Windows 10 and Stereo USB Mixers/Interfaces (1)

[Alan T]

So No replies, but I have made some progress.

For anyone else who comes this way be aware of the following:

1) The version of ASIO (V2.15) which is linked from the Behringer support site is worthless- it lacks the ability to do what are called offline settings - i.e. to select a device to manage. Once you have installed ASIO V2.15 you essentially have just one option on the program menu which is uninstall it! For some bizarre reason the ASIO people decided to drop the configuration screen. i.e. for the purposes of this activity - that version is useless. What you need to do is get onto the ASIO website and download the older V2.14 which does have the options that you need.

2 In desperation I thought I would try Behringer's external Audio to USB cable (Google for "Behringer LINE 2 USB 2 Stereo 1/4" Line in to USB Interface") to see if that works any better - but no, exactly the same issue - cos I guess it uses the same chips as the mixer has inside.

3) Audacity does not support ASIO out of the box. There is a lot of vague stuff about licensing being the reason for this, but all pretty abstruse. Seems a bit cock-eyed to me that two items of freeware cannot be bundled together - but what do I know! There is a process detailed on the Audacity Wikipedia page which shows how to build a new version of the Audacity program from sources, and to include ASIO in it. I was looking through that and thought I might try it until I got to the part where it said "Install the free version of Visual Studio" - been there before and done that - it's a huge install which nags you every day about updates and about buying the full suite and I really am not going there again.

So, I installed the free version of Traction's Waveform Digital Audio Workstation, which does come with ASIO built in and it works - that is to say that having worked though the huge number of options and the complex interface I have managed to record what is coming out of my Behringer Mixer USB. I'm not using the LINE 2 USB adapter that I bought - just going direct from the mixer usb. On the LINE 2 - taking audio output from the mixer main output the signal is massively overloaded. So clearly that device is not meant for this purpose.

Significantly, in the course of all this, I also tried a USB sound card (some Chinese branded Item I had forgotten I had) and *that* USB Sound card does auto setup as a stereo line input device which Audacity can use. So clearly the USB chips which Behringer use in their products suffer driver compatibility issues in Windows 10 with my Acer laptop AND also with my desktop - which has an Asus Motherboard.

This should all have been so simple - and it's a good thing I managed to work through it because after about four days, I still have not been favoured with any kind of reply from Behringer's "support" desk. I'll be thinking hard before buying any more of their stuff.

[kmitchell]

Hi @Alan T Welcome to the forums. Sorry for the late reply but I was traveling a bit this week. As you have discovered, the 2x2 USB interface on the Behringer Analog mixers isn't very well supported, particularly due to the lack of ASIO drivers. Adding in Audacity, which doesn't support ASIO, makes for a real mess. For any serious recording work, I highly recommend investing in one of the UMC interfaces. For stereo the UMC202HD is a good option.

While Waveform is certainly a capable DAW, you'll find that many users on this forum use Reaper, which is very reasonably priced and has a free 60-day trial period. Reaper also works with ASIO4ALL, so you test it out with your current setup.

[Alan T]

Thanks for your reply and for confirming my findings. One of the main reasons I bought that mixer (DX2000USB) was that it had a "digital" output that should connect straight into a computer without need for any extra signal matching or conversion boxes. Big disappointment that it wasn't as plug and play as it should be, and even more disappointed that the Behringer support pages are so lacking in any kind of help.

Thanks for your suggestion of using a UMC202HD - but looking on Amazon I see that would be another 80GBP and since I already have a solution I think I'll leave that for now. In any case, buying something extra to make - what should be - a plug and play solution actually work would go against the grain a bit. The free version of Waveform provides what I need for now - essentially a basic stereo audio recorder which is ASIO compatible - so unless it starts giving me constant pain about buying the full version I'll stick with that. If it gets annoying, I will take a look at Reaper for sure.

Seems pretty strange to me that nobody seems to have produced a basic no-frills stereo audio recorder app for Windows. The bundled voice recorder app doesnt seem to be suited for much more than recording from mics. I guess everyone uses Audacity.