Behringer UMC404HD Reviews

Good enough for the price

A good enough interface for its price. Would not use it for anything important or professional recordings ofcourse but good for everyday simple stuff or a backup interface.

Great for the price

This is a great audio interface for a small setup, and small/sturdy enough that you can bring it places to record onto a laptop. Has all the features you would expect, line/instrument level is nice and you can trim everything to the proper level before it enters the computer. The sound is clean and decent. MIDI sequencing works great with it. One problem with mine: the headphone jack on mine was a little wonky, and I need to nudge it sometimes to get a good connection. Otherwise works great!

Unbeatable value

Used in my home studio, with Cubase 10, Studio One, and from time to time Reaper.

I bought this to replace my dead Focusrite Saffire Pro 14. Almost as a kind of a backstop. But it works really well, albeit that the configuration app is a bit basic to say the least. It's typical Behringer, built down to a price but at the same time doing what it says on the box.

For a home studio it has my recommendation; if you want four inputs there really doesn't seem much benefit in investing in a more expensive unit.

Pros: easy to use, 4 channels and MIDI. Nice pre-amps. 2 monitor outs, Pad button on front inputs. Reliable USB connection. It 'just works' as the saying goes.

Cons: very simplistic control app. Not the lowest latency I've seen in a USB interface (use Studio One and it is a non issue). Quite wide (if that matters to you). Not the strongest build quality in the world, but more than good enough.

Beyond imagination for that price!

So, I wanted a 4 input USB interface that could record at 48Khz/24bit 4 tracks at the same time without issues in order for me to digitize my master tapes from my 4 channel analoge track recorder.

Mind that I used to have a Scarlette 4i4 1st generation which I never had any issues but I sold it long time ago. I was just about to pull the trigger and buy the Scarlette 4i4 3st gen which costs more or less double the money, until I noticed that not only it had only two line ins (at the back) but since the 1st generation they removed 2 of the front preamps. So, I would have to connect 2 channels to the preamps and 2 channels to the line ins. These two groups of connections have different specs (impedence) so I didn't want to mess around and waist time with any of this.

I read a ton of revivews and although I had never bought any Behringer device worth of 15 euros or more, I pulled the trigger and bought one.

It looks sturdy enough, the manual contains only the basic information but apart from the routins, it is a simple device.

No problems with the Win10 drivers (built 1909) which is always a good thing. That's the only thing I downloaded from the Behringer site, by the way, I don't need anything else. One thing I am already missing is the Control/Mixing Panel of the Focusrite. Don't get me wrong, it's not something you must have, but it was a very good and useful thing to have and the Behringer software is kinda of poor gut it does the job (and when it doesn't do it, you can always set a few things from within the DAWs).

The interface got paired with my Presonus Eris E5, no problems, the E5's have been set to unity (half their volume) and the Behringer takes care of the rest.

I also use the AKG271's and this soundcard can drive'em without any problems (no need for headphone amp in this case).

Now, the important stuff.

The card is dead silent, its convertors "sound" great, I've already digitize quite a few of my material without any issues.

The Mix pot was a little bit odd to me at first (mixes the input sound and playback sound) but that's alright.

Line/Instrument and Pad buttons are very useful, no problems with the quality of the pots etc except that the Volume is way too close to the Mix and if you have big hands/fingers it might be a problem (well, not a problem but maybe a mild inconvinience).

All in all, at that price and with these specs, this might be one of the best purchases I've ever made. the price is ridiculous for what you get, absolutely ridiculous!

So, yeah, I am gonna go ahead and recommend this interface as if you are looking for a card with the specs it packs, you really can't go wrong with the 404HD.

Perfect budget interface

This interface is packed full of features for a insane price.

The build is really good and feels solid. The knobs and button are responsive.

The setup is no big deal and no-nonsense.

The quality of the sounds is good in playback. Some for recording audio except when you have to boost too much. But even when it clips it doesn't sound too bad.

The output level could be a bit louder too my taste, but it sure does the job.

I would have loved this to be my first interface, zero crashes - zero hassle.

one of the best

most features for the price, happy.

Kept using this for way too long

Was having massive issues with my speakers and hiss/ noise coming through. Also the output volume is way too low. Inputting my synths was fiddly and getting the volume right as well. It is easy to setup, and easy controls on the front to manage everything. Apart from that, it's really a poor product.

Bought a different brand, which is also affordable, and a world of difference, my speakers are now driven without hiss/noise, better sound, no hiss/noise on the inputs, and higher gain. Behringer, please do better, especially if you slap the Midas name on it.

Excellent

A rock-solid reliable Audio Midi interface which for me is perfect in my home studio; with all the basic requirements including phantom power, XLR inputs. I use it powered by the USB bus on my MacBook pro, and it works just fine. And a great sound. Amazing for its price.

