Setting up the Behringer Guitar Link UCG102 on windows

OK, so I got me the Behringer Guitar Link UCG102 at a local music store, UME for 33€ (same price as most online stores, no shipping costs!).

It comes with sparse documentation, and no CD. The guy at the store told me it all had to be downloaded. At the site one finds the importat ASIO drivers (I got the 64 bit ones), and asio4all, as well as audacity (the last two can be found in many other places). Now, it is likely the device will produce no sound when first plugged. I found valuable advice on a review at amazon.com, author Mr. S. Bailey which I copy and rewrite a little.

1. Download Behringer’s Windows x64 driver from their web page.
   1. Update: It does not seem to be there anymore, but google “Behringer’s Windows x64 driver” and several sites like this one will show up.
2. Run the Behringer driver setup and when it asks you to reboot; Go ahead and do that.
3. Download and install the ASIO4All drivers from their web page.
4. If the Behringer UCG102 isn’t plugged into to the USB port, do that now. If it’s already plugged in, remove it and plug it back in again. This step ensures that the driver is properly loaded and the device is up and running in Windows.
5. Go to Windows 7 Control Panel or do a menu search for ‘Sound’ to configure your Windows Playback and Recording settings. The Behringer needs to be plugged in to configure these settings. In your Windows ‘Sound’ settings, make sure your ‘Playback’ device is set to your default speakers. If using headphones, set them as the “Default” Playback device. Under the ‘Recording’ tab, select ‘Line In’ and if the Behringer USB driver is loaded and running properly, you should see an option to select “Behringer USB WDM Audio 2.8.40′ as the Line-in device. The ‘2.8.40’ is the driver version you downloaded from their web page and that number may change as drivers are updated.
6. Now you can start up your Guitar Rig or effects processor software. In Guitar Rig, you have to go into ‘Audio and Midi Settings’ and ensure that you are using ‘Asio’ as your driver and “Asio4All V2′ as your device. Under the ‘Routing’ tab you have to make sure your ‘Outputs’ are set to either speakers or headphones. Under ‘Inputs’, make sure you have ‘Behringer USB Audio 1’ under just the ‘L’ or left channel only. The settings under the ‘MIDI’ tab don’t affect this type of setup so there’s nothing you need to do there.

Step 6 is where you will normally run into problems and to fix this, you have to configure your ASIO4All settings. In the far right corner of your Windows taskbar, you should see a green icon, which if clicked will bring up your ASIO4All configuration window. You can also select ‘ASIO Config’ in Guitar Rig within the ‘Audio and Midi Settings’ and get into the same window. To get everything working, you have to click on the wrench to open the ASIO advanced configuration.

This is where you’ll have to do some trial and error by clicking on the input and output device icons. What you’re looking for is a green On/Off button with green arrows next to them for your input and output devices. For example, under my settings, I have the following ASIO devices showing green buttons and arrows…
Top selection = Output: ‘High Definition Audio Device”
Bottom Selection = Input: ‘Behringer USB WDM Audio 2.8.40’ = (In: 2x 44.1-48kHz, 32 bits; Out: 2x 44.1-48kHz, 32 bits)

A blacked out On/Off button icon with no green arrow, or a red ‘X’ next to these settings means something’s wrong or you haven’t clicked on the On/Off button icon so that device is actually turned on. Close the window to exit out of the ASIO configuration.

If you’re not getting all the selection options in the ASIO or audio/midi configuration settings, try the following…
1. Close Guitar Rig and other recording software
2. Unplug the Behringer UCG102 and plug it back in again
3. Repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 and also check your Windows ‘Sound’ Playback and Recording settings to make sure they haven’t changed

If your using recording software like Mixcraft, you also have to use the ASIO device drivers within that software in order to record your guitar. By the way, I am able to run Guitar Rig’s VST and real-time record with all Guitar Rig’s effects within Mixcraft and achieve impressive results. Latency is not an issue because I’m using the ASIO drivers in combination with Behringer’s USB driver. If you’re having troubles, don’t give up and keep at it. You’ll be happy with the results and there’s nothing like being able to record in real-time while using awesome guitar effects. I love it!

Update

Yesterday I reset my PC and had to reinstall this stuff again. I followed my own guide (this is partly why I write these things down, for myself), and found some minor differences:

• The Behringer driver installer asks you to insert the device in some USB port
• ASIO4ALL has a new beta driver (beta 2, actually), which I tried. It works just fine for me.
• Everything works OK as soon as the Behringer is set up as the recording device in windows control panel. I had to fiddle a little with the ASIO setting, mostly with which device was doing what (got horrible feedback when the mic was set as a recording device), but nothing else. Guitar rig worked perfectly. I could see the guitar was being picked up, but with no sound… but that was just because I had not selected any rig!

Update 2

I have been doing some more serious recording with this device. You will notice that the same comments above apply to e.g. cubase. It can also get the sound from the ASIO thingy, one also needs to fiddle with the cubase ports to assign them to the USB signal.

However, if you plan to record yourself while playing, you’ll notice this won’t work. A usual remedy is to pre-record everything, and when the track is ready, record yourself playing to your own music. A bit ridiculous, but then again that’s what musicians do in videos. An obvious plus is that obviously won’t make mistakes in your sound.

Anyway, this sort of works for youtube videos. But what if you want to play live as in e.g. bandhub? Well, I found a working solution. The headset output from the Guitar Link! Just connect it with a small jack cable to the audio recording input of your PC. Now the signal from your guitar (INCLUDING effects from Guitar Link or other software) can be recorded as if they came from a mic!!!

However, they do not, so one must go to windows control panel, check audio devices, then on recording devices check the mic. It’s very important that on the “levels” tab, no amplification (or very little) is used on the mic, or the sound will be terrible: lots of noise and distorted sound (the wrong kind of distortion). I think the default is +30dB, just set it to zero and control the signal volume either with: software (e.g. Guitar Rig), or the Guitar Link wheel, or the Guitar Link hi/lo switch, or the guitar’s knobs. I have the feeling the best choice is the first, but I’m not sure.

Also, be sure to set ASIO controls so that the sound is not directed to the sound card, only to the GL headset output.

Now you can happily record yourself playing.