Steinberg UR44C USB Audio Interface Reviews

I previously used a Scarlett Solo as my audio interface, but I wanted more inputs to be able to record my bass from the amplifier with two mics as well as another direct in channel, so that was not possible with the Scarlett Solo. I needed more inputs. I also wanted 32-bit for the flexibility it offers in being able to get away with not having everything set up perfectly because I am not a sound engineer, and I'd hate to mess up a perfectly good take just because my input levels were off. Focusrite doesn't offer a 32-bit audio interface at the time of this writing, so I had to go shopping. My first attempt was actually the Zoom UAC-232, which still actually doesn't have enough inputs for the way I want to record, but it's inexpensive and I figured I could get away with 1 mic and one direct in. Well, the Zoom had driver issues in Windows and would randomly disconnect and reconnect in the middle of recording. I contacted support and they said it was a known issue and had no ETA on a fix, so I returned that device as I really didn't want to go buy a Mac just to get a $ audio interface to work. More research later I finally find this device which both has the number of inputs I need as well as 32-bit. The only thing that scared me was some reviews mentioned a pretty scary install experience in Windows. However, I have a 25+ year career in software development, so I hoped I could figure it out. Anyway, that was a bunch of anxiety over nothing because if you follow the install directions in the manual to the letter it works just fine. I've had zero issues with the UR44C. It also seems to produce a slightly warmer tone for my bass than the Focusrite did comparing direct in to direct in channels. I always had to apply EQ in my DAW to fatten the sound up with the Focusrite, but recording flat with the UR44C sounds great without additional post-processing. I don't know if that's logical because I wouldn't think that an audio interface would apply any adjustments to the sound, but that's my experience. It may be going from 24-bit to 32-bit. Anyway, I'm very pleased with the UR44C and would buy it again and recommend it to other musicians without hesitation.

This is my 2nd Steinberg Interface. I upgraded for the speed of the USB-C connectivity mostly but are now glad that I also got more ins/outs as well as the dual headphone outputs.

I record at 32bit/96 on Win 1, i7 without any issues so far. (3years)

This is a very nice interface for the money and I would buy it again BUT in my studio I have found weakness.

I have instruments with piezo pickups. I also use Audio-technica condenser microphones. Both of these things require more gain and once you go above 50% the preamps start getting noisy. I work around this problem by using small inline preamps powerd by the units phantom power (through an XLR cable) This is a cheep fix with great results and much lower gain settings.

I'm doing a live duo acoustic recording project with an acoustic guitar and sitar. It was very important to have latency free monitoring with reverb and compression, a minimum of 4 mic inputs, and 2 headphone outs. This is with a Macbook pro running Logic. The UR44c worked like a charm- was a pleasure to have monitoring with reverb and channel strip with compression/eq and no latency and then having the recording in Logic with unprocessed tracks for post production. We recorded in one take live with headphone monitoring. The converters sound great! I also have an Apogee Quartet and Behringer X32 in my studio, but this little interface is going to see a lot of use at home and on the road. You need to use a USB 3.1 gen 1 or better cable to get maximum connection speed. At this price, I'd say it's a steal and given that reverb and channel strip for monitoring can be had at this price, I don't see the point of more expensive alternatives given that one can get the same or better effects using native plugins.

Purchased the UR44C 3 years ago in 2020 during the COVID peak in order to collaborate with fellow musicians remotely. At that time, my studio computer was running Windows 10. No problems installing and using the Yamaha ASIO driver. At first, I had a little problem getting my Win-10 computer to recognize the USB 3.0. Turned out that my USB-C to USB-C cable was only USB 2.0. Swapped to a better USB cable and USB 3.0 became operational. The interface works well - no drop-outs - no noticeable delay. I like the 4 front combo XLR/TRS inputs. It also has 2 TRS inputs on the back. After my computer upgraded to Windows 11, I did have to upgrade the ASIO driver. Other than that, there were no problems with Win 11. It's built solid. I have used it in live performances a few times, and it works well there too. All-in-all, I am very pleased with this interface. My only regret is that the audio performance leaves a little to be desired. But, to get the performance I want, I am looking at $+. So, I can't dock Steinberg for that. I would say this is an incredible value for $.

There's nothing wrong in the performance of the UR44C, it is solid, runs without interruption, the drivers - apps bundle is rather big in size but it comes with useful stuff. The ASIO driver seems to be well supported by Steinberg-Yamaha as they maintain regular package update very often.

The reason I chose this UR44C, is because I own the older big brother the UR824, which is still good in spite of it's over 10 years old. But it is bulky, USB 2 compatible only and requires external power and surely it is not portable.

The RME Babyface, is small in size, and it is known for its rock stable drivers & clock, very portable and USB powered. However it falls short when planning to record external instruments, and its app is not very intuitive, needless to say it doesn't come with any plugin bundle.

This UR44C retires my Babyface entirely and I'm very happy with it.

