Cheap Gear Review: Behringer Ultra-G

Tim takes a look at the Behringer Ultra-G Active D.I. with speaker emulation and does a quick comparison with the speaker sim inside his POD HD 400.
Purchase link: www.guitarcente...

[@dawnpoint]

I was quite honestly not expecting the Behringer to sound nearly as good as it does. Holy crap. Sold.

[@kcbastards]

It really is a nice flavor to have available

[@zenncatt]

I've been using the Behringer Ultra-G for a number of years. Recently, I've been thinking about buying a different cab simulator, but concluded that there is no need; the Ultra-G works and sounds great, and for a fraction of the cost of other more expensive gear. Although It doesn't have dedicated controls for dialing cab-mic placement, magnet size, etc., as some of the more expensive ones do, I've found that IF i need, with a little EQ, I can accomplish the sound that I need. I don't think anybody buying it will regret the purchase.

[@kcbastards]

+zenncatt If nothing else, it's a good option to throw into one's gig-bag in case a bass amp goes down or something. I will say that I just picked up a Logidy EPSi which completely smokes any of the built-in cabs in the POD and completely smokes the Behringer, but it is a much different animal for a different type of situation.

[@zenncatt]

+Kansas City Bastards Hey, KCB. Thanks for the gear review. I just checked out the price for the Logidy; $199. Might be a nice unit, and I might buy an alternative to the UG when I'm a little wealthier ;) But, the UG is getting me by for my current recording needs. All the best.

[@kcbastards]

zenncatt If it ain't broke, don't fix it, like they say!

[@RabidGerry]

I bought this a few years ago as a DI mainly and took the guitar cab sim as a kind novelty. Needless to say I tried the sim and played about with it for a few hours. Sounded like absolute shit. Now I can't remember what my setup at the time was but the other day I was trying a full wet mix from my outboard FX unit in my rack and I was thinking I wish I had another cab sim of sorts so I could have a feed from my preamp go out dry an then I could keep a true analogue dry sound and blend with the FX as I needed. So cracked out the behringer just to test it and boy was I really surprised. It sounded actually really good by itself and it allowed me to carry out my experiment really well. I just could not get over how good it sounded in the loop of my peavey rockmaster (send going to behringer and the thru of the behringer going back to the peavey). Ok so there are no really control with it, but it gives a really usable decent guitar cab sound and I definitely think it would be very useful in situations. I think I like the sound so much I might use it and blend with recordings going forward. For the price it's excellent.

[@VintageSG]

Watched this video a while ago, decided to buy based largely on it. Not regretted it for one second yet. Useful piece of kit. Thank you for taking the time to make the vid.

[@kcbastards]

I'm glad I was able to help out! This little box has saved us a few times playing live, so it's always good to have something like this as a backup, if nothing else. Glad you got some use out of it!

[@Earphonesan]

Thanks for the sound demo, and comparison. It's really not a bad sounding box; I might just have to pick one up!

[@Thirdgen83]

I have this box, and I love it. I couldn't believe that something so cheap could sound so good. It sounded like my cab was actually mic'd up. The POD is not a very good test for it though. I used a tube amp & 4x12 Marshall cab.

[@swmorgan515]

is the -20db pad enough attenuation for the Behringer to accept your speaker input without issues?

[@rockrenegade]

That built in analog cab sim is surprisingly very easy to work with in the front of house mix according to many live sound engineers I’ve worked with compared to the wrong choice of IR which can get washed out as what works for a produced studio sound can get washed out a lot of the time. It would be great if someone made more mid-focused, dead simple IRs geared for live designed to work best with a FOH mix. Even amp settings require a different approach live compared to a slick studio sound.

[@JordonRenn93]

The ULTR-G stomps that POD in my opinion, the POD sounds digital and harsh.

[@phabi0]

I am NOT a POD fan. But you have to consider the POD is also adding an off-axis SM57 to the coloring (which can be harsh indeed), and the behringer isn't. Also, in the POD simulation you can hear the typical 4x12 resonance, phase cancellation and harmonics that I couldn't hear in the behringer...

[@DaVeTheWaVe]

how can you compare the quality with such a distortion!?!?!

[@Mauricioluquesound]

Have you heard about harmonics bro?

[@xyholland]

Hi, thanks for this useful video. Have you ever tried it on a big PA system. Is it the same quality?

[@napalmhardcore]

I don't recall having owned any Behringer gear but I've spoken to a few people that have and used their gear (I was the support act for a couple of local bands and played some songs with them). I've never heard a complaint first hand. They seem to make solid products for working musicians. Yes, there is normally a more refined equivalent from other manufacturers but it normally costs a lot more. On the other hand, it seems that a lot of the products of a similar price aren't as good or reliable.

