GUITAR LINK UCG102 The Ultimate Guitar-to-USB Interface for Recording and Jamming with your PC/Mac or iOS device

Initially, I wasn't sure which PC-Guitar interface to get and I avoided these things for a few years until the companies started producing 64 bit drivers to allow users to run their products on Windows x64. For this device, I am running it through Guitar Rig 5 and Mixcraft with impressive results. I have absolutely NO crackling, noise or latency issues. I have an above average desktop computer with a motherboard sound card and Windows 7 x64. If you install Behringer's 64 bit drivers and ASIO4All, configure everything properly, you shouldn't have any problems. For those who've had to run an audio chord from the unit's headphone jack directly to their speakers; this step is not required to get results. If you use ASIO4All and Behringer's USB driver together, you can select your audio output to go directly through your sound card after the signal's been processed through your recording software. This is why I purchased the device in the first place. Because I wanted to work with a digital signal within my recording and Guitar Rig software. The Behringer UCG102 allows you to do just that. Here are some steps to get you going in the right direction. By the way, I went through some frustrating trial and error getting this device to work the way I wanted in Windows 7 x64. It would be nice if Behringer would update their manual and website to provide better setup instruction. This, in my opinion, is the only negative against the product. Basic Windows 7 setup... 1. Download Behringer's Windows x64 driver from their web page... [...] 2. Run the Behringer driver setup and when it asks you to reboot; Go ahead and do that. 3. Download and install the ASIO4All drivers from their web page... [...] 4. If the Behringer UCG102 isn't plugged into to the USB port, do that now. If it's already plugged in, remove it and plug it back in again. This step ensures that the driver is properly loaded and the device is up and running in Windows. 5. Go to Windows 7 Control Panel or do a menu search for 'Sound' to configure your Windows Playback and Recording settings. 6. The Behringer still needs to be plugged in to configure these settings. In your Windows 'Sound' settings, make sure your 'Playback' device is set to your default speakers. If using headphones, set them as the "Default" Playback device. 7. Under the 'Recording' tab, select 'Line In' and if the Behringer USB driver is loaded and running properly, you should see an option to select "Behringer USB WDM Audio 2.8.40' as the Line-in device. The '2.8.40' is the driver version you downloaded from their web page and that number may change as drivers are updated. 8. Now you can start up your Guitar Rig or effects processor software. In Guitar Rig, you have to go into 'Audio and Midi Settings' and ensure that you are using 'Asio' as your driver and "Asio4All V2' as your device. Under the 'Routing' tab you have to make sure your 'Outputs' are set to either speakers or headphones. Under 'Inputs', make sure you have 'Behringer USB Audio 1' under just the 'L' or left channel only. The settings under the 'MIDI' tab don't affect this type of setup so there's nothing you need to do there. *** Step 8 is where you will normally run into problems and to fix this, you have to configure your ASIO4All settings. In the far right corner of your Windows taskbar, you should see a green icon, which if clicked will bring up your ASIO4All configuration window. You can also select 'ASIO Config' in Guitar Rig within the 'Audio and Midi Settings' and get into the same window. To get everything working, you have to click on the wrench to open the ASIO configuration. This is where you'll have to do some trial and error by clicking on the input and output device icons. What you're looking for is a green On/Off button with green arrows next to them for your input and output devices. For example, under my settings, I have the following ASIO devices showing green buttons and arrows... Top selection = Output: 'High Definition Audio Device" Bottom Selection = Input: 'Behringer USB WDM Audio 2.8.40' = (In: 2x 44.1-48kHz, 32 bits; Out: 2x 44.1-48kHz, 32 bits) A blacked out On/Off button icon with no green arrow, or a red 'X' next to these settings means something's wrong or you haven't clicked on the On/Off button icon so that device is actually turned on. Click on the wrench to exit out of the ASIO configuration. If you're not getting all the selection options in the ASIO or audio/midi configuration settings, try the following... 1. Close Guitar Rig and other recording software 2. Unplug the Behringer UCG102 and plug it back in again 3. Repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 and also check your Windows 'Sound' Playback and Recording settings to make sure they haven't changed If your using recording software like Mixcraft, you also have to use the ASIO device drivers within that software in order to record your guitar. By the way, I am able to run Guitar Rig's VST and real-time record with all Guitar Rig's effects within Mixcraft and achieve impressive results. Latency is not an issue because I'm using the ASIO drivers in combination with Behringer's USB driver. If you're having troubles, don't give up and keep at it. You'll be happy with the results and there's nothing like being able to record in real-time while using awesome guitar effects. I love it!

