Behringer UMC1820 Reviews

Love it!

We haven't fully explored all that this piece of equipment can do, but so far we've been very impressed. We have done some 4 input recording, and the sound quality is excellent. We're new to recording, but this interface and the Tracktion DAW software (free licence included) have proven fairly easy to use. Really looking forward to using this equipment more in the future. Thanks Behringer for a great product!

Not dissapointed!

I bought this card as an upgrade to scarlett focusrite 2i4 because I needed more recording inputs:

1. I connected the device without any problems (butter smooth experience)

2. I was surprised that you have to conect it to pc's DAW for line outs to work (i figured it out and now it makes sence, couse I can route signals however I like)

3. Knobs are a little on the downside and the one for mixing live monitor and PC sound sometimes makes a shshsshsh sound.

4.Connection to PC is very stable (i had problems with focusrite)

5.Latency is depending on samples and efect you are using and I find my conputer handling it without notice on 32samples having my izotope on vocals and kontakt on guitar. But i do rock an asus gtx 970.

OVERall It is top for things i need it. So live recording and studio recording for demos.

Fine card, broke in spite of gentle care out of nothing.

I used this sound card very sparingly and suddenly it just died, showing only blinking lights and not being detected by the computer turning it into a brick.

Great interface for the price!

I use this interface for my home studio. I originally bought it due to the amount of inputs for the price, making recording a drum kit a breeze. The extra mic pres allow for a lot more creativity in the recording process, as I can mic up the room and such. In terms of its sound, it's certainly not the clearest but with audio processing it's possible to get a great mix from the tracks recorded on it. I've also used this for recording theatre performances, and found it great for this task.

all round a great piece of kit for the price, making recording accessible to those on a budget.

Good

Don't use it with the latest drivers from Behringer. Driver ver 3.29 are better.

It's windows driver looks like from 1995 and routing is impossible without DAW.

In/Outs can routed only in Linux using Jack2.

Unmatched in price and features

I know that there is alot of gear-shaming going on out there whenever Behringer is mentioned but I think that this could be something to silence some of that. For the price it cannot be matched.

I have used this almost everyday for two years. I have all my outboard gear connected to it as well as two ADAT extensions and I have not experienced any problems whatsoever.

The only thing worth mentioning is, that it can get a little hot when turned on for longer periods of time. It is a good idea to leave 1U of room both over and under it if it sits in a rack.

Besides that, it is a GOOD interface no matter what others say. In 5 years from now it will still sit in my rack.

Stopped working after 6 months of light use

Stopped working. Took ages to replace unit. Sold it and bought Focusrite.

Good sound and very useful features

Got it for home studio use. While I don't necessarily need a lot of ins and outs, it is very convenient to set up all your instruments plugged in constantly, and have available outputs for reamp (for example). The setup with most inputs/outputs at the rear allows for a very neat setup with all the cables being behind and out of sight. Two separate headphone outs are very useful, as well as the two inputs on the front for "guests".

In summery, packed with useful features, easy to set up and use. Works well with ASIO4ALL, Sound quality is very good. I would highly recommend it for home recording studio over any 1,2 and 4 input interfaces of any price just for the shear convenience of use.

Love it

Very loud compared to my last interface but this has a dim button for the main output which is great. Sounds nice and clear through inout monitoring or computer output. Slightly higher latency than the Fast track Pro II I had last but not so much that it causes issues.

Plug and play/no drivers needed for Mac, works perfectly. Easy to install drivers for Windows.

Good interface, but very bad drivers.

I was very curious about this interface, so I wanted to give it a try, unless it's a Behringer with a very low price for a 8-channel AD interface. I spent two days to get the drivers working (Windows 7 64bit). The drivers on the website didn't work and after adiscussion with the Behringer helpdesk they offered me an (beta?) 3.34 version. Which worked (after trying again for a few hours). On my laptop (also W7 64 bit), the new driver didn't work, however, the most ancient version did (!). The sound of the interface is very good, also the dynamics and without any audible noise. But during a two-track recording suddenly the connection fell off between interface and computer, which stopped the recording suddenly. I am sure this was because of the drivers. After an endurance test of two days in which the interface was switched on constantly, the connection stopped suddenly. After that, the PC didn't 'see' the interface anymore, not even after a complete reinstall of the drivers ! The offered driver software is very bad. I failed to get the device working through ASIO4All. Unstable drivers are lethal to a recording, because a sudden breakdown isn't desirable. Therefore, So I have to send back the device unfortunately. The interface itself is fine (but rather primitive in terms of mixing, metering and routing). This quality is not enough if it has to operate without proper driver software.

