Just one little bit of information I learned when we had our first jam session last weekend.
If you use UMC1820 and ADA8200 together, connect them using two Adat - cables (in —> out and out —> in) and set the ADA8200 to be the sync slave and sync to signal present on its Adat input. This method has one important advantage: The ADA8200 always follows the sync signal from the UMC1820 no matter how you set UMC1820 to sync (Internal, external Spdif or Adat). This method completely prevents what happend to me last weekend
I set the ADA8200 to be the sync master and connected it to the UMC1820 with two Adat cables. Then I forgot to use the alsamixer and set the UMC1820 to slave to the signal present in its Adat input. The result was that the UMC1820 and ADA8200 were both left to internal sync. As the devices were not synced together the audio sources connected to the ADA8200 had clicks in the recording and I didn’t notice this because you can not hear the signal connected to ADA8200 while recording. Luckily that was just a minor nuisance since we were just jamming and trying to come up with new ideas for songs.
Both the UMC1820 and ADA8200 performed very well and without problems and I was really pleased with the results. As I had now more inputs than before (used a 4 input device previously) I could record both the micked (is that a word ?) amplifiers and the “clean” sound taken from the last effect in guitar / bass effect chain.
The reason for buying these devices was that I needed to record 2 vocal mics, guitar, bass and a drum machine and also route the vocal mics and the drum machine to our PA. This all worked very well.
The monitor output of UMC1820 was connected to the PA. The vocal mics and drum machine were connected to the UMC1820 and could be heard through the PA.
The mics from guitar + bass amps and also “clean” line signal from the end of guitar and bass effect chains were connected to the ADA8200. These signals need not be routed to the PA as both instruments already has their own amp. The signals connected to the ADA8200 can not be heard through the PA while recording.
The alternative to the UMC1820 + ADA8200 combo was to buy a mixer. Behringer UFX1204 was on my shopping list first, but I decided against buying it after I realized the UMC1820 + ADA8200 takes a lot less space (the car is already packed completely full with equipment when we go to the country side for a jamming session). The only thing the UFX1204 has that the other alternative hasn’t is a reverb. I realized that I can always mix in some plate reverb for vocals by using a plugin in Ardour while recording.
By the way even the lately designed Behringer stuff might have problems, my UMC1820 developed one :) It worked correctly when just turned on but after about 30 - 40 minutes when the device became warm all analog inputs started to emit low clicking sounds in about 10 second intervals. I sent the device for warranty repair.
I still think it’s a very nice device and a problem like this might not become apparent in factory tests. However I know Behringer track record in build quality is not good
This a common Behringer problem which is why I started looking at other brands (MOTU for me). I grabbed a preused Behringer UMC204 that only worked @44.1k duplex. Once I went to 48k I’d get clicking on all four channels consistently. I sent it in for a brand new unit and same problem on Mac, Windows and Linux right out of the box. Build quality is cheap and I’ve had these issues with other units. You get what you pay for really.
I just purchased an umc1820 and an ada8200, and I plugged the adat out of the 8200 to the adat in of the 1820. No sound is gotten from the 8200 on ardour whatever the settings. I could swear I managed once to record something on an entry of the 8200, but now it’s just dead silent, even though the preamps’ led are blinking alright. I fear some plug has been damaged.
I saw you guys are using two adat cables, for syncing sake. But shouldn’t I get a signal, even disorted ? Do you think I should get a second adat cable or you think I should send back the cards ?
This sounds like a problem I ran into with my UMC1820 and ADA8200. Yes like Paul said it has to do with syncing.
There is a switch on the back of the ADA8200 right beside the Sync - connector. If you use only one Adat cable running from ADA8200 to UMC1820, then you need to set this switch to: Master 44.1 kHz or Master 48 kHz. Then turn off your UMC1820 and set the push button: OPT I/O to ADAT. Turn UMC1820 on and start up alsamixer and change the UMC1820 to sync to: ADAT. Now it should work again
Even with two adat cables, no mode of synching is getting any signals on a >#10 tracks.
I can succesfully lock the preamp in slave with the two cables, so these aren’t in trouble.
My config is :
Ubuntu Studio 18.04
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k4.15.0-39-lowlatency
Alsa 1.1.3
Ardour 5.12
Jack 0.4.5
Do you know of any mean to “ask” the soundcard how many input it’s treating ? I have 20 tracks listed whether I have the cable plugged in the “ADAT IN” of the UMC1820 or not, so I’m suspecting a hardware failure of this port.
