The unit is bus-powered, so you don’t need to worry about forgetting any externals. The UMC202HD is fairly light and compact, making it an ideal candidate for recording on the go, whether that be tracking demos in a van or for last minute guitar tracking. Still, considering the quality of its preamps, the unit drives a hard bargain even for the seasoned engineer. Your only downside is its limited connectivity, and lack of MIDI I/O.

The unit takes up very little space, and can fit snugly in the corner of your desk. This is a fine cheap interface for beginners recording at home. They sound clean, clear, and God as my witness, crisp. Midas preamps are exceedingly popular, and are some of the most-used preamps in the recording industry. The UMC202HD gives you two pure, world-class Midas preamps. The unit boasts a noble EIN level of roughly -129 dB, and provides gain of around 51 dBFS at 0 dBu. Generally, upwards of 100 dB is adequate, especially for units within this price range. Behringer has listed the UMC202HD as having a dynamic range of 110 dB (A-weighted), although it’s noted that this number may vary from one unit to the next. The unit offers 24-bit depth and a maximum sample rate of 192 kHz. Lastly, the unit has two TRS outputs to send audio to your monitors. Turning around to the rear panel, is a USB port, followed by a Kensington security lock, and an On/Off switch to engage phantom power.

Behringer audio interface