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Having fun with my new Behringer UCG102 USB Guitar Interface!

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  • Having fun with my new Behringer UCG102 USB Guitar Interface!

    No, this isn't a SPAM post although you can currently buy these at 50% off from MF, GC or Amazon ($33.99).

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    http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCG102.aspx

    The hardware itself is very basic- I think I am most impressed with the software that comes with it- a very limited version of Native Instruments Guitar Rig. You get your choice of the AC-30, Plexi and Twin Reverb amp models. You can demo all 3 of them, which means it stops after 30 minutes and you can't save presets. I had thought that the 30 minute limit was forever, but you just need to exit the program and restart it to play for another 30 minutes.
    I was sure that I'd want the Twin Reverb rig but I wasn't crazy about the clean tones- practically all of the presets were distorted and did not clean up well. The Plexi rig was the fanciest with 16 knobs and 1 switch. It was the AC-30 rig that I liked the most, with a version of the Vox Treble Boost ahead of the preamp, along with reverb and tremolo- 32 presets.

    There is a "tape recorder" function that you can use to record your playing, before or after all of the effects and modeling, or to play back pre-recorded backing tracks to play along with. I have never had so much fun playing guitar through headphones! I have never liked to use headphones with any of the multi-processors I've tried- I never liked the presets which were usually aimed towards arena rock, and editing them didn't really help.

    Native Instruments has a free Guitar Rig 5 Player which gives you a small rig to keep plus 30 minute demo access to a whole bunch more from their Guitar Rig 5 software.

    NATIVE INSTRUMENTS : HOME | HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE FOR MUSICIANS, PRODUCERS, DJS, GUITAR AND BASS PLAYERS

    With all of the threads about the ultimate bedroom guitar amp I'd suggest that someone look into this (for $33!). FWIW I had checked out the $39 Vox AmpPlugs which plug into your guitar and have a headphone jack. None of the 3 models I tried had any decent clean sounds, although the AC-30 one came the closest. (Turning down the gain helped, but then that would reduce the maximum overall volume.) I had also tried using the $250 Korg Pandora 5 but was disappointed with the quality of the clean sounds. Once you turned off all of the effects there really wasn't much of anything left.

    Steve Ahola
    The Blue Guitar
    www.blueguitar.org
    Some recordings:
    https://soundcloud.com/sssteeve/sets...e-blue-guitar/
    .

  • #2
    Likewise the IK Multimedia iRig is good fun for headphone practice with an iPhone / iPad / iPod touch. It doesn't sound fantastic, but it doesn't sound at all to sleeping family. The main problem I have with it is the tangled cables.
    It's not microphonic - it's undocumented reverb.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by paggerman View Post
      Likewise the IK Multimedia iRig is good fun for headphone practice with an iPhone / iPad / iPod touch. It doesn't sound fantastic, but it doesn't sound at all to sleeping family. The main problem I have with it is the tangled cables.
      I was going to suggest that the Behringer USG102 was like an iRig for the rest of us...
      The Blue Guitar
      www.blueguitar.org
      Some recordings:
      https://soundcloud.com/sssteeve/sets...e-blue-guitar/
      .

      Comment


      • #4
        The few remaining lost tribes of the Amazon who don't have an IPhone? My boss was going on about IRig and he doesn't even own an electric guitar as far as I know.

        I believe instead of the official IRig cable, you can use a 4-conductor jack lead of the type that gives stereo audio and video from a camcorder, but some sort of buffer is needed for the low impedance input.

        How's the latency?
        "Enzo, I see that you replied parasitic oscillations. Is that a hypothesis? Or is that your amazing metal band I should check out?"

        Comment


        • #5
          Irig latency

          Originally posted by Steve Conner View Post
          The few remaining lost tribes of the Amazon who don't have an IPhone? My boss was going on about IRig and he doesn't even own an electric guitar as far as I know.

          I believe instead of the official IRig cable, you can use a 4-conductor jack lead of the type that gives stereo audio and video from a camcorder, but some sort of buffer is needed for the low impedance input.

          How's the latency?
          But for USD 39.95 for an irig, it's still cheaper than a camcorder that will never get used. As far as latency goes, I can't say that I've ever noticed it. There is a latency setting, but maybe that's for older models of iPhone or software. I have an iPhone 4.

          An even cheaper cable with a built in DAC could be the Rocksmith tone cable. 6.3mm jack to USB for less than USD30. I have no idea if it will work with software other than Rocksmith, but give me a week or so and I'll report back. Rocksmith has hideous latency.
          It's not microphonic - it's undocumented reverb.

          Comment


          • #6
            No, no, the IRig app is free and they make their money by charging 40 bucks for the cable, right? So I'm pointing out that you can make your own cable, or get a cheaper cable that's sold as a camcorder accessory.

            diy irig cable - Google Search

            http://www.cultofmac.com/68113/plug-...this-diy-irig/
            "Enzo, I see that you replied parasitic oscillations. Is that a hypothesis? Or is that your amazing metal band I should check out?"

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Steve Conner View Post
              No, no, the IRig app is free and they make their money by charging 40 bucks for the cable, right? So I'm pointing out that you can make your own cable, or get a cheaper cable that's sold as a camcorder accessory.
              Amazon is selling them for $26.99 (w/ free shipping). With a price like that you might want to holster your soldering gun...
              "Don't take your guns to town son
              Leave your guns at home Bill
              Don't take your guns to town"

              Amazon.com: IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig: MP3 Players & Accessories

              It is my understanding that the free app is extremely limited and that you probably want to spend $20 for the paid app.

