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Tascam US-122 interface

Mike Flynn

Mike Flynn

Feb 1, 2004
1,981
7
54
Brixton, South London
www.munkio.com
#1
I did search on this forum and there's a few of you asking about this audio interface - the Tascam US-122 USB unit - I got one of these and have had really good results going direct into both Soudforge and Cubase. I initially looked at MOTU and M-Audio but the guy in the shop recommended this unit as he sais you'd only really need a firewire for a load of inputs going into the PC/Mac all at once - this is where the MOTU 828 is unbeatable - but I just wanted to recommend this unit as for the money it really gives you great results, has virtually no latency and gets a really good, true, direct sound - check them out.

<img src=http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/largeimages/281520.jpg>
 
#3
but the us-122 don't work well with some computers. because the us-122's power supply come from the usb connector lug on the computer. if the computer's usb connection isn't good, the us-122 will stop working. :crying:
if you make music with gig sample, that the tascam's production is the best choice. :hyper:
 
#4
audioripple said:
but the us-122 don't work well with some computers. because the us-122's power supply come from the usb connector lug on the computer. if the computer's usb connection isn't good, the us-122 will stop working. :crying:
if you make music with gig sample, that the tascam's production is the best choice. :hyper:
Click to expand...

Too true my friend - we tried using it to run my band's keyboard into the drummer's iBook last night to use some of the keyboard patches on the Mac and for whatever reason the USB phantom power just didn't pick up at all - so yes a word of warning - make sure you have a compatible computer - if it's a new PC or Mac you should be OK but anything a bit older than two or three years and I think you might have problems. However - it works just great for me at home.
 
#6
yea,

i've been loving my 122, too. i hook mine up to my laptop for field / on-the-go recordings.

but the craptastic version of cubase isnt compatible with proc's that have hyperthreading. :rolleyes: you'd think they'd update that by now. nearly fubar'd my pc, and made me splurge for Cubase SE. and the included gigastudio is sooooo mid '90s.

other than that, no real complaints, tho i kinda wish the drivers were XP compliant. would give me extra peace of mind when i'm live recording critical gigs.
 
#8
I'm using the Tascam US-122 with my eMachines laptop. It works so-so with Cubase. I get a lot of skips in the recording, even when I turn on the direct monitoring. I think this may be because I'm running one hard drive and it's pretty slow.

I'm thinking of getting a faster external firewire drive to speed things up. anyone have luck with this?

--Frank
 
#9
Schwinn said:
Anyone using the US-122 with a Dell Laptop?
Click to expand...

me!

Dell 600m with no problems.

btw, the only thing i dont like about the US122 is that there're no RCA inputs.

it'd be cool to be able to take a line from the PA mixer along with my stereo mics for a more "DI'ed" sounding live recording.

oh well...

and frank,

if you're getting skips, you might need to upgrade your laptop. how old is it? if your harddrive isnt up to snuff, i doubt your processor is. maybe a cheap memory upgrade?
 
#10
I'm running an emachines M5312 bought this past spring. Actually, I've had much better results with the US122 since I tried tuning my computer. I tried some of the tips here:

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plus, some tuning tips from the tascam website
Also, I'm running with direct monitoring turned on.

...and the skips have practically disappeared.

--Frank
 
#12
I have some real basic questions about the unit. I'm planning on getting a new emachines desktop and basically wanted to know if the Tascam unit will let you plug in and record to software without having to get a soundcard or preamp.

I've read everything in the newbie FAQ section but am still confused!

I just need to get a setup for personal practice recording purposes.
 
#13
The unit connects to the USB port on your computer. It performs the pre function. Yo can use any number of recording applications to do the actual recording. It accepts two line inputs or mic inputs with phantom voltage. You would not need a sound card to record, but would to playback. That help?
 
#14
Yes, I believe so. Sorry, I'm very new to this and don't want to hijack the board but I think this product is a good fit for me if I understand it right.

I would imagine that you would be able to hear what you're playing while you're playing. You can then record and save it to the computer so that you can then burn it to a CD. But you can't actually listen to what you've recorded directly through your computer without a soundcard?

Or do you need a soundcard just to hear anything through the speakers?
 
#15
It has a headphone out which you could use to monitor the recording. It will create file(s) on your computer (usually WAV format) while you are recording. I use it with 2 mikes to record my band's rehearsal. I just set it and forget it. When we are done, I save it and end up with a 2GB of so WAV file, which I then edit
into tracks and burn to CD's which I give out to rest of the band so they can hear all their mistakes :spit:
 
#18
Ok, so I read the previous thread about this hardware, but nothing really helps me. My problem is that I just don't know how to get my mac(Ibook g4) to get any input. I looked through all the help files, and set the sound input to the tascam device instead of my internal mic. And in my software(garageband), it realizes the midi signal, but does not show any input being received. I also hook up a keyboard via midi to USB, which works plug'nplay style just fine.
Does anybody know what to do?
:help:


i know i posted this twice, in 2 different locations, but, i'm desperate.
 
#20
Two things that really helped the us-122 performance on my laptop (running cubase 2, battery 2, etc.):

1) Used asio4all drivers instead of the built-in us-122 drivers.
2) My [windows] laptop's processor is an AMD Athlon XP-M. It throttles back the CPU to save power. To prevent this, go to control panels.. power options, and pick "Always On" from power schemes. When in this mode, you'll hear the laptop fan running constantly.

Doing the previous 2 things eliminated all the skips/dropouts for me.

--Frank
 

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