Upgrading from UMC202HD, worth it?

[jjbug]

I've been using my Behringer UMC202HD for 2 years now. Lately I have been wondering about upgrading it for something in the 200-400€ range. My main concern is a good quality DI input and I'm wondering if there is a significant increase in recording quality between various DI or is it just the logo we're paying for.

Anyway, I've been looking at the SSL2, ID14/22 and the AXE I/O (which is quite hard to get). The reviews are great for all those interfaces, obviously. Is there anything to be gained "tone wise"? I don't feel like I'm missing out, but I'm just wondering. I do all my daily playing through studio monitors or cans as I live in an apartment.

 

[mightycicadalord]

For the stuff I've written, I can't say I've ever felt a DI or the pre made much of a difference on tracking guitar.

This tune, drums guitar and bass were tracked straight into the pre's on a um404 for example.

https://soundcloud.com/melohq%2Fswindle-ft-jake-black

 

[DVDdoug]

Is there anything to be gained "tone wise"?

Normally, no... But a quick search indicates that the 3 units you listed have switches or options to emulate/simulate analog equipment. The AXE I/O is intended for guitar so I'd expect "strong" effects. The other two are likely to be subtle.

I think there are other guitar interfaces that can simulate an amp & cabinet and there are software "sims". A guitar amp is not supposed to be high fidelity.... It's supposed to be "part of the instrument" and add "character" or "tone" and as you probably know, they all sound different and different guitar players have different favorites.

 

[jjbug]

To be honest, I'm really not interested in those "4K" modes and the various options on the AXE I/O. I believe, that the DI should be as clean and transparent as possible. So the chance is, that it's just in my head and I should keep using my Behringer until it starts to malfunction

I do have this weird thing with higher sample rates, that started happening quite recently. Might not be related to the interface, but I went back to 41khz from 192khz and it seems to be fine. Probably it's just my PC that's acting up.

 

[mightycicadalord]

I would definitely keep things at 44.1 or 48khz, not much use for the higher stuff.

What are the weird things?

 

[jjbug]

I would definitely keep things at 44.1 or 48khz, not much use for the higher stuff.

What are the weird things?

The amp simulators sound weird. Quite hard to explain, but almost feels like the EQ's are off or something. Sounds fine on 44.1 and 48. As I told, this is probably an issue of my PC not handling (i7 8600K - should be good enough, but idk) or a driver issue.

 

[freemansteve]

Keep it. It's a fine unit to record guitar, etc, arguably overkill for home use.

Don't forget your guitar has no better than 8kHz bandwidth and if you're lucky, 50dB s/n ratio. And if you go through pedals it gets worse (or better!).

I assume you are plugging the guitar in 'direct' with a jack.

I use varying setups, but always use a wireless connection off the guitar. Then into pedals (wireless Rx) then to a DI box. The DI goes into an XLR on my mixer (9 Ch) and the mixer feeds my usb-ADC. I have an output to my guitar amp, and can take an output off the amp back into the mixer - so I can variably mix the 'clean' guitar with it also going through amp for crunch, reverb etc. Other times, I loop the pedals through send and return on the mixer, so can mix totally raw guitar with guitar+pedals. Takes longer to explain than just setting it up. Point is buying a fancier mixer gives a lot more options than upgrading the Beringer, which is way more than good enough.....

 

[jjbug]

Thank you!
I've tried running pedals between the guitar and the interface, but I really prefer the Neural DSP Archetype plugins, which I have acquired quite a few by now. The pedals definitely sound better through a real amplifier.

On another note, should I keep the input gain knob at 0 whenever possible and turn up the input gain in a VST? I try to keep it in the -6db level when recording as someone recommended me previously. My passive bass is very quiet compared to my other guitars and one of my active PU guitar starts clipping without using the -20db pad button.

 

[freemansteve]

Plugins on a DAW for pedal effects are good - but 'wah' is impossible (except horrid auto-wah)

And yes, with an inexpensive mixer (within your budget!), you can shove the guitar, pedals and the amp (if it has pre- or headphone outputs) into the mixer as on, then to the ADC. You can mix every possible combination, and change the order of the "chain". For example, you can have guitar+pedals+amp going to the mixer, or guitar+DI with pedals as send and return, or guitar+amp to mixer with pedals as send & return, if you follow me.

I'm not sure I can visualize which "input gain knob" you mean, but each track (each instrument) should arguably be recorded to the DAW at the maximum volume without clipping or distortion - you can sort out level matching, noise gating etc, later. With a mixer, you can run the bass through a second jack->DI box, into another XLR mixer input and level up the volume at that point (if two are playing). Same applies if one person plays each instrument in turn - but you only need the one DI transformer in that case!

NB these are more than good enough for home use, to run to XLR on a mixer or XLR on your existing ADC/DI box:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-Ultra-DI-DI100-DI-Box/dp/B000CCSWPQ/ref=sr_1_23?crid=AWNIXNFZ3IP&keywords=behringer+di&qid=1649841852&sprefix=behringer+di%2Caps%2C113&sr=8-23