Should I upgrade my UR22 Audio Interface

Modulus_Amps

I need a simple interface for what I do, one or two inputs, I have a Steinberg Mk1 UR22 that does the job but wonder if getting something better would make much of a difference in terms of sound?

If so, what should I get?

Musicwolf

Short answer - it's probably not going to make a lot of difference.

If that interface has all the functionality you need then it is very likely that an upgrade is the priority.  I use the UR824.  The drivers are fine, as are the mic pre-amps, and it supports direct monitoring.

What makes you think that it's the weak link in your system?  What is the rest of the recording chain like and how are your room's acoustics?

duotone

Are you are getting a good sound ie. no pops or clicks when recording?

I did think the same thing Autumn time last year, then I watched this video & realised that it wasn’t something I needed.

https://youtu.be/tl5mKitmXkA

Modulus_Amps

duotone said:

Are you are getting a good sound ie. no pops or clicks when recording?

I did think the same thing Autumn time last year, then I watched this video & realised that it wasn’t something I needed.

https://youtu.be/tl5mKitmXkA

no. I have managed to avoid all those issues so far by slicking up the way my computer runs and providing external power for the UR22. Will watch this later, Thanks

Modulus_Amps

Musicwolf said:

Short answer - it's probably not going to make a lot of difference.

If that interface has all the functionality you need then it is very likely that an upgrade is the priority.  I use the UR824.  The drivers are fine, as are the mic pre-amps, and it supports direct monitoring.

What makes you think that it's the weak link in your system?  What is the rest of the recording chain like and how are your room's acoustics?

I just think the sound I record is not close to what I am actually hearing, I actually think I used to get better sounds with my boss crappy desk I used to have.

I mostly record Amp - Two notes Live - UR22 - DAW and I am running the IR's in the DAW as I think that sounds best.

It is hard to know without getting other units in to try.

Musicwolf

Modulus_Amps said:

I just think the sound I record is not close to what I am actually hearing, I actually think I used to get better sounds with my boss crappy desk I used to have.

I mostly record Amp - Two notes Live - UR22 - DAW and I am running the IR's in the DAW as I think that sounds best.

If the record sound is not the same as what you are hearing going in then what are you actually listening to when you record?

Do you have a cab hooked up to the Two Notes or are you monitoring through the UR22?  Do you have the playback volume the same during playback as when you record?

Modulus_Amps

Musicwolf said:

Modulus_Amps said:

I just think the sound I record is not close to what I am actually hearing, I actually think I used to get better sounds with my boss crappy desk I used to have.

I mostly record Amp - Two notes Live - UR22 - DAW and I am running the IR's in the DAW as I think that sounds best.

If the record sound is not the same as what you are hearing going in then what are you actually listening to when you record?

Do you have a cab hooked up to the Two Notes or are you monitoring through the UR22?  Do you have the playback volume the same during playback as when you record?

No thats not it, I am having to eq the amp quite differently to how I would playing though a cab. normally have to turn the brightness up a bit more

Now I did a direct comparison of recording through a mic vs through the two notes and there was nothing in it sound wise, so thats is why I am questioning the UR22

Heartfeltdawn

If you want a better sound, you'll have to blow a lot more money. £500 to £600. I had a UR22 for a bit alongside the SPL Crimson: definite difference in the DAC quality there. More three-dimensional, more detail. My standard test piece is:



I could hear a lot more detail with the Crimson compared to the UR22 and the NI KA2 I have now on the laptop. 

For guitars though, the detail gains will be smaller because of the nature of guitar speakers. 

Heartfeltdawn

Modulus_Amps said:

No thats not it, I am having to eq the amp quite differently to how I would playing though a cab. normally have to turn the brightness up a bit more

Now I did a direct comparison of recording through a mic vs through the two notes and there was nothing in it sound wise, so thats is why I am questioning the UR22

When you're playing guitars through the computer, are you doing so at the same volume as you would with a cab? If you're using a far lower volume, it would stand to reason that you'd have to EQ differently.

Modulus_Amps

Heartfeltdawn said:

Modulus_Amps said:

No thats not it, I am having to eq the amp quite differently to how I would playing though a cab. normally have to turn the brightness up a bit more

Now I did a direct comparison of recording through a mic vs through the two notes and there was nothing in it sound wise, so thats is why I am questioning the UR22

When you're playing guitars through the computer, are you doing so at the same volume as you would with a cab? If you're using a far lower volume, it would stand to reason that you'd have to EQ differently.

It would, but I mostly play loud these days regardless of what I am playing through, If I am playing where noise wouild upset someone else, I normally would not bother plugging in.

