Audio quality from Laptop to Behringer UMC 404 very poor

  • Thread starter Thread starter cboe
  • Start date Start date
C

cboe

New member
Hi everybody, I have the following issue. When I plug my headphones into my laptop (Gigabyte G5 KF, Realtek HD Audio) they sound great. When I plug them into the interface (Behringer UMC404HD) and connect the laptop to one of the inputs with a jack cable, the sound is terrible. Other plugged in devices (edrum, keyboard) sound great, but the PC music is unacceptable (not just a bit of noise but everything's off, e-guitar can hardly be heard...). We've also tried with a cable that splits to 2 mono jacks, but same result. Also pressed basically all buttons on the interface in desperation...

One thing maybe worth mentioning is that on the laptop side when inserting the jack, I only get the options for "headset" or "headphones".

Any ideas what could cause this?
 
My first question is why would you use the audio output of the computer to go into the UMC404? You should use the USB interface and take the digital signal directly to the Behringer. That's what it's designed for!

I suspect you have a significant mismatch between the headphone out of the computer and the inputs of the interface. Your computer output is probably a few ohms at the most, whereas if you are going into a line input of the interface, it is 1MegaOhm.
 
If we use the USB interface as out on the laptop it sounds perfect. But we want to record from the keyboard, edrum and music from the computer all together. However, Audacity doesn't allow us to choose multiple inputs. A workaround we found was to send the music from the laptop through the jack to the interface, and then record everything from the interface through audacity. If you have a workaround for that I'm all ears :)

Would there be a hardware solution for the Ohm issue?
 
Ditch Audacity as a recording program and get a real DAW! Reaper is cheap and extremely good. Bandlab is free. Ardour is free.

I can't think of a workaround for your path. You're sending audio out of the computer's headphone out into the 404 and then recording that signal back into the computer with Audacity? WHY? You can put the music as a track in the DAW, and using it as you would with doing multitracking. What you are describing makes zero sense.
 
It makes some sense :) we use drumeo to learn the drums, if you havent seen it its basically playing the music without drums while also showing the notes onscreen, think of karaoke with drums.

Now could we just record the drums, then the sound separately again (cant be downloaded easily) and then sync them together in audacity? Sure, but tedious as hell.

So its an ugly workaround, i get it, but it used to work on mac. Could reaper record from both the interface AND sound output from the browser at the same time? Any other solutions?
 
Just a thought. you said "to one of the inputs" as in mono? Don't forget that the laptop will be stereo, and you might be getting a cancelled signal as one or the other channels will be shorted out if it's going into a single input on the interface - that often makes it either hollow, phasey or very noisy.
 
Hi rob, thanks for the response! I was thinking that too, but I also tried it with a cable that splits into 2 mono jacks and it sounded basically the same. Also, the inputs are XLR/TRS, which I think means they should be able to handle stereo(?)
 
The interface you have seems pretty decent. If you get a different you get four inputs. You can select two inputs for the keyboard (for left and right) and two for the drum machine. Probably will need to select line in.

Lay down your inputs on two different tracks, track one, keyboard with inputs one and two, drums on track two with input 3 and 4. Now you have base tracks. Add another track, get some mics and lay down the vocals.

Audacity is a fine program, but is limited, take advantage of your interface. Get something that will let you do what you are trying to do.
 
Thx for the tip, but none of this helps me solve the problem: how do i record both the input coming from the interface AND the audio from the browser at the same time?
 
Also check and match sample rate and bit depth in the UMC control panel and your DAW (and I'd peak at what's selected in Windows Control Panel
 
I think you still might be having an issue with the cabling. It's not just a stereo output. The spec on the Gigabyte G5 is 1 x 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone / Microphone), That means it most likely a 4 point plug, and these 3.5mm jacks are NOT standardized! An Apple connector is not the same as the Nokia connector. I have no clue what your Gigabyte uses.


Plugs.webp


Just save the audio from the browser to a wave file. Then you can just dump that into your DAW project and be on your merry way. What is the source for your browser audio? There are various ways to capture the audio, depending on how it's being sent. You can use Audacity's Loopback function to capture the audio directly. Youtube videos can be downloaded and converted to just audio.

https://www.howtogeek.com/217348/ho...-coming-from-your-pc-even-without-stereo-mix/
 
If you have a couple of DI boxes thats also worth a try. For whatits worth getting proper audio from windows laptops is never just plug in and go, like a mac, which works 99% of the time and the output impedance seems to match most inputs. Result noise free and sounding ‘normal’. The windows version is always hums, nasty digital buzzes, thin sound and in one case, it made every LED on the mixer (a soundcraft) light up!. Rich is totally right on this one, plus some of those in the diagram have 5v on them!
 
Thanks TalismanRich, I didn't know it's a 2-in-1 jack, however, normal headset without mic and with the same jack seem to work, do you think this could still be the problem?

Thanks rob aylestone too - if the issue was impedance, what could I do about it? Someone else someone recommended plugging in an external soundcard, but we would've liked to not go that far. Is there maybe another hardware solution?
 
There really should not be an issue feeding the 404 from a STANDARD TRS laptop HP jack using a 3.5mm stereo to 2X mono jack. There might be however if the laptop jack is a 4 pole type. "Impedance" here is a red herring, don't worry about it.

