what has gone wrong. When set up correctly this product works really well; I am sure you will not be disappointed. Main text: I bought this brilliant device to "digitise" old LPs, which I buy in second hand shops, and archive old audio cassettes before they self destruct. I read all the reviews and I agree with most of them and decided to buy it even though it is of flimsy construction. It is not going to be used very often and I am careful with equipment so it should last years. It literally took me ten minutes to plug it into the line outputs of my amplifier and connect the device to a laptop, then cue up a Beatles 45 and digitise it with Audacity. Audacity is brilliant in my opinion and there is plenty of help text and Wikipedia information to get you going. I deleted the the Beatles 45 file as I just used it to test the recording levels. Next up was a Shadows LP "Rock on with the Shadows in Mono". Yes, you can buy this on CD but sometimes I like to play an ageing LP for old time's sake. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I did not use Audacity to remove any surface noise from the record or clicks or pops; Hank's twanging drowns them out anyway. I played the digital recording back through the same amplifier and neither my wife nor I could hear any difference from the original: it sounded the same warts and all. At the end of the "first side" I felt compelled to jump up and turn the laptop er, record over. What more can I say about the sound quality? This was great stuff - the Shadows back in their 1960's glory, and you cannot damage the needle when you jive. One of the reviewers has complained about the the inability of the analogue converter to sample at 24 bit 96 KHz (24/96) as it is limited to 16 bit 48 KHz. This might affect you if you are mastering music and you want to keep the noise floor down when mixing lots of "takes". So, I take the point. For me, digitising old recordings at 16/44.1 or at red book CD standard is good enough. I fail to see how using a 24/96 sampling rate could improve the sound quality as I am only doing one "take". If you are only going to use this converter to digitise your records you can save yourself money and some disk space by buying this device. I have got plenty of external DACs, so I do not need to use this device for playback from a laptop or PC but I tested it just the same. The Toslink optical output works really well and so do the line outputs. The headphone amplifier is not so good but it is sufficient for my purposes. If you are on the road this device will probably perform better than your laptop's sound card or headphone output. The Behringer does not perform as well as the rinky dink DAC that I have got in my main HI-FI and I could not expect it to. But, it performs well compared to my other portable DACs. There is no Toslink input facility. Pros :- You can use a laptop for line output sources. You no longer have to use the line inputs of a desktop PC. You can connect it to a USB port on the front rather than fiddle about with connecting line outputs to the input connexions on the back of the PC. This is especially useful if your kit is under a desk. You can take your laptop to your HI-FI equipment rather than the other way round. There is no need to unplug your turntable or cassette player etc. and then plug it all back in again. It is small, very portable and very versatile - an ADC and DAC in one box! Cons: None really unless you are going to subject the device to hard and continuous use. In conclusion: Five stars for sonic performance and overall convenience; it is simply brilliant . But, it gets only three stars for build quality. The USB deck can now be given away.