These are on sale again at Musician's Friend for $99, in case you missed out last time. I think 5 or 6 folks here at PG bought them back in October when they were priced that way for a day.
I'm impressed and not so impressed - but it might be useful to collect impressions in one place since there are likely more that are interested in the price/performance ratio of this interface and on the fence about buying.
Here's my take on using it so far:
I've had a couple go arounds with both audio and midi tracking/mixing with this device.
Pros:
1. The mic preamps seem pretty danged clean. Much cleaner than I expected for $99. I would say they are better than on my PreSonus FireBox. Unfortunately I can't do a shoot-out between the devices. Don't expect loads of gain with dynamic mics. I have an ElectroVoice PL80a (designed for stage use, unidirectional, etc.) and have to crank the pre-amp input knob to 100% for close-mic'ing a classical guitar. I know, not an ideal mic for the situation, but I 'run what I brung'. Still a nice clean signal but I would have liked perhaps another 5-10 dB of gain.
2. While connected to the computer, the device can function like a mixer, don't need your DAW software open to set mic levels.
3. It is 6 mic or line inputs, with phantom power, for $99 - almost unheard of.
Cons:
1. You MUST wait until your PC is completely booted, before powering up the unit - otherwise Win 7 will not see the device.
2. You MUST reset the latency on the unit's GUI each and every time you use it - hassle.
3. I was at the middle of a 3 hour recording marathon (that's a marathon for me, don't have the kind of time I used to for this stuff) and Win 7 decides that it no longer recognizes the device - right in the middle of a tracking session. Crackles, then just plain stoppage of the DAW software. Had to exit all the way out of DAW software then reboot Win7, turn on the unit, reset latency to my desired setting, etc.
4. TASCAM customer support takes over a day to reply to inquiries. The unoffical but only existing tascam message board/forum is a pay-for service - can you believe that? It's a small fee, but still, you would think Tascam could host something like this without charging customers. They choose not to host any user-contributed help and allow an outside entity to do this.
So, I was using mine for audio only and was having no problems, in fact enjoying it better than my M-Audio FastTrack Pro (more ports); however, when I finally got around to hooking up my MIDI keyboard to it, I couldn't get a thing to come through. And there's no indicator on the unit to indicate if MIDI is going through. It drove me crazy. I swapped out and tried the M-Audio, and everything worked like it was supposed to, so I don't know if there's a problem with the MIDI ports on the Tascam or if I'm just doing something wrong (which it shouldn't be, because I've already made my mistake for today earlier
).
I'll play with it some more this weekend and see if I can figure it out.
I use mine strickly for audio in and out. I still have my M-Audio PCI card installed, and run midi thru that device. The tracks i have done were stellar. Clean and clear. I am still using XP though and that seems to make the difference.
I could not be happier with it so far, especially for $99
John,
Similar story here for awhile. I have had to unplug the power then re-power, and then both the audio and midi sides of the device become apparent to Windows. Not a sure thing upon first power on. I also have it on a power strip to function as a power switch.
The DAW I'm running is a 32 bit app, in Win7 64 environ, and one other thing I've found that for the DAW software to reliably see the interface I have to run the DAW app as administrator.
BTW - I put a request in with TASCAM today to provide more workable Win7 drivers, without the need to power on after, reset latency each time on power on, etc.
We'll see if I get a canned response from them or if they are really trying on this one.
-Scott
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So, I was using mine for audio only and was having no problems, in fact enjoying it better than my M-Audio FastTrack Pro (more ports); however, when I finally got around to hooking up my MIDI keyboard to it, I couldn't get a thing to come through. And there's no indicator on the unit to indicate if MIDI is going through. It drove me crazy. I swapped out and tried the M-Audio, and everything worked like it was supposed to, so I don't know if there's a problem with the MIDI ports on the Tascam or if I'm just doing something wrong (which it shouldn't be, because I've already made my mistake for today earlier ).
I'll play with it some more this weekend and see if I can figure it out.
This *may* be an issue where the MIDI driver for the M-Audio and the one for the TASCAM are using the same code and that results in a catfight. Have seen this with a few other devices, such as E-MU 1616M and the little USB Uno and Duo MIDI USB, I had to uninstall the Uno/Duo driver software and reboot in order to get the E-MU's two MIDI ports to be recognized and work. Note that the physical hardware did not have to be attached to prevent the E-MU MIDI, something in the drivers was enough to stop that show.
--Mac
Thanks Mac, that will give me something to take a look at when troubleshooting. It's a shame if it is, because the computer is a laptop, and it would be nice to be able to select either the Tascam or the M-Audio depending upon what I need to do.
Came upon this guys comments. Wonder if they make sense to you folks could hlep better understand this unit an its drivers.
"..Within a day of plugging in the interface, I began having memory usage issues. Task Manager was reporting 3.8gb in use, even with just about every non-essential process killed. I'd try opening something that put me over the 4 gb limit and virtual memory would kick in, rendering my computer so slow as to be unusable; the only way to free resources was to restart. This happened day after day, to a computer that was previously reliable enough that I wouldn't reboot it for weeks at a time.
After a lot of googling, diagnostic programs, and trial and error, I figured out the problem: any non-asio audio played through the 800 would never leave memory (I had the 800 set as the default playback device in the Sound control panel). Every mp3, flash video, dvd, and game would leave their audio buffer in system memory even after closing the program. I confirmed this by setting up Foobar to use asio while Windows Media Player would use Windows' audio; every mp3 I played in Foobar would disappear from RAM after it was done playing, while Windows Media Player grew more and more bloated with every song, and wouldn't relinquish hundreds of megabytes after I closed it. This was also the case with VLC Player being used for flash video and dvds, Firefox and Chrome, and every game I tested. Same result when using Ableton Live vs any non-asio program.
