Tascam US-1641 - Windows Input Limitation?

N

nyrhky94

New member
Hello All:

Brand new here and looking for some technical help from other Tascam owners. This is actually a Windows OS question when you are "NOT" using any DAW software application. While the question is Windows based, I was still hoping that this forum might be a good start for me given that I have a Tascam interface (model US-1641). If not, then the MODS can move this question to another forum accordingly. Hope this is OK.

QUESTION: When connecting the Tascam US-1641 to a Windows PC (either XP or Win7) via the USB 2.0 cable (with no DAW application), Windows sound properties only recognizes a maximum of 1 input & 1 output for the Tascam. The unit has 16 in and 4 out, however no more than 1 will ever show in Windows sound for playback and recording. The appropriate XP and/or Win7 drivers from Tascam have already been installed and Device Manager shows the US-1641 properly installed. I need to know if this is a hard & fast limitation of Windows, or whether there is any way to get the other Tascam inputs to show up in Windows sound properties natively? Without using a DAW application....

Thanks very much in advance for any help or guidance the group her can offer.

Best Regards
 
I believe Windows is your limitation. You would need a DAW to select the other inputs.

Curious, why would you want multiple inputs/outputs, without a recording program?
 
Thanks for the quick reply Jimmy! I was assuming I might be hitting a native Windows limitation, but was hoping for a