This little gadget here is a dream come true. All it does is amplify the signal that comes from your guitar and transform it from analog to digital, then you can choose the output method, through your pc speakers, the headphone (or monitor) jack in the Guitar Link, or the computer headphone jack. The plastic doesn't look "chinese", if you know what I mean. It feels resistant and strong enough to take on a few drops. You HAVE to have it plugged in during the installation or else it won't work. Also, it only installs on one USB port at a time, so I recommend you choose one port just for it (not that the port is goning to stop working or anything). The installation instructions are really like this: -Insert the CD with the guitar combos. Install all 3 if you want, although you are good to go with the AC Box Combo alone (other 2 are 30 min trials) -Plug the Guitar Link and start the driver setup, it is in a folder called "drivers", but I don't remember which of the two CDs has it. -Restart your computer and start the AC Box Combo. -You are all set to start playing. -If you want all the other software you might as well continue installing it. The software included is mostly trash. It comes with 3 Combos, one full version, the other 2 are 30 minute trials. You can use this if you are an amateur and you will be more than happy. The Audacity has a learning curve as steep as a skycraper, and the "lite" version of Energy (called EnergyX2 or something like that) is a liiiittle limited.If you plan to make a studio of your office or room I recommend you buy something more "professional", I personally use Fruity Loops and Waves GTR, but a friend has a couple IK that work awesome and most come with a pedal. The 64bit asio4all driver is included but is named like setup36.exe, who knows why not 64 or 86, so don't worry, it supports vista/7, 32/64 bit. I haven't tried it on MacOSX or XP. Bottomline: Definitely is a good investment, weather you are a pro or a beginner. Good quality and good design. Works with everything I have plugged in the jack. (The price in Amazon is about 6 bucks less than every other place I looked).

If you are a mac user and you are interested in this product for the free Guitar Combos software, beware. The software doesn't work on either of my macs (one runs osx 10.5, the other 10.6). I have had an open ticket with Native Instruments for 10 days now, and they have not even suggested a solution yet. The hardware works great with the free amp simulator Slego. It also works with Garage Band, but with noticeable latency.

This is an extremely helpful product. Works perfect without any human understandable latency. Best part is the licensed version of a software-amplifier of Guitar Combos. In addition, if you want, Native Instruments provides a huge discount on Guitar Rig software. CAUTION: Be careful about overcharges by seller. In US, it costs $40. Don't buy unless it's "Amazon Fulfilled".

This device worked fine as soon as I figured out how to set the entry port of my Mac in Garage Band. Can't comment on the included softwares on DVD since I did not use it yet.

Wie in anderen Rezensionen schon beschrieben, ist die Software (das "Bundle") eigentlich eine Zumutung. Ich habe probeweise den einen Verstärkertyp unter Windows installiert. Das Ergebnis war eine Katastrophe! erst kein Ton, dann, nach ein bisschen probieren ein undefinierbarer, verzerrter Soundbrei. Ich hab es sofort aufgegeben, weil ich keine Lust hatte, meine Windows-Installation noch mehr zu verbiegen. Zweiter Versuch. Den Guitar-Link unter Ubuntu Linux eingestöpselt. Okay, man muss ein bisschen probieren (evtl ein bisschen lesen...) und jackd installieren. Sobald die Verbindung steht, hat man dann ein absolut erstklassiges Interface. Ich habe es jetzt mit rakarack und jack ausprobiert und bin einfach nur begeistert!!! Selbst bei einer "normalen" Installation ist der Klang klasse und die Latenzen - naja, sagen wir voll erträglich. Ich habe nun auch auf dem Laptop Ubuntu Studio mit Real-Time Kernel installiert und das funktioniert fantastisch. Die Latenzen bewegen sich so um die 7ms; also auch beim Playalong (was übrigens auch klasse funktioniert, wenn man z.B. VLC ebenfalls über den Jack-Server einspielt) merkt man kaum eine Verzögerung. Beim Testen der Aufnahme mit Audacity war dann schon eine merkbare Verzögerung hörbar. Dies lässt sich aber in Audacity einfach durch verschieben der Spur korrigieren. Fazit: ein erstklassiges Hardwareteil, simpel, ohne überflüssigen Schnickschnack, wird von aktuellen Linux Dist. sofort als externes USB-Audio erkannt. Für den Preis kann man nix falsch machen..... Wer das Teil allerdings unter Windows einstzen will, der sollte sich auf Probleme einstellen. Die mitgelieferte Software ist jedenfalls meiner Meinung nach Schrott. Unter Linux, im Verbund mit dem Jack Audioserver, Rakarack als Gitarren-Effektprogramm, Vlc als Abspielsoftware und Audacity als Recording Programm ist das Teil echt der Hammer. Eigentlich brauch ich jetzt keinen Amp mehr ;-) - nur noch einen guten Kopfhöhrer. Deswegen (und nur deswegen) gibt's volle 5 Sterne!

Very little noise on the input, I’ve never heard how bad I am this clearly before!

Instalación simple y funcionamiento perfecto, captura la señal de las pastillas limpia y sin ruido (con una guitarra bastante peleona, una Epiphone SG). Tanto con los drivers ASIO propios como con asio4all (en la página de Behringer indican que se pueden usar también los asio4all) consigo una latencia total (in+process+out) de 24 ms (mi procesador es un AMD doble núcleo de 64bits pero de gama baja y con 2 o 3 años). Creo que merece más la pena este producto que las versiones simples (cable USB+entrada de guitarra), ya que permite seleccionar impedancia alta/baja, tiene una salida de auriculares y el ser Behringer da algo de confianza de calidad. Producto muy recomendable (si eres guitarrista y tienes un PC o Mac, claro :P).