Hi,
I’m in the market for a new audio interface after my TC Konnekt Live just died after 5+ years.
Currently using my old backup Presonus Firebox on Win 8.1
Would much appreciate some reviews/impressions of the UR44 from current owners on Win 8.1
Good or bad?
Issues?
Reliable?
Latency?
My main use will be with Ableton Live.
ty!
OK then!
I think if you have a look at the other UR44 threads you may find reports of some good and some bad points.
Don’t think anyone is going to sit and repeat it all in this thread.
Cheers
Stevo… 
Great. I just bought one anyway. I’ll keep that in mind then for when someone else asks.
Touch wood there will be no issues, but it’ll be an instant return if there are.
When I purchased this on a pre-order - there were no user reviews available so I hope this helps someone.
Mic pres sound great and don’t have any side effects like spiking. Unlike my Focusrite Saffire that spiked and had less desirable pres (my preference)
The drivers work very well. Never had a problem. On a side note its the only device I’ve had that when used as the main windows audio device, it can be turned on while in the browser and have the audio work instantly. Someone did their homework writing these drivers.
The built-in Reverb is very very good. Unlike the Focusrite Saffire reverb which was unusable. Also the reverb plug-in is just as good.
The integration with Cubase is what originally sold me but after weeks of use, I “get” how well made this thing is in every other respect.
Latency is not as low as my Roland Quad-Capture but low enough.
Works just as well on my iMac as it does on Windows. I also combined it with the quad-capture on the iMac to get additional inputs when I needed 8 inouts
Love using the Cubase Control Room / Studio Mix with this.
I dislike the choices made for the Mixer “Hardware” controls. For example you cannot click the reverb widget and drag up/down to change the level.
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the detailed review.
I got mine today (after ordering off Amazon Japan yesterday) and just finished a 4 hour or so session setting it and testing my various projects.
I have both Win 8.1 and OSX ML but only tested on Win 8.1 tonight.
My previous experience is a Presonus Firebox (still working) and a TC Electronic Konnekt Live (died a couple of weeks ago after 5+ years of heavy use)
First impression out of the box was nice metal case, solid weight but not too heavy.
Setup and upgrade firmware to V2 was no issue.
Tested the mixer app first with included dsp FX, rev and guitars using the first 4 inputs with 2 mics and 1 stereo guitar input.
The DSP FX seemed good quality, but due to the dsp processing limit it’s probably only good for a singer songwriter using them live.
No big deal for me as I use a combination of hardware and software FX anyway.
I use a Zoom G3 for harmonica rack mic and a Zoom MS50G for guitar, plus sometimes Guitar Rig added on top of those in Ableton Live.
For Vocals I use Voxengo’s Voxformer + a reverb, but the inbuilt UR44 compresser/Eq with send REV sounded quite ok and useable. A few different presets to choose from.
Tested some sets in Ableton Live with 44K sample rate and 256 buffer, running 2 mics into 1/2 (1 vocal, 1 harmonica in a rack) and 3/4 with stereo guitar in from the MS50G. Running software Vsti’s (Jamstix drums + Trilian Bass) along with these inputs it all seemed aok. No pops, seemed quite stable.
Then I added a Zoom RT 223 bass/drum box to 5/6 inputs and ran through some tunes using that with all 6 channels live.
Again, seemed rock solid with no pops.
I like the solid build and low profile.
Having 4 gain knobs on the front it’s great to be able to adjust the mix on the fly as you get used to the new sound.
I also changed sample rates a couple of times and it didn’t choke on 192.
Much less noisy than the Firebox (which is from 2005), probably even less than the Konnekt (from 2008) I think.
I did notice the volume drop on stereo linking in the mixer as mentioned on another thread, but this does not happen if you feed it into a daw channel so no big deal atm for me.
I’ll test it tomorrow again when I do a live gig online. Touch wood, seems solid.
So first impressions are good. I’ll give it a couple of weeks solid use and see if any issues pop up, which is the real test with these things I’ve found.
Two of my clients have just bought UR 44’s due to issues with windows 8.1 and FireWire, specifically RME fireface800.
They’re both knocked out at the ease of set up, the reliability and most of all the sound.
I’ve just heard a solo piano/sax recording done with the UR and it’s a remarkable sound recorded live in a friends large kitchen.
I have a UR824 and a UR22 and they’ve been faultless, hence my recommendation.
MC