Help with Tascam US-122

robotica

New member
I finally decided on the US-122, but I'm having a slight problem. I'm trying to record with Cubase, but unless I have direct monitoring on, I get no sound in my headphones. I've been through the manual several times and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Is this normal? Do I have to do something else to monitor the recording rather than the direct monitor? I've had it all of a few hours and I'm already frustrated.
 
The direct monitor output is connected directly to the input. This bypasses the signal running into the computer and the latency associated with that process. Any tracks you've previously recorded will play through the output and you shouldn't have any problem. I use this method all the time with Adobe Audtition (CEP) and it works fine.

--Michael
 
Here's what's happening for me. I have my headphones plugged in, and my mic. I'm getting levels in Cubasis and on the tascam, but I can't hear anything unless I switch to direct monitoring. Maybe this is where I'm being dumb. Do I need to hook the headphones up somewhere else to hear what's coming from Cubasis? I assumed with the tascam all you needed was the usb hookup and some headphones. Or is there something I'm doing wrong in Cubasis?
 
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just trying to get this straight...What situation do you have?

1
say you are recording your guitar: as you are playing you will not hear anything in the phones unless you have some sort of direct monitoring on: either physically turned on (on the us-122) or though the cubase software. OR...
2
Once you have your material recorded and you want to play it back, you hear nothing.

If you have situation 2, you may not have your us-122 set up to receive your computer's audio out signal. For example, on my laptop i have its internal sound card (yamaha) and the us-122 sound card. if you have windows XP, go into control panels and go into sounds and multimedia. IN there there are dop down menues to select what sound card you want to use. Select your us-122 as your output device as well. make sure all volumes are up somewhat and give it a try.
 
I have a variation on situation 2. Here's how I've got it set up:
us-122 hooked up, headphones plugged in, and guitar hooked up to the left input. Nothing else connected. I can record and playback in Cubasis, but I can only hear it if I have direct monitor turned on on the us-122. If I turn that off I hear nothing. My concern is if I want to add effects with the software, I have no way of hearing it. I'm 99.9% sure I'm doing something wrong. Can somebody tell me what it is?
 
ok
well say, for example, you open a song in window's media player, any song. Can you hear that though the headphones?
 
yup
like i said before, if you can't hear anything but your direct monitored instrument then you hanv't selected the us-122 as your ouput device. that is most likely the problem. one mor thing is that you will probably have to select this in one of cubase's menus as well so browse around in there.
 
Okay, I can play songs in Itunes and hear them through my soundcard with headphones. The Cubasis manual says something about using the mixer software that comes with the card to get audio output. Am I supposed to be running gigastudio at the same time to hear playback? Obviously the tascam is working fine, so I must be missing a step somewhere. I've read the whole Cubasis manual and have been through every menu in the program.

Update: I can hear the playback of what I've recorded now. I don't know what I did but I can do it. However, I still can't hear what I'm recording unless I'm in direct monitor. Is that normal?
 
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yes that is normal. usually when you are recording say vocals or an acoustic gutiar, you can hear them, acoustically, without any sort of monitoring. you can then edit your sound on playback. if however you are recording an electric guitar direct (without mics) then you would want to turn the direct monitoring on on the tascam to hear something so you had your bearings.

You were saying something about wanting to hear the effects you applied to a track while you were recording? well you would have to turn on monitoring within the software itself. this is a different monitoring than the tascam's. The major problem with this, though, is that there can be huge latency issues if you do not have a fast computer or good drivers. I was getting like half a second latency which is awful so i did not go that route.
 
So it is possible to monitor what I'm recording from the soundcard, but it's done through Cubasis? I can't seem to find where to turn that on. I just don't get how I can listen to playback through it, but not what I'm recording. Mainly I wanted to run some reverb on the vocals while I'm recording. Even if I can't figure it out, it's making a lot more sense now and I really appreciate the help. This has saved me a lot of headaches.
 
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