              Steve Ahola

              P.S. I have two iPhones, the original and the 3GS. The 3GS had extremely limited reception in my condo- much worse than the original- so I went to the local App store who made me jump through hoops and then did jack shit. (I had already checked with AT&T and the conclusion was that the problem was with the iPhone and not with AT&T.)

              The guy in front of me in line got a replacement iPhone for dropped calls because their diagnostic app indicated that the internal modem had reset itself many times. "Next!"
              They tried to run the diagnostic app on my iPhone and found that I had an older version of iTunes and would have to upgrade it. They could do it for me there but it might lose the contents of the phonebook; I could take it home and back it up, and then do the upgrade.

              So after wasting an hour and a half I went home and wasted another hour and a half trying to upgrade iTunes on my iPhone. The problem was that my version of iTunes was so old that it could not be backed up and when I tried to upgrade it there was a problem uninstalling the older version completely. I guess part of the problem was that there were several versions of iTunes installed on my computer from two iPods and two iPhones. I think that Apple's install applications were buggy- intentionally so to encourage people to buy Macs instead of PC's!

              When I was finally able to remove all traces of the older installations and get the new version installed I found that iTunes had lost my library of 70GB songs that I had loaded into my 120GB iPod. I believe that if I was to plug my iPod into my computer with autosync engaged it would delete all 70GB from the iPod (their damned copy-protection scheme!) BTW my entire library consisted of tunes I converted myself from FLAC files using the LAME V0 setting; it wasn't like Apple was just trying to keep me from making pirated copies of songs I has purchased from them.

              Ok so I finally got the new version of iTunes on my iPhone 3GS (at the expense of losing my entire iPod 70GB library, thank you Mr. Jobs!) and returned to the Apple store ready for another 90 minute ordeal. After waiting for my turn it took about 90 seconds for them to run the diagnostic program on my iPhone which told them that there was not a problem with my modem resetting itself automatically. Which was the only reason that they would replace an iPhone for dropped calls. I had a very heated argument with their so-called "Genius" on the possibility of an iPhone having a legitimate reception problem that did not involve modem resets. "There could be an electronic problem with an iPhone which would impair its reception-electronic devices are not perfect!" Only I don't think I expressed my point as eloquently like that and the "Genius" was ready to call security to have me escorted from the building. "I will never again buy another Apple product!" It wasn't that I was like a spoiled brat pissed off because I didn't get a new iPhone- it was the illogical assumption of the "Genius" and Apple itself that there could not be a legitimate reception problem that did not involve a modem reset.

              Soon after that incident I went to the AT&T store and got a Samsung Galaxy Android phone vowing to never, ever have anything to do with Apple.
              The Blue Guitar
              www.blueguitar.org
              Some recordings:
              https://soundcloud.com/sssteeve/sets...e-blue-guitar/
              .

              Comment


              • #8
                Yikes! I hear you on the pain of not being able to play Flac or Ogg Vorbis. And one of the iPhones (can't remember which) was famous for having a crap antenna. It was a tiny thing stuffed into a corner of the metal case, so as not to spoil the sleek lines of the phone. Apple then simply fiddled the signal strength display to make it look like the antenna worked better than it did.

                I owned a Mac and an iPod for years but never got round to converting my Ogg and FLAC stuff. Lately I've fallen out of love with iTunes and am using an ancient Windows laptop running foobar2000. In spite of (maybe because of) the geekspeak name, it's an absolutely top class music playing app. Bit perfect ASIO output, well implemented gapless playback, and a search function that works even if you can't be bothered organising your music library.
                "Enzo, I see that you replied parasitic oscillations. Is that a hypothesis? Or is that your amazing metal band I should check out?"

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Steve Conner View Post
                  And one of the iPhones (can't remember which) was famous for having a crap antenna. It was a tiny thing stuffed into a corner of the metal case, so as not to spoil the sleek lines of the phone. Apple then simply fiddled the signal strength display to make it look like the antenna worked better than it did.
                  That was the iPhone 4 and it was announced that owners could get a new case for free. I thought that they were talking about the metal case of the iPhone itself- heck that sounds like a lot of work!- but it was plastic cases to hold your iPhone. (When you touched the metal case in a few places it would screw up the reception from the antenna.)

                  It is the proprietary nature of the iPod that I object to. I had earlier MP3 players that used a normal directory structure to organize MP3 files. I think that Apple originally had to make concessions so that the recording industry would not kill the iPod because of the possible expansion of piracy: imagine if everyone you knew with an iPod could bring it over and you could copy all of the MP3's to your own computer. So they made the iPod like the Roach Motel- MP3's check in but they don't check out. (It was later that Apple started selling their own song files on iTunes, which worked out great with the proprietary nature.)

                  Another objection to Apple is that iTunes never complied with the standard interface expected from Windows programs- a standard which is long gone, largely because of Mac programs that were ported over to the PC. I like the WinXP menu bar, organized very logically so you can find things easily. (I've spent hours trying to figure out the supposedly intuitive interfaces with icons instead of commands in a menu.

                  But I digest...

                  Steve Ahola
                  The Blue Guitar
                  www.blueguitar.org
                  Some recordings:
                  https://soundcloud.com/sssteeve/sets...e-blue-guitar/
                  .

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Sorry in advance for hijacking the thread...

                    There is a "tape recorder" function that you can use to record your playing, before or after all of the effects and modeling, or to play back pre-recorded backing tracks to play along with.
                    I have one of these, but I never tried it because I lost the disk. What kind of recording sound quality do you get? Are the presets you do get easy to edit, or are they basically 'what they is'?

                    I was looking for a supercheap way to get soundclips onto my website with as little hassle as possible. I also really like the idea of the direct plugin to the computer, especially since my house has some of the weirdest acoustics known to man.

                    ken
                    www.angeltone.com

                    Comment

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