Behringer MIC200 pre-amp

  • Thread starter Thread starter robgreen
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robgreen

robgreen

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I know Behringer stuff tends to provoke heated debate, but I changed my computer fairly recently and had to change my setup around as the PCI soundcard I had would no longer fit in the PCIe slot on the new motherboard. Anyway, I've been struggling with getting enough volume to my DAW from line-inputs and my old 4 track that I tend to use as a signal boosting pre-amp is tempermental at best (cuts out mid take etc). Anyway, picked up one of these Behringer MIC200 boxes secondhand for about £20 - thinking that it may do fine for just boosting signal and some of the signal colouring settings might be fun to play about with.

Unfortunately, turning the knobs up to any useable volume, even on the neutral settings results in a load of cracks and pops. Underneath the crackles, the sound coming through is fine, but clearly the crackles mean I can't really record with it.

So I wrote to Behringer

Hi,

I have a Behringer Tubeultragain MIC200, but it crackles and pops to the point of being unusable. This is regardless of whether there are any inputs plugged in or not and still happens when both gain and output dials are set quite low.

Looking round online, it seems that this is quite a commonly experienced problem, but I couldn't find anything that suggests a potential solution. Do you have any suggestions regarding what I could do to resolve this? I was considering buying a new 12x7 tube to see if that improves things, but there's no point spending any more money if you feel this is unlikely to be the source of the problem.

Hope you can advise.

Thanks
Rob
Click to expand...

...and they replied:

Dear Rob Green,

Thank you for your email! Changing the tube could potentially help. However, the issue could be deeper, such as a problem with one or more of the capacitors used on the unit's PCB. I recommend having your preamp sent in for repair.

If your product is still under manufactures warranty please start a claim here:

BEHRINGER: Warranty and Service Information

If not, please contact an authorized service center near you for repair. Here is a complete list of service centers:

BEHRINGER: Service Information
Click to expand...

There's no warranty as it's secondhand and I'd be reluctant to spend more on getting it repaired than I did to buy it, so what do folks reckon? Anyone had this problem and resolved it? I'd prefer to get it working if possible as I don't have much cash available at the moment to sink into buying something else. So if I can do something cheap like buying a new tube if that's likely the issue, then that would be good. I know nothing of electronics, so wouldn't know where to begin checking capacitors.

Not the end of the world if not as it didn't cost much, but any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
 
Not sure that's the problem. It sounds like your saying you cant get enough clean power into your sound card? Why? What is your current soundcard? It doesn't take much clean power to drive a DAW to -12db. That MIC200 should do it no problem, you shouldn't need a booster either. Are you trying to record to loud? You can always use gain in the DAW, after your tracks are recorded.
 
Thanks for the reply PDP. I think that I tried some testing a couple of months back by plugging headphones directly into the MIC200 output to listen to what it sounded like straight from the box and it was still just as noisy. I'll check properly tonight when I'm home though.

I don't know if I'm trying to boost the signal too loud or not to be honest. The current soundcard is a Tascam US-122 usb interface, so my chain for audio recording is:

SM58 > Tascam US-122 mk1 > Windows 7 with ASIO4ALL wrap > Ableton 5

I couldn't seem to get enough volume into Ableton with just this, which is why I tried the MIC200 to boost it. Are you saying that I should have enough clean power with the above without the pre-amp in the first place?

I do struggle to get my head around how to set these things up and spent ages 'forcing' the US-122 to work with Windows 7 in the first place as they didn't make a Windows 7 driver for the MK1, so it's possible I'm inadvertantly attenuating a hot signal somewhere else in the recording chain - I just can't figure out where :confused:
 
Hmmm, tricky that sucks they have no driver for you, because yes a decent interface with a 57 should still be able to drive your DAW no sweat. When you record a track in Abelton it doesn't need to play back any louder than -12db, you can go as low as -16db with no problem. So, turn up your playback and turn down the input, this should help with the hiss too.
 
Thanks a lot PDP, I'm not sure what kind of volume I'm tracking at - I'll have a proper look at all that this weekend. I'm sure I must be doing something dumb somewhere as it's a pretty simple chain.

It does suck that there's no proper driver as I find the ASIO4ALL wrapper kind of buggy and confusing, and also forgetting to unplug the Tascam before shutting down causes Windows not to close properly - meaning that I have to just switch it off in those instances, which then causes problems on the next restart. Hey ho, it'll do as a temporary setup I guess...
 
Yeah, hang in there until you can get a proper AI. I've been through the ASIO4ALL myself, its pretty miserable. Good Luck, make sure you get an AI you can return, you should be able to find an AI that works flawlessly with your Motherboard.
 
Hi Rob,
Even if you had the correct W7 driver* for the 122 you would still have a problem with it and SM57.

The 122 and 144s like many interfaces of their day had very low gain mic pre amps. That said I had a 122 for a while and for DI'ed guitar or miccing up cabs it was fine on XP.

Your best bet is to save up for a decent, modern interface and none better at the price IMHO than the Steinberg UR22.

That Behringer valve pre is a crock! Valve pres are never as quiet as sstate units unless you pay a LOT of money (and even then physics dictate they will never beat the best of silicon!) . If you are in a hurry to get going see if you can horse trade that pre for a small mixer. The Behringer Xenyx 802 (not usb) is very good for the money. That should give you plenty of drive into the 122's line inputs.

*Win 7 has some pretty deep audio menus and you might find things turned down (tho they are usually set too high!) in the usb devices section.

Dave.
 
Thanks a lot Dave and PDP. I was pretty gutted when the E-MU PCI wouldn't fit into the new motherboard as it worked perfectly. I even bought another version of it to fit a PCIe connection, but it doesn't look like Creative updated their old stock with Windows 7 drivers either.

I think I've pretty much exhausted every permutation of levels on the different areas of the recording chain listed above and looked for other audio levels scattered around Windows 7 with no success. In order to track at around -12db on the Behringer pre-mic and record a wav that's far from being hot:

waveform.jpg


I'm finding that the settings on both need to be fairly high:

20140209_193003.jpg


...and all I get out the other end is this that sounds like it's been played back from 60 year old vinyl: [MP3]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69835769/Wav%20Test.mp3[/MP3]

Thanks for the recommendation of the Steinberg UR22, it looks pretty reasonably priced. I'll have a proper look into that. I don't need anything top end, just something that is fully compatible with windows 7, has up to date drivers and doesn't crackle. I'll crack on using the old four track as a pre instead of the Behringer in the interim I guess - just need to do re-takes when it inexplicably cuts out (60% of the time it works 100% of the time) :cursing:

Cheers gents :)
 
...and that sample's without a popshield too, so would need a bit more volume boost again for proper vocals (sorry, it sounds a bit plosive-y...and the pre-xmas cold sounds like it still hasn't completely cleared either)
 
PDP said:
I had a Steinberg UR22, great unit, worked great with Cubase and Win7. Crystal clear pre-amps. Highly recommend!
Click to expand...

Sounds perfect, I'll give that unit some thought when I can get some cash together. Thanks again.
 
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