Behringer UFO202 Audio Interface

by Behringer

Product Features

• High-quality USB audio interface connects your turntable, cassette
• Transfer and restore your valuable vinyl records and tapes to your computer via a simple USB connection
• Phono input switchable to line input source

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches ; 3.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B002GHBYZ0
• Item model number: UFO202
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #9 in Musical Instruments > Recording Equipment > Computer Recording > Audio Interfaces
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 13, 2004

Product Description

BEHRINGER U-PHONO UFO202

Audiophile USB/Audio Interface with Built-in Phono Preamp for Digitalizing Your Tapes and Vinyl Records

• High-quality USB/audio interface connects your turntable, cassette player etc. with your computer for recording and playback
• Transfer and restore your valuable vinyl records and tapes to your computer via a simple USB connection
• Phono input switchable to line input source
• Stereo output allows easy connection and playback of computer audio files over your home sound system
• High-resolution 48 kHz converters for high-end audio quality
• Stereo Headphone output with dedicated Level control lets you monitor your input source
• Works with your PC or Mac computer - no setup or drivers required
• Powered via USB - no external power supply needed
• High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
• Conceived and designed by BEHRINGER Germany

Love Your Old Records and Cassette Tapes?

We love ours too! That's why we built the UFO202 - a simple, affordable way to get your records and vinyl tapes into the digital realm. State of- the-art, switchable Line/Phono preamps and digital converters ensure the utmost in sound quality, making the U-PHONO UFO202 Audio Interface a must-have for every audiophile.

PC and Mac Ready

This ultra-compact, USB-powered device lets you connect your PC or Mac computer to virtually any piece of audio gear. It gets its power from your computer's USB bus, so no external power supply or batteries are required. And the UFO202 requires no special setup or drivers - just plug it in to a free USB port and start recording.

Extreme Versatility The UFO202 features a stereo input for connecting turntables or any line-level device (such as a mixer or tape deck), plus a stereo analog output for connecting active speakers or studio monitors. You can also connect electronic keyboards, sound modules, drum machines and line-level devices (such as the V-AMP 3) directly to your computer for recording. The Volume control allows you to set the level of the stereo headphones.

Powerful Recording Interface When used as a professional interface between a mixing console and your computer, myriad options become available. Some of these might include connecting the UFO202's RCA outputs to the TAPE INPUT jacks of your mixer or active monitors, or directly into the input channels of the mixer. Connecting to mixer input channels gives you access to equalization and allows the use of the AUX Send features of your mixer to build extremely versatile monitor mixes for your recording sessions.

Value

Now for just a fraction of the price you'd pay for a USB turntable you can have a hassle-free connectivity between your PC or Mac computer and virtually any piece of audio gear, including phono turntables and tape decks. Bridging the gap between your music and the rest of the world - the BEHRINGER U-PHONO UFO202.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

151 of 154 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I was looking for !!!! November 4, 2009

By VP

Amazon Verified Purchase

Over last few years we replaced all desktops in the house by laptops. One day I decided to convert an old audio cassette into MP3 like I used to do on my desktop. I realized that it was not going to be possible as the 'line-in' input which was available on desktop was missing in all the three laptops in the house. After some futile tries of trying to record through mic-in, I started researching. I somehow stumbled upon this device and decided to give it a try. All I can say is this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Here is what you need to do if you wish to convert audio cassette into MP3 -
You need -
1. Audio cable with one end 3.5 mm jack and other end with red & white L-R audio. You may have a spare A/V cable which comes with camera or dvd players etc. (W R and Yellow ends, you do not need to plug the Y end as it is for video)
(With 'line-in' on desktop, you simply needed an audio cable with 3.5 mm on both sides)
2. Boom box or tape deck (I used boom box)
3. U-Phono202 device

Plug the 3.5mm end of the cable in 'headphone out' of the boom box. Plug the L-R inputs in the L-R inputs of the U-Phono202 and plug it into a USB port of the laptop. Play the audio cassette. You cannot hear the sound through laptop speakers, you have to plug in the headphones in 'headphone out' of the U-Phno202 in order to hear the cassette playing.

If you are using Vista, right click on the speaker icon in the bottom tray and select 'recording devices', change the recording device to the '2USB Audio Codec' (at least that's how it shows up on mine).

I haven't yet used the packaged software. I useed Audacity instead. Open (or download if you have not) Audacity. Go to 'project', select 'new stereo track' and hit record.... Whatever is playing on your boombox is now being recorded on your laptop. Hit stop when your recording is done. Export the project as 'Mp3', save it in your desired location.

I suggest making some few minute test recordings to make sure your recording sounds fine or you need to reduce/increase recording volume etc.

It worked exactly as above for me and worked perfectly too. The boombox gave a terrible hiss and an extremely annoying constant background noise while playing the cassette, however the U-Phono202 filtered almost 99% of it and the final MP3 sounds extremely clean.

