USB bus powered AI

[Armistice]

*asking for a friend....

So daughter of friend, who's a singer guitarist, wants to get into recording and she's asked me about an audio interface and linked me to some Behringer device which she can get with a voucher she has at the local music store - which is in the country and has jack all range - their supplier is a company who seems to deal exclusively in "second string" gear from minor brands. Still..

My issue with the Behringer device is that it gets its power from the USB, and I've always thought of that as a bit of a no-no, but when I went checking for other, perhaps better, devices - Focusrite Scarlett and the like - I found they all seem to have USB power down at that end of the range, and further up too... I've always associated USB powered interfaces with latency issues and noise.

But then I've never actually used one, so what would I know!

She's going to be using a 5yo laptop, so we have to assume USB 2.0 ports on it. 2 inputs only would be required, and I suspect she's going to be one of these people who struggle to play acoustic guitar and sing separately - although I'm guessing on this, maybe not. But we should think 2 mics, both needing phantom power at the same time.

So is USB power as bad as I think it is, or is that just something I made up along the way?

[rayc]

My ppreferred Focusrite interface was externally powered but the "solo" and "studio" series are USB powered ...not a preference with me BUT as it's all I have for my W7 & now W10 DAW the little 2in device with USB power has worked flawlessly through USB2. It "phantom" powered two condenser mics at once a week ago - no issues there either.
USB mic - no way...USB interface - fine - she'll need one with a direct monitoring option but that's unrelated.

[JD01]

I've have a USB powered scarlett 2i2 and a mains powered 18i20.

No difference.

The behringer is also probably fine, although maybe not as robust or stable from a software point of view. [mention]Tadpui[/mention] knows all about this.

Much more support with Focusrite though and bundled easy to use VSTs.

There's the 2i2 Scarlett Studio bundle which is good value, comes with cans, a mic and XLR cable.

[rayc]

There's the 2i2 Scarlett Studio bundle which is good value, comes with cans, a mic and XLR cable.

I have the Gen One of this -- no issues at all. The headphones aren't fab but I just use them for tracking not critical listening. The mic is fine too..a condenser BRIGHT red, the cable sounds quiet.
I have a Behri mic and preamp and both are pretty good - certainly good enough for starting out - in fact 100X better than the gear I started with.

[Armistice]

OK - interesting - so clearly that idea entered my head along the way - maybe long ago it was the case. When I saw even the Focusrite 4i4o device was USB powered i started to get the impression I may be wrong.

Her problem is she's in the country and she won a $100 voucher at a country music store nearby - now the Behri is $249, so that's $149 she has to come up with, which I'm assuming she can find. The supplier has Behringer and nothing else I've even heard of, and nothing even slightly "up market" like Focusrite.

My inclination was to steer her to a Focusrite 2i2o device - specifically because I know people here have them and you get the VST goodies, but they're $329, and her $100 voucher ain't going to help her. I may have to tell her to hit her father up for some cash... I think it's her birthday in a few months.

12 months ago the financing wasn't a problem - she has already laid down a ridiculous amount of money for her dream acoustic guitar - she didn't listen to me then - which is being built - not sure how she's going to come up with the final payment on that. And she had a job and an income. But not now...

Lesson in choices for her, anyway. Thanks guys.

[JD01]

Armi, bare in mind. All of my mixes have been done with standard included Reaper VSTs, Focusrite bundle VSTs, EZ Drummer and a single reverb impulse.

With a little bit of guidance from you to help her get into using Reaper she should have no trouble learning to record fairly well.

[JD01]

OK - interesting - so clearly that idea entered my head along the way - maybe long ago it was the case. When I saw even the Focusrite 4i4o device was USB powered i started to get the impression I may be wrong.

Her problem is she's in the country and she won a $100 voucher at a country music store nearby - now the Behri is $249, so that's $149 she has to come up with, which I'm assuming she can find. The supplier has Behringer and nothing else I've even heard of, and nothing even slightly "up market" like Focusrite.

My inclination was to steer her to a Focusrite 2i2o device - specifically because I know people here have them and you get the VST goodies, but they're $329, and her $100 voucher ain't going to help her. I may have to tell her to hit her father up for some cash... I think it's her birthday in a few months.