Worth to mention, there's no need to use the external power adapter (which is bundled with the UR44C) to power it up, using a single USB C cable can do the job even with 1 input Phantom switched on (the cable is also included).

I am still new to using my Steinberg UR44C. However, I can tell you the things I like about it so far. It is very easy to hook up and use. I like the fact that it has 4ports and each port has its own volume control. It has two headphone jacks, one for each set of 2 inputs, which is absolutely great. It has phantom power which I definitely need for my microphone and my instrument. Again, while I still am getting used to using it for my online musical experiences, I definitely would recommend this interface. And I would recommend Nicholas Weaver. He is the best.

I've been using the UR44 for years and never had any drop outs or any glitches. The DSP effects are great for recording. 4 inputs!

I've had the UR 44 C for about a month. I use it for recording guitar, vocals and bass for Videos on my I-pad Pro. A Behringer mixer is hooked up to the Steinberg and that to the i-pad. I just connected everything up, recorded and it worked Seamlessly. Easy to use, just watch out for the little bit of Latency between the audio and video, which is easily corrected.
A good unit and pleased I have it!
Thank you Luke, salesman of the year in my mind..

I have bought many different interfaces throughout the years. For this price point I am blown away. I haven't heard anything under a thousand dollars that sounds close. Build quality feels rugged. Highly recommend.

Bought this as a backpack grab-and-go mini interface to haul back and forth to my music lessons to help students with Recording 101 concepts. My main interface at my home studio is an Antelope Zen Studio+ but it is fully racked and connected to all of my studio gear so it isn't a good option to just shove into the backpack every day. With this Steinberg UR44C I can just leave it in my backpack when at home and it's ready to go at any time.

Features-wise it has a lot going on for a bus-powered interface:

It's really difficult to find a bus-powered interface that has two separate headphone outputs but this interface does. They are loud and clear and sound great.

The overall AD/DA conversion is great and there's a slight smoothness or warmth to the sound that is nice. My Zen Studio+ has better conversion, especially in the 3D presentation and depth, however the UR44C sounds great (at a fraction of the cost of the Antelope Zen) and I could easily do pro on-location work with it. It is also better sounding than say the Focusrite Scarlett interfaces that many of my students have, which to my ear always sound "softened" or "safe" or "flattering" and not as revealing as other interfaces.

The mic pres sound nice and detailed. The UR44C's mic pres do start having self-noise as you crank them up to their max but that is common for most interfaces at this price. And honestly I never need to push the mic preamps that hard under any circumstances.

The UR44C's chassis is very sturdy and it has a nice heft to it, partly due to it's very stout metal enclosure. All of the knobs, buttons, switches and jacks feel solid and nothing feels cheap or questionably delicate. For the money this interface has a very reassuring feel to it.

The main reason I went with this interface is that it had the most I/O in a bus-powered format (USB-C required for bus power). It did not come with a USB-C cable which was disappointing so I had to buy one that could handle power as well, but it's been great ever since. I even use the UR44C in my living room or dining room or bedroom when doing headphone work as the conversion is definitely better than my MBP's headphone jack. I feel confident that this interface will last a long time and serve its purpose for the next few years. Money well spent.

It is built like a tank, no issues updating the firmware using a PC, the update process was very straightforward.
Just install the latest driver(v2.03 as of 03/18), this driver works well with all the Yamaha/Steinberg products I own (MG10XU mixer, THR10 amp, THR10X amp, UR28M interface, UR44 interface and now the UR44C!).
It is connected to a pair of JBL Studio monitors and it sounds awesome. DSP monitoring features are cool. Highly recommended for Guitarists!

I've been using a presonous audiobox iTwo. And it did the job as I learned how to use an audio interface. It was easy to setup and worked. But I wanted more input and outputs and I had trouble at different times getting the volume I wanted on intstruments.

So, I spent a little money on the UR44C. Wow... What a difference. It's super nice having the additional inputs but the sound quality and ablity to juice up the input signal along with a much better output volume is amazing. It really is a game changer. It comes with a digital equalizer and audio effects app that is pretty cool too. Everything is realatively easy to use. I really dig this audio interface and have no complaints with using it. It's been rock solid for a couple months now. And that goes for the build quality. It's very solid.

The reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 is the setup with Apple silicon. The instructions on how to install and configure your iMac are online and it worked after I set it up. It is not plug and play though and they really should make the install easier. That being said, I've not had to tweak the setup once since it's been installed and it's worked every time. I think if you have a PC, the setup install is easier, and maybe with an Apple with Intel it might not be too bad.

That being said, I'm very happy with the purchase. It's a great value and highly recommended.

Context: I started recording 15 or so years ago using Audacity, an M-Audio Delta 44 (24-bit, 96 kHz), and an SM57.

The UR44C, by comparison, is almost effortless -- recognized by my Gen 6 iPad, a Tab 6 android tablet, and an X390 Win10 laptop.

That said, the Steinberg Windows software installation/licensing experience is somewhere between a nuisance and a nightmare -- and I have 3 decades of IT experience. Driver installation/selection is problematic.

