I recently replace my old Audiobox USB that I used for many, many years.
The goal was to record home, practice and record live if needed from a mixer.
My base requirements were USB, 2 inputs and 2 outputs at least and a rather small footprint so I can lay it on top of my PC power or monitors.
I also want MIDI because I sometimes use old gear and my master keyboard is MIDI.
Not too high a price, say 300 tops. Good hobbyst gear.
After checking pretty everything that's available on the market, I thought the Steinberg UR22C looked like quite a deal and after a week or so of using it, I think I was right.
The rest of my "studio" gear for reference :
- Ryzen 7 based homemade PC, 32 Mb memory, all SSD
- Yamaha HS8 monitors
- Focal Listen phones
- Reaper and Audacity as DAWs
- A bunch of Shure SM57 and 58, Beyer Opus 89 (my go to live mic), an antediluvian german ribbon mic (formerly came with DIN plug) that sounds like a 50's record, chinese noname drum mic set I rarely use.
Expected common features I like :
- Dual jack/XLR inputs
- Class A preamps
- Phones plug with volume control on the front
- ASIO, WDM and Core Audio drivers
- 48v power supply, very efficient hi-z switch for input 2 so passive instruments are fine.
- Direct monitoring/daw panpot
- Sturdy metal box built
Now for the extras :
- USB C 3.1 connections, you can indeed live without these for an audio interface but it's a good way to stay ahead for the future, since USB A is bound to vanish from computers.
- You can plug straight into an iOS tablet or phone and make it a standalone DAW, without a computer.
- The mono switch pans both input to center and outputs them as a single track. This is great when you practice (you one channel of bass isn't just left or right anymore) or as a quick hack when recording.
- If you use it on a computer with weak USB power, typically a tablet or unplugged laptop, you can power it through an external micro USB power supply. I used it to insert a mic into my smart TV so the kids could karaoke and it worked just fine.
- It comes with a basket of free quality VST and VSTi into which I barely digged. The control panels for the DSP also are available as VSTs.
- Loopback function, which is like a full duplex working backwards. You can cast a recording along with your live voice and record the result all at once.
- Last but not least the built-in DSP working @32bits/192kHz. It lets you add a bunch of effects and models, most of them designed by Yamaha, through a mixer lookalike interface.
- A general room-plate-hall, fully adjustable reverb with variable hpf and lpf, applied to the mix.
- Each channel can be applied up to 2 effects, with a max of 2 to 3 for the whole depending on the settings :
Channel strip with fully compression, sidechaining, low and hi semi parametric, medium parametric, morphing knob.
Clean amp with distorsion, chorus/vibrato, gate and amp sim
Crunch amp with distorsion
Drive amp (6 models)
Lead amp
All amps come with gate and cab sim.
What I really enjoy so far :
- Almost everything you may need in a single box
- The DSP and its interface have everything you need to sculpt a good recording tone without using computer power or external gear. It really is a life changer and to my knowledge, no other interface offers it with the same level of quality.
- Latency is incredibly short. The delay between direct and daw feedbacks can't be heard most of the time. And I didn't even bother with ASIO.
What's I don't like :
- No Android support for phone/tablet use. Only iOS. Supposedly it's in the tube.
- Clean and Overdrive models are rather noisy.
- Reverb is always on. All you can do is reduce time or return to annihilate it when not needed. With how complex it is, the ability to turn it off would likely give one more spot for other effects.
- No bass amp in the models
To the best of my knowledge, this makes the Steinbger UR22C a major player. Please let me know if you think so (or overwise).
The goal was to record home, practice and record live if needed from a mixer.
My base requirements were USB, 2 inputs and 2 outputs at least and a rather small footprint so I can lay it on top of my PC power or monitors.
I also want MIDI because I sometimes use old gear and my master keyboard is MIDI.
Not too high a price, say 300 tops. Good hobbyst gear.
After checking pretty everything that's available on the market, I thought the Steinberg UR22C looked like quite a deal and after a week or so of using it, I think I was right.
The rest of my "studio" gear for reference :
- Ryzen 7 based homemade PC, 32 Mb memory, all SSD
- Yamaha HS8 monitors
- Focal Listen phones
- Reaper and Audacity as DAWs
- A bunch of Shure SM57 and 58, Beyer Opus 89 (my go to live mic), an antediluvian german ribbon mic (formerly came with DIN plug) that sounds like a 50's record, chinese noname drum mic set I rarely use.
Expected common features I like :
- Dual jack/XLR inputs
- Class A preamps
- Phones plug with volume control on the front
- ASIO, WDM and Core Audio drivers
- 48v power supply, very efficient hi-z switch for input 2 so passive instruments are fine.
- Direct monitoring/daw panpot
- Sturdy metal box built
Now for the extras :
- USB C 3.1 connections, you can indeed live without these for an audio interface but it's a good way to stay ahead for the future, since USB A is bound to vanish from computers.
- You can plug straight into an iOS tablet or phone and make it a standalone DAW, without a computer.
- The mono switch pans both input to center and outputs them as a single track. This is great when you practice (you one channel of bass isn't just left or right anymore) or as a quick hack when recording.
- If you use it on a computer with weak USB power, typically a tablet or unplugged laptop, you can power it through an external micro USB power supply. I used it to insert a mic into my smart TV so the kids could karaoke and it worked just fine.
- It comes with a basket of free quality VST and VSTi into which I barely digged. The control panels for the DSP also are available as VSTs.
- Loopback function, which is like a full duplex working backwards. You can cast a recording along with your live voice and record the result all at once.
- Last but not least the built-in DSP working @32bits/192kHz. It lets you add a bunch of effects and models, most of them designed by Yamaha, through a mixer lookalike interface.
- A general room-plate-hall, fully adjustable reverb with variable hpf and lpf, applied to the mix.
- Each channel can be applied up to 2 effects, with a max of 2 to 3 for the whole depending on the settings :
Channel strip with fully compression, sidechaining, low and hi semi parametric, medium parametric, morphing knob.
Clean amp with distorsion, chorus/vibrato, gate and amp sim
Crunch amp with distorsion
Drive amp (6 models)
Lead amp
All amps come with gate and cab sim.
What I really enjoy so far :
- Almost everything you may need in a single box
- The DSP and its interface have everything you need to sculpt a good recording tone without using computer power or external gear. It really is a life changer and to my knowledge, no other interface offers it with the same level of quality.
- Latency is incredibly short. The delay between direct and daw feedbacks can't be heard most of the time. And I didn't even bother with ASIO.
What's I don't like :
- No Android support for phone/tablet use. Only iOS. Supposedly it's in the tube.
- Clean and Overdrive models are rather noisy.
- Reverb is always on. All you can do is reduce time or return to annihilate it when not needed. With how complex it is, the ability to turn it off would likely give one more spot for other effects.
- No bass amp in the models
To the best of my knowledge, this makes the Steinbger UR22C a major player. Please let me know if you think so (or overwise).