Great quality

Well, i waited for a long time before reviewing this item. I bought this interface in march 2017 (it's now january 2020) and i use it mainly for my music productions and using my microphones for a podcast show. The sound quality is great, no distortions at all and the interface can handle both normal microphones and microphones that need a preamp. Sound quality of the microphones is great. The interface is very easy to install on windows 10 and almost works out of the box. i have my monitor speakers directly pluggen into the device and also that works great. After almost 3 years still no weird behaviour or anything wrong with the device. This is great quality, especially for it's price!

Great interface for the money.

Bought for a friend and he is happy so a good purchase.

Great interface

Very good sound. Works easy and the price is right. A must have if you want to “catch” your sound on a computer. Work perfect with Audicity

Removing the behringer stereotype bit by bit

Midas preamps, quiet as you're going to get at this price. Well built, sturdy and completely usable in a variety of situations. Having 4 in and 4 out is also a huge bonus. Keep it up behringer.

UMC404HD turned out to be the perfect audio interface for my home recordings . Direct monitoring, inserts, 4 channels and other features that others in this price range don't all have. Setup went smooth with no problems, it also sounds and works great. I would recommend this audio interface for home studios especially for reliability and efficiency.

Pretty alright for what it costs.

I moved to it from my Scarlett Solo 1st gen. Quieter preamps but still somewhat noisy with more gain. Still very workable though!

Better than I actually expected it to be

I bought this interface in urgency after my previous one failed on me. I didn't have much budget and I guess we all know that behringer becomes a viable option in that case :)

The unit is solid built, compact and got a lot of features for it's price. Easy to install and use.

Sound quality is rly nice.

I would've maybe liked to see some USB ports on it, and a power switch, but these are minor remarks.

no coments

i wonder how a product like this can still be found on the marker. I would define this, at best, a pure scam. Not only the driver (after spending some time to find it..finally) works horribly with a ridicoulous latency, but the audio card allows you to use " up to " 4 entries..which means u can use only 2 contemporarily, and not 4. I wonder what is the practical use of this device, but at least i do understand the price so low...

PACKED with features!

Behringer killed it with this one. It is truly a one-time purchase.

For studio and live use, I'd throw this thing in those scenarios and it'd probably work out because of how versatile this thing is.

This thing is crazy good for its price tag. It is packed with features that can only be found on higher-end audio interfaces like the Arturia Audiofuse.

For one thing, it has 4 inputs at a price tag of only around a hundred bucks with individual gain control and pad buttons.

The pre-amps are very good and low-noise, even a tad better than the 2i2's I've noticed, though a bit less good than the Komplete Audio.

The build quality is phenomenal. This thing is built to last forever. That's what I meant by a one-time purchase. If you buy this thing, you won't have to upgrade in a while given its amazing build quality and its versatility.

The monitoring system is amazing and opens up a world of possibilities in the studio in terms of hot-switching between different sources of audio monitoring.

That being said, it does have a few drawbacks. Notably the drivers.

I don't know if it's just the experience I had with my computer but on a Windows 10 it was a nightmare to get the drivers to work properly without interfering with my native audio drivers. I've seen people say the exact opposite of that and that it's a plug & play interface, but I've also seen people say otherwise on the internet.

It also doesn't look the best and it isn't very portable, but that's obviously not what it was made for.

Overall, if you want a very versatile audio interface that is packed with features and that will probably last you forever and are ready to go through a hassle of installing and uninstalling the drivers numerous times to get them to work and aren't concerned with the looks and portability, this is just the best that you can get at this price range. A one-time purchase indeed.

Tested it with my RME amps

Great stuff for such a small price. I needed more 48v mic inputs, I just had 2 on my RME babyface. I A/B tested it to my RME babyface with a large diaphragm condenser mic and the sound is pretty much the same, a bit different but not better or worse than the RME.

Solid build and nice to have knobs and buttons for gain and pad etc.

Probably the best in the price range

I am very satisfied with the quality. Durable metal body, reliable, the plastic parts aren't fiddly, it has got low latency and low noise levels, good preamps. I have been using it for almost 3 years and haven't had a problem with it whatsoever. The great thing about it is that it is so small I can take it from my desk, throw it in the bag and take it anywhere with me to record high quality sound outside my home studio as well which I have been doing for both - music (small events) and film projects. And the build quality is so good that I don't have to worry about it too much either.

The only thing I would like it to have is a power button. There are easy workarounds, but still would be nice if it had a dedicated power button on the unit, which is why it gets 4* in "features".

Sound is really good, totally happy with the purchase.

Here are some things that I didn't get right.

Driver did not switch back to 48k from 96k in windows (no sound in windows as a result), so for simplicity I'm using it in 48k all the time. Using Reaper as a daw. Tried to use it in WASAPI mode with no luck. ASIO drivers works well.

The only thing I don't like in the hardware itself is the placement of main out potentiometer. Overall it's unbeatable for the price.