Modulus_Amps

Heartfeltdawn said:

If you want a better sound, you'll have to blow a lot more money. £500 to £600. I had a UR22 for a bit alongside the SPL Crimson: definite difference in the DAC quality there. More three-dimensional, more detail. My standard test piece is:

Looks like a nice bit of kit.

p90fool

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Modulus_Amps

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

rico

I wouldn't point the finger at your interface. Instead I would play around with the IR thing and the models in that. In my experience any kind of modelling/IR stuff never gets that close to how your amp sounds in real life. Room types, furnishings, speaker age, mic placements etc etc...

Fretwired

Musicwolf said:

Short answer - it's probably not going to make a lot of difference.

This is the right answer ...

p90fool

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

I honestly think that a shoot out between mic pre's is a bit pointless and unfair if you're using a mic sim and a cab sim!

Seriously, two of your main four elements of recorded electric guitar (guitar/amp/speaker/mic) are fake, not to put too fine a point on it, that really is where your problem lies.

exocet

p90fool said:

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

I honestly think that a shoot out between mic pre's is a bit pointless and unfair if you're using a mic sim and a cab sim!

Seriously, two of your main four elements of recorded electric guitar (guitar/amp/speaker/mic) are fake, not to put too fine a point on it, that really is where your problem lies.

Very good point!

 I was under the impression that the main selling point of the UA system and indeed the resulting price differential was the onboard processing of plugins that allow you to do more complex fx processing in real time? Trying to state that one was vastly overpriced compared to the other based on the quality of the respective mic preamp sections is completely missing the point? I’ve got a Focusrite 6i6, I started looking at the UA but I really don’t think I’ll ever need the additional onboard processing capabilities.

Modulus_Amps

p90fool said:

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

I honestly think that a shoot out between mic pre's is a bit pointless and unfair if you're using a mic sim and a cab sim!

Seriously, two of your main four elements of recorded electric guitar (guitar/amp/speaker/mic) are fake, not to put too fine a point on it, that really is where your problem lies.

No its not, just looking to compare audio interfaces for the way I plan (and many others) to use it. I use it mainly with IR's and a load box but I have also used it with micing cabs, so far I have had better results with IR's

Not really wanting to go down the rabbit hole of shredding every other part of the set up. If I did that I would end up with a pro studio and I dont have the time in my life to use that. 

menamestom

A while ago, I had a Steinberg CI2 interface, but then upgraded to an Audient Mico and the Audient was noticeably better to my ears.  More weight to the sound and less noise.

Not a direct comparison but I think some think like the ID14 or SSL 2 might be an improvement, depending on what you are doing.

Listening back to old recordings I can hear the quality with some gear over other gear, for example the ADAT I had with a spirit desk sounds way better than the Fostex Digital 8 track I had.  I can hear the cheap preamps in that, especially with guitars!

I've never tried the UR22, so no idea what it's like.

p90fool

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

I honestly think that a shoot out between mic pre's is a bit pointless and unfair if you're using a mic sim and a cab sim!

Seriously, two of your main four elements of recorded electric guitar (guitar/amp/speaker/mic) are fake, not to put too fine a point on it, that really is where your problem lies.

No its not, just looking to compare audio interfaces for the way I plan (and many others) to use it. I use it mainly with IR's and a load box but I have also used it with micing cabs, so far I have had better results with IR's

Not really wanting to go down the rabbit hole of shredding every other part of the set up. If I did that I would end up with a pro studio and I dont have the time in my life to use that. 

Fair enough, and I do understand how a lot of people have to work, it just seemed an odd part of the chain to lay the blame on if you're not getting a guitar sound you're happy with, that's all. 

You know your setup better than anyone though. 

Modulus_Amps

p90fool said:

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

Modulus_Amps said:

p90fool said:

The Yamaha mic pre's in the UR22 are really quite good, if you're having trouble capturing a good guitar tone through it I'd look at the rest of your chain. It's certainly excellent with a real mic on a real cab, maybe start there? 

Could just be me! but that is the last thing I want to rule out ha ha

I was interested to see if it would be worth spending the £££to upgrade, seems not so much, I might try the MKII just to see though, or maybe get something high end in for a shoot out

I honestly think that a shoot out between mic pre's is a bit pointless and unfair if you're using a mic sim and a cab sim!

Seriously, two of your main four elements of recorded electric guitar (guitar/amp/speaker/mic) are fake, not to put too fine a point on it, that really is where your problem lies.

No its not, just looking to compare audio interfaces for the way I plan (and many others) to use it. I use it mainly with IR's and a load box but I have also used it with micing cabs, so far I have had better results with IR's

Not really wanting to go down the rabbit hole of shredding every other part of the set up. If I did that I would end up with a pro studio and I dont have the time in my life to use that. 

Fair enough, and I do understand how a lot of people have to work, it just seemed an odd part of the chain to lay the blame on if you're not getting a guitar sound you're happy with, that's all. 

You know your setup better than anyone though. 

Well its the cheapest parts in the chain and so the easiest to upgrade.