Great audio interface

I use this audio interface in my home studio setup. It offers you 8 mic preamps which is amazing., preamps by Midas sounds great. Latency is acceptable but you need powerful PC. The only disadvantage in my opinion is that UMC1820 can't be routed in UMC Audio Control Panel, just in your DAW. In conclusion it's great interface for home studio when you have limited budget and you want lot of inputs. Best choice in this price.

\m/ Excellent! \m/

This is an excellent audio interface, easy to set up, seamless to use and a sonically transparent to use. A bargain at any price.

Wonderful interface, but be cautious of location.

I bought this interface after having to return an M-Audio MTrack 8 for internal PSU issues and channel crackling, so I was slightly cautious, particularly with the price.

The Front panel is filled with all your controls, including two combi jack/XLR sockts for easy input, with the other 6 round the back. Phantom power is in two banks of four, with easy sight if it's on or off. All inputs have pad and line/inst switches, which makes hot signals easier to manage, and the gain knobs control nicely. The monitoring section controls well, and the input/output mix control is exceptionally useful for pre-processing monitoring - great advantage for vocal recordings in high latency systems. Two headphone sockets with individual volume controls make a nice change to some other systems, and are completley independant of the main monitor control. The MIDAS pre amps are gorgoeus, but not sure if they're original MIDAS or MIDAS-style, but that would need more research.

The rack-mount size and wings make it great for a rack, but be careful - the top right hand side of does get a little hot, so it would suite a spaced rack or desktop better.

Great interface though.

Good Value interface

I bought this interface a few months ago mainly for recording drums. I'm working from a small attic room with budget microphones so this isn't a professional recommendation by any means.

I Found the Midas Pre-amps to be very clean.Everything I have Recorded hasn't had any noise or hiss so the preamps and converters are all good.

I was able to track drums easily through a PC (with Plugins) without any problems with latency, and if you were to have a problem with latency the interface has a handy direct monitoring feature, where you can monitor inputs directly without latency.

The whole unit is very compact and is solidly built. the rear of the unit is basically a metal box, but the front panel is plastic and felt somewhat flimsy. the xlr combo plugs Gain knobs and buttons were all solid.

Overall I was very happy with the unit. Its a great unit if your on a budget and has the ability to be expanded with another 10 inputs and outputs over Adat and Spdif. However I haven't tried these out yet, I'm still working with the stock 8 inputs and 10 outputs.

Overall I'm giving the unit a 5 star rating as it is an excellent quality interface with plenty of features for the price.

UMC 1820 and the reason of the return

The product is Behringer UMC1820 and the reason of the return is in the fact that the unit has shown itself to be unstable using the USB connection and would drop out after 1 to 20 min. and sometimes would not be recognised by the operating system. I have run the tests on 3 different computers ( win10, 8 and 7) using the drivers provided by the Behringer Music Group company and... no luck. For the 15 min. operation I've recorded a drum set with 8 mics and the sound was very good for the price. So, I guess that the problem might be in the particular unit that was sent to me and not with the UMC 1820 series 'cause I haven't seen that anyone else reported such an issue.

sounds nice

is a very very good card for home recordings

it sound nice and is compartable with Studio one

Game changing product

Firstly I'm really glad I bought this when I did, it's gone up in price significantly since I purchased, and I can see why. The price is still good for what you get.

I needed a 8-in 8-out interface (of course more I/O with ADAT) and I naturally looked at all the options from other makers, and because this was a secondary setup I decided to go for the cheap option.

out of the box you notice that Behringer have lifted their game in terms of construction. It's seems more than tough enough with good finishing. At this price point I don't expect pots with fastening nuts or exotic textures.

How do it sound? Very, very good indeed. I've heard some critics talk about how Behringer have just slapped the midas name on front of these products to make people think they are higher quality. I can assure you the preamps are as good as anything you'll get in the home to small project market. For instance they compare very favourably with my A+H ZED R16.It's also a noticeable step up from their Xenyx preamps (although they weren't bad at all), especially in terms of SNR. Indeed the SNR is very good and the sound is lovely and clear. I also achieved more than acceptable latency in DAW monitoring with no glitches. The first recording I made with this is one of the best sounding I've ever made, but this could be coincidental.

