UR242

Steinberg has outdone itself in producing this amazing interface and I'll try to explain why I think so. The ordering of the below points was arbitrarily chosen without sequencing by importance. Pros: 1. Build quality: Right away you see the quality of the device, as the device comes in a rugged full metal body which looks like it can stand the test of time. The Neutrik combo jacks are an industry standard. The knobs and buttons feel very very solid. The smooth finish and grey/black color combinations are a touch indeed. It is however more heavy than it would seem, which gives me confidence in quality anyway. Simply a 10/10 for build. 2. Mic Pres: One of the most important qualities of an interface. and in this regard the UR44 shines again. The pres are very quiet both at low and high gain settings. I can compare with the Presonus 44VSL which had pres which were far more noisy. 3. Good I/O options: 4 mic, 2 line input and Midi I/O. Plenty for my needs. 2 headphone outputs with 2 mixes is again a killer feature. Invaluable while recording music with other people. 4 . DSP features: DSP is fast becoming a standard feature in interfaces even at this price range. UR44 kicks the butt of most interfaces in this regard. This interface works in conjunction with the dspMixFX software interface. It offers EQ, compression, high pass filter, phase and guitar amp both while monitoring and recording (You can use these effects as an insert). This software control is even better integrated into Cubase. Reverb you can use only for monitoring, or for recording using the loopback feature. 5. Standalone use: This is what simply takes the cake imo. Artists can use the interface standalone on stage. All the levels, effects, compression and other settings can be stored onto the device. So you can even hear reverb without computer processing. To change settings or recall profiles however, you will need to control the dspMixFX software using a computer or iPad. I always add some reverb to my vocal or instrument mic while performing live. Yamaha's reverb FX is surprisingly good. 6. Performance: It is simply rock solid while in use. The drivers are well written leading to very low latency performance. The software control never failed on me. The AD/DA conversion is top notch. I use it with the Studio One DAW, and it hasn't caused me problems one single time. Forums are in high praise of this kind of stability. Cons: 1. The biggest con is that the pres seem a little under powered. It hasn't been an issue with the mics that I own, but with some mics that require lot off gain, you have to crank it all the way up. With some dynamics or tube mics, I could even see it not being sufficient. Again, it depends on the requirements of your mics. So do some research first. But gain is very clean overall. 2. I/O options are plenty enough. But I like RCA line inputs usually. Of course, that problem is easily solved using cables. But I would have still preferred RCA to connect line level devices like mp3 players, etc. 3. Headphone outputs are not the loudest: My older interfaces, be it the Presonus 22VSL or the Yamaha Audiogram 3, gave me a louder headphone output. So again look into the specs for your requirements. 4. Reverb: I wish reverb could have been recorded as well on each individual channel. It sounds so good. But I am asking for too much at this point. :) Overall, have no doubt about buying this interface. It is a steal at this price!

Brilliant Sound quality! Pre-amps are dead quiet. I run two Pre-sonus valve racks into it as my main pre-amps on first 2 channels and it has no problem handling those hotter signals as well. For practice I take a SM58 straight into it and it sounds beautiful. The DSP control interface is amazing and does what it does brilliantly. I use it with Sonar X2 on a Windows 7 PC and works like a charm. The drivers are rock solid. I used a Roland tri-capture before this but I liked the added inputs and DSP interface (Although the Roland interface is OK) Before this I mainly used a Yamaha MW 10 channel mixer with USB out. The preamps are excellent, Unfortunately it can only record up to 16bit 48KHz so when I heard Yamaha is making the pre's on this one I was already happy with it. I am no engineer so when I bought it without testing, I knew what I wanted but did not know what to expect. Sound quality: Amazing - I mostly record at 24bit 48Khz. This sounds super fine to me. Value: Great, I would say this type of interface should be the first piece of gear of any home studio. Go for the 6 channels rather than buying a bigger unit later (UR44 vs. UR22). This was my main pushover from Focusrite. The cost of their 6 channel unit was slightly higher. I would not say that I made a mistake as the build quality is excellent. I will never say anything bad about the Focusrite as I have not used it. This was cheaper and it sounds amazing. The DSP interface has no glitches at all. It works beautifully to set your mic/input levels before opening up your studio software. As for the software included. I already received a copy of Steinberg Cubase with an earlier purchase of Yamaha gear. You get your Pro tools guys, your Studio 1 and your Sonar guys (umm, sorry or girls). Cubase is a very versatile nice program but the installation is a bit of a drag. I have used Cakewalk and Sonar for more than 16 years and love it. tricky if you use the software version of e-licenser. I immediately did an update via the DSP interface window and everything installed beautifully. It even recognizes all your old e-licenses etc. Can't comment on Windows 8 though.

I really wanted the UR44 to work. On the outside it appears to be the perfect interface and it's a steal. I heeded all the warnings of the prior reviews and went in knowing there would be some hurdles to getting up and running. So after 9 hours invested installing and trouble shooting I'm throwing in the towel. The last problems I encountered were cubase not recognizing the individual inputs of the UR44 and the waveforms not appearing. I looked up the waveform issue on steinberg support and it stated they were aware of the issue and were working on an update. That would be acceptable had this not been on the market for 5 years! It's a shame that Steinberg didn't put more time in on developing this and released it half baked. It's particularly frustrating for beginners. Talk about being thrown in the deep end of the daw pool. You are left wondering if you installed it correctly when all along it was the product's shortcomings.

Es un excelente producto para grabar lo que sea, los preamps son muy transparentes con una gran presencia en los medios y altos, cuenta con un channel strip y reverb digital el cual lo puedes aplicar al momento de grabar sin ninguna latencia, de gran ayuda sus 2 salidas de audifonos las cuales pueden tener una mezcla independiente cada uno, ademas de que viene con una copia de Cubase Le para empezar a grabar sin necesidad de comprar otro programa

Recently I have purchased the Steinberg UR242 from Amazon and it is astonishingly far excellent than I had expected. Its built up of full metallic body makes it look so good and pro. I have got an inclination on editing Videos and Audios and for quite some time I was planning to set up a Home recording studio of my own. I was very much confused on which sound card to purchase and sought advice from a colleague who owns a professional recording studio. He advised me to for Tuscam Sound card. I was much confused in between Tuscam and Steinberg UR242 and took risk on Steinberg UR242. To my utter surprise the UR242 is far excellent and reliable and sounds so good in DAW such as FL studio, Adobe Audition, Cubase etc. Thanks to marketing team of Steinberg product as well as to the Steinberg Company. I therefore recommend the products to the customers who are planning to purchase a pro sound card at affordable range to go for UR242.

I upgraded from the UR 22mkll. I looked at lots of interfaces and found this one had the most features for the money. A great feature is the ability to split the phantom power between the mic lines. In other words, you can have phantom power on the mic but not the guitar. cc mode for an ipad is also nice. Software includes FX Suite plug ins to model the sound.

It's great!. I personally liked it... Pretty stable and sturdy ... Full metal body and D pre preamp work quite well.. and fully compactible with Cubase as I work on Cubase it's performance is just flawless ... Real time monitoring no latency found.. no clipping no hissing and audio is superb... I'll recommend it all home studios and semi large music production studio..

Muy buen producto. Alta calidad y fidelidad del sonido en la transmisión digital. Esta interfase junto con una buena computadora es una combinación muy poderosa. Transmite prácticamente en tiempo real. Tengo un teclado y un micrófono conectados, he hecho grabaciones y transmitido en vivo sin problemas. Recomendable. De precio bien.