Recording 4 channels: Behringer Uphoria UMC404HD [SOLVED]

FANTASTIC recording software as-is! My question revolves around the interface I recently purchased. Behringer uphoria UMC404HD pictured… it has 4 inputs. Are there any plans to make Audacity capable of recording more than two channels at one time?

Thank you!
Behringer png.png

Audacity will record multi-channel now. There are several devices with special software arrangements and the ability to lay down multiple tracks.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/multi-channel-recording-in-audacity/15644/1

I don’t know that the Behringer will work natively since I believe Windows will naturally try to mount the device two-channel stereo.

You should avoid settings and software that use the word “ASIO.” ASIO is a special software environment that Audacity doesn’t easily support.

Have you ever compiled a software program? If not, then ASIO is not in your future.

Koz

Are you planning on overdubbing—multiple instruments or voices one on top of the other? In general the Behringer stuff is pretty good about sound management when you do that, the jury’s out on multi-track. Remember, you have to use headphones and they’re only two channel. USB sound devices are not mixers.

Koz

Audacity can record as many “channels” as are supported by the sound card drivers, but only one “device” at a time. So it all depends on whether the drivers for your device present a device with 4 channels, or two stereo devices.

Ensure that the device is connected to the computer and powered on, then launch Audacity (in that order).
Then open “Help menu > Diagnostics > Audio Device Info”.
Wait for the info to appear, then save it somewhere convenient, then upload the saved file with your reply.

I do overdub, but sometimes it’s convenient to start with a couple of things at once. For example, drum machine needs 2 channels for stereo, guitar and bass. I can’t do that right now. Most is two instruments at a time.

I’ve attached the .txt of the device info.

I am completely ignorant as to what ASIO software is.

Why would the soundcard be an issue if the Behringer is connected via USB? I used to use a 5 channel mixer and plug in via the LINE IN on the back of the PC, so I understand that limits me to 2 channels. The whole purpose of buying the Behringer was to utilize 4 tracks at a time. I’ve learned how to split tracks into 2 mono tracks by using L and R. I’m still limited to that despite the 4 channels on the Behringer.

And, if the sound card is the issue, could that issue be remedied by putting in a stand-alone sound card? I believe the one on this machine is built into the motherboard.


Thanks for trying to help me understand!!
deviceinfo.txt (6.91 KB)

This is what I was looking for:

Device ID: 17
Device name: Line (2- BEHRINGER UMC404HD 192k)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 4

This means that you need to set (in the device toolbar) the “host” to WASAPI, and the recording input to “Line (2- BEHRINGER UMC404HD 192k)”, and that “should” give you 4 channel simultaneous recording.

Keep us informed of how you get on.

Note that Audacity only supports mono/stereo playback, (no surround sound).

That did it! I have 4 channels now. Thanks very much.

Question: If I try to switch back to the 2 channels via the DEVICE TOOLBAR after I’ve finished putting down 4 tracks, I get this error…
“Error opening sound device. Try changing the audio host, recording device and project sample rate”

Is that done via the DEVICE TOOLBAR? If so, it didn’t work. Still get the error. Have to close out of Audacity and re-open, and in doing so, if I don’t save the project, I lose the tracks. I suppose I could just keep recording with 4 tracks opening up each time, then delete the unused tracks later on (?)

Unless there’s an easier way.

THANKS!!!

How are you doing that? Are you changing the selected recording device, or just changing the number of audio channels?

Just the number of audio channels in the drop down in the DEVICE TOOLBAR.

Rather than restarting Audacity, you could try “rescan audio devices” (Transport menu)

As a spin off to the above question I’d like to know if you plan adding Multi-device support.
I know. This is not a simple task. At least in windows there isn’t a good inter-device sync mechanism.
However, it is a useful feature for those using multiple soundcards as audio entry points to their PC.

No plans, though it can be done already on Linux and Mac. For Windows, the usual way is to use ASIO, but the license terms for ASIO are compatible with GPL (Audacity’s open source license).

Thank you Steve for the prompt reply.
Will Audacity work with ASIO4All? If so, is the legal problem still there? (meaning that the protocol itself is proprietary?)

Unfortunately yes.
To use ASIO legally, Audacity needs to be built against the ASIO headers, which are under a non-distributable license. Audacity is under GPL v2 licenses, which guarantees that the source code is freely available. To satisfy the conditions of one license, means violating the terms of the other - the licenses are incompatible. Audacity can legally be built with ASIO support, but only for personal use - it can’t legally be distributed without violating one or other of the licenses. Unfortunately, building Audacity from the source code is quite complex on Windows (Missing features - Audacity Support)

Got it. Thanks!

Will try this tonight and let you know how it goes.

Here’s what I discovered…

Let’s say you you record the initial 4 tracks (drum machine in stereo, guitar & vocal) using WINDOWS WASAPI setting. Now you want to add bass, then harmony vox, then percussion, then keys… If you switch to WINDOWS DIRECT in the Device Toolbar. Then you click TRACK, ADD NEW STEREO …now you can lay down each additional track one at a time without an error message and without DEVICE SCAN or restarting Audacity.

I tried a few ways but couldn’t figure out how to overdub 4 tracks at once after the initial 4 tracks, but I don’t care b/c I’ll never do that. Other’s might but a bit beyond my recording pay grade.

This is great stuff. Thank you guys very much for your help in sorting all this out!

Thanks for the feedback. Great to hear that the Behringer Uphoria UMC404HD will do 4 channel recording on Windows / Audacity .

I think it should really be possible to just change the number of recording channels in Audacity, but there seems to be something a bit weird happening - possibly a slight bug in the WASAPI drivers. It may require going into the Windows Sound Control Panel and changing the number of channels there as well as in Audacity. But regardless, glad to hear that you have a satisfactory workaround.

I’ll give that a look and let you know.

This is a relatively new piece of gear from Behringer so you may get more questions about it as it “catches on.” So far the couple of demo’s I’ve made came out great.

Here’s what it is set to, and you can see the other choices.
Windows Sound.jpg