[@zoundsic]

They used to copy a lot of design's so they were tried and tested first in that respect, they used to use some of the cheapest components going to keep prices down but not sure about now. you can hear where behringer stuff lacks quality on it's digital processing side of things, they add quite a bit of a digital edge to things, though for the money they can do a decent job for non critical situations or in fact do a job you may not afford to do otherwise in live situations. there's good and bad in there stuff and they are hopefully getting better since they acquired more company's and have started making their own design's now. their new unreleased synth could be a breakthrough for what it deliver's in it's price range and that's only a good thing.

[@AshesBe]

Hello, with the behringer Ultra Gi100 I can connect the speaker output of my guitar head to the input of the ultra G, in the link output connect my 2x12 screen and in balanced output to my audio interface, without activating the 4x12 simulator and thus record the sound of my head raw and in my DAW use speaker IRs to find my sound?

[@Twirlyhead]

I don't think the Behringer is actually very old - technologies like the Ultra-G are running parallel with digital stuff like the POD - it's about preference and is not about old vs new. From your demo I quite liked them both and as you say the Behringer might be a useful addition even for those who already have a highly flexible POD or whatever. My own experience is that the analogue speaker sims tend to have a better playing "feel" and interact with the player better though you can't knock some of the models that the new digitals are producing.

[@kcbastards]

The Behringer Ultra-G in the video was purchased several years before the POD HD series came out (in fact, at the time I had a POD 2.3)... but you're absolutely right, it's not a 20 year old device or anything of the sort. Analog speaker sims tend to "get away" with more because their deficiencies are a bit more pleasing - that is to say, it's not about striving for accuracy, but more about striving for good tone. That's my experience, at least. Between an inaccurate digital cab sim and inaccurate analog cab sim, the latter has tended to sound and feel better. Thankfully, the POD HD series has cab sims that ultimately aren't awful, so they're also usable.

[@pedroroggla8129]

man i need some help here, i need to plug a tube amp head (an ampeg b-25) DIRECTLY to my audio interface, will this help? i dont want to fry my interface

[@jland12]

You should do a demonstration with a clean sound. If it sounds good clean it will sound good distorted but not necessarily the other way around.

[@accentontheoff]

The Behringer doesn’t too good right. What am I missing here.

[@SaifDude95]

is the Direct link to cabinet effect by the DI? or is it bypassed

[@sirlangrangeiro7135]

Clean! clean, clean animal!

[@flashstudiosindia7610]

HI i am currently using M-AUDIO FAST TRACK INTERFACE i use it to record my vocals (thru xlr) and acoustic guitar(thru line) each time i monitor the output and turn the gain high or low i hear kind of white noise in the background which is continious no matter i increase the volume or decrease it and after adding few plugins it sounds crazy... I am using FENDER C60 Which has a inbuilt fisherman equalizer amp AND RODE NT1A Microphone. Could you suggest me a cheap and quality DI Box which would eleminate the hiss noise totally from my guitar recordings and mic recordings? Thanks

[@piotrmosieniak3425]

This behringer sounds good to me. Good Video!

[@SolomonAngami77]

Thanks for the review. Its Solid.

[@kcbastards]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@SQUAREHEAD64]

Yikes! That tone sounds like glass breaking on cement ... thanks for the video, yes, Behringer 'helps' a bit... But you can't polish a turd.

[@Triumphinchrist1]

Can I connect an amp head directly into this from the amp's speaker out & record direct to the interface?

[@kcbastards]

It's technically capable due to the pad switches, but if you're using a tube amp make sure you still have a load box or an actual speaker cab attached. I'd start at a low volume and use caution. I've mainly used it with preamps.

[@jthodges4741]

If it's digital or solid state, would it be okay to do?

[@kcbastards]

Yeah, digital or solid state don't require a speaker load to be safe, so that'd be fine

[@mcskillby]

Would this pedal be okay to use for bass?

[@kcbastards]

+mcskillby The Ultra-G isn't so much a pedal as a DI Box, but yeah, we've used it at a show for bass before as a backup unit, and it worked admirably. There are certainly better tonal options for bass out there, but running bass won't hurt the unit at all!

[@mcskillby]

+Kansas City Bastards - Thanks for the quick response. It's a DI that i'm looking for, I don't know whether to get this one or the Ultra DI (silver colored one).

