Has anyone used the Steinberg UR22 usb interface for ACX?

I’ve watching George Whittam’s videos to learn more about spoken word audio recording. He recently mentioned that he likes the Steinberg UR22MKII 2-Channel USB Interface .

Im currently using a Shure X2U adapter, which is a great unit, very solid, very low noise, I can achieve consistent ACX acceptable noise floors with the Shure.

The one thing I don’t like about the X2U is that the gain is an unmarked thumbwheel, which is a small PIB. I record in a business office after hours, so I have to set up and tear down for every session. Which means I have to recheck the X2U gain every time, since it’s easy to move that thumbwheel. That’s five minutes every time I’ll never get back.

I don’t want to give up the very low noise floor of the X2U, but if this UR22 is also very low noise I might give it a try, just because it has markings on its gain knob.

Both of those links go to the same place.

a great unit, very solid, very low noise, I can achieve consistent ACX acceptable noise floors with the Shure.

And what microphone? I’ve never done a production job with my X2U because of low volume and high noise. I confirmed with Shure it’s working normally. So I’ve only ever used it with the volume all the way up—and I ran out.

It has black knobs, so you can’t easily mark them. That would have been my first shot. Given how much trouble people have creating their VO Studio, I don’t think I would be changing hardware if I didn’t have to. New hardware means you have to go through the whole volume, quality, noise, distortion thing again. Also, from recent postings, some digital converters have problems adding tiny sound snippets here and there not part of the original performance. They’re rough to find and so far, impossible to remove.

I would still figure a way to mark the knob. Tiny blob of nail polish, scratch with a needle, something. How are you setting the volume that it takes you five minutes? Control-Click or Right-Click the recording meters > Start Monitoring. “Testing Wooooooooooof” watch the meters as you adjust the knob.

Opps! Fixed now, thanks!


And what microphone? I’ve never done a production job with my X2U because of low volume and high noise. I confirmed with Shure it’s working normally. So I’ve only ever used it with the volume all the way up—and I ran out.

I use my X2U with an Audio-Technica 2035 into a 2011 Macbook Pro. I typically have a noise floor of -65 to -70. I’ve noticed the Shure’s gain knob doesn’t seem to be completely linear. It takes only a little movement of the knob around the ‘sweet spot’ to go from not enough gain, to too much. But there is a sweet spot, at least for me.

Shure’s gain knob doesn’t seem to be completely linear.

It’s not totally a well-behaved audio control. I also noticed a tendency to “go nuts” at the extreme high-volume point. There is a particular audio circuit design which does that. If you’re careful, you may notice that the quality of the sound changes up there, too. Unlike you, there was no question I needed to run it all the way up, so I keep the X2U in the back of a credenza drawer. It’s happy there.

As I recall, it doesn’t take five minutes to find that unstable point. Is that the shortcoming?

I can think of one possible Steinberg shortcoming. Many two-channel units such as this have to be captured in stereo. There is no one-channel mono like there is with the X2U. These units are not production mixers. That means for every performance, you will need to split the stereo show (with you on one side) into forced mono and then discard the blank track. That also means your Steinberg headphones will only have you on Stereo Left or wherever you put the microphone. This is where you dig in the documentation. They may have a way around that.

I have a Behringer UM2 preamp which seems to work OK and ACX seems to like the Avid Fast Track Solo. Both of those can produce a single mono sound track.

However.

Because of the Avid video editing heritage, the Fast Track Solo can require tricky setups and special software and drivers. Also remember, Audacity doesn’t easily support ASIO audio software, so when people start throwing around ASIO, it’s not a get-out-of-jail card for Audacity.

You sure you don’t want to put a tiny bit of red nail polish on that knob?

The UM2 will mount as either mono, with your microphone in the middle and no guitar, or stereo with you on the left and your guitar on the right. I just tried it. I didn’t know it would do that. The headphones are always a mono mix.

I have no idea how a Fast Track Solo works.

Koz

Thanks Koz, sounds like I’ll stick with my Shure for now.

It’s like that with most 2 I/O interfaces.

Zero latency monitoring is a mono mix. Otherwise you’d get guitar in one ear and the vocal in the other ear. Or one channel only if you’re just recording vocals.

I guess adding a mono/stereo switch is deemed too complicated for most users, or too expensive for that kind of gear. The market is very limited, so competition on price is hard.

I wasn’t expecting a dual stereo/mono mount—my option.

Koz