Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404HD on ArcoLinux

I just hooked up a new Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD to a laptop that runs ArcoLinux (XFCE)
All that was needed to get the UMC404HD to run was plugging it in and configure the Jack audio server. Before I go on I’d like to tell you that everything works perfect.

Installing Jack2 and QjackCtl

By default, ArcoLinux has Jack but does not come with Jack2. To install Jack2, simply go to “Add/Remove Software” and type “Jack”. You’ll instantly see “Jack2” and upon installing it, the standard version of Jack will be removed and the newer Jack2 plus qjackctl gets installed.

qjackctl is a graphical interface to configure Jack2 so we need to open it, and click “Settup”. The Settings tab shows alsa as the default driver which is what we want. From the interface drop-down, we need pick the Behringer U-Phoria audio interface and tweak the “Frames/Period” value to get the desired latency. Lower is better. I left the default of 128 because I can live with 5.8 milliseconds of latency.

Note: If I pick 64 (instead of 128), then the latency is reduced to 2.9 msec. I will tweak this setting later but for now just focus on getting Reaper up and running.

Starting the Jack Audio Connection Kit

Now it’s time to press “Start” and if all went well, the Jack audio server will be running and I can continue with making the connections in the “Graph” window. See image below.

Start Reaper and select audio device

With Jack up and running, Reaper will “see” the Behringer audio interface. To specify it, simply follow the pop-up or, after Reaper has loaded, go to Options > Preferences > Audio > Device.
There are tons of YouTube videos that explain the in’s and out’s of this step in case you come across an issue. It should be straight forward.

If you are not yet ready to record anything then do a web search for free Reaper projects that you can download and use for testing.
Be careful with playing those for the first time because you never know what someone uploaded. There “could be” horrible distortions in the audio for so be warned. If you see some strange looking audio track then turn down the volume and speaker volume and play just a tiny portion.

I wish there was more to write about but in all honesty, setting up the Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD in ArcoLinux couldn’t be more simple. As many reviews state, it works out of the box. This was my experience and I am beyond excited because now I have no reason to keep a 40+ Gig Windows 10 install on my tiny 256 Gig SSD.

If you are into audio recording and happen to use Linux then give the Behrigner line of audio interfaces a try. Two weeks ago, I bought a Steinberg interface which malfunctioned and had to go back for repairs. I read many articles to get the best device for my needs and in the end, it broke. Because of that, I headed to the music store and picked up the Behringer U-Phoria today. It’s a low-cost audio interface and I will document the reliability in a blog article called Which audio interface is better, Steinberg or Behringer?