Tascam US122MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface

Buy Cheap Tascam US122MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface

Buy Low Price From Here Now
TASCAM has refreshed its best-selling USB interface with better audio specs and a fresh new look for the US-122mkII. The US-122mkII starts with two great-quality XLR microphone preamps with phantom power for condenser microphones. There's also a pair of balanced line inputs and a guitar-level in for direct recording of electric guitar or bass. The stereo signal is sent to your computer at up to 96kHz/24-bit audio quality.
Readmore

Technical Details

- Bus-powered USB 2.0 audio interface
- (2) XLR microphone inputs with phantom power
- (2) 1/4 inch balanced line inputs
- MIDI input and output
- Mac and Windows drivers included
See more technical details

 "DON'T BUY IF YOU PLAN TO USE WITH SNOW LEOPARD" 2009-12-01
By Stan G (Vermont, USA)
In September, Tascam "officially" certified all of its audio interfaces for use in Snow Leopard, saying the devices were "fully functional" in the operating system. They lied. Neither the Tascam US-122l nor the Tascam US-122MKII is fully functional in Snow Leopard.



I bought the Tascam US-122l based on Tascam's "certification." I have a mid-2009 iMac (not the brand new version) and am running Snow Leopard. After receiving the interface I downloaded the most up-to-date drivers and firmware. However, the interface was not recognized as a in/out sound device in either Snow Leopard's "system preferences" or its "Audio MIDI Setup." I called Tascam customer support and talked to a very friendly and informative representative who basically told me that there was nothing that I could do about it, and that a driver might (eventually) be released that offers full support. I asked if the US-122MKII was fully functional in Snow Leopard (it had been released right after I bought the US-122l), and he said that on his computer it showed up in both system preferences and audio midi setup. Based on this information, I bought the US-122MKII, only to come across the same exact problem.



IMPORTANT: Both audio interfaces are fully functional in the audio programs I have (Ableton Live, GarageBand, Audacity). If all you want to use the interface for is audio in-out for such programs, you won't have any problems. However, if you want to be able to use the interface as your computer's main soundcard (ie:, to output all sound through the interface) you should not buy either interface for use in Snow Leopard. This ability is a big plus: for example, your iTunes music will likely sound much better coming through an audio interface than straight from your onboard sound card. Additionally, the ability to output all your sound through your interface means that you can keep your speaker cables connected to your interface at all times, without having to switch back to your computer after you've finished recording.



I don't know if there are any audio interfaces out there that are fully functional with Snow Leopard yet, but Tascam's are NOT and the company should not be claiming that they are.





***********UPDATE***************



Tascam has finally released a driver that makes the US-122mkii fully functional in Snow Leopard. The delay was frustrating, but now the interface is a great value for Mac users. I've changed my rating accordingly, but Tascam needs to be more honest about compatibility in the future if they want to maintain their customers' trust.


Images Product

Buy Tascam US122MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface Now

Tascam US144MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface

Buy Cheap Tascam US144MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface

Buy Low Price From Here Now
The most popular TASCAM 4-channel USB audio interface has been updated with better audio specs and a fresh new look for the US-144mkII. The US-144mkII starts with two great-quality XLR microphone preamps with phantom power for condenser microphones. There's also a pair of balanced line inputs and a guitar-level in for direct recording of electric guitar or bass. A pair of S/PDIF digital inputs and outputs is also included, for a total of four inputs and outputs at up to 96kHz/24-bit audio quality.
Readmore

Technical Details

- Bus-powered USB 2.0 audio interface
- (2) XLR microphone inputs with phantom power
- (2) 1/4 inch balanced line inputs
- Up to 96kHz/24-bit audio resolution
- Mac and Windows drivers included
See more technical details

 "Good sound quality, bad drivers, horrible support, constant crashing, stay away." 2009-12-24
By J. Nichols
The sound quality is very good. However, the interface crashes at random intervals throughout the day. On a fresh install of Windows XP SP3, I frequently got the Blue-Screen-of-Death blaming tascusb2.sys. There was no warning. Computer could be on for hours before doing it, or not. I haven't been able to discern a pattern as to when it happens -- it happens most often when I listen to music, but sometimes it will crash when I'm doing nothing at all with it.



Installing the newest drivers from the Tascam Website actually made my system crash more often than the old drivers. The interface also takes 20% of CPU power to run on a Core 2 Quad Laptop, even when I'm doing nothing with it. The Interface actually crashed my PC once while I was writing this review.



