Care to elaborate about these “issues?”
I would agree if you were using a fair bit better quality mics, and also were using them with a daw with asio. The main fault I see with the um2 is the asio support and driver errors. Otherwise for a use like this I don’t really foresee an issue hardware wise, they are pretty dang hard to beat for the price. I might recommend stepping up to a focusrite or audient interface if you get a significantly better mic, but for now I think the um2 is more then fine
Buzzing in the audio recording no matter what mic I used, even swapping XLR cables, parts failing (like the USB port) failing after less then a year, lack of driver support (barely existed)
There is a difference between having an obvious buzz and either preamp or adc noise floor. I can’t say I have seen any Behringer interfaces failing to actual hardware damage, but I will agree that asio driver support is shotty at best. But General_Haze doesn’t need to bother with the asio xmos drivers so that is less of a concern imo
Behringer is definetly not a high-end brand, but their stuff lasts for ages!
On the U-Phoria UM2, the highest I would go on the mic preamp is 80%, after that there is audible hiss on the input. Apart from that, there is not competition at the price point.
Pretty much agree, I have way more expensive mic preamps and interfaces and this thing does get you alot for the money
By 80% your’re referring to the levels tab right? I lowered it anyway. Its sitting at 75 now.
I mean the knob(s) on top.
Output volume in windows should be 100%, then the right most knob is your volume control.
Input volume should be the same (100%).
Maybe, in the audio settings in windows, under output devices, select the interface, then click advanced options (is in German for me, for obvious reasons):
In the following window, you want more options:
That opens another window (the WinVista/Win7 audio settings menu), there go to the volume or level tab (the one with the sliders):

On my Samson Meteor, the lower slider adjusts the direct monitoring volume. I would imagine there beeing a similar feature on the UM2. This does only affect how you hear yourself on the headphones, not what gets sent via Discord/TS/Skype, etc.
EDIT: I hope I have not overlooked something in this thread. Would hate to send someone searching for absent/redundant stuff.
Adjusting the windows volume over 90 on the um2 can cause digital hiss and digital clipping sometimes, so I would suggest keeping it below 90. Also using windows volume and the physical gain can help keep it so you still have a clean signal and also not too much gain where the mic picks up undesirable sounds
Also on the um2, there is a direct monitor button, so there isn’t a need to listen to yourself in windows imo. He has the um2 now also acting as a dac so he can pass through the direct monitoring to his amp
Interesting.
The way I go about software and hardware is the software touches the audio as little as possible, so volume adjust is done in the hardware.
As said, on the Samson Meteor, that slider sets the hardware direct monitoring. That is necessary as its volume knob only adjusts total volume of the rear jack.
On my Focusrite, there is not such option in software, but a knob for it.
That is typically the way to go for most listening, as if you can bypass windows sound mixer using asio or wasapi and control volume through analog it is good. But for an audio interface, it depends on the interface and how windows treats it lol. Also it depends on what you are doing if you want something to have software make an effect on it.
For this application, I would value the cleaner sounding signal if that means I have to use software
definetly agree
Yeah, for my mastering gear I do like to use my hardware effects, but I do use plugins from time to time
Soo what are we getting at here lol. Tell me what to do if I need to do anything
I feel you are just fine lol as long as it sounds good to you, as imo you have already set the gain and volume correctly, and it should be working as intended as a dac, so unless that’s not the case, I don’t think there is something you need to do
- Don’t fix things that are not broken
- Never forget rule 1)
Alright sounds good. I really appreciate all the help.
I don’t notice the hissing while recording. When I would replay it, then I would hear the hiss. Again, it may just be me having really bad luck with a good brand. My father can’t use Samsung phones cause he always seems to get the faulty one. Shit happens.
Lol, I always seem to find a way to break my pc by doing nothing, I just happen to be very unlucky in that regard. Also have bad luck with keyboards dying on me for some reason
Odd. Could try a Soundcard scope where you loop the playback through. Should become visible in frequency plot.
Have you tried the Dell or HP OEM keyboards? Cost close to nothing and seem to outlast every other bit on a desk.