I wrote detailed review as I had all these questions in my mind before I began searching for the right product. Hope this helps in case you are also looking for a solution to convert your cassettes to Mp3s. Thanks for reading.

UPDATE : UPhono202 is working perfectly fine! Just wanted to mention that if your recording appears over loud and there is jarring even after reducing boom box volume and the PC volume very low, here is what you shall do - Keep the boombox and computer volumes at decent levels but reduce the microphone input 'level' - Rightclick on the speaker icon in the tray. highlight the Uphono device. Click on properties. Select 'levels' tab and reduce the level all the way to 5 or 7 and then record your clip. Read more ›

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Works Perfectly May 2, 2009

By jednick

I'm converting old analog recordings (LP, tape) to digital. My new computer only had an integrated sound card, and the jacks didn't work well with my equipment. I had to choose between buying and installing a sound card or trying a USB interface. I wasn't certain about the latter. Although the analog material was vintage, and didn't need a high tech solution, I thought USB might be too much of a short-cut. I stumbled on the UFO202. I had been using another great Behringer product already, the Eurorack UB502. I decided to try the UFO202. Just like the Eurorack, Behringer's claims were 100% true. It's not complicated: connect and it works. The device comes with the USB cable, but you'll need cables to connect it the source (turntable, tape deck). And be aware that you'll need to connect a powered speaker to the UFO202 to monitor your work; the output can't be heard on the computer speakers.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ufo202 excellent May 5, 2009

By Rex Deshon

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is great! I've been using DAK interface for several years and not really satisfied.The claim that there would be no anoying buzzing or humming was not true, after owning 2 that did and you couldn't really get rid of it with noise reduction. The problem is ground looping. This product just came out in the states. I recieved it, plugged it into the computer's usb and my B&O turntable into it and started recording. The outcome was great. No humming or buzzing, (because it is usb powered) just nice clean music. Lots of thanks to Behringer. Well worth the $29.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Instructions! October 10, 2011

By Seadee

Amazon Verified Purchase

Yes, this thing is easy to use, but it's the software program Audacity that does need some instructions for the rest of us. (This process is not quick,it does take time and patience, lots of patience!)

Here's my step-by-step on how I'm using this to digitize old cassettes (language, music, airchecks, etc) with my computer, with each track as a separate MP3 (you can choose to output to a WAV file or OGG VORBIS file). (As I type this I'm digitizing Soul To Soul, A 1971 Concert recorded in Ghana with Roberta Flack, Ike & Tina Turner etc. Soul To Soul - music from the original soundtrack (recorded live in Ghana, West Africa).). I've done about 60 hours worth of cassette content so far.

- Download Audacity (google it), and the LAME MP3 codec (You can do this from within Audacity, it's a link that takes you to the SourceForge.com site) you'll need to export to MP3 (if that's the format you want to export out). You can export to WAV and OGG VORBIS natively with Audacity, but you'll want MP3 if you're not a sound geek and/or want to play your new files on multiple types of devices (iPods, Android, Creative, and Zune, etc.) and/or want to save space on your hard drive.

- Hook up a cassette deck with the red & white audio composite outs into the LINE IN (Update 4/15/12) inputs on the UFO202 (or you could even use a handheld cassette player with an audio jack that has composite plugs on the other end). Plug the USB from the UFO202 into your computer.

- You can hook up a pair of small speakers to the UFO202 to monitor the input, or just use your computer speakers to monitor. Go to Audacity > Preferences to select the speakers (if you need to)....

- Also under Audacity > Edit > Preferences > File SetUp Tab > MP3 Export Setup: select your BitRate for your MP3s. For spoken work, I use 160kbps or below in mono (since there isn't as much going as in music pieces, lower bit rates are fine). For music, 256kbps Stereo (depending on how bad the cassette recording is). 192kbps should be fine too. FYI, I import all my CDs at 320kbps). The lower the number, the smaller the MP3 file will be, but the quality will be lower too. These settings will stay even after you close the program, but remember to change them if you need them. Nothing like importing some language cassette at 120 kbps Mono, and forgetting to change the settings for the next five music cassettes that I wanted to import at 256 kbps Stereo. These are my preferred settings, others may disagree.

- If you don't have a quad-core computer or newer, I'd stop everything else I was doing on my computer and just import my music only (close other applications, not surf the internet, etc.), just to ensure the computer can keep up with the importing/encoding.

- Clean your tape heads on the cassette player if you can.

