Interface-Off!! Comparing the Behringer UMC1820+ADA8200 to the 16-year-old MOTU HD192. 

A video like this helps put things in perspective. What we complain about and call "Trash" today makes the top end gear from hardly 10 years ago look like garbage. Our "low end"gear today is still really powerful and higher quality than we are willing to admit on our Sound Forums online.

The UMC1820 has surpassed all my expectations in sound quality and dependability... One of the rare big bangs for the buck...

Thanks for this. I've been using the UMC1820 for about a year now, really enjoying using it, no complaints at all. I've been doing research regarding the ADA8200, and you've really helped me make my mind up. Cheers dude!!

Please keep making videos. You are one of the few drummers who post about home recordings.

Great video, awesome drumming, keep em coming!

Very helpful, informative review. Sane, too!

Great review - thorough, great job A/B on the gear thanks!

Excellent video. Might get one of these instead of doing an RMA on my UFX mixer. Thanks!

Loved this video! Thank you!

Thanks for your thorough review of UMC1820 / ADA8200 system. I've been using other Behringer stuff (mixers, bass cabinets, mikes) for a while and I'm truly impressed by their performance to price ratio. The UMC1820 / ADA8200 pair seems to be no exception and I'm likely to go for it now. BTW, I have a lovely black dog, Orion, very similar to yours ;) Cheers from Poland!

Nice video! I would personally take the HD192, because the converters are better quality (wider stereo image), but the behringers are very good, especially for the price.

I already have a UMU 2i2 Interface and I was planning to increase my channels for the kit. Thanks to your video I will go ahead and upgrade to the full fat Behringer racks. I may need to double that maybe due to the size of kit. Nice kit. Subbed.

Behringer felt like it had more transient detail, but was a bit more harsh on the cymbals/hat. I have a modded ADA8200 I haven't hooked up yet I look forward to trying it out! Need to get an adat cable first

Are we going to talk about how cold a drummer you are (on top of a great video)??? Good stuff sir!

Huge job testing these interfaces. Thanks.

Nice drum sound, very tasty

It’s almost 2024, I have expensive gear but I’m still rocking with Behringer. The headphone jack alone sounds good with excellent gain.

cool video, thank you!

Thanks for your well-done efforts! I subscribed. I'm one of those folks who's had and still have several pieces of Behringer gear over the years. When they get it right, they're stuff sounds great, can be built to last, and they usually manage offer feature sets only found on far more expensive gear, all at bargain prices.

Eh. That Behringer combo had a lot better low-end dynamics and the overall soundspace was better too. At a fraction of the cost.

Thank you ! I Had the same monney issue, and I needed more inputs (because I record electronic music live, and I need my drum machine to be record via the individuals out) ; I never bought Behringer product and I'm a little scared, some of my synth have very aggressive signal and cheap converters can generates audio artefacts because of it ; Anyway Thank you for beeing honnest and serious ! Cheers from France :D

This was a very good video, thank you. I am in the market for the 1820 and didn't even know that I can easily expand it with the 8200. I quit drumming and turned towards synthesizers in recent months and it escalated quickly, 2 or 4 channel interfaces are not sufficient anymore. I bought a Xenyx 2222USB mixer instead of the 1820, but the sound quality via USB is terribly bad, so I can use it without PC for all the hardware, (the overall sound is great, just not via USB) but need a good sounding usb interface on top if I want to work in the DAW. I wish I had known how bad the xenyx sound via USB really was, I would have gone for the 1820 first and added the mixer for dawless jams later on. well, another two months and I should be able to afford it... bummer.

We're talking about 2 setups whose differences in terms of specs are not even within the realm of human hearing, if we're talking single channels. Keep in mind that every device that converts from analog to digital adds latency, even when using direct or "zero latency" monitoring. The ADA8200 adds around 0.5ms of latency. I'm not sure what the latency specs are on the UMC1820, but you can safely assume they're different from the 8200. When mixing multiple correlated signals (ie. multiple mics on a single source like a drum kit), even a single sample of delay can cause audible changes in frequency response. If you had some of your kit mics plugged into the ADA8000 and some into the UMC1820, there's every reason to assume that the latency of the converters in the 2 units were different and that would have manifested itself in phase differences (in comparison to having them all plugged into a single HD192 unit) that affected frequency response. If you really want to compare the two units and remove those phase differences from the equation, I suggest using a phase correlation plugin like Sound Radix Auto-Align or Waves InPhase to adjust the timing of the signals to maximize the correlation between the signals. Changes in frequency response as a result of phase differences between correlated signals will be far more into the audible range than the minute differences in frequency response between single channels of any of these devices.

In my mobile phone speaker samsung note FE, i hear behringer slightly open drum sound

I recently purchased the 1820 and love it!! Soo much better value than the focusrites! I think youre paying for the brand name of the focusrites than the tech. Midas preamps are far superior IMO! Looking at adding the ADA right now. Thanks for the review!