12 months ago the financing wasn't a problem - she has already laid down a ridiculous amount of money for her dream acoustic guitar - she didn't listen to me then - which is being built - not sure how she's going to come up with the final payment on that. And she had a job and an income. But not now...

Lesson in choices for her, anyway. Thanks guys.

To be fair to her, if she wants to record acoustic guitar, the most important thing is to have a good sounding acoustic to start with.

Tell her to get the 2 input Behringer UPhoria (UM22 I think, Tad will know).
There's bound to be a decent free compressor available that's easier to use for a beginner that ReaComp.

Absolute bare bones set-up:
Behringer interface.
Behringer C1 condensor.
XLR cable.
Mic stand and pop shield.

[Armistice]

Here's the irony - I recorded album number 3 on a Yamaha AW4416 standalone DAW, listening on Behri Truth monitors. When I upgraded to a PC recording solution I gave both the AW4416 - which is a serious machine - and the monitors to her father, and they're still there, fully functional, and neither she nor her father seems to be able to operate the DAW with any skill, despite ample suggestions from me as to how over the years.

And her father is a performing musician of 40 years who gigs (pre-COVID) his solo covers act anywhere within a 200 mile radius - so instruments, mics, cables aren't an issue for her.

So I'm not going to be volunteering as her recording tutor using an interface and a 5 year old laptop when I've gifted the family thousands worth of fully functional recording gear that's "too hard" to work out.

I once tried to teach her stuff on the acoustic guitar - "I'll just learn from dad, he's my teacher!" - now dad is competent as you'd expect, but we're not even on the same planet in terms of acoustic guitar playing, and he can't teach her anything outside his own fairly narrow knowledge, so I sort of gave up on trying - until perhaps she matures a little and is interested in pushing it a bit more, which isn't happening yet. I suspect it never will. But she's only 21, so who knows.

A bit of recording struggle will be good for her soul.

[vomitHatSteve]

For a 21 year old, the default assumption with tech should be that she can figure it out and/or look up a manual

I've never had problems with noise on usb powered interfaces, but I use them mostly for live rather than recorded (where they certainly beat my laptop's onboard)

[Tadpui]

Do you know which Behringer interface she's looking at? If it's one of the U-Phoria interfaces (other than the UMC22 or UM2) then she'll be in great shape. They're really good interfaces for the money, and they have extra features that nobody else offers at that price point (inserts and pads on each input channel).

I agree with the sentiments above regarding USB bus power. I have yet to run into issues running several of these entry-level interfaces off of bus power without supplemental AC. The UMC404HD ran a 4-mic setup (2 of which were phantom powered condensers) to record drums and it didn't falter at all. I was actually really impressed with that interface overall.

[JD01]

What's wrong with the UM2 and UMC22?

[Armistice]

Do you know which Behringer interface she's looking at? If it's one of the U-Phoria interfaces (other than the UMC22 or UM2) then she'll be in great shape. They're really good interfaces for the money, and they have extra features that nobody else offers at that price point (inserts and pads on each input channel).

I agree with the sentiments above regarding USB bus power. I have yet to run into issues running several of these entry-level interfaces off of bus power without supplemental AC. The UMC404HD ran a 4-mic setup (2 of which were phantom powered condensers) to record drums and it didn't falter at all. I was actually really impressed with that interface overall.

It is, in fact, the U-Phoria UMC204HD - OK that's good. I'll tell her to order one in then. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Armistice]

What's wrong with the UM2 and UMC22?

Nothing, so long as you're Welsh, I believe...

[Tadpui]

What's wrong with the UM2 and UMC22?

Those are the only two U-Phoria interfaces that don't have their own drivers, and they rely on ASIO4ALL to work. That wouldn't be an irritation, except something weird happened at some point between Windows, Behringer, and ASIO4ALL that prevented me from dropping the buffer size below 256 samples without it suffering from massive dropouts in the audio signal. So while the UMC22 is still an incredible value (at least until its price doubled), I have to shy people away from them since I can no longer vouch for their compatibility with Windows.

[JD01]

Ah. Cool did you mention that on your channel