Hi,

Hello fellow members and musicians. I have few questions regarding the setting of Realband with the Behringer UMC404HD that I hope you can help answer:

1. The UMC404HD have 4 distinct inputs + a MIDI channel. I would like to designate each track in Realband to a single input channel. However, the Behringer ASIO driver for WIN10 provides 2 ports only. What am I doing wrong?

2. What is the correlation between the input channels I use in the controller and the "Input channel for mono tracks? setting in the Audio settings? I do see that using inputs 1 and 2 work when selecting the "Right" option.

3. Playback does not sound - even when I do see the meter moving.

4. I get a solid signal for the guitar in input channel 1 of the controller and the input meter in Realband but the actual recording is barely heard. (Very low signal) What am I missing?

This is the 3rd night I spend trying to figure out how to set up this controller. Please help.

Benny Chukrun

I can't help you today, but I just ordered one and it should be here next week. I'll monitor this thread as I'm sure the info will be of interest to me. And if you don't have an answer by next week, I'll share my experience when mine comes in.

Here's some info.......

First screenshot is my drivers window for my Focusrite: Options-->Preferences-->Audio Tab-->Drivers button.

As you see, I had to select all the inputs I would use. By default, it only shows the first one. You have to click the first one and hold the shift key and click the last one to highlight them all.

Second screenshot is a post from Rharv that discusses the inability to choose inputs. Link

Thank you for all the responses. Here is what I was able to figure out:
1. The audio settings:

[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/zdax8onu3r3rw3g/ASIO%20Audio%20Drivers.png?dl=0[/img]

RealBand shows only 2 input ports for the Behringer ASIO drive instead of 4.
I set the "Input Channel for Mono Track" to L+R (2 tracks)

2. I connected one microphone and 1 guitar to input port 1 and 2 of the controller.

3. I set the top 2 tracks in RealBand to Mono and picked the first Input port.

I selected the top track and started recording. RealBand showed two tracks recording. Clicking OK to keep that track RealBand merged the two tracks to one.

At about the 20th second the audio file is scrambled for 2-3 seconds. I guess I need to reduce the sampling quality or something like that.

Bottom line, I cannot designate an input port to each track and the program detects 2 ports instead of 4. Not sure if this is a hardware or RealBand limitation. I'm going to try on another DAW and report back here.

"3. Playback does not sound - even when I do see the meter moving."
Welcome Benny. I might have some clues for you. You haven't mentioned what you are using for monitor speakers. You should have some type of powered speakers plugged in to the rear Main Out jacks or Playback Outputs. If you use only the Main Out jacks you will get sound from the front Inputs and also the Playback from your computer. If you use only the Playback Outputs I don't think you will be hearing the front inputs directly to the speakers as in "direct monitoring". If I'm correct you will only be hearing the computer's playback which will include latency of whatever you are recording. For this reason I suggest you simply connect your speakers to the Main Out jacks only. My UMC204HD works this way.

The "MIX" knob is for blending between IN and PB. IN = whatever you have plugged into INPUT 1, 2, 3, or 4. PB = Playback as in whatever your DAW (or Windows Media Player, Youtube, etc...) is playing back. Try setting this knob around the 1:00 O'Clock area for starters. Set the Main Out knob around 2:00 and turn up the speakers of course.

Open the ASIO Driver Control Panel and make sure the volume for all playback channels are set to max.

Check your SoundCard Properties in the Windows Control Panel after everything is connected and after RealBand is up and running. Make sure you can open the Soundcard window all the way to see everything that is there in the Playback Properties. Make sure UMC404HD is not muted in there. Your computer might have 2 separate sections for SoundCard Properties. One is the volume mixer with sliders and muting options which is usually the little speaker icon in the bottom right task tray. Clicking on the little speaker icon should open up some more options. The other is where you choose the default Playback and Recording devices. That one is usually found in the Control Panel. But you may be able to access it by clicking on the speaker icon then clicking on any one of the Device icons or Application icons at the top end of the Volume Sliders. Keep in mind a Device may have different properties that an Application. Again, you may need to re position and drag that SoundCard Property window open to reveal everything in there.
You will be dealing with SoundCard Properties and the Volume Mixer and RealBands Audio Settings and the UMC404HD ASIO Control Panel in order to get this set up.

John,
did you ever get your Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404HD set up and working? I'm thinking about buying one as my old mixer is getting toward the end of its life.

Hi Benny,

Yes, I've actually got that model and it's working well.

I'm assuming you've downloaded the driver from the Behringer site.
I'm running win 8.1 but it's the same driver.
When you select ASIO and then the UMC, you should see two lines of
inputs - 1&2 and 3&4. If not, you have a problem. Hold the shift key to select all inputs.
For the output choose 1&2. Connect the playback outputs 1&2 (the RCA phonos) to your
audio monitors, don't bother with the main outs unless you want to monitor the input.

In the UMC control panel, set the latency as low as you can without
getting any dropouts. You can also set the record and playback volumes
here.

Hope this helps.

ROG.

I did it installed and it sounds great. ROG has good advice in his post.

You can monitor input through the headphone connector; what I did was hook up a 4-port headphone amp to it, and then run a set of powered speakers through one of the ports (headphones in the others). That way I can hear it play just fine. Sound from the computer, however, plays fine through the outputs on the back side of the unit.

I've got a small mixer feeding into audio inputs 1 and 2 (so I can get the audio from a microphone and from my two keyboards and acoustic-electric guitar), but I still get two mono (one stereo) connectors for input if I need it. So far I'm really liking it.