[@kcbastards]

mcskillby The primary difference for your use would be the ability to have the cab emulation if you wanted with the Ultra-G. I have the silver DI box as well and haven't found anything it can do that the Ultra-G can't when it comes to guitar or bass. I wish I would have just bought two Ultra-Gs really.

[@mcskillby]

+Kansas City Bastards - Thank you for your help.

[@Neil-Aspinall]

Are you joking? That would have to be the worst 'distortion/fuzz?' sound I have ever heard in my life.

[@kcbastards]

+Neil Aspinall The clips with no cab emulation are indeed pretty awful by design... the cab emulation from the HD400 itself is a bit harsh as well, but I've gotten some good multitracked recordings out of it. The Behringer is significantly darker, and the settings were preserved on both to demonstrate the huge difference between the two.

[@JohnSmith-ef2sx]

The riffs/ examples don't need to be that looooooong,,,,wtf

[@vedasticks]

Sounds terrible. Dont know if thats how the pod is setup but i really dont think much of its 4x12 emulation. Without any amp sim from the pod it sounds thin and scratchy. Even with the pods amp sim its not great, but then i dont think much of the pods anyway. Give me a good amp + cab any day, though the newer axe fx are pretty god when setup right proper amp + cab still wins. A better solution would be to use a redbox DI, which gives you the amps output through its own 4x12 amp sim which is pretty damn good

[@kcbastards]

vedasticks Yeah, I'm not too much of a fan of the POD's emulation. A few months ago I quit using it and bought a cheap Eleven Rack on eBay and have been much, much happier with it than I ever was with the POD HD400.

[@vedasticks]

terribles probably a bit harsh. ive came across a few times where the pod worked for what the band was doing.

[@kcbastards]

vedasticks Yeah, I'd heard OK examples of the POD HD series before I bought it, but in practice it was either way muffled or way harsh... sometimes paradoxically both.

[@dodgo-mailru]

Все печально,звук вагон песка

[@usernamenonsense]

The HD pro wins this comparison hands down on every example. Glad I found this clip. I shall avoid this device now.

[@paguillo13]

La empresa Audiosistemas y proyectos SL. es el servicio técnico de la marca de equipos de sonido "Behringer" El 4 de diciembre del pasado año compré una pareja de altavoces Behringer VP-2520. El día 10 de marzo dejaron de funcionar. Tras tramitar la solicitud de asistencia técnica por garantía me responden que los componentes averiados tienen solo un año de garantía y que en mi caso ese periodo ha expirado. Les había mandado la factura al solicitar la asistencia. Les había incluido una copia de la factura de compra en cada una de las cajas de sendos altavoces y me veo en la necesidad de volver a mandársela para acreditar que mi garantía no ha expirado ni de lejos. Además tengo que explicarles que el periodo legal de garantía es de dos años, no de uno. Me responden diciendo que ha sido un error, que el motivo por el que no me cubren la reparación es porque tienen evidencias de que la avería se produce por usar el equipo sin seguir las indicaciones del fabricante. El el manual de usuario, el fabricante recomienda dos equipos para la amplificación y la protección de los altavoces, equipos que por supuesto son de su marca. Ya les había mandado las facturas de haberlos comprado y fotografías del equipo con el conjunto recomendado completo. Aun asi, vuelvo a explicarles todo y a mandarle nuevamente las facturas de los equipos de protección que recomienda el fabricante y otros adicionales que yo le incorporo por iniciativa propia. Me vuelven a responder y ya es cuando caigo enfermo… Me dicen que seguir las especificaciones del fabricante no garantiza que los equipos no se estropeen, que eso me puede pasar con cualquier marca y que es como si un coche nuevo se gripa por mal uso o como si me cortara con un cuchillo por usarlo mal. He preparado una reclamación detallada en casa y mañana la presentaré en el establecimiento para adjuntarla a la hoja de reclamaciones e inmediatamente llevaré la copia a la OMIC de otra ciudad, por si el empresario tuviese algún amigo en el ayuntamiento de la misma localidad, cosa que por desgracia es demasiado habitual en nuestro país. Para colmo me mandan un presupuesto por un importe de 40 euros menos del valor de los altavoces nuevos y me dicen que si no lo acepto tendré que pagar el diagnostico más los gastos de envío… Unos 150 euros… por nada… ¡¡¡¡¡Manos arriba, esto es un atraco!!!!!

[@acocote2137]

Holy Mother of God... I j7ust can't believe how ugly is this kind of "rock" sound...

[@kevinsolomon6742]

Ew the tone

[@dodgo-mailru]

Все печально,звук вагон песка