Problems with overdub with Behringer UMC202HD

[t0ttie2]

Using HP Spectre laptop with Windows 10. Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD USB audio interface with the Behringer driver (v 3.29.0). Audacity version 2.1.3 installed from the .exe.

I am having difficulty recording in overdub mode with the above USB audio interface. Setup 1 below describes the problem I am having.

Setup 1 (preferred setup): Recording Device: "Line (Behringer UMC202HD)"; Recording Channels: "1 (Mono)"; Playback Device: "Speakers (Behringer UMC202HD)"; Preferences->Recording->Overdub box is checked.
- I have no problems recording my first track. I click record, I see the track being created with the red line scrolling across the new track as I start recording.
- I have no problems playing back that track. I click the play button and I heard the track being played through the headphones plugged into the USB interface.
- If I click "Record" again, a new track entry is created in the window, the status bar says "Recording", but the red line does not travel across the screen and the new audio is not recorded and the previous audio is not played back through the audio interface. When I eventually hit stop, I get an error saying "Latency Correction settings has caused the recorded audio to be hidden before zero..." After clicking ok, the new track entry is there, but there is no audio recorded.

Setup 2: Recording Device: "Line (Behringer UMC202HD)"; Recording Channels: "1 (Mono)"; Playback Device: "Speaker/Headphone (Realtek Headphone...)"; Preferences->Recording->Overdub box is checked.
- I have no problems recording my first track. I click record, I see the track being created with the red line scrolling across the new track as I start recording.
- Playing back the track, now the sound comes out the laptop speakers, as expected based on the selection (though I would prefer the sound to come out the USB interface)
- If I click Record again, I am able to record a second track through the USB interface while listening to the track through the laptop speakers.

Setup 3: Recording Device: ""Line (Behringer UMC202HD)"; Recording Channels: "1 (Mono)"; Playback Device: "Speakers (Behringer UMC202HD)"; Preferences->Recording->Overdub box is unchecked.
- I have no problems recording my first track. I click record, I see the track being created with the red line scrolling across the new track as I start recording.
- I have no problems playing back that track. I click the play button and I heard the track being played through the headphones plugged into the USB interface.
- If I click Record again, I am able to record a second track through the USB interface, but I do not hear the previously recorded track (as expected because of settings)

Does anyone know if I can record and playback at the same time with this USB device? I would rather not have to take the computer headphone output and the audio interface output and put them through a second mixer/headphone amp if I don't have to.

[kozikowski]

I do expect that to work, but one thing leaps out at me. Unlike the UM2, the 202 is naturally a stereo device, not mono. What happens if you set up for stereo?

Nasty things can happen when you cross those by accident.

I can try experiments with my units when it gets to be daytime here.

What's the microphone?

Koz

[t0ttie2]

Thanks for the reply.

I just tried it in stereo mode and have the same problems. Using a guitar as an input.

[kozikowski]

Thanks for the detailed report. That's enormously useful.

You're right. Generally, if you can plain record and play, Overdubbing should be a piece of cake. Nothing leaps out immediately why it should fail.

On a stretch, if you don't apply the driver, I would expect the Behringer to mount as a plain, bi-directional stereo interface. Did the driver explicitly claim Windows 10 support?

Koz

[kozikowski]

Win10 is not a simple upgrade. It's a whole new OS and drivers need to be designed for it. You may be better served without the driver if it doesn't know about Win10.

Koz

[t0ttie2]

The driver says it is for Windows 10. It is titled "UMC Driver 3.29.0 for Windows 7 to 10" and the instructions say to use this driver for Windows 10.

From what I have read, this device is plug-and-play on Mac, but requires the UMC drivers to work on windows. But, just to make sure, I uninstalled the drivers and the device, plugged it back in. Windows "recognized" it as an audio device, but it did not work. Would not play audio, would not record audio. I reinstalled the UMC Driver and I'm right back to where I was originally.

[kozikowski]

Maybe I can explain that one. The 202 claims nose-bleeding high technical specifications: 24-bit, 192KHz sampling rate, etc. I suspect strongly you only get those qualities with the driver.

Sometime this afternoon (Pacific time) I'll crank up the Win7 machine and see what happens when I try to mount the Behringer devices I have. Hopefully before then, one of the Windows elves will pop up and solve this.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Maybe there's another possibility. The HP Spectre laptop's claim to fame is it's light weight and extreme portability. It's half-tablet and half laptop.

We know that overdubbing requires the machine to Record and Play at the exact same time and perfectly correctly. That's one obvious different between Overdubbing and the simple sound services such as Record and Play. I wonder if the machine can't handle both of those services at the USB port at the same time.

One of the ways of getting a stuck cursor is make Audacity expect to receive a correct data connection and then either damage the connection or fail to start it at all.

Koz

[kozikowski]

What is your latency setting?

Screen Shot 2017-07-21 at 12.25.51.png (54.66 KiB) Viewed 2702 times

Koz

[t0ttie2]

Audio to Buffer: 100
Latency correction: -130

I think these were defaults when I installed audacity? When I do overdub (using the laptop speakers), the latency correction seems to be fairly close. The recording is shifted back and nearly perfectly lines up with what I am playing with. I haven't done a latency test with a microphone yet.