Line outs on Tascam US-16x08

M

Musuby

New member
Hi,
I'm deciding on wich interface to buy, and I narrowed my choices down to the Tascam US-16x08, atleast, I think so.
So I have a question about the line outs on it:
I had the idea that when I have a band jamming on that they would each plug a set of headphones into these line outputs so that they can hear themselves play, and a click track or drum beat.
I did some tests in my DAW, FL studio 11, and I found a way to route this, but I came across outputs that were paired.
I mean it wasn't 2 mono outputs but 1 output that would say something like "audio driver output 1-2".
So I know the Tascam has 8 outputs, but are those paired as well? So basically I would want to give each member of the band a separate signal, and we're talking about a band of 5 persons here, So if all those line outputs were mono but paired, that would mean I could only send a separate signal to output 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8, so 4 actual separate signals.
I just need to know if I can have 4 or 8 separate signals.
Thanks in advance,
Musuby.
 
They're probably stereo pairs. You've still got eight independent channels, you'll just have to use panning to pick between 1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc...


Edit to add - you might almost get away with plugging headphones right into those holes. The line outs on my US1641 will drive headphones, but not super loud. Course, since they're balanced outputs, the vacuum created could possibly pull everybody's brains out through their ears... Do you have a headphone amp with separate ins and outs? That would be best.
 
The Tascam headphone out amps (at least the older ones) are really under powered. I would get HP amp with each output having its own volume control. I know it is hard to spend the money, but HP amps aren't really that expensive and it will make it so much easier.
 
The headphone output on my Tascam US800 is plenty loud enough, but I doubt those line-outs are strong enough for decent headphone volume. Since you'd have to adapt each pair to a headphone connection, better to use a headphone amp.
 
Now, I suppose I should preface this with the fact that I personally disapprove of the idea of individual mixes for everybody in the band. It is my firm belief that everybody should listen to the whole mix and pay attention to how they are affecting it. Get a decent overall balance like you'd want it to sound on a recording or at least coming off of a stage, and then when somebody complains they're not loud enough, just turn the whole damn thing up.

But that ain't what you asked, so...

Not just any headphone amp is going to work for this. You need one with an individual input for each headphone channel. Most of these I think override the main inputs altogether, but some work as a "more me" by mixing the individual input in with whatever is coming in on the main. I don't know that it matters which you end up with.

I use this as a monitor controller and headphone distribution in my studio. It's over a decade old, and the switches are little flaky, but it still works alright. It would work for you, but...

The individual inputs are stereo on TRS. If you connect this to your line outputs via TRS>TRS, you'll have that same problem of opposite polarity on each side of your head and all the "WTF is going on?!?" head implosions that can cause. If you connect it via TS>TS you'll only have sound in the left side of the phones. Somehow you'll have to get a bunch of TS>TRS where the T and R are tied together. IDK of any off the shelf solutions for this, though you could probably make it happen with a set of Y-cables and adapters. I'd just make my own. Probably easiest to take a set of TRS>TRS cables, and move the wire from the R to the T on one end, leaving the R disconnected. Mark that end! It's the one that plugs into the interface. The other end goes to the HA.
 
Hi there,
Being late to the party but, hey ashcat_lt, do you think Thomann's "the sssnake YPP2010" will work for getting 2 Balanced Lineouts on Tascam 1608 and use in the Direct In of one 8 channels on HA8000?


Thanks a lot in advance.
 
Well, yeah. If you really need stereo, that’ll work. It’s not a balanced connection, but that’s not a huge deal in this situation. If you need 5 feeds and have 8 outs, you can’t afford to do stereo on all of them, though. For a mono connection, you can just use any TS>TS cable and push the mono button on the front of the HA.
 
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