Appearantly, this is a problem that existed with the previous model of the US-144 as well. Google it; there are dozens of reports online of people having the same issues as me, and hundreds of reports regarding Tascam's worthless customer support, even here on Amazon. The instruction manual is also littered with typos.



Even when it does output sound, you can't use it in a production environment due to very high latency. If you set the latency to anything other than the highest setting, you will get all kinds of crackling and skipping, even when just listening to music in Winamp or Windows Media Player. It often doesn't get properly recognized in Cubase 5. Recording is nearly impossible.



Support is unhelpful, telling me to disable my anti virus and firewall(not an option due to security concerns, but even when I did do it for an hour, my system crashed again), and outright lying to me, saying that Mac users don't have issues with the Tascam Audio Interface, when even the reviewer above me has problems getting it to work on his Mac.



Bottom line: When the thing works, it outputs some nice, clear sound for the price. Unfortunately it's nearly unusable due to constant crashing, latency issues and worthless support. Stay away until they put out some new drivers, which they have been promising for nearly two years.



Jamal Nichols

 "DON'T BUY IF YOU PLAN TO USE WITH SNOW LEOPARD" 2009-11-30
By Stan G (Vermont, USA)
In September, Tascam "officially" certified all of its audio interfaces for use in Snow Leopard, saying the devices were "fully functional" in the operating system. They lied. Neither the Tascam US-122l nor the Tascam US-122MKII is fully functional in Snow Leopard.



I bought the Tascam US-122l based on Tascam's "certification." I have a mid-2009 iMac (not the brand new version) and am running Snow Leopard. After receiving the interface I downloaded the most up-to-date drivers and firmware. However, the interface was not recognized as a in/out sound device in either Snow Leopard's "system preferences" or its "Audio MIDI Setup." I called Tascam customer support and talked to a very friendly and informative representative who basically told me that there was nothing that I could do about it, and that a driver might (eventually) be released that offers full support. I asked if the US-122MKII was fully functional in Snow Leopard (it had been released right after I bought the US-122l), and he said that on his computer it showed up in both system preferences and audio midi setup. Based on this information, I bought the US-122MKII, only to come across the same exact problem.



IMPORTANT: Both audio interfaces are fully functional in the audio programs I have (Ableton Live, GarageBand, Audacity). If all you want to use the interface for is audio in-out for such programs, you won't have any problems. However, if you want to be able to use the interface as your computer's main soundcard (ie:, to output all sound through the interface) you should not buy either interface for use in Snow Leopard. This ability is a big plus: for example, your iTunes music will likely sound much better coming through an audio interface than straight from your onboard sound card. Additionally, the ability to output all your sound through your interface means that you can keep your speaker cables connected to your interface at all times, without having to switch back to your computer after you've finished recording.



I don't know if there are any audio interfaces out there that are fully functional with Snow Leopard yet, but Tascam's are NOT and the company should not be claiming that they are.


Images Product

Buy Tascam US144MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface Now

Tascam US1641 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface with digital Connection - Macintosh and Windows

Buy Cheap Tascam US1641 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface with digital Connection - Macintosh and Windows

Buy Low Price From Here Now
With sixteen inputs, the TASCAM US-1641 is the ideal choice for musicians to record the whole band to a computer. Eight mic/line inputs plus six line inputs gives you plenty of channels for a large ensemble, drumset, live recording or worship service. It includes Cubase LE4, Steinberg's latest version, for 48 tracks of 96k/24-bit recording power. Using the latest high-speed USB 2.0 technology, the US-1641 packs the interfacing power of a big console into only one rackspace. The eight mic inputs employ TASCAM Pro mic pres for 60 dB of gain and phantom power for studio-quality recordings. Two balanced TRS line inputs on the front panel are switchable to guitar level for direct-in recording of bass or guitar tracks. Four more balanced line inputs and outputs fill out the rear panel, along with MIDI and S/PDIF digital inputs and outputs for a total of 16 ins. A built-in power supply means there's no special wall-wart to lose, and connection to the computer is handled by USB 2.0 technology - 40 times faster than USB 1.1 and 20% more bandwidth than FireWire 400. The US-1641 comes with Cubase LE4, Steinberg's latest version of the 48-track, 96kHz recording workstation, so you'll be ready to cut tracks right away. Also included is TASCAM's Continuous Velocity Piano, a VSTi plug-in for Windows that uses Giga technology for totally authentic grand piano sounds. The US-1641 installs ASIO and Core Audio drivers for Windows XP, Windows Vista 32 and Mac OS X, with simple instructions for hooking up to Logic Pro, Cubase, Nuendo, Digital Performer, SONAR, Reason, Live and nearly all other recording software. For musicians and bands always looking for more inputs, the US-1641 is the ultimate choice. Gather up your mics and head to your TASCAM dealer for more.
Readmore

