New Music Gear Monday: Steinberg Rupert Neve Designs UR-RT Audio Interfaces

Rupert Neve has a sterling reputation for great sounding audio, and we all want to have at least some of his gear in our audio toolbox. That being said, the one thing that Rupert’s latest company, Rupert Neve Designs, has never offered is an audio interface. Now Steinberg has teamed up with RND to create not one but two new audio interfaces, the new UR-RT2 and UR-RT4 USB.

Both interfaces utilize the famed transformer design that Rupert Neve is known for, and come in a rugged full-metal housing. The UR-RT2 comes with four inputs that include two analog XLR/TRS combo inputs (Hi-Z switch on input 1 for direct input), plus two TRS line inputs, headphones jack with independent level control and two outputs. The UR-RT4 offers six inputs and four outputs that include four analog XLR/TRS combo inputs (Mic/Hi-Z on input 1/2 and Mic/Line on input 3/4), plus two TRS line inputs, and a pair of separate headphone busses with individual outputs.

Both interfaces offer 24-bit/192 kHz I/O over USB 2.0 plus MIDI connectivity alongside a range of input/output options for laptop and iPad. They also provide DSP-powered effects during low-latency monitoring that include REV-X reverb, Channel Strip and Guitar Amp Classics (a VST 3 plug-in version is also included).

The units also include two D-PRE Class-A D-PRE mic preamps by Yamaha supporting +48 V phantom power (it’s a little disappointing that real RND preamps weren’t included), and ship with the dspMixFx editor application for Windows, macOS and iOS, plus a Cubase AI software download version for Mac and PC (only for 64-bit environment), and a copy of the Cubasis LE app for iPad.

The SRP for the Steinberg UR-RT2 is $349.99, while the UR-RT4 is $599.99. The units will begin shipping in June.

You can find out more about the interfaces here and in the video below.