I tried out the ADAT with my ZED R16 out of interest and play back was fine. I found that I had glitches when recording that ended up being printed. The UMC was correctly slaved to the ZED so the glitches must be due to some other problem. I cannot blame the UMC1820 as I also tried SPDIF with a different input device and that was fine. So this is not conclusive, but I'm pretty confident with the right config the ADAT I/O will work fine and is no reflection on this unit. This kind of thing is sometimes tricky anyhow...

The provided control software is simple but effective. That suites me just fine. The only thing I had was that sometimes when turning on the PC, the UMC1820 was not recognised and needed reinstalling. i think this might be to do with USB 3.0 bus standards. However, I found that if I made sure the UMC was switched on before switching on my PC, the problem didn't occur. So I think it's mostly likely a glitch of some kind in one 'popular' operating system.

In summary I think this unit will make the heart of a fairly serious home or project studio, especially if you also combine it with an ADA8000 or perhaps the ART Tube opto 8 for extra inputs/flavour.

UPDATE: the problem with the unitmnot being recognised sometimes is completely solved by switching to a USB 2 port. No problem for me.

UPDATE 2: managed to get the ADAT working perfectly now both ways too.

UMC1820 Device not found issue, but who cares!! and I fixed it

Bought this unit along with a ADA820 after reading some super reviews so I can have 16 mic inputs for kit.

I am re editing this older review as although I have had problems with the device being found when switching the unit on, I have been able to get around this issue, although we are replacing the unit which has a little fault. However I have to say as a recognized drummer and record producer the should is very very good and all syncs perfectly. Using these two units for drum recording along with my Grace Design mic preamps I am well impressed, so much so that I am now working alongside Behringer on product review and artists association, also the company music-group.com have been a great help, thanks to Patrick at customer service. Yes there are some amazing products out there but for the money these top the lot, and those who say this is just entry gear really don't know what they are talking about, its not about gear its what you do with it, I send tracks out all over the world and my clients seem very happy and I dont have tons of $$$$$ gear, make great records and great music, simple as that!

www.garrykingmic.com

Bang for buck!

What can i say, 8 midas mic pre's for this price is outrageous value. Its a solid piece of gear,not flimsy like i thought it would be. Im a drummer so using this to record drum tracks at home through cubase and it works like a charm. if you linked this up with the ada8200 you have 16 mic pres for under 400 euro that is amazing. would highly recommend this product, that is if you can get it. seems to be always out of stock

Outstanding piece of gear at a killer price

I purchased the UMC1820 for use in a home studio to record drums. It replaced a convoluted setup involving a couple mixers and an old M-Audio firewire interface. It's coupled with the Behringer ADA8200 (via ADAT) for 16 inputs total.

The unit is built very well. It's not especially heavy, but not too light or flimsy-feeling. I've had several Behringer rack units in the past and they have definitely stepped up their game with the build quality.

The UMC1820 packs a ton of features into a small single space rack unit and at an amazing price. The preamps have plenty of headroom and sound great. There are Line/Inst switches and a -15dB pad for each input. There are two +48v phantom power switches, one for channels 1-4 and the other for channels 5-8. It has MIDI I/O, SPDIF I/O and Optical ADAT I/O.

The main thing this unit is lacking is better software control over the features. The UMC Audio Control Panel is very bare bones, giving you only the very most essentials options. You can't select the operating frequency, it's determined by the DAW. There are no routing options and the unit cannot be used in stand-alone for anything other than stereo monitoring of the analog inputs.

If you're looking for a ton of inputs at a low price, look nowhere else. The bottom line is that this unit sounds great, looks nice and is extremely affordable.

Pros:

? Lowest price, hands down!

? Small footprint (single rack space and very shallow)

? Sleek look and sturdy feel

? Smooth knob control

? 8 MIDAS preamps with +48v phantom power

? ADAT SMUX and SPDIF inputs and outputs

? MIDI I/O

? 2 Headphone outputs with independent volume and channel selection

? Direct (zero-latency) monitor/DAW blend knob

? Per-channel Line/Inst buttons

? Per-channel Pad buttons

? Solid drivers allowing for low latency performance

Cons:

? No option for stand-alone operation

? UMC Audio Control software is very limited

? No LED meters (just a single LED for signal)

? Unit can run a little hot