Technical Details

- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power ^S/PDIF Digital Input & Output^2 analog line inputs (1 switchable to high impedance for use with guitars, basses, etc.) ^1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output^USB 2.0 equipped (also supports USB 1.1)
- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power . S/PDIF Digital Input & Output.
- 2 analog line inputs .1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output USB 2.0 equipped (also supports USB 1.1)
See more technical details

 "Phenominal Interface for drum kit and bass..." 2009-12-21
By Jim Francis (Miami/London/Negril)
I looked at virtually every multiple mic interface on the market and couldn't find anything to touch this in features and/or price... so I bought it.



Wow!This thing rocks! I connected up 8 microphones for Kick, Snare, Hi-hat, Tom 1, Tom 2, Tom 3, Left Overhead and Right Overhead... all those mics plug into the 8 XLR mic sockets at the front of the unit. Got some really great 20ft XLR mic cables from Amazon for only $6.95 each (Whirlwind LowZ Microphone Cable (20 Foot) I then plugged in my bass guitar into one of 2 switchable line/guitar 1/4" mono inputs on the front.



Each of the 10 front panel inputs has a volume control knob and red/green led. The drummer hits each drum individually one by one so I can adjust each vol control so that it just occasionally clips red but mostly stays green.



After adjusting the six individual drum mics I now get the drummer to play the whole set and I adjust the left and right overheads mics so they don't clip (go red). That's it! The mics are setup ready to record.



I took the main output from the back of the unit to my monitors and there's a volume control on the front of the unit to allow you to turn down the monitor while recording... then you turn it up to listen back... so in effect, the unit has it's own monitoring control.



Two headphone jacks would've been nice, but I used a Y-adapter 1/4" Headphone Splitter to split the output allowing me to plug in the two headphones for me and the drummer.



I now setup recording on my laptop (HP TX2500z) using the supplied Cubase LE4 software which is really easy to use - buy yourself the The Complete Idiot's Guide to Recording with Cubase. There's no specific book for version LE4 but this idiot's guide worked great for me.



A note about my notebook - It's a tablet PC laptop HP Pavilion tx2500z 12.1" TOUCH-SCREEN Notebook with a great touch screen - so you can arm/disarm or mute/unmute your record channels/tracks just by touching the screen buttons with your finger - it's just like a real mixing desk with real tactile switches - it's really cool!



You may need to tweak your laptop for audio recording to get the best results otherwise you will hear artifacts (odd noises) when recording if the laptop is struggling to find the necessary processing power. I tweaked my laptop and it was just amazing to see the difference in performance. You can Google "Tweak Vista for audio recording" to find the information on how to tweak.



I also replaced my 5400rpm drive with a 7200rpm drive Seagate 500 GB 7200RPM 2.5" Drive - it's real easy to do... Google "Upgrading laptop hard drive". As well as getting a faster speed drive I also made it a 500GB to replace the 320GB drive that I had - so lot's more space... and very low cost too!



RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!



Well... Let me tell you, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the results obtained with this unit! The Tascam 1641 is an amazing piece of gear and Amazon's price is just out of this World at only $299...



It's like having a whole recording studio in a box - the mic pre's, the mixing desk (vol controls), the signal LED's, the monoring vol control, headphone controls, etc... AND the software - all for $299 - You can't beat that!



The actual sound that I got was totally professional - I couldn't have done better if I was in a top-notch recording studio. I am 100,000% satisfied!



GO FOR IT!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!