Hey! can we get to see how you set the two(UMC 1820 & ADA 8200)..that would really be dope, seeing as i would like to set it up at my studio.

Behringer makes some very decent gear for people on a budget. Will it last as long as a "better" brand, maybe not... but it will get you to where you need to go and might take a while before it breaks down. I remember returning two Presonus unit with issues, third was a charm.

Sounds like aging caps in the MOTU, also slightly higher gain.

Great video I have uphoria and wanted to ask... Is a different quality within preamp of Ada and uphoria? Cos my preamp are bit muddy and all videos with Ada 8200 are clean and sharp. Thank You

Which Pres do you like better between the two Behringer products? They may both be the same level of Midas (non pro) for all I know

I like blue ones, sounds juicy!

Thanks for posting the video. I'm interested in the 1820. I have about 10+ desktop synths. Could you tell me if the unit does individual audio line outs via the USB connection? Is it 8 usb individual line outs? Does anyone have any recommendations on a line mixer? I prefer the 1 to 2 RU version. I don't have a lot of room in the studio. Thank you.

How did you change the clock settings in pro tools?!... I’m having an issue with that, when i had my 003 it was in settings in the box to the left, now that i have this interface i don’t see it

Great video, But I have a question. It seems to me that this video does not really show the capabilities of the preamps in the Behringer gear. Because you use your different external preamps between the mics and interfaces, you would connect them with line in on the two behringer units? Which would mean that the preamps on the Behringers are actually not engaged. For me it would maybe be even more exciting to see the result with your Mics connected directly into the Behringers. Please correct me if Im missing something :)

great info

Hello, Im starting a personal project and...I want to record my drum set (2 kicks, snare, 4 tom toms, 2 floor toms) and Im planning to use 11 mics (9 dynamic for drums, 2 condenser mic for the overheads). My question is if I connect Behringer UMC1820 to Behringer Ada8200 Im gonna have 16 independent channels in my DAW? Other question is If there's a way to control phantom power independently on the UMC1820? If you have a suggestion to me I'll be glad to hear it. Thank you very much for reading me! :)

Behringer sounds great, I'm really tempted to pick one up. The only thing stopping me though is I can't figure out if the headphone outputs are independent or if they're tied. I'd like to be able to route custom mixes for each. I don't suppose you know if this is possible do you?

Is there a way to monitor the inputs of the ADA8200 through the Umc1820 without a DAW? (Like using the hardware as a mixer without a computer.)

What people don't realize is that Behringer bought out Midas a few years back. They really stepped up their game ever since because all the newer mixers and audio interfaces are using Midas preamps. Sure they will continue to make cheap music gear for the average consumer, but people need to stop thinking that's all they do. They started making pro mixing boards like the x32 that alot of venues are now using for live settings and it's really high-tech well built stuff (3000$). Ok, maybe their audio interfaces exterior build quality is a bit less solid than a focusrite or other more expensive units, but in a studio environment where it will stay in a rack, who cares...In a mixed track, I bet that an audio engineer won't be able to notice a difference between higher end interfaces sound and the Behringer. Now a days, the quality between low budget and high end is so minimal!

Thank you for your honest review :) It was very informative. The audio demos were very useful to me. I'm interested in buying and audio preamplifier to extend my audio interface via ADAT. I'm also curios how does Behringer's ADA8200 compares in terms of sound with Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre / Focusrite Clarett OctoPre / Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre Dynamic. Does it really worth to buy Focusrite instead of Behringer (the question is also addressed to all readers) ? I play guitar and in my case I know that 99% from the quality of the recording is the actual performance. I need this preamp for my drummer. Thank you again for your video :)

Thank you!

Hey man. I'm considering getting the UMC1820+ADA8200 combo. I noticed that the 1820 is 96khz, but the 8200 is only 44.1/48khz... Is this going to cause a problem when I mix? I'm very new to mixing but have been drumming for a long time. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks!

The Behringer sounds slightly more clear. I use that Interface btw. Had an ID14 before.

I bought the exact same set up recently, Umc1820 and the ADA8200. I’ve connected them in the back via an optical cable from the out of the ADA8200 to the UMC1820s in with the ADA as the master set at 44.1 hz. So, I can see all of them as inputs in logic, I can see I’m getting signal on both units, but the ADA8200 has no sound whatsoever in Logic. Any tips?

Serious Question, what if i were to have 2 more additional ada8200, does that mean i can get 24 channels?

the combination of the 1820 + ada8200 gives you 16 inputs or 16 simultaneously channels?

How did you plug up you 1820 to your ada8200... i cant seem to figure it out

Interesting comparison. Is it just me who preferred the sound of the MOTU though?

