Tascam US1800 deal

The instructions on my US 1200 do say not to use any other USB with it. Also, I found, that you have to use it on the same USB port that you first installed it on. I have found that these devices can be a bit finicky; install drivers before plugging unit into USB port; use mixing software and leave it open while using interface are a few things I've come by the hard way.
 
I did get the US 1200 with the "stupid deal of the day".
After returning a PRESONUS VSL 44, because of latency issues, I had no expectations of this thing actually working out for me. I thought I'd give it a go. Read install instructions, which state not to use other USB ports with it (other than mouse and keyboard), and install of the US1200 drivers prior to attaching the unit with USB to computer. Through trial and error with these I disable the wireless, Bluetooth, etc...
It installed perfectly on my MacBook Pro. Went into the system settings for the MacBook and selected the US 1200, did the same in Reaper preferences. Recorded guitar, vocal without any problems. Went back and added Bass and Harmonies, still no problems and best of all NO LATENCY. The unit is a bit dated but IT WORKS FLAWLESSLY. Thought I'd try the iPad with it, no luck there.
The U.S. 1200 is a very simple, effective, 6 channel DAW. I had seen a user having issues with drivers and cutting off and on. I was very skeptical that this would work but, it does. The sound isn't as crisp, clean as the PRESONUS, it has a slightly warmer sound. The sound is cleaner than my Stand alone/DAW, Zoom R-16. The U.S.-1200 is a nice compromise between the warm sounds of the Zoom and the Crisp sounds of the PRESONUS. I LOVE my Zoom R-16. It has been a true work horse, Swiss army knife for my projects. The USB works well, no latency. I've owned the H4, H4n, and use the Q4 video camera. I've always loved my Zoom products and will always choose them when available, at similar prices.
 
Yeah, def not a USB issue. tried several things to eliminate that as a possibility.

Update - I did a repair install of windows and pulled one of my two sticks of memory. So far so good after a solid day of recording.

* haha no sooner I posted this I went back into the DAW after a dinner break and Sonar reported the Tascam had gone offline, but still proceeded to work fine without having to perform a power cycle on/off.
 
Pinky said:
Update - I did a repair install of windows and pulled one of my two sticks of memory. So far so good after a solid day of recording.

* haha no sooner I posted this I went back into the DAW after a dinner break and Sonar reported the Tascam had gone offline, but still proceeded to work fine without having to perform a power cycle on/off.
Click to expand...

I'm into record territory now without issue. Solid for two days, with probably 14 hours of actual recording time. Seeing that I had a random BSOD after the repair windows install, and nothing since removing the second stick of memory, it appears I have either a bad stick or my motherboard has issues handling two 8GB dimms. [the memory passed windows memory diagnostic, but that's hardly a definitive test]
 
Cool Deal!

I was recording Sunday, computer went into Sleep mode (I've not tweaked my laptop), Reaper wouldn't play, turned it off and back on and away she went.
 
DM60 said:
Cool Deal!

I was recording Sunday, computer went into Sleep mode (I've not tweaked my laptop), Reaper wouldn't play, turned it off and back on and away she went.
Click to expand...

Last night and again this morning I had the usual delay issue, power cycling resolved it. So far no BSOD and generally solid performance, if I can ignore having to power cycle it from time to time.

David, what latency settings do you use? Not sure if normal will suffice, and have it at lowest.
 
This power cycle issue I keep reading about is slowly swaying me to the 16x08.. It's too bad I have no idea if it will have the same problems! :D
 
Pinky said:
Last night and again this morning I had the usual delay issue, power cycling resolved it. So far no BSOD and generally solid performance, if I can ignore having to power cycle it from time to time.

David, what latency settings do you use? Not sure if normal will suffice, and have it at lowest.
Click to expand...

I use normal and while there is delay, it has not caused an issue with me. As get more use to recording, delay seems to play less of an issue.

When I was recording live, I did not monitor and left it at default. I didn't even look as I was more focused on levels and capture.

---------- Update ----------

arcaxis said:
USB power may go dead during sleep mode on some machines and maybe the interface doesn't re-establish communications when brought out of sleep for this reason. This can sometimes be changed in the BIOS or also look at the Power Management for the USB devices. Go into Device Manager, navigate down to Universal Serial Bus controllers. On each USB Root Hub item, right-click and choose Properties.


View attachment 90744
Click to expand...

^^^^This is the big one for USB devices^^^^^^
 
DM60 said:
I use normal and while there is delay, it has not caused an issue with me. As get more use to recording, delay seems to play less of an issue.
Click to expand...

Normal is fine until I attach some plugins, then the latency kicks in. I've narrowed it down to a couple plugins being more system intensive than others, so I can avoid using them or freeze that track when recording to reduce latency.

Mark, good advice about usb power management (which had been previously discussed and of no use correcting issues here).
 
Just another update now that some time has passed and it's seen more use... the issues with the US-1800 are intermittent. My previously diagnosed as unrelated random blue screens have vanished with new memory, so even though those sticks checked out there was obviously some type of issue there as well. Decided I'm sticking with the 1800, not enough bugs to justify spending more on another interface. If they were more frequent I'd just send it back and move on to something else. My symptoms match other complaints on the web, so I'm not too worried about there being an actual issue. For $200 I got what I paid for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top