The MXL770 Studio Condenser is a very budget friendly yet high quality studio condenser microphone made by Marshall. It is a perfect microphone for those recording at home – it’s suitable for recording acoustic instruments like an acoustic guitar, as well as electric instruments and vocals.
So – I turned 50 the other day and my wife gave me a few very nice presents! One of them is this MXL770 studio condenser microphone. My favorite studio condenser, a McCrypt condenser microphone, is having issues after having been in use for over 20 years. So – time to replace it. This is a great replacement. In fact, I think it’s a very good upgrade. While the McCrypt was most certainly a great mic, this one is even better.
In the video there’s a test recording using my acoustic Washburn guitar and some vocal. Both are ‘dry sound’, no processing done. In the end of the video there’s a mixdown of the track I recorded.
The microphone was ordered online at Thomann (Germany).
The Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD is a 4 in/4 out audio interface allowing you to record up to 4 intstruments or vocals at the same time. The 4 inputs all have 48v Phantom power and are equipped with fantastic “dead silent” Midas pre-amps. It’s a step up from the cheapest models with Xenyx pre-amps. This makes it a perfect fit for any small studio or bands wanting to do some demo recording without breaking the bank!
I got this device as a birthday present and made a video about it, trying to answer this one question I’ve read the most in comments on Youtube “can it record 4 tracks at once?”. The answer is: YES. It Can!
Multitrack recording with the Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD and Ardour (Linux), Mixcraft (Windows) and Audacity (Windows) is very easy to do (once you know how to connect it and what driver to install when using Windows).
The Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD is a 4 in/4 out USB Audio interface and can be used for multitrack recording with Windows, Apple and Linux recording software (DAW). In this video I’ll walk you trough the steps I took to record multiple tracks at once with it. I made some wrong assumptions and little mistakes at first, but I hope the little errors I made will help you prevent them.
LINUX
Although Behringer doesn’t claim it to be compatible with Linux, it does work perfectly well on Ardour (with the standard ALSA driver). You don’t need additional drivers for it. Do make sure you switch off the “midi” when starting a recording with Ardour since it doesn’t support the midi input if there’s no real midi device connected to the interface!
WINDOWS
For Windows you’ll need to download a driver from their webisite. It doesn’t work with the standard ASIO4ALL drivers that are used by most home recording enthusiast using the standard 1 or 2 channel input/output devices. Although I failed to get it recording 4 tracks at once with Audacity, I’m almost certain it should be possible. If I ever find out how, I’ll post a follow-up video on that since I believe that would be a perfect solution for the fast, leightweight, “on the road” recording.
I tested it on only two windows programs but am positive it will work on many others like Reaper, pro tools, cubase, ableton live, studio one, and so on.