There is a workaround if you have an S/PDIF output on your computer; just set your digital out as the default playback device in the control panel (I disabled the 800 just to be sure) and connect it back to the 800. I've confirmed that this solved the problem, and asio works perfectly alongside ordinary audio this way. Unfortunately many laptops don't have a digital out."
@jazzmandan - VERY interesting. Where was this originally posted?
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@jazzmandan - VERY interesting. Where was this originally posted?
Every time this topic comes up the hardware stuff calls to me. HOwever, I need this like a hole in the head.
This was the first User Comments over in Amazon for this product. Also discussed a bit over in Musicians Friend where it is discribed as memory leak. Unfortuately, the biggiest complient is generally "DRIVERS". I don't need the new challenges (...at this time 
)
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Thanks Mac, that will give me something to take a look at when troubleshooting. It's a shame if it is, because the computer is a laptop, and it would be nice to be able to select either the Tascam or the M-Audio depending upon what I need to do.
Same here, the old tried and true XP SP3 laptop gets a lot of use here.
I solved the problem on the cheap, picked up one of those Class Compliant MIDI USB jobbies and lo and behold, that takes the place of the old MIDISPORT stuff very nicely, no installation of separate drivers, uses the OS built in drivers, is instantly recognized and best of all, works and plays well with that !#$% E-MU 1616M software still installed. You can find the Class Compliant stuff for very low prioes with careful shopping, pgmusic sells one as well. Can't testify as to how they work with newer OSs at this point in time, though.
Happy Troubleshooting,
--Mac
Well, my US-800 is giving me grief again. Crap drivers for Win7, plain and simple. I will be using the device for 10 minutes and then 'poof' it disappears from existence.
I borrowed a venerable EMU 0404 USB from work, with Beta drivers, installed, ran into zero issues.
What is so frustrating is that this thing works flawlessly sometimes and the preamps seem very clean compared to other devices I've used. I don't know what it is, but I sure wish TASCAM cared enough about this product to actually service it with a usable driver.
-Scott
Also, this thing seems to have disappeared from Musician's Friend and Sweetwater, while the other units in the lineup are still available. I wonder if it's just a turd product? I will push to see if I can get something else sent to me that might actually work reliably.
Scott,
Had the M-Audio Fast Track Pro for awhile but seemed a bit quirky to me, so I switched.
I've been using the TASCAM US-144mkII for a few months now, and is stable as a rock so far. ASIO drivers... can have BIAB, RealBand both open and using ASIO, Windows Media Player etc.... all open and behaving very nicely together and on Win 7 64bit. Sorry to hear about the 800 not being as nice.
Scott i assume you have the newest win 7 drivers, so i am stumped. My US 800 is great, however i am still in XP. Hmmm! i will admit i do not use it much anymore, since i hate having to turn in off separately from the rest of the system. i have everything on a power strip. So unless someone is coming over to record i just use my old M-Audio 24/96 card most of the time.
If it were me, I would sell the thing on Craig's list and buy something else. Musician's friend still offers it as a package deal with monitors, and a mike. I know it is still around. Do you really need more than a stereo input? Do you record with other people? If not then get a solid card and move on. I only bought the thing because of the $99 deal. I would not trust it for playback live. Hence the reason i keep the old PCI card involved.
Scott have you tried to use the VistaSound drivers to make it work?
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Scott have you tried to use the VistaSound drivers to make it work?
There are no separate drivers for XP/Vista/W7 all the same package.
So last night I removed the drivers and tried the version 1.0.4 driver package. Seemed to work fine except that there is a memory leak that is talked about on the forums. I ran a small test to see if this was true: Checked memory usage at the beginning of a streaming audio session; 1.36 GB of total 4 GB of RAM used. Let the streaming go for perhaps 20 minutes or so, 2.1 GB used. Interesting. Let it go another 10 minutes or so and I was up to 2.8 GB. Stopped the experiment. Uninstalled v 1.0.4 and installed v 1.0.8 and ran experiment again - this time, no apparent memory leak. Tried using it with my DAW software and actually got a solid 45 minutes or so without issue. Started a new recording project. Previous project was audio only so I hadn't enabled the midi in on the unit. Turned on midi in for the US-800 and immediately got the Windows 'One of the USB devices connected to this computer has malfunctioned, etc. etc.'
Exit DAW, power off US-800, power on US-800, reset latency to something usable, power on DAW, enable midi in, and then got another 45 minutes or so of non issue low latency joy. Then time for bed!
When it works, it's a great interface. However, I don't have time to go through such headaches every time I record. I'm hoping it's in a 'stable' mindset now. If not, it's going up for sale.
-Scott
Does anybody know if there would be any consumer protection branch of the government that could be leaned on to get action out of Tascam for a replacement product? I know in the automobile industry, there's the lemon law and lots of government protection of consumers so that what the automakers say is the capability and function of the product is actually true.
When i say Vista sound set, i mean windows drivers, not Tascam ASIO. On some DAW softwares the Win 7 drivers are shakey, but the WDM or as Vista, and win 7 call then Vistasound drivers work better.
On my system with RB i can use ASIO, but it take far more CPU, that WDM for the same work.
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When i say Vista sound set, i mean windows drivers, not Tascam ASIO. On some DAW softwares the Win 7 drivers are shakey, but the WDM or as Vista, and win 7 call then Vistasound drivers work better.
On my system with RB i can use ASIO, but it take far more CPU, that WDM for the same work.
WDM drivers don't show up in the available choices in the DAW software. I thought I might try wrapping with ASIO4ALL, but I haven't tried that yet. Experiment for tonight. I do have ASIO4ALL working with a different device on this machine.
-Scott