- Now you're ready to record! Here's how I import music cassettes: Click on the red RECORD button in Audacity, and press PLAY on your cassette player. With a music cassette, you can stop after each song, save it, etc. but I found it's more time-consuming to stop after each song. It's easier to let one side record, flip, record side 2, THEN label, and EXPORT EACH TRACK SEPARATELY LATER (which I outline below). So you don't have to stop after each song. but that's my preference. Go do something else while Side One plays (turn up your speakers so you can hear when it ends). When it's done, press PAUSE in Audacity, fast forward the cassette to the end, flip it to SIDE Two, press PAUSE again to continue recording, and go do something else. You could stop it after Side One, and then create a New recording for Side Two, your preference. I haven't found a setting that let's you stop recording after a certain time, so you have to babysit and be there to press STOP when the cassette has ended, or it'll stop only when you run out of hard drive space.

- File > Save Project AS > (create a folder for your recordings where you can find them later) > name your project > SAVE. You'll notice it's saved as a .aup file. That's Audacity's file. Now's the time to delete any dead air, long spaces between songs, etc. To delete a couple seconds, select an area (click and drag, it'll get a darker grey) click on the SCISSORS icon in the upper right corner, and that dead air is gone. Do this after each track if you desire, or between sides. It's tedious. Save your changes: File > Save.

- LABEL TRACK(S): So now that your recording is edited and safely saved as an AUP file, now it's time to label each song. Go to Project > New Label. You'll notice a new box under your recorded file. After some trial and error, here's how I do it (but you can do it your way, but this is most efficient to me). Start at the beginning of the file, zoom in to find the very beginning of each track in the LABEL area and type in the name of that track. Zoom out to get to the end quickly, zoom in to edit any dead air between tracks, label the next track, then zoom out again to to get to the end, rinse and repeat. I find that it's easier to zoom out (Magnifying glass icon near the Scissors icon) to find the beginning/end of each track, then zoom in to at least 1/2 seconds, play to make sure I'm not cutting off the very beginning of a track, then label. Again, tedious. To change a file name, the only way is to click on the LABEL and backspace from the end of the label (there's no inserting, deleting one letter etc). Also, to DELETE A LABEL, backspace until you only have the white flag, then press ENTER. I've just saved you a couple hours of searching on how to do that. Save your changes: File > Save.

- You could EDIT and LABEL at the same time, since you start the LABEL at the beginning of each track. Just be sure to start at the very beginning of your recording to edit, then LABEL as you go along thru each track. If you LABEL first, then EDIT, your LABELS do not move with the EDITS, so you may be cutting off the beginning of a song while exporting. So EDIT first, then LABEL. It takes me about 10 minutes to edit and label both sides of a music cassette.

- EXPORT TO MP3: If you recorded each side all at once, here's the place where each track gets saved as its own file: File > Export Multiple. In the dialogue box that appears choose MP3, and the file to export to. Click OK. Another box comes up to fill in artist info. Click OK. Depending on number of files and speed of your computer, it may take about 20 minutes or so to completely export each track. If you've exported like I do (Side 1 and Side 2 as one big file, with each track labeled), as one big file, since you took the time to LABEL each track, each track will be exported as a separate MP3, already named. Again, I go do something else while this process is going on.

- Spot check the each new MP3(s) file to make sure it's/they're how you want it/them. In Windows, listen in Windows Media Player (opens faster than iTunes, at least on my machine). Then import them into whatever you use to organize/play your music - iTunes, Windows Media Player, Media Monkey etc.

- When you're satisfied with your MP3s, delete the data files found in the file you chose to save your recording in. Don't delete the MP3s, just everything else that's NOT an MP3 file (.au, .aup etc). Better yet, move the MP3s to another file, and then delete. These non-MP3 files take up a lot of room on your hard drive and you don't need them any more, unless you're going to export to WAV or OGG or want them forever). One cassette can take up almost 1Gb, depending on your bitrate.

I think this is pretty thorough, and if I've missed any steps, I apologize. But this should get you started.

That's it. And you're welcome. Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product October 30, 2009

By Thomas W. Thorpe

Amazon Verified Purchase

I ordered this product to permit me to transfer records and tapes to Cd's. The unit works great and I highly recommend that the buyer consider getting the version with the pre-amplifier as it will come in very handy if you are recording off of a record player with a magnetic cartridge (low signal output). I recommend installing the Audacity free software as the package that comes with it is an evaluation package and has no ability to save any recording, not to mention the complexity is overwhelming at times. The Audacity software is simple and straight forward but lacks a manual which would be helpful. For example, the Audacity software has digital signal processing capability but that section is only engaged by selecting a specific portion of the recorded track which is not immediately obvious to the user. The Audacity software also can only save .wav files and not MP3s. To get MP3 format a separate piece of software is required. The saved .wav file can also be manipulated using 3rd party software such as that sold by DAK. This DAK software can perform more sophisticated manipulation than the Audacity software but at a small price (approximately $30 to $40).

The unit does a outstanding job of doing a direct record function and the freeware allows some enhancement of the recorded material but requires some amount of experimentation. Fortunately the software does have an UNDO function which allows for multiple levels of UNDOs to be realized.