Behringer U-Phoria UMC22

PROS: I love that its made from metal, feels very good in your hands and provides a sense of confidence. XLR mount is very stable and the knobs feel secure and rigid. Features give yout everything for small studio work. 10 points for design and overal exterior build. Thats all for the PROS.

CONS: For WIN users: what I hate, as many other people, is that Behringer doesn't provide their own dedicated WIN drivers for UMC22 and you're left with Asio4all which is outrageous! Asio4all is not even working correctly on WIN10 after certain update some time ago. If you want small buffer size, Asio4all is going to crash on you or make bad noises eventualy. Thats a shame, because I know that some time ago UMC22 worked flawlesly with Asio4all and provided very small latency. Anyways there are many recommendations to use older Behringer drivers from other users (BEHRINGER_2902_X64_2.8.40), which you can google. It works for many with less issues Asio4all (with the "rapid" option selected in the Behringer drivers settings), but Behringer themselves don't recommend it anymore for some reason.

I should point out, that I had my unit returned for money back. One of the reason is the driver issues, mentioned above, which leaves your very well built unit practicaly unusable. Another reason lies with white noise levels on MIDAS preamp. It was very audible, when I cranked the mic gain pass 70 percent, but I only got minus 20 dB (or less) on my DAW, so in the end you are left with bad noise on your recording after final mixing. I'm not sure if it was drivers' problem or a hardware fault. This may not occure on every Behringer unit, because I also tested another UMC22 unit of my friend with no issues whatsoever, but I've read a lot that the same problems as mine are very common.

That said, I think it could still be usable for beginners and you could get good results from the interface on the condition that you got a working unit (with no noise issues). Also, I should note that UMC22 is better to be used with MAC and not WIN systems, because of the serious driver issues (lack of them) with WIN10.

I would like to preface this by the fact that I am by no means someone well educated in the field of audio. I bought this to go with a cheap microphone setup from Amazon, just so I could talk to my friends with something of a nicer setup.

So, after getting the product and setting it up on my desk, finding the right drivers when getting it to work with my PC was a little difficult initially, but after following a few links and finally getting it downloaded, it worked there and then. So, a plus to getting it to a state of 'just about working'. I've heard from other places that it isn't exactly this simple when trying to use it for something more than just a microphone input, but that doesn't quite affect me. Setup outside of the drivers is as simple as adjusting audio levels in Windows.

For audio input, it works just fine with my current microphone, a cheap Neewer NW-800 that I got from Amazon. Setting everything to max in Windows and then using the adjustments on the interface itself felt right to do, and the little indicators were perfect for telling me if I had set the gain a little too high or not. Though, the Signal LED doesn't appear to be too sensitive, as in, even if a program I am using (Discord/Teams/Zoom) is detecting input, the signal indicator is usually off. I don't necessarily speak so loud, and it only comes on when I start to raise my voice.

In terms of using it as audio output for my headphones, the built in DAC/amp works wonderfully, and is a tonne better than the output on my laptop of course. I can't say too much about it as I have not got much to compare to, but it provides a wide range of listening volumes (I usually have it set at 11 or 12 o'clock with my AKG K612 Pros, with all volumes in Windows set to max) and the direct monitoring feature is wonderful to help me realise if I'm talking just a little bit too loud. I don't particularly like how it quietens down the output signal a little bit, but that's just nitpicking.

The build quality of the unit is perfectly acceptable. Looking from the front, the slightly glossy front facade isn't distracting with reflections as the gloss isn't overly done, and each knob feels nice and buttery smooth to turn. Though, the small size of the knobs isn't that satisfying personally, but that's not exactly a problem, is it? The unit sits just a little higher than the surface on some small, rubber feet which do a good job of protecting the surface from scratching from the case of the unit. Speaking of which, the metal case feels of high quality, and does not feature any sharp edges. My biggest complaint about the unit would be that the phantom power switch is on the back (I like having all of the controls and switches on the front, for ease of access), but as the average person wouldn't be fiddling with that switch too often if at all, it isn't too big of a problem.

Overall I find the unit to be really quite good, especially for the price you can get it at! The build quality is great, and the provided features are very nice.

Like just about everything Behringer makes at this price point, the UMC22 is chiefly one thing: cost-effective. You don't get best-in-class sound quality. You don't get a flashy brand name. You don't get the most features. What you do get is an audio interface that works, and honestly does a surprisingly good job. Setup is easy. Plug it into your computer. USB2 is fine. Plug in your headphones. Plug in your monitors. Plug in your mics/instruments. Done. Drivers aren't obscure or finicky. Don't worry about it. Outputs in the rear need two 1/4" TR cables for left and right channel. Output in the front needs a 1/4" TRS cable. Make sure you've got semi-decent studio headphones and/or monitors, too - an audio setup is only as strong as its weakest link, and if you're looking up 1/4" adapters for your Beats or whatever, maybe skip this and invest in better headphones instead. Craftsmanship's okay. It's a Behringer audio interface, not an SM-58. I wouldn't go throwing it down flights of stairs for fun. You have two audio inputs - the XLR/TRS hybrid jack going through the Midas preamp, and the second TRS jack that goes through a Xenyx preamp. Neither are particularly touted for their sound quality (the Midas is better than the Xenyx by far, though), but it's miles above motherboard-integrated stuff. Both can record at 48KHz tops - as far as I'm concerned, if you're looking at this interface instead of something higher-end, that's plenty. The "direct monitor" button you see on the front ducks your computer sound output and lets you listen to your connected inputs through the hardware, which has its uses. The interface outputs to headphones and to external monitors by means of 1/4" TRS and TR cables, respectively. Sound is clean - mind you, my ears aren't well trained to that sort of thing, and if yours aren't either then the sound quality should be fine. It's important to note that it will always output to both headphones and monitors - if you want to listen to just headphones or just monitors on-the-fly, this won't provide a convenient solution to that. It does, however, eliminate the need to go through your OS's sound system, which can be useful when working with ASIO or CoreAudio exclusive modes to reduce latency. If you want the best and have the money to back up your needs, consider looking elsewhere. Again - an audio setup is only as strong as its weakest link. But if you want the pretty solid, and you're on the kind of budget that has you saving up for purchases like these, I think you can't go wrong with the UMC22, or the U-PHORIA series in general. TL DR: It's cheap. It's fine. If you need it, get it