So you are inputting preamps into preamps? Is that okay to do? Or when you plug in as a line input, does that bypass the preamps? The Behringer definitely sounds better/clearer. Great drumming, btw.

I got the UMC today but i found it sounded completely different (sounded worse) to my focusrite scarlet solo while listening to Spotify and RU-vid through my Adam audio 7" monitors. All the bass seemed to have left and it was significantly brighter in the higher frequencies.. i would like to know if this is something you or anyone else may also have noticed or if Spotify sounds the same between interfaces for you. I'd expect an audio interface to spit out the audio it receives from Spotify or RU-vid without colouring it in any way but for me this doesn't seem to be the case :/ hopefully there is a fix for this or maybe I've just gotten a lemon

What sample rate did you use on the HD192? Max on the ADA8200 is 48 kHz while the MOTU can go up to 192 kHz. Apples to apples would be 48 (or 44.1) on both, but that wouldn't be fair to the MOTU since it can go up to 192. I think 96 kHz is probably the most popular sample rate so I'd love to hear 96 on the MOTU versus 48 on the Behringer (I realize the UMC1820 can do 96 kHz but when paired with ADA8200 it would be limited by the 48 kHz max of the ADA8200).

Can i connect 2 ada8200 to an 1820? Or is it even practical to do it? Or its better to buy a digital mixer like an x-air 18

Hi! listen to this question. I choose between tascam 16x08 and behringer umс1820...I see in the description that you use umc1820, and what can you say about tascam 16x08 do you know this audio interface?! I can't decide what to buy .

great video. thanks. would you say this behringer unit sounds best or similar to the tascam’s 8 channels ADAT preamps one? regards

Very… very nicely done…. I’m a drummer… I’ve been struggling to find the right gear at the right price… I wasted the last 18 months trying to keep to Presonus FirePods/ FP10s playing nice…. But what a pain…. I’m in… Thank you

UMC1820 works with Big Sur?

Hi there. thanks for the video, We have quite similar set ups. I have the same problem as one of the other comments. I have the 1820 and the 8200 ( I got the 8200 so I can leave the drums mics set up). But... I cant get any monitor output from the 8200. I use Reaper DAW. I wondered if you had any new suggestions. I will also try Reaper forum and Behringer support and if I get a solution I'll post it here. BTW it's quite uncanny how similar our set ups are.

IO just started getting into this last x-mas....Behringer seems to be the ones to go to. They seem to offer more for less. I don't hear why so many people say they are bad? Their synths are really nice and most of their new stuff has some form of android or ios connect. Even some of the synths. so....Right now I need a mixer with sd card record and again the Behringer looks like the one.

Sir, I have a question... I bought the behringer 1820 and the ada 8200. I can't get direct monitoring of the adat channels... I can only hear the 8 analog inputs of the Uphoria on my headphones... The question is, the only way I can get monitoring of my Adat channels is thru the Daw??? There's no info about this on the web...

Ive run the ADA 8200 from my MOTU 828, 896 world-clock and the hi-end gets pristine! I guess the clocks inside the ADA's is not great. You can hear a huge difference from internal, ADAT to external clock input;. The problem i find with the 1820 is the absence of world-clock in/out.

What are the benefits of getting ADA8200 instead of second UMC1820?

Hi! Really liked your video. Great work. Did you consider the X air line? They're two that offer 16 in and on the top of that, also offer some on board DSP processing, and a bunch more features. I had one once, and I really loved it. The only downside is that they have to be remotely controlled by a mobile device or computer app, so, no physical knobs. But still a good option.

You serious say they are close?

I have the 1820 and it just feels like quality

its hard to compare interfaces with just a drum beat. What really stresses an interface is a long session. Do a 3-4 hour live stream multitrack with 16 tracks going and see if there are any dropouts in audio during the entire session. That would be the real test for me!

Do you think the Behringer UMC1820 might be a better purchase against the 15years old RME Fireface 800? Also I wonder, can the Behringer be connected directly to the Mac Pro Toslink IN port and being recognized as audio interface?

This is the second Behringer vs X video I’ve watched where the X brand sounded decidedly muffled compared to Behringer’s Midas pre’s. 🤔

Is it still going strong mate? Or blew up like my experience with behringer products?

The behringer adds a little more grit and color IMO

i can not get my behringer 1820 to record 8 mics on 8 separate trax. no matter input n mono switch, i get track 1: kick left, snare right. full hard panned. ive even restarted interface and pc. nothing changes.🤬🍻

I dunno if it's because of Covid, but the 1820 went from 279 to 329, and the ADA8200 is $300. The ADA8000 will also do the job

I have all my gear from behringer

MOTU had better low end. Behringer had better transient detail. I have to admit I preferred the Behringer.

