Behringer UMC404HD USB Audio Interface $150.84

Thanks. I'm hoping you're wrong and that they'll return to the $100 range (although I fear you're right).

I have used one of these for several years (off of an Adorama steal of a price well under $100, but anyway) and it's absolutely worth the price. I too hope they return to the $100 range so I can set up a second recording area in my home.

The device itself works excellently with multiple DAWs for a variety of devices. I currently have it lined for guitar, keyboard, a condenser mic (it does supply phantom power), and an external pick up for folk and acoustics.

Clear sound with quite a bit of control on the 4 overall channels.

Thanks for sharing OP!

Also available on Sweetwater [sweetwater.com]for the same price.

I've had one of these for a few years as well, and I have two major gripes:

First, the headphone jack is, well, bad. It can introduce distortion that you won't get at the same-or even louder-levels with a better interface. It's not just a matter of "technically it's not perfect." We're talking audible distortion in low frequencies. My advice is to send the line outputs to something like a Topping L30 or Magni Heresy and you'll get WAY better sound.

Second issue I've ran into is worth mentioning only because of how painful it made my experience. With that said, this could be due to my motherboard specifically, so ymmv. The TL;DR of this issue is that whenever my computer went to sleep, the audio interface would disappear completely (device manager, sound devices, everything) until I either restart my computer, or physically disconnect and re-connect the interface. I THINK I resolved this by switching which USB controller the interface was connected to and DISABLING USB selective suspend. Disabling selective suspend helped the most, but I still had issues until I switched to a port on a different USB controller. I haven't had it happen since, but it has only been about a week, so I could just be having a lucky streak right now.

At $150, this is a reasonable price considering the good feature set. I think it's still the cheapest way to get 4 microphone preamps, but if given the choice I wouldn't buy it again. My Tascam US-1200 was a better overall experience, but they've dropped driver support so it's not really viable anymore. If I just needed one to two mics, I'd get the Motu M2 (which I have alongside my UMC404HD). If I needed more I/O, I'd probably get the Audient EVO 8. The UMC404HD is much easier to recommend at it's original price of $100.

If you don't need all these inputs, the Motu M2 at Sweetwater is $10 more and is much better quality.

Wow, I had no idea that these had gone up so much in price since they were under $100 on sale. I have one for recording classes, definitely solid and works well. The traction software is decent as well.

I have nothing but good things to say about Behringer. Not the best product but definitely saved me when I needed it.

I have some Behringer gear, so I am in no way thread-crapping, but there's some interesting drama going on with Behringer at the moment: https://youtu.be/p5RSIWbZ6Vc

For those in the market for this sort of thing, Focusrite also has a sale on their refurb stuff: https://store.focusrite.com/en-gb...efurbished

I bought one of these a few months back and works great if you plan to use more than 2 audio inputs. I paid $146 for this kit on Adorama fwiw:

https://www.adorama.com/beumc404hdc.html

Man, I'm so glad I picked mine up before the pandemic when they were trying to give them away at half off.

When I recently built my new rig I upgraded from the Behringer UMC202HD to the MOTU M2. There was nothing wrong with the 202, just wanted something a bit more modern and that used USB-C even tho is still USB 2.0.

The MOTU is very good, but honestly I don't notice any sound difference vs the UMC202. Not even with latency. But the buttons and the gorgeous meter display on the M2 takes the cake. Keep in mind that the M2, unlike the UMC202, is USB powered only. This could cause problems with heavy audio projects depending which port you use on the PC. Especially when you use a cable longer than 4ft.

Sweetwater has it for 149 as well:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/...-interface

nice deal. i had considered the umc202hd and the scarlett 2i2 before settling on a native instruments. very happy i didnt go with focusrite at all

Quote from momostallion : nice deal. i had considered the umc202hd and the scarlett 2i2 before settling on a native instruments. very happy i didnt go with focusrite at all

What do you recommend for a use case where an abundance of clean gain is needed to drive dynamic mics (at least 2, no more than 4), but an audio interface is also needed? As I understand, the USB-powered interfaces will not supply enough clean gain.