Steinberg UR44 Review
When setting up a home studio, you’ll eventually need a good interface. An interface will allow you to connect microphones, guitars, and midi instruments.
The Steinberg UR44 is one of my favorite interfaces and it costs less than $400. It offers plenty of inputs and outputs making it perfect for almost any home studio.
In this review, we’ll be going over everything that the UR44 has to offer. If you have any questions after reading this article, feel free to drop a comment down below.
This Review Will Cover:
- First Glance
- What’s Included?
- Inputs/Outputs
- Connecting The Steinberg UR44 To An iPad
- What Other Think Of The Steinberg UR44
- Pros
- Cons
Steinberg UR44 Review
First Glance
The UR44 is a very sleek, minimalistic-looking audio interface that is made from a rugged, full-metal enclosure. The build quality of the UR44 is very high especially when compared to other competing interfaces in the it’s price-range.
There are many awesome features on the UR44 such as the peak LED indication above each input. This is a very nice little feature that comes in handy when recording vocals. The last thing you want after a vocal session is to realize that the whole time you were recording, the inputs were clipping.
The UR44 has a maximum sampling rate of 192kHz and a resolution of 24 bits. For home recording, 24 bit is standard. There are some interfaces, designed for professional recording studios that go over higher than 24 bit. For most home studios 24 bit will be more than enough.
Another nice feature to note is that the UR44 can be integrated with iOS devices. You can connect your iPad to the UR44 easily with a camera connection kit. We’ll be going over how to do that later on in this review.
What’s Included
With the UR44, you’ll get a few instruction manuals, a USB cable, a power adapter, and some useful software and plugins.
The manuals aren’t anything special. They do a fine job at telling you how to get started with the UR44. If for some reason you lost the manual, you can always download it here.
Steinberg decided to include a DAW with the UR44. You’ll get a copy of Cubase AI. If you are just getting started, the software provides all you need to get started. Keep in mind that it isn’t the full version of Cubase. It is just the beginner version, which means that the features are limited.
There are 3 VST plugins included that are very useful. Unlike Cubase AI, all of these plugins aren’t limited in features. The 3 included plugins are Sweet Spot Morphing Channel Strip, the REV-X reverb, and Guitar Amp Classics.
My favorite included plugin was Guitar Amp Classics. If you plan on recording electric guitars into your DAW, this plugin does a great job at providing a crisp distortion with a warm amplification.
Inputs/Outputs
The Steinberg UR44 comes with plenty of inputs for connecting all of your instruments from condenser microphones, to electric guitars, to midi keyboards.
There are 4 inputs on the front of the UR44. For most home studios, this will be all you’ll ever need. On the back there is also a line input.
You’ll get the option to switch off the +48v of phantom power. This is a great feature if you aren’t recording a condenser microphone. It allows you to quickly switch phantom power on and off.
Each of the 4 inputs has a separate preamp. Steinberg choose to use their D-PRE mic preamplifiers in the UR44.
D-PRE preamps were a great choice! They provide a very clean amplification that simply sounds amazing.
Also on the front, you have very convenient gain control over each input. This makes it very easy to finely tweak your gain settings.
There are also a good amount of outputs on the UR44.
For outputs you get a main output, 2 line outputs, and 2 headphone outputs. On the front you’ll get a nice gain control over the master output.
Connecting The Steinberg UR44 To An iPad
Connecting the UR44 to an iPad is pretty straightforward. It’s worth noting that you’ll need a camera connection kit as well.
Camera connection kits tend to have price-ranges all over the place. I’d recommend trying to get one for under $20. I’ve seen ones going for $30 and that’s just ridiculous for an adapter. Just make sure to get a camera connection kit that’s compatible with your iOS device.
Once you have the connection kit, everything else is plug and play! All you have to do is plug the USB connection from the UR44 to the connection kit. That’s it… Now you just need to find some audio-interface-compatible apps.
You can use pretty much any app that supports the camera connection kit. GarageBand is a popular app that is very easy to get the hang of. Steinberg even has their own iPad app called Cubasis. As you could imagine, it is the mobile rendition of their popular computer DAW, Cubase.
What Other Think Of The Steinberg UR44
The majority of the UR44 reviews were extremely positive.
The build quality was commonly mentioned. The UR44 is built like a rock. It has a strong metal chassis that will last you for years.
Everyone also seemed to like the quality of the UR44’s preamps. They are easily powerful enough to drive the quietest of microphones. The preamps do a great job at cleanly amplifying sound without any distortion.
The UR44 also has super low latency sound. There is no lag whatsoever when playing instruments. This is especially a good thing if you are going to be playing a lot of live instruments.
Setting up the UR44 is very quick and straightforward. The included manuals are easily explained if you are having any issues. Not a lot of people were having difficulty setting up the UR44 to their DAW of choice.
A recurring part of the UR44 that I have been seeing in reviews is that there are plenty of inputs. There are enough inputs to connect multiple guitars and microphones at the same time.
Summary
The Steinberg UR44 provides a great value for it’s price. I can easily see the UR44 competing with other interfaces twice it’s price.
If you are looking for a great interface to plug in all of your instruments while maintaining low latency, the UR44 is meant for you. This interface will perform superbly in any home studio.
Are you thinking of buying the Steinberg UR44?
Let me know in the comment section below!
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How many keyboards can I connect together to Steinberg UR44?