I don't think this is a fair comparison as you are comparing MOTU pro gear to a Prosumer interface. MOTU is known for making high end stuff esp thier new AVB line up that's up there with Avid, RME etc. The new MOTU's even share the same DAC chips found in the Apogees.

Im sorry but there a huge difference

I think the Behringer UMC1820+ADA8200 sound decent for the price point, yes, the Motu 192HD is getting older, but their weak link was the op-amps, and some Dc coupling needing to be done, I've got both a stock one and a Black Lion molded one, huge difference. Also have the Motu 1286 with all new filter caps and Brown Burr op-amps in that one. I run at 48 or 96 only. I think the big difference with a better world clocking for the Motu system, I went with a used Apogee Big Ben and what a Steller difference now. The other thing is I go out of the first Motu 192HD's digital out into a Benchmark 11 D/A converter. So I've taken my Motu system to a far better system sonically. Yes, it's still old but I don't care. The thing I like about using the Motu is you can have the 2408, 24 i/o and all the other ones they have built in the past hooked up to 4 units at one time. So I have a stock 24 i/o hooked full time to my 24 track analog recorder, so I can either bonce other peoples old recordings into digital or use my 24 track to just warm up tracks as an effect. I use the Midas M-32r Digital mixer for monitoring for my bands, and they split all 32 microphones into both the Midas and into 32 tracks of outboard preamps and compressors into my DAW. This is nice cause I don't have to patch anything or go behind my mixer. Put in all Mogami gold cable snakes coming off my splitters. That cost me a lot to run them to both the Midas M-32r and also all the analog 1073 Pre’s, Api, LA-2a, LA-3, Warm audio 1176, and joe meeks, etc. Just the cables I notice a huge sound difference, it was night and day. So yes, the Behringer is fine for what it is and does sound pretty darn good at that price point. A lot of my friends use Apollo by UA and that's great gear, but what I would need for my small studio it was way out of my budget. I give my buddy's run for the money any day with all the upgrades I've done in my studio, I've used Motu for many years, first gen 1, 2 and 3. Still have my gen two ones. lol. At the end of the day it's what works for you, I mean I spent 2k in just 8 Mogami snakes, and I also spent more on short 8 channel ones to go just from the analog preamps to the converts and then to the inputs of the Motu converter boxes. So right now I've got 3) 192HD's, 2) 1296Hd's, 1) 24 i/o but some are for back up, just in case. I use two 192HD's, 1) 1296HD, and 1) 24 i/o hooked up all the time in the studio. So all my channels are hot all the time, not patching and I also have a few the open channels with my API, Joe Meek, the UA 710 hooked to my large studio microphones. So we do a scratch vocal tracks and then come back with the real overdubs. Cause most of the time we record live in one room, don't have to but it's more fun like that. It all comes done to what your budget is and can you make a good recording with it. I think what helped my Motu system the most was a couple differnt things. 1) was better world clocking to get rid of jetter and then your coverters can work way better, 2) was the better op-amps installed in a couple boxes, big differnce. Another huge improvement with adding the Benchmark two channel converter right off the channel one and two on the the main mix buss, No jitter with that box the way it was built, and the last huge update with the great Mogami cables, I never knew it would matter that much but my sound is pretty steller now. So I'm a happy camper. So bottom line is if it works for you and you get great sounds to your ears then it's right. Cheers! Great face - off

To me, Motu has a way Better low end.

MOTU still sounds better but the 1820 is holding its own for sure.

*LOOK EVERYONE, here is the real game! Open up the units today and 13 years ago and its roughly the exact same chip set! The real difference is the newer stuff is BRIGHTER SOUNDING and the older stuff is a bit DARKER - NOT DULLER - DARKER sounding! You can do awesome with either one. I still use RME MULTIFACE I/0 with the Behringer ADA8200 Mic preamps...seriously fkn awesome, with my custom HIGH END DAW/DIGITAL MIXER!* So do not allow yourselves to be caught up with all the BS ENDLESS JARGON! .........If you want AIR, use EQ and boost!

I prefer the Behringer sound, much brighter, though it has slightly less bottom end. But I don't think it'll be lasting 16years....

People who hate Behringer are usually ones who paid an overpriced Digidesign or something similar 😆

If you dont like/trust the Behringer's only because its "cheap", go waste at least a thousand extra bucks for a system like this!!! AS SIMPLE AS THAT!!!! LOL!!!! This makes me wonder ... Why a company can make a good device at such a cheap price and other companies charge you so dearly for the same ???

sorry but MOTU is better ... and I hear it even on not very good equipment ... just more low end and more "natural" symbols , high end is also cleaner

*this demo is GARBAGE! Every time you click the behringer there is a LOUD SYMBOL CRASH, which is not on the first run! the ears automatically hone into it and the rest is pointless! WTF how blunder-ous!*

motu sounds 10x better