One solution come to mind? Audacity can be set to record any audio signal running through a computer e.g. radio, YT so that avoids the headphone jack problem. The MOTU M4 can do that internally, i.e. it has 2 'virtual' fifth inputs (as can other AIs now)


Or, get a small mixer such as the Xenyx 802 and 'collect' all the signals with that and send to the Behringer.

Dave.

Dave.
 
cboe said:
Thx for the tip, but none of this helps me solve the problem: how do i record both the input coming from the interface AND the audio from the browser at the same time?
Click to expand...
It could be that your interface input gain is too high, or the output level from your laptop is too high, or, as others have said, it could be pole shenanigans with the 3.5mm output, or just that the cable/adapter you're using isn't suitable.

Since headphones work fine from your laptop we can assume there's left + right audio on the tip and ring.
If it's a stereo track you're dealing with you will need the 3.5mm to two 1/4" plugs, which would go to inputs 1+2 on your interface.
The 1/4" plugs should be mono/unbalanced (one tip, and one large sleeve).

If possible, check that it's wired as follows with a multimeter.
3.5mm tip to 1/4" (1) tip
3.5mm ring to 1/4" (2) tip
3.5mm sleeve to 1/4" (1 and 2) sleeve.
Posting an example mp3 might be helpful. (y)


"Also, the inputs are XLR/TRS, which I think means they should be able to handle stereo(?)"

Each input on the interface will be one channel - mono.
The three poles on XLR or TRS, in this context, are are used for noise/interference cancelling rather than left/right/ground.


I know it's not the answer you're looking for but the solution really is to change the approach, in my opinion.
If you need to capture audio from the browser it'll be better, long term, to find a digital way of doing that.

Whether that's a downloadable file that you can save, or something that has to be recorded in real time (internally),
either way it'd be better to end up with a wav or mp3 copy of that material on a stereo track in your multitrack recording software.
Someone here will be able to help getting you set up with that, if you're willing, no doubt.
 
@ecc83 thanks for the input!

There really should not be an issue feeding the 404 from a STANDARD TRS laptop HP jack using a 3.5mm stereo to 2X mono jack. There might be however if the laptop jack is a 4 pole type. "Impedance" here is a red herring, don't worry about it.

I tried exactly one such cable, but the quality was exactly the same. I happened to have such a cable I used on another device with another computer and it worked perfectly there. How are you so sure it can't be impedance? I found these specs, says Mic in 3kOhm, seems rather high? But I really don't know about this stuff...

  • Inputs:
    • Preamp: 4 x MIDAS design
    • Type: 4 x XLR/1/4" TRS combo jacks (Mic, Line, Instrument signals)
    • Input Level Attenuation: 4 x Pad switch
    • Frequency Response: 10 Hz - 50 kHz (0 / -3 dB)
    • Impedance: Mic in: 3 kΩ / Instrument in: 1 MΩ
    • Maximum Input Level: Mic: -4 dBu / Line: +20 dBu / Instrument: -3 dBu
    • Phantom Power: +48V, switchable


One solution come to mind? Audacity can be set to record any audio signal running through a computer e.g. radio, YT so that avoids the headphone jack problem. The MOTU M4 can do that internally, i.e. it has 2 'virtual' fifth inputs (as can other AIs now)

I fear that's out of our price range. I know I could just record youtube sound separately. Possibly I could try to get youtube and whatever comes from the behringer to all play together and record that, but then I would lose all the separate tracks...
 
@Steenamaroo thanks for the response!

If it's a stereo track you're dealing with you will need the 3.5mm to two 1/4" plugs, which would go to inputs 1+2 on your interface.
The 1/4" plugs should be mono/unbalanced (one tip, and one large sleeve).

We tried exactly that, had the same poor quality. I've used that cable before though with another device to get sound from my laptop to 2 mono inputs and it worked. I'll see if I can get an mp3, don't know about the multimeter though :)

I know it's not the answer you're looking for but the solution really is to change the approach, in my opinion.
If you need to capture audio from the browser it'll be better, long term, to find a digital way of doing that.

Whether that's a downloadable file that you can save, or something that has to be recorded in real time (internally),
either way it'd be better to end up with a wav or mp3 copy of that material on a stereo track in your multitrack recording software.
Someone here will be able to help getting you set up with that, if you're willing, no doubt.

I know this is a weird approach, but it worked on the mac and was extremely convenient - losing some quality on the recording of youtube by going through the jack is fine for us. I understand how to record it separately, but it's a pain doing it and synchronizing.
 
Two things then...
If it's youtube you want the audio from there's no shortage of sites that let you download as mp3.

Just make sure you've got good antivirus and popup blocking and, of course, no one is downloading anything they don't have legal permission to use.
Goes without saying. ;)

The other is you've said a few times 'poor quality'.
That can mean a lot of things.

For a diagnosis of what's wrong with the current setup I'd share a copy of the problem audio for us to hear
but, if it was me, really I'd just download the audio from Youtube and drag it into my DAW.
 
Thx again for the responses. I'm very aware that I could just record/download the audio from youtube. However I'd also need to match it manually to whatever we've recorded afterwards which is just a hazzle. With the current solution (which worked on mac) it was just very convenient, even if we lost a bit of audio quality through the jack - we're not producing an album here, just try to record practice sessions.

And if there's a way to simultaniously record from different sources I'll take it for sure, but I don't think there is a way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top