I’m a beginner with home recording, and want to start multi-tracking some guitar and vocals. I have a Behringer UCA222 USB interface (with a guitar and V-Amp3 as a source). I have this connected to my Windows 7 machine via USB, and the driver seems to be installed correctly. My problem is that, even though I can select it as the recording device (in Audacity 2.1.0), I get no signal being registered in Audacity. I have phones connected to the UCA222 and I can hear the guitar input.
In my Audacity device toolbar I have my recording device set to “Line In (5-BEHRINGER USB WDM)”. I have tried all 3 options for Audio Host (MME, Windows Directsound and WIndows WASAPI), but none seem to help. I have my Playback Device set to speakers.
In my Windows Sound control panel I have my Default Device set to “Line In - 5 -Behringer USB WDM Audio 2.8.40”, and have disabled all other devices.
My UCA202 didn’t come with any software. It just worked out of the box. Which software did you install?
Go into the Win7 control panels and find your device. It might say something like “USB Audio Codec.” My Win7 has little sound meters and I can see my sounds there. Can you?
I downloaded and installed the x64 USB audio drivers from the Behringer website (and also the ASIO4All drivers) - Windows (x64) didn’t recognise it until I did. The UCA222 shows up as a recording device in the Windows Sound panel, and the sound meter registers a signal from it when I strum the guitar. It’s just Audacity that doesn’t get a signal, even though I’ve selected it as my Recording Device in the Device toolbar
???
Try it with “Host” set to MME and the recording device set to “BEHRINGER USB WDM”.
Make a test recording.
If it records a “flat line” (silence), try applying the Amplify effect. That should tell you whether it really is “silence” or just recording at a very low level.
Strange. This time when I opened Audacity I could see a signal, and was able to record it. I have no idea what changed.
Do you have any tips for dealing with latency when overdubbing? For example: I’m using phones plugged into the UCA222 to monitor the backing track as well as the track that I’m recording, and I’m getting a delay on what I’m playing. Is there any way around this?
No, there’s no delay in that exact scenario. It’s only if I activate playback through the UCA222 while recording the overdub that I hear a delay in what I’m playing (or possibly an echo).
Yes, I can hear the guitar without delay when Audacity is out of the loop. When overdubbing with Audacity I hear an echo on the guitar that I’m playing (through the phones).
Ah…that’s done it - thanks! I found that my overdubs were “lagging” the backing track a little, but found and tweaked the latency correction setting to -200 and it’s now fine.
Glad to help, but Audacity latency correction doesn’t do anything for you during live recording. That makes your new and old performances line up in playback later. Or is that what you meant?
Yes - that was indeed what I meant. When I was performing the overdub it sounded in sync with the backing track, but when I played it back my overdubbed track was a fraction “behind” the backing track, and my adjustment to the latency correction stopped this happening.
Yes - that was indeed what I meant. When I was performing the overdub it sounded in sync with the backing track, but when I played it back my overdubbed track was a fraction “behind” the backing track, and my adjustment to the latency correction stopped this happening.
That is precisely what the Audacity adjustment does.
You can fine tune it with a few simple tricks.
Scroll down to Setting the Recording Latency.
There’s nothing high fidelity about this. Make it so your microphone can hear your headphones and press record. Note the difference in the two tracks in playback. That’s your new correction.
Attached before (bad latency) and after (little or no latency after blue wave magnification).
