Thanks to both of you for your replies!
@jaslan: Yep, I tried all other inputs and it is the same for every input.
@fuzzydude: I dont think you can deny that there is a problem with the/my UR44. I personally hear a big issue and that is just the higher noise floor of the UR44 which renders it useless for high gain guitar tone applications. The hiss becomes almost as loud as the guitar itself which is a MAJOR issue if you want to work with high gain tones. Of course, if you listen to the DI only there is not much noise because the guitar DI is the pure sound of the guitar and a noise floor obviously is not a problem until the signal is being processed. The noise floor starts to become a problem once you add high gain amp plugins or compress and limit the crap out of a vocal track or whatever you have been tracking through the input channels. As you can hear, the high gain samples provided are VERY different from each other and no mixing engineer would want to work with the signal provided by the UR44. Also, it is not how or what amp sims are being used. I have been working with amp sims for the past 10 years and I have tried about 7 different amp sim plugins and - obviously - each had the noise as the noise comes from the input channel and high gain values just boost whats part of the signal.
You can download both DI tracks and limit the hell out of ithem and you will hear how the UR44`s noise will creep in while the Focusrite stays in a very acceptable range of noise. Or you just put an amp sim on the track and be surprised. At this point, I just start to repeat myself, I guess.
I agree that the UR44 sounds way better than the Focusrite though and I will DEFINITELY avoid Focusrite at all costs. I`d like to avoid spending 800 bucks for an audio interface with as much in- and outputs as both the ones I have here right now though.
Arent Steinbergs own tech people chime in here to have a look at it? I don^t want to register the product because I will definitely send it back if there is no solution for this issue and I dont want to risk doing anything that won`t let me give it back.
Thanks again,
syndrone