Audacity Forum

I'm very happy with the UCA 202. As you say, it is very cheap, works well with Audacity and the sound quality is pretty good (massively better than most PC laptops on-board sound).

One limitation with (all?) USB sound cards is that they do not support "Stereo Mix". That is, you cannot directly record sounds that are playing on your computer. However, overcoming this limitation is very simple; you simply use an audio lead to connect the output of the device to the input, and that way the sounds that are playing on the computer are fed back to the inputs and can then be recorded. (this is known as a "loopback" connector).

Another sound card worth considering is the Edirol UA-1EX. It costs a little more than the Behringer, but has a higher spec. and has a couple of extra features.

Note that both of these sound cards have "Line-level" inputs and outputs - this is perfect for connecting CD players, cassette players, mixing desks and so on, but if you want to connect a microphone you need to use a microphone pre-amp or mixing desk to boost the signal of the microphone to line level.

What a helpful response. Thank you. I really only want the device for recording from my mixing desk so it sounds like the behringer is ideal. I cant really see me ever needing to record sounds playing from the laptop but useful to know how to do it anyway.

I wont need to connect a mic so thats no problem. I will also check out the Edirol.

Thanks again for the advice.