Steinberg UR22mkII USB 2.0 Audio Interface

I use this to record my guitar using my ipad pro. Works great.

I have a Windows 10 operating system and Cubase AI 9.5 and so I thought this Steinberg interface would be a perfect fit. It even had good reviews on the Musician's Friend site. Unfortunately, when I got it hooked up the sound would drop out on playback. I spent about a week trying to resolve this issue. I reinstalled my drivers and reconfigured my device setup in Cubase several times. I tried using an external power cable, thinking it wasn't getting enough power from the USB, but the dropout problem continued. I fooled around with my Windows sound options too but nothing helped and I was forced to return the interface. The only other reason I can think of for my sound dropout issue is that my motherboard is over 10 years old and so maybe there were incompatibility issues. It was suggested in one forum that I update my chipset and BIOS, but that seemed risky and so I didn't go down that road. Ironically, after I returned the interface to Musician's Friend, I got out my old Artcessories USB Phono Plus and got it to work with Cubase after installing the ASIO4ALL driver. It had not worked before and that was my reason for purchasing the Steinberg UR22mkII.

It's good for the money. It doesn't qualify as pro or prosumer, more consumer. I was having problems with my DAW that could have been my gear, so I got it to troubleshoot. Doesn't sound great to my ears, but hey, look at the features for the price!

Understand I've gotten used to using an outboard RME ADI-2 ADC into an ESI U24XL digital interface via optical connection. I got this as a backup while waiting for another U24XL to arrive (I dropped the old one and it didn't survive). I like the size and sturdiness of this Steinberg UR22, and it works fine, but I'm not crazy about the recording and playback quality. But it's very inexpensive, so it's a great starter interface. By memory, I'd say it also doesn't sound as good as the Focusrite Saffire 24 (firewire) I used to have, but the Saffire is twice the price of this Steinberg.

I am using this to feed my guitar into a Windows 10 Pro PC. Drivers work fine, no issues whatsoever under Win 10 Professional and the latency even at higher bit rates is excellent. Very good audio quality! I was and still am torn between this one and the Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD. The Behringer has different connectors for the output which might or might not help in saving adapters. It should pretty similar and costs less than the Steinberg. I did decide to go with Steinberg because it was the one available in my local store and I would have had to wait for the Behringer.

Before this I was using a scarlett 2i2 2nd generation interface. Let me tell you, this thing is dead quiet, unlike the scarlett, I was getting constant usb hum from my recording with the scarlett. I love the ur22, I can power it with a 5v, hence no power draw from computer usb, no noise. Recording will yield clean and clear audio, thick sounding, as opposed to the scarlett, which was sounding a little thin in comparison. I am keeping this and am selling the scarlett. which I used to love.