EDIT: I'm running it on my Windows 7 laptop; haven't tried it yet on Windows 10, but it works great on Windows 7. The only thing I had issue with was that I found out that the USB port I had connected it to wasn't set to not sleep, so the unit would lose connectivity. Once I set the USB port to always on, it works great.

Thank you John and ROG!

Sounds like this might work fine for me then. I have the Behringer 4 port headphone amp that I'm using with my current setup.

I always record audio using headphones with my speakers muted. Will I be able to hear the music from BB or Realband and my input audio at the same time through my headphones using this?

Maybe a dumb question but I've had trouble with other interfaces when trying to record a track while listening to the music from BB or Realband.

Thanks again!

That's exactly what I do. And there is a knob to control the relative volume mix between what you are inputting (microphone, guitar, etc) and what is coming from the computer.

I don't know why you can't monitor out to the one of the outputs on the back; but it definitely works with the headphone jack. Clearly the unit knows how to do it; you would think they might could have a switch, which would allow for the unit to be used for performance with both the computer and your input source(s). Maybe you can; I just haven't found it yet. But for only about $100, it's a pretty nice unit with lots of capability.

Many thanks John, I appreciate your advice!

My old mixer is starting to fritz out on me but it worked well for several years so I'm not complaining.

Thank you ROG for your advice!

John & ROG,
I got my Behringer UMC404HD today and downloaded the ASiO driver from Behringer. A couple of things seem odd to me. I can record two tracks at a time if I go to Options/preferences/Audio in Realband and select 'Input Channel for MONO tracks L+R (2Tracks). (See attached jpg)
If I make the setting to Input Channel for MONO tracks Left, then only input one gets recorded even though I see audio on input 2 on the UMC404HD. Is this normal

The other thing that seems odd to me is it records 4 tracks even if I only have one input active on the UMC404HD. Does this work the same way for you guys or do I have something screwed up?

The other thing is I don't see any Realband VU input meter activity if I use input 3 or 4 on the UMC404HD. I do see the VU input meter activity when I use input 1 or 2 on the UMC404HD.

My final question is there a way to record a single track at a time without it grabbing 4 tracks?

Many Thanks!

Hi Del,

It's recording 4 tracks because you selected 4 inputs in the ASIO Audio Drivers window and selected "L+R (Two Tracks) as the "Input Channel for MONO Tracks". If you have 4 successive tracks in the Tracks window, all set to Audio - Mono, select the first one, you'll record onto all 4, one for each input.

If you only want to record channel 1, you should only select "In 1 + In 2" as your input, and change "Input Channel for Mono Tracks" to Left. Selecting "L+R (Two Tracks)" tells RealBand you want to record channels 1 and 2 simultaneously.

If you want to record channels 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2, you'll need to select "In 3 + In 4" and not "In 1 + In 2".


Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Many thanks for clearing that up for me Kent!

I'm used to using a mixer instead of an audio interface for recording and am having a hard time getting this straight in my head. So if I want to record a single track using input 1, I would go to audio preferences and select 'Left' and If I want to record my guitar on input 2 later I would go back to audio preferences and select 'Right'.

Are there any plans to let the user Arm the track they want to record to eliminate this switching back and forth?

Do you know why I don't see anything on the Realband VU meters when recording on inputs 3 or 4? I can actually record a track but never see the Realband VU meters move if I use inputs 3 or 4 on the UMC404HD.

I think the RB VU Input meters use the default 1/2 input signal from the Windows default device. This has been noted here before. Wish it was different but it ain't.

I've learned over the years to use the recording device's software applet to set levels (what the applet shows on 5/6 Input may not at all match the RB input VU) but the end result should match the applet.

It's the whole 'selected Drivers' setting in RB and how it works with various devices that causes confusion. It's possible to select only Inputs 5/6 from a given device in RB Options, but then RB uses the Windows selection for the VU meter Input display (so you see nothing, but it is actually working)

BiaB/RB are meant to work for the 'masses' (ie a simple single stereo input).

Once you add multiple ports to the equation, I find I have to disregard the RB Input VUs and use the software applet to see what you are actually feeding RB on the 'selected' input channel(s) .
It gets confusing, but I think I see where your problem lies.
Hope that made sense

To simplify it (hopefully)
The RB Input VU meter is monitoring the Windows default input (likely channels 1/2).
But you have assigned other sources to be recorded (channels 3/4), so RB doesn't 'see' them. But they do get recorded.

Hi Del,



I don't know if there are any plans to change this, but I'll gladly pass along a request.



Did this happen when you only had 3/4 selected for input, or did you still have 1/2 and 3/3 all selected? If it was the former, then you should have seen a signal, but if it's the latter, then this would be normal. Those meters can only show the signal for one stereo pair at a time.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Many thanks Rharv!

That all makes sense now that I've gotten feedback from you and others who understand this process much better than I. I worked with the Behringer USB404HD for a few days and ran a bunch of tests once I got a basic understanding of how it works.

I have to say after doing side by side comparisons with it and my old method of recording, I decided to send it back and order a new mixer instead. I'm going back to my tried and true USB mixer method where I record a single track at a time. I thought about it a long time and decided simple is better for me. Like you said, BiaB/RB are meant to work for the masses and keeping it less complicated is beneficial sometimes.

I've recorded about 300 songs with Realband over the years doing 1 track at a time and I'm going to continue with that method since it fits my workflow so well.

Just a note to others thinking of purchasing the USB404HD. The interface works as advertised and I had no problem installing the ASIO driver for it. It is a nice compact interface with lots of output choices. It just wasn't the right device for me.

Thanks again for your advice, I really appreciate it!

Thank you Kent! I've decided to abandon this interface and go back to something simpler for me.