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Hi! I am looking to buy a high quality, yet affordable external (USB) audiocard for my laptop. I will mainly use it to record music from a pro-sounded DMG. I remember reading somewhere on this forum people where really digging the 'Behringer Uca 202'. But, since it's so cheap and it's from Behringer, I am not quite sure if I am correct 
Any tips and/or recommendations?
Thanks!
M
Last edited by MONODEER (Dec 7, 2014 8:16 pm)
I've heard good things about Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 - and it's on sale right now.
Also, Focusrite seems to be making good & affordable interfaces as well.
Last edited by _-_- (Dec 7, 2014 8:32 pm)
I use M-Audio Fast Track. It's really affordable but I've been able to get some excellent mixes using it and I get low latency as well. I'd often compose intricate mixes with lots of orchestral and rock themed instruments, so if it can handle that, it can handle DMG.
you won't hear me say to stay away from behringer, they have some good stuff, but stay away from U-control soundcard, it's audio quality is a bit better than onboard sound, but not all that great, I think as soon as you reach +100$/€ for a soundcard it will deliver pretty ok.
Most important, if you spend a bit more money on a soundcard, think about what in/ouputs you want, not now, but in the (near) future.
(I would also recommend a NI audio 6, My audio 2 is still one of my best sounding cards)
Thanks for the tips so far! I think am going to dive into the Focusrite interfaces since they seem to have everything I need but maybe the Behringer UCA 202 will do the job perfectly. (Whoops, did I say that out loud?)
@Manukinuki & Crashmast: This was quite an interesting read: http://nwavguy.blogspot.nl/2011/02/behr … eview.html
More tips & advice is more than welcome ofcourse 
The thing is that it's not just about sound quality. That's actually a factor that doesn't change much between the lower grade interfaces. What will matter though is how good the drivers are, and I think you will have much less hassle with something tried and tested like Focusrite. Plus, it most probably has got better conversion and pre-amps than the Behringer.
The thing is that it's not just about sound quality. That's actually a factor that doesn't change much between the lower grade interfaces. What will matter though is how good the drivers are, and I think you will have much less hassle with something tried and tested like Focusrite. Plus, it most probably has got better conversion and pre-amps than the Behringer.
CHECK!
Hi! I use a Behringer UCA 202 and it's not too bad. If you install the correct drivers (I think I downloaded them from the Behringer website) you shouldn't have issues there and the latency can go reasonably low (I use it with Renoise). The headphone level control is now a bit noisey but it's probably just dust and it's just for the headphone volume so no big deal. I use this audio interface for three reasons: 1. I don't want to use my laptop's onboard sound which is noticeably noisey and glitchy, 2. I don't have much money to spend on gear and 3. I don't have much space for gear and wanted something ultra portable. Sure, I may 'upgrade' one day but for now it does the trick, so go for it I say!
this topic gives me deja vu!
anyway, hardly anyone is going to have used more than a few audio interfaces so most of us won't have a clue how they stack up against the rest of the competition and i think people will tend to just tell you to get whatever they've got themselves
i'll review the 3 i've owned
m-audio fast track pro
pros:
- lots of inputs/outputs
- midi i/o
- decent-ish price for the features you get
cons:
- crackled a lot
- randomly stopped working one day
- drivers are a massive PITA
- not class compliant
- drivers won't even install with my new laptop
- biggest piece of shit i've ever owned
- massive waste of money
2/10
behringer uca222
pros:
- cheap as chips
- class compliant (no driver issues)
- mostly works
cons:
- the i/o is RCA which i guess is for use with turntables and tape decks and stuff. nothing i use has RCA so i had to use a bunch of adapters. if you have a gameboy with RCA on it like i've seen a few cm.o members using i guess this could be considered a pro rather than a con
- sometimes has weird inexplicable crackling or just flat out refuses to work, often these things seem to just resolve themselves
7/10
zoom h2
pros:
- built in high quality microphone (good for skype )
- class compliant (no driver issues)
- just works
- uses 3.5mm TRS jacks (headphone style) like everything else i own
- can record onto an SD card without using the PC at all
- portable
cons:
- quite expensive if you aren't going to use the microphone or the SD card recording
- headphone jack can be a little bit noisy
9/10
Last edited by sandneil (Dec 8, 2014 4:13 pm)
behringer uca222
pros:
- cheap as chips
- class compliant (no driver issues)
- mostly workscons:
- the i/o is RCA which i guess is for use with turntables and tape decks and stuff. nothing i use has RCA so i had to use a bunch of adapters. if you have a gameboy with RCA on it like i've seen a few cm.o members using i guess this could be considered a pro rather than a con
- sometimes has weird inexplicable crackling or just flat out refuses to work, often these things seem to just resolve themselves7/10
also own a 222 and agree with neil, though mine never had crackling issues. RCA was a plus for me as I kept it plugged into a mixer and a tape deck, from which I frequently sampled to Ableton with zero problems. The 222 is usually the same price as the 202 ("cheap as chips" is about right) so I'd say go for it unless you're really really worried about quality.
I feel good about my behringer 302. I only really got it because my laptop doesn't have line in (what the fuck dell) and I've found that it has quite a lot of features for how cheap it is.
Hi everyone, could't help but notice that no one had mentioned Lexicon for Usb audio cards. got the alpha recently, well about 6 months or so ago, for a screaming deal on amazon, and used it primarily for guitar and micing. It has a 1/4" instrument jack, and a nice dual 1/4" mono input in the back, is built like a tank, and works natively with all Asio based programs. Oh, and it has a Mic input that you can use instead of the dual 1/4" mono jacks, but i like it because one of my DMG's has a 1/4 prosound, and the other has the RCA setup, which was as simple as getting a Hosa cable with rca on one end, and 1/4 on the other. I have had a friend who recorded tonnes of stuff with the 2i2 scarlet, and it is also a great interface for most any needs. But the most important thing is to make sure you get one that utilizes the proper jacks/connections for your setup, or else it will just be one headache after another.
I've owned a couple of Lexicon units. They don't have driver or sound quality issues, but I think the hardware itself is a bit spotty. After a couple of years, one of them didn't work at all, and the other one had a malfunctioning input.
Back when I was pretty broke I got an Alesis Multimix 4 USB mixer. For how stupidly cheap it was, I'd recommend it. It has never given me any problems, and it has a two channel phantom-powered (though not very nice-sounding) preamp, which is pretty good for $50. I've mostly just used it for digitizing stuff from tape decks; I don't think I'd want to record an album through its preamps. But it's a good option, especially for someone who's poor & doesn't want to deal with RCA ins.
Last edited by Brother Android (Dec 10, 2014 6:47 pm)