10 tracks? Maybe this is a silly question, but on the front of the unit, do you have the SPDIF/ADAT button selected correctly? I am not home at the moment, so I am not sure if ADAT requires the button be depressed or raised, but if you have it set to SPDIF, I think that would limit it to 10 tracks.
Well it’s just the UMC has 8 XLR ports +2 others. So the tracks from 11 to 18 are from the adat. And yes, I’ve tried everything. I even tested to use adat in spdif mode in case it was switched, out of despair…
You need two working adat devices to rule out which device/port is faulty. You could try to connect UMC1820 adat out to ADA8200 adat in and see if there is sound at the ADA line outputs. You’d need to change sync settings around also.
I’m seeing a friend with a fully fonctionnal chain this sunday on another OS, so we’ll see the bottom of this !
Thanks for your concern anyway, I’ll keep you guys in touch, for reference.
Okay, so. I managed to have it working under windows (after installing the drivers) on tracks 7/8, so I assumed it was a driver-related issue. Now I see it working perfectly on these tracks, but 1-6 remain dead silent. I’m trying some voodoo with a windows driver and wine, but I honestly am not optimistic.
Does it ring a bell to you, an adat with only 2 out of 8 tracks working ?
Another thing I find deeply disturbing is that alsamixer does not list these two additionnal tracks.
Behringer’s site still states that UMC1820 is supported under MacOs and they have no driver download for MacOs. So the device must still be USB Class Compliant and installing any drivers probably won’t help with your problem.
UMC1820 Adat track numbers are 11 - 18, so I guess your are talking about ADA8200. But now I’m confused because there is no drivers for ADA8200 for any os.
So which one of your devices is not working as expected, is it the UMC1820 or ADA8200 ?
Anyway if either of these devices are not working as advertised, then just send it for repair. Behringer build quality is not good and you may need to swap your device for a new one to get a working one. My first UMC1820 was broken, but the second one works fine. If one adat channel works then all the other channels should work also, if not the device is broken.
Hi guys,
So I have this friend of mine who’s running on windows. On windows you do need a driver and a software to have the UMC working. In it you have access to every track and can set small parameters, such as gain, mute, etc…
Turned out, the tracks 1-6 of the ADA8200 were reset to mute every time I was connecting to Alsa from my linux.
So I finally gave up and cleared completely my OS before installing a fresh new ubuntuStudio (18.10), and there it was : magic, every thing working absolutely fine. So my guess is there was some old config files from alsa doing havock.
I was able to have 0.7ms latency with 96kHz.
You can hear (or not) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5aLlaC6RD4
I was also able to use the 8 optical ADAT I/O without any problems.
The only thing was to get rid of puleaudio:
I did some tests and recordings to show setup, two time monitor-mixing, ADAT and latency demo on youtube: /channel/UCINH_Fh0Ego_IWIVed3RUmA
It’s in German but you’ll get the point.
I like to use an RME 96/8 PAD on my old PC. That PCIe Card was an expensive on!
The UMC 1820 was about 180,- Euro, and now I’m able to use USB an a newer Laptop
for recording.
I’m locking forward to test the Mic-Preamps against the ones build in my old Yamaha O3D.
You will hear that on my YouTube-Channel, next weeks.
I started with UMC404 and upgraded to Umc1820. Worked out of the box
As a question :How can I use both units ? in other words 4 input channels of the umc404 and 8 input channels of the umc1820 ? Qjackctl does not allow for it.
You have a few options. I do not think these boxes allow external sync (word clock for example) but if both of them do, then it is possible to create an alsa_multi pseudo device that looks to jack like one device with all io from both boxes.
Option 2) even if the two boxes may be synced together, it may be easier to use zita-ajbridge with the synced option (-S).
Option 3) unsynced use of zita-ajbridge. This uses software syncing also known as SRC (Sample rate conversion).
Option 4) use alsa_in and alsa_out which come with jack, they are similar to zita-ajbridge but I am told, do not do the SRC as well as zita-ajbridge does. “Not as well” means doesn’t sound as good and uses more cpu. (I have not tested if this is true) So far as I know, alsa_in/out does not have a synced option, it is SRC only.
With all of these options you obviously want to use the unit with the greatest i/o as the jack master. You do not want to have an stereo pair cross both units (if left is on unit (a) the the right should also be on unit (a)). The master unit should be used for things that are loudest and most important in your mix (lead vocals and lead instruments).
From Len’s comments I would suggest you try Zita first. I once did a few tests with a bass and a stereo pedal to split the signal and recorded both on Ardour as two different tracks using a Scarlet 2i2 and a Uphoria UMC with 2 inputs. For the test I did with alsa_in there was a small but noticeable delay from the second interface while using zita I could not notice it.
