Anyone tried Tascam M-164UF ?

Hi there, my first post. Great forum!

I'm thinking about getting the M-164U and got a couple of naive questions.

1. How are the line inputs for recording a guitar through some digital unit like a POD X3, Boss GT-8 etc. Do they hold their own? I had a Tascam PortaStudio with some decent preamps and getting a nice warm tone (subjective, I know) was not impossible even from digital. Should I think about first going through a tube preamp like the Presonus Channel Studio Channel?

2. Are the LEDs really usable, they just seem so tiny?

Cheers!
:)
 
Re guitar inputs, it should be fine. I run mine via a Digitech RP155 effects processor first, then to a line input on the mixer.

Re LEDs, I simply use them as a quick visual indicator the input is receiving a signal. Its actually quite useful for that... not intended to be a VU meter.
 
MediaMan09 said:
Re guitar inputs, it should be fine. I run mine via a Digitech RP155 effects processor first, then to a line input on the mixer.

Re LEDs, I simply use them as a quick visual indicator the input is receiving a signal. Its actually quite useful for that... not intended to be a VU meter.
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Cool, thanks! How do you like the recording results with the RP155? Leaves you wanting or it nails your tone?
 
DaGuy said:
Cool, thanks! How do you like the recording results with the RP155? Leaves you wanting or it nails your tone?
Click to expand...

I'm still a beginner at this, so for me its perfectly fine ! Perhaps others can give better advice! At the moment, I'm mainly using the mixer more as a control centre for live playback.
 
MediaMan09 said:
I'm still a beginner at this, so for me its perfectly fine ! Perhaps others can give better advice! At the moment, I'm mainly using the mixer more as a control centre for live playback.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we're in the same boat. Thanks for the tips!
 
Hi everyone, new here as I was looking for some info on the Tascam m-164UF, I thought I'd share little (well, actually pretty subtantial) trick for this unit. Got a really good deal on one and thought i'd try it out. I was VERY happy with the clarity and clean sound of this unit, but dissapointed in the latency. Really couldn't handle some of my larger projects. SO- I thought I'd experimemt before i deep sixed it as unusable for my purposes. I decided to run it THROUGH ASIO4all. (free on the net). Set up my DAW to use ASIO4all, then chose the Tascam,(which shows up as a device inside ASIO4all) and was completley amazed at the latency improvement after setting it up this way.Can't tell you WHY technically, but it works. Now it's an integral part of my system and has so far handled everything I've thrown at it. (I've tested it with Cubase, Sequel, Sonar, and Samplitude with the same results. Just thought I'd pass this on. I noticed they are discontinued now,but with this trick they are by far not dead. bob1474
 
Is ASIO4all available for the PC ad the MAC?

I have have had the TASCAM for quite a while... running thru an old iMAC G5 for very small projects using Garage Band 08. No issues to report, but then again, I was only recording a few tracks, ie small projects.
 
I really don't know about MAC, but you could try it (it's a free download) I'm using WinXP on an I7 pc.As I said in my previous post- works wonders for the latency.
 
thanks for sharing Bob1474. I am setting up another PC to use the M-164UF and just installed the Tascam drivers last week. Was getting 6.5ms + 15.3ms as numbers for latency
Will give ASIO4ALL a go over the Xmas break, or if I get some spare time this week
 
bob1474 said:
.As I said in my previous post- works wonders for the latency.
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Which latency are you referring to. I can see where latency would be an issue:
-if there were different delays for different inputs , or
-if there was a notciable delay betwen inputs and outputs when playing live, or
-if you were monitoring as you were recording.

Are to referring to one of the above?

Good article here on the topic.
 
Please see next post.
Johnnymegabyte: if you get a chance to experiment with this, please let me know your results for comparison. thanks
 
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my latency issues are more centered around the "quantity' of audio and MIDI tracks available . Before re-routing through ASIO4all, I could only use the "normal" setting in the Tascam control panel and open 2 audio and about 4 VST tracks before "clipping" (dropouts,etc). Afterwards I was able to use the lower settings in the Tascam control panel and actually add 2 more audio and 8 more MIDI vst's to the mix and still have not "exceeded" the threshhold i experienced before.
Johnymegabyte: if you do get a chance to check this out,please let me know your results foe comparison, thanks
 
I've been using Cubase for quite a while and am currently using Cubase studio 5. I do also have Sonar and Samplitude set up on my system as some friends send me stuff they've done using those DAWs, so my experience with the latency issue on the Tascam is limited to those DAWs as well as Sequel2. I'm using an Intel I7 pc with 32bit win XP.
 
Thanks.

Its a real shame the software has to be so terrible on a Windows platform.

On the Mac, with GarageBand, it reconized my mixer right away, and I could start recording imemdiately. But my mac is old ( IMasG5) hand-me down, and I thought I give it a try on the PC.

With Cubase, Sonar, Repear, its has taken be hours and hours and hours to jsut get to that first step. Mixcaft is a bit better but I still cannot get past step1. No enjoyment whatsover. Defeats teh whole purpose. I cannot afforsd to waste so much time on such unnecessary stupidity.

I was going to my a new PC this week, just for the home studio, but as I cannot even get to first base on the software I have tried, whats the point -- I may need to buy my first mac.
 
Actually the software works quite well on Windows platforms ,( the largest percentage of users are windows based). As mentioned above Cubase, Sequel, Sonar and Samplitude all reside happily on my system. The mixer latency i was refering to was an improvement in performance, and not an install issue. Are you shure your "windows platform" has all the neccesary specs and hardware to handle whatever DAW you wish to install and Windows is a clean install? many times it's not the DAW but other software/hardware issues. (i'm not questioning your ability here, just throwing out some ideas that might help you)
 
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Question on line/mic trim control

For the LINE/MIC trim control on mixer inputs 1-6. I had intuively thought the LINE-MIC knob was much like a LINE-MIC switch, so for the LINE inputs, I set it toward LINE (counterclockwise) ....but I gather it operates as a gain control and should normally be around the centre position.

Per the manual, one sets the Trim such that the channel meter lights to the zero level when a signal in being input is at the loudest level ordinarily expected. The meter lights are bit too tiny for that, but one can guage pretty quickly when the gain is too high and becomes distrorted.

Do you guys typically keep at centre for line inputs ( eg guitar effects) ?
 
MediaMan09 said:
For the LINE/MIC trim control on mixer inputs 1-6. I had intuively thought the LINE-MIC knob was much like a LINE-MIC switch, so for the LINE inputs, I set it toward LINE (counterclockwise) ....but I gather it operates as a gain control and should normally be around the centre position.

Per the manual, one sets the Trim such that the channel meter lights to the zero level when a signal in being input is at the loudest level ordinarily expected. The meter lights are bit too tiny for that, but one can guage pretty quickly when the gain is too high and becomes distrorted.

Do you guys typically keep at centre for line inputs ( eg guitar effects) ?
Click to expand...
I have an ART Tube MP and I have the control set to the far left "Line", and of course, use all the knobs off the Tube MP
But for my Zoom G7 guitar processor, they are straight up / middle, otherwise at Line, the volume is too week / thin
I have my Roland synth plugged into 9/10, which are Line level, and I feel there isn't enough volume. Do synths need to go through a pre-amp ?
 
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