Easy enough to create mono or stereo tracks. I used various software programs on the iPad -- the UR44C was recognized by each one, including the native Camera. Similarly, I used Open Camera on the android tablet to record a video using the UR44C sound input. And the UR44C was recognized by Audacity and Reaper on my Win10 laptop.

Recorded vocals and guitar sound open and clean. I used an AE6100 for vox, and a pair of AT4041's for guitar -- the latter fed by the UR44C's phantom power. Headphone output was more than enough using earbuds, and adequate for 55-ohm headphones. I suspect that higher impedance headphones woudld merit an amp.

The unit is *solid*. The switches and inputs feel good. It supports my iPad while I work, and does not budge (see photo).

All in all, with the included software, an excellent value for the money. The steinberg.net forum has been valuable.
Hindsight is 20/20 -- I probably would've been fine with just the UR22C - but the iPad wouldn't have fit as nicely.

Minus a star for the wretched Windows experience, and because I had to buy a $39 Lightning-to-USB-C adapter to hook up the iPad, reducing the overall value.

But at the end of the day, the unit it works, and it works very well.

Lo tengo hace 1 mes aproximadamente y vengo anteriormente de una Steinberg UR22MK2. La tengo conectada con alimentación externa a la corriente y conectada al usb 3.1 en windows. Inmediatamente actualize su firmware cuando la puse en funcionamiento por primera vez y me fue satisfactorio. Mi sistema es Windows 10 Pro.
Uno de los q cambios que he notado inmediatamente fue su estabilidad en baja latencia muy mejorada sobre la anterior Steinberg ur22mk2 que me presentaba bajadas de audio en ocasiones hasta escuchando audio o filmes (dropout). Este producto a cambio es muy estable. La calidad a mi criterio mejora también al igual que la potencia de salida hacia los altavoces y hacia los auriculares. Me hubiera gustado que sus DSP fueran más variados y que incluyeran otros efectos como los Portico RND por ejemplo por eso les doy 4 estrellas.
La recomiendo sin dudas.

This is about the product of course every transaction at Sweetwater is 100% it wasn't the service it was the product on this one. got it all hooked up with the latest firmware and it started cutting in and out about every 10 or 15 minutes it would hiccup
. There are two solutions on Steinberg's website tried both of them, tried down grading the firmware and it's still drops audio. And I have zoom meetings constantly dropping audio creating error messages on zoom about changing audio interface to a different audio interface. I really love the cleanness of this product and wished it worked but I had to send it back. I also have an. UR-RT2 that I used on my Windows 10 machine work flawlessly sounded great so I hooked it up to the windows 11 machine and has a very similar issue. Come on Steinberg get it straight figure it out....

It's been well over a year that Apple M1 products have been released and there's still no official fully working driver for the UR44C. People are still having dropouts, me included. It's a great interface if they would just support it. This is the first and last I will purchase from Steinberg.

I've owned a few M-Audio products in the past and they release new drivers almost every month. Just recently I owned a Scarlet 6i6 and that interface was rock solid and gave me zero problems. I should have kept the 6i6 instead of "upgrading" to this unsupported interface.

I've used a SteinbergUR824 for years and loved it. I love the stability of the Steinberg line. So I was really excited to get this unit. I'm running on a mid-2015 MacBook pro with plenty of RAM and hard drive space. I'm not running Catalina. you would think that the installation would go really well but unfortunately I had trouble installing the firmware update. And now it's a constant error and refuses to update the firmware. I'll be talking with Sweetwater later today to try to get this exchanged and now I'm going to have to make the decision if I want to stick with Steinberg or go to something else. Just want to give a heads up to people out there.

I bought this being familiar with the Steinberg name but never had bought a product before. Basically, it's been one issue after another with this thing. I first installed the drivers on a Windows 8.1 system, eventually got it to work with Cubase 10 AI. But every time I restarted my computer, I had to reset all the settings in Cubase to make this work... so frustrating. It came to the point that I no longer wanted to record anything because I always had to fiddle with the settings to make it work again.

Eventually, my wife bought a new mini-Mac for me and I had hoped that things would go smoothly. I couldn't use the Cubase license since it was already installed on my Windows machine. So, I downloaded a trial version of Logic Pro (much nicer than Cubase). It recognized the Steinberg interface immediately, but... I still had one BIG problem -

The 1 & 2 channels have this constant reverb affect that seems to be only controlled by the package dspMixFx_UR_C. I wouldn't mind this in normal circumstances BUT... every time I download it the same message pops up - "No device found". I've done tons of research on this problem and nothing has worked to resolve the issue.

Now, I only have two options: I either learn to live with the constant reverb OR I stop using Steinberg altogether and maybe buy a MOTU interface. I'm totally disappointed in this purchase and may never buy another Steinberg unit.

That said, the Cubase software that comes with Steinberg is garbage compared to my old Sonar software. I even had better experiences with my Roland Quad interface. I would never recommend going the Steinberg + Cubase route to anyone.