Thanks again.
Phew, more than I expected. I can literally order the U-44 for 8€ more than that on amazon. Weird.
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The questions you were asking seemed simple but there are so many different factors to consider. It’s difficult to sum up a rabbit hole. Great job putting all this together.
There is one thing I want to add. If your amp has a DI out, you can go from the DI to your DAI, to get the coloring from your pre amp. Also, if you don’t have a DI out, you should be able to use the out on your effects loop for the same thing.
This same thing works if you have pre amp pedal with a DI out.
Also, if you happen to have a Rumble Studio 40 (or Stage 800), they both have a built in DAI you can use to go straight to your computer.
@juli0r You have probably figured most of this out already from your research. I just wanted to post it for completness.
I’m glad y’all have kept this thread going. A lot of this information is spread out over multiple posts on multiple threads across the forum but I think we needed a central place for putting this side of it all together. Thanks, all.
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Wow crazy. Normal price for the U-22 is about $60US and the U-24 is about $90.
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So one thing to point out - you don’t need to have an effects loop on the DAI to use effects. You just plug the last pedal on your pedalboard into the DAI like you would the amp. I’ve never actually seen an effects loop on a DAI, surprised the Behringer has one.
I’m actually running an XLR out from my DI on my pedalboard to one of the ins on my DAI. This is nice for me because I get a ground lift there as well, which I happen to need.
Setting it up this way, you can then run an out from your DAI to your amp.
Personally I don’t have any effects I would put in the effects loop on an amp to begin with - I want mine to be all pre- and have that final preamp on the amp be post-. All of my sound shaping for tone is then on the board/guitar, and the preamp on the amp would be for shaping for the room. YMMV.
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I mean the price it is usually at. The price seems much higher now than usual. Mine was around $90 when I got it, it’s about $115 now in Japan.
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Someone had mentioned that DAI prices have gone up recently since all the musicians are stuck at home.
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Makes sense.
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… and they’re on back order.
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I’d still like to add the option “Connect the LINE OUT/PREAMP OUT of your amp to the LINE IN on your sound card” to the “I have no money”.
This gives you a signal with the eq settings of your amp. Considering I spent €6,95 on this, I have no complaints about the result whatsoever, and it gives a nice, clean signal with very little noise.
In my opinion, if your amp has a line out or preamp out, this is the best solution under 10 euros.
EDIT: Apparently, doing this from a DI would work too, but I can see how an XLR to 3.5mm jack cable would cost more than seven euros.
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What is a DI Out? What is its output? The D makes it sound like digital!
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It’s an XLR connection for going from a pre amp to the mixing board (or a DAI). It uses a standard microphone cable.
DI stands for different things depending on who you ask. Direct Injection or, more common, Direct Input.
Likewise, I’ve seen DAI as either Direct Audio Interface or, more common, Digital Audio Interface. I suppose, if you were going into an analog board, it would be Direct and if you were going into a computer it would be Digital.
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Direct.Input. It’s a balanced analog line out.
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It’s an analog line out, so let’s call it Direct INput.
You can’t make this shit up! 
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Well it is because the ports on the mixer are inputs 
But yeah. Not the best name.
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You are right. The review mentioned the inserts for effects and I didn’t question it.
Could you explain what the Inserts are for that isn’t achievable the way you described?
I will add the Amp Line out option to the summary.
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Effect loops are useful because they let you put chains of effects in different places relative to the source of the loop. In the case of a loop on an amp, you could use it to put some effects before and some after the amp’s preamp.
For me this is useless but others use it a lot.
Where it doesn’t make sense to me is on a DAI, unless it is using it to get a split clean/effected signal to blend, which might make sense.
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XLR is an even worse name. The X came from a cable series designation. When it was improved with a latching mechanism they added the L. When the later added the synthetic rubber insulation around the female connectors they added the R. So…
X (?)
L (Latching)
R (Rubber)
Also, about XLR cables, they have a practical length of 100 feet with a theoretical length of 1,000 feet. Compared to instrument cables having a max length of 15-20 feet. Using XLR cables let you put your mixing board further away from the stage to better make adjustments for what the crowd would hear.
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That might explain why it isn’t a feature on the other devices. Since it either seems completely useless or at least very niché I will edit the comparison table and remove that.
Also when comparing different DAI i noticed that Behringer is significantly lower in price. Pondering why that is my hypothesis is: The other brands calculate the software license in the price, which behringer doesn’t provide. Considering the high learning curve of Ableton and the low price of Reaper I think I’ll stick with the Behringer 404HD, because I want Midi-Output.
Also the audiophile friend of mine even has a condenser mic lying around, which I could use for a better setup.
Doesn’t make sense until I upgraded my amp, but still… as I explained in the summary - I pay for options/being future proof with my purchase.