 "easy set up" 2009-03-30
By C. Price (ohio)
My son replaced a 2 input Line 6 interface with this. He records his drum set, vocals, guitars.... set up was easy and so far no problems


Images Product

Buy Tascam US1641 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface with digital Connection - Macintosh and Windows Now

Tascam US-144 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface

Buy Cheap Tascam US-144 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface

Buy Low Price From Here Now
The Tascam US-144, their follow-up to the mega popular US-122, delivers everything you'd want in a portable audio-MIDI interface and more. Record two tracks at a time with zero latency; whether you have a PC or a Mac, your song ideas go down in real time, real easy. Its size means you can take it anywhere you take your laptop, yet it's packed with features that make buying it an audio no-brainer. MIDI input and output, high quality mic inputs, 96kHz/24-bit recording (better than CD quality)-all the stuff you'd want without the fluff you wouldn't. The US-144: the answer to your recording needs.
Readmore

Technical Details

- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power ^S/PDIF Digital Input & Output^2 analog line inputs (1 switchable to high impedance for use with guitars, basses, etc.)^1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output^USB 2.0 equipped (also supports USB 1.1)
- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power. S/PDIF Digital Input & Output. 2 analog line inputs .1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output. USB 2.0 equipped.
- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power S/PDIF Digital Input & Output.2 analog line inputs .1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output.USB 2.0 equipped
- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power S/PDIF Digital Input & Output2 analog line inputs (1 switchable to high impedance for use with guitars, basses.)
- 1 MIDI input, 1 MIDI output USB 2.0 equipped (also supports USB 1.1)
See more technical details

 "Good sound quality, bad drivers, horrible support, constant crashing, stay away." 2010-01-10
By J. Nichols
The sound quality is very good. However, the interface crashes at random intervals throughout the day. On a fresh install of Windows XP SP3, I frequently got the Blue-Screen-of-Death blaming tascusb2.sys. There was no warning. Computer could be on for hours before doing it, or not. I haven't been able to discern a pattern as to when it happens -- it happens most often when I listen to music, but sometimes it will crash when I'm doing nothing at all with it.



Installing the newest drivers from the Tascam Website actually made my system crash more often than the old drivers. The interface also takes 20% of CPU power to run on a Core 2 Quad Laptop, even when I'm doing nothing with it. The Interface actually crashed my PC once while I was writing this review.



Google it; there are dozens of reports online of people having the same issues as me, and hundreds of reports regarding Tascam's worthless customer support, even here on Amazon. The instruction manual is also littered with typos.



Even when it does output sound, you can't use it in a production environment due to very high latency. If you set the latency to anything other than the highest setting, you will get all kinds of crackling and skipping, even when just listening to music in Winamp or Windows Media Player. It often doesn't get properly recognized in Cubase 5. Recording is nearly impossible.



Support is unhelpful, telling me to disable my anti virus and firewall(not an option due to security concerns, but even when I did do it for an hour, my system crashed again), and outright lying to me, saying that Mac users don't have issues with the Tascam Audio Interface, when even the reviewer above me has problems getting it to work on his Mac.



Bottom line: When the thing works, it outputs some nice, clear sound for the price. Unfortunately it's nearly unusable due to constant crashing, latency issues and worthless support. Stay away until they put out some new drivers, which they have been promising for nearly two years.

 "Nice device, but Win7/64bit drivers don't work" 2010-01-04
By J. Beck (Seattle, WA USA)
As far as home studio recording, this little device is really nice: 24 bit stereo audio with MIDI, and USB 2.0 speed. The phantom power works great on condenser mics, and runs off CPU/USB power. Tascam has made great products all the way back to my 4-track cassette dubbing days, and this device is great in all those same ways.



The problem comes with drivers. I've verified that the stock (v2.0) drivers work fine in Snow Leopard on the Mac, they DO NOT work on Win7 64-bit. They only claim to offer 64-bit Vista drivers (and 32-bit Win7), however if you look around the web you'll find that nobody running a 64-bit windows Vista/7 setup can get the driver to work. Sound comes through, but it's noisy and attenuated. This is a real shame, as I just built a Win7/64bit box that would be much better for digital music than my MacBook. From what I can tell, XP drivers are rock solid.



Anyway, something you should know. Otherwise, this is a great way to start recording/podcasting.

 "Works great with Vista 32-bit and version 2.00 drivers." 2010-01-01
By Brian Carton
My son has been using Sony ACID Home Studio 7 for months, mainly playing around with the built in loops to create his own music. He also plays a little bass guitar, and wanted to create some of his own tracks to integrate with the loops that he downloads. So, I went off on a quest for a USB interface, as our built-in soundcard on our desktop is very low-end.



Let me say, I'm a very technical guy, but I found the search for the right USB interface to be a little challenging. I had read that one needed to be careful about software and hardware compatibility issues. That is indeed a true statement.





