Tascam US-122 (not so good)

[Songstar]

I bought a Tascam US-122 today and I thought this was gonna be the answer to all my problems.....before that I was plugging my mic straight into the back of my soundcard but people told me I need a preamp ....so I rushed out and bought the tascam but when I got it home and tried to record my vocals with it I got a weak signal.....not much volume through my headphones and I had to record with a dry voice ....no reverb whatsoever.....Im so disappointed that Im thinking of taking this back to the shop 1st thing tomorrow......unless you people can advise me differently

Im quite a newbie to home recording so plz be gentle

[manning1]

heres my best advice for you do with it what you will.
i always wait for new devices to settle down before i buy them.
also stay away from usb devices.i'm a puter engineer and i dont like usb.
also too many folks are having problems.
if you have a nice recent computer heres my advice...
yamaha mg mixer for mics feeding a delta sound card.
if you need multitrack recording software check out what i use
for ese of use. powertyracks from pgmusic.com.
if you think i'm lying talk to users on the pg forums.
a cheaper solution if you only need to record one source at a time would be a behringer mic 100 preamp for 40 bucks plus the delta sound card.
i know some folks here dont like behringer but ive had quite some positive feedback from some folks on this preamp for the money.
its not a million dollar preamp/console , but it get you started.

make sure you get a pci sound card though.
peace and good luck.
ps it would help to list your pc configuration.

[manning1]

by the way - a caveat. my post assumes you are using a amd or intel pc.
not a mac. please post more details.

[Songstar]

My PC config is

512mb ram
Intel Pentium4 2.4ghz
80GB hard drive
Soundblaster Live 5.1 soundcard pci

I really just want to record vocals and some acoustic guitar.....I asked the guy for a preamp and he gave me the tascam

I want to run through my soundcard .....I did have my doubts about the USB....I don't like the idea of having to disable my soundcard

also I am using a dynamic mic

[manning1]

songstar. here are my comments.
1. you have a powerfull pc. make sure you have dma enabled on your
hard drive. audio needs it. you should be able to do 40 tracks easy.
2. the live is ok for now but not great convertors in a lot of folks opinion.
but ok for now. you might consider better once you get going more.
eg lots of folks are happy with deltas for the price.
3. i would just try that cheap mic 100 i mentioned with the dynamic.
line out into LINE IN of live. you will need a mini jack convertor plug for the live line in. NOT MIC IN.
also NOTE - make sure line in is enabled in the windows VOLUME APPLET.
4. in powertracks for vocals hers what i do. record a vocal track. then i duplicate it. and powertracks comes with all sorts of built in effects like reverb, echo etc. i add echo in slight amount to the duplicate track then mix it in with the dry track. just try the demo.
in summary it seems all you need is that cheap behr preamp to get you started plus powertracks i suggested and your recording.
IDEALLY if you get serious about the daw you might consider a second
fast hard drive. and record your tracks on it while keeping win on the first.
this is the way i record.
total cost - mic pre plus powertracks , about 100 bucks.
if you anticipate needing to record many channels at the same time in future
consider a yamaha mg mixer and a delta sound card.
if you want DIRT CHEAP , you could plug the dynamic into an old cassette
deck mic in (dynamic will need a xlr to qtr inch jack convertor) then cass dek line out to line in of live.
for acoustic guitar i would consider at some point a higher quality condenser mic. but this needs something like the mic100 or a mixer with 48volt phantom power. there are lots of condensors. a lot of folks favor CAD gxl
LDC for acoustic . its a 50 buck mic.
just some ideas to help you.

[Songstar]

Thanks mate for all your help....very in depth ....thankyou

[RD423]

USB Devices are not that bad I have had my tascam 428 since April and I love it. I haven't had a single problem with it and I am running it on a compaq presario
P 3
933mhz
80gb hard drive

my computer is obsolete just about now and it works fine on it. There must be another program on your computer that is causing conflicts with it.

[apl]

Hey, Songstar.

I used a US122 to record the song in my signature line. I have no complaints.

What kind of mic are you using? If it has a 1/4" plug instead of XLR it will not be going through the mic preamp, and you'll get a low signal. If you are plugged in to the XLR, you can adjust the level with the knob labeled INPUT R or INPUT L. Also, the switch by the knob needs to be set to MIC/LINE.

Hope this helps...

[peglegjohnny]

apl,
have you ever had any problems with the audio briefly dropping out while using the US122. it seems to work great otherwise, but will often drop in and out for a second or two repeatedly, and then be fine for a while.

[apl]

Hey, peg.

Only when I have other things going on in the PC. The other day I had Cubasis open and playing the recording, and opened a Word document with the lyrics, and there was some dropping out while it loaded. That would be a bottleneck more in the PC than in the US122, though.

Have you got background processes running?

[peglegjohnny]

umm, yeah. now that i look, i've got more background stuff going on than you can shake a stick at (i don't know what any of em are, either). i'll fix that and see if it works, thanks