I purchased the USB-144 locally, after returning a different product that had just too many little challenges. I spent half the day yesterday toying with the US-144, making sure that I understood it before turning a less-technical kid loose on it. I immediately downloaded the latest drivers and firware from TASCAM's website to install on my laptop, and finally managed to get it all working late New Year's eve. My major stumbling block was not knowing how to drive the included CuBase LE software.



Today, I installed it on my kid's system, but installed an earlier version of the drivers. Reading the release notes, I was dismayed to discover that my kid's system had an incompatible USB chipset (!!! - there's that hardware compatibility issue!# Tried using it anyways, but the sound was crackly throughout. So, once again to [...], downloaded the latest driver #2.0#, without much hope. Loe and behold, the latest drivers do seem to have overcome the compatibility issue with nVidia USB chipsets. Mic'ed vocals sounded fine, and when I plugged in his bass guitar it sounded great!!



Sony ACID was much easier to configure properly to work with this device. Just select it as your input device, create a new track, and select which input to record from. CuBase is much more powerful software, I'm sure - but with that power comes a steeper learning curve. I'll probably use it on my laptop, but for now I think I'll let my kid keep using the software that he already understands.



So, make sure you have the latest drivers and firmware, and prepare to spend some time learning how to set up your inputs and outputs #more complicated than I anticipated).



No matter which device you purchase, make sure that it supports the hardware and operating system that you're running. Go to the manufacturer's website and read the release notes, look for hardware compatibility lists, and search the net for reviews and message boards. Bottom line is that many if not all of these audio interfaces have compatibility issues with certain types of hardware, and a little research ahead of time can save a lot of frustration.



One last thing: I set the US-144 as the default playback and record device under Control Panel, Sounds. It has a much richer sound than the built-in motherboard soundcard, so I'm planning to leave it attached and in use as the sound device on a permanent basis.

 "It works as long as you don't run Vista..." 2009-12-02
By BenzoV
I have two PCs that are less than a year old, both with 7200rpm hard drives and max of 4GB RAM. One is a laptop running Windows Vista, the other is a desktop running Windows XP, both running 32-bit OS with dual core 2ghz intel core 2 duo processors.



I was unable to setup the device on Vista without constant playback lag and popping within windows when monitoring sound via headphone jack on the device.



However, this worked without as much trouble when using the same hardware on Windows XP. However, on Windows XP I still had a slight recording lag which is apparent when multi-track recording. I wasn't looking for a challenge, I wanted an audio interface that just works. This has been a challenge.

 "Near zero latency audio/MIDI interface for less than $150!" 2009-10-07
By Paul A. Roberts (Kansas City, MO)
I picked up one of these at GC about a week ago and I love it. I was looking for a good ASIO audio interface to use with my laptop for performing software synths live on gigs and rehearsals.



I have a duo-core HP running @ 2.0Ghz with 4 G ram and a 7200 rpm drive running XP pro.



I can run synths at the "low" latency setting which is about 5-7 ms and can record audio (without playing synths) on the "lowest latency" setting with 1 ms delay! I can actually have SONAR fold back a reverb plugin to the performer with no noticable lag!



Here's my Pros & Cons...



PROS: Small (about the size of an external hard drive), USB powered, 48v Phantom Power, recessed ports, clean A/D signal and tone, low latency, no knobs to break off or loose, (flat rubber knobs built into casing), 1/4" phone jack, (I am so tired of those crappy little 1/8" jacks. I have some AKG 240 headphones and hate using a stepdown adapter!)



CONS: Only analoge out is L/R RCA & phones, (L/R balanced 1/4" would have been nice), outputs easily create a ground loop if you run them into a PA without using a ground lift DI box then taking the XLR to the board.



One odd propblem on my desktop is that I can't get my Creative Audigy ASIO drivers to let the Tascam take control in SONAR, but that's just a combination of that audio card and software, (I bet if I disabled the Audigy in the Hardware settings it would work, but the Audigy ASIO is fast enough for what I do with it).



I am very happy with this unit so far. I simply put in in my notebook bag with a USB cable, grab my 10 pound Yamaha KX61 controller, and I'm off to rehearsal without a ton of heavy gear.



This is my second Tascam product I've own, (the other is a FW1804 18 channel firewire audio interface I use for multi track remote recording), and I am very happy with them both.


Images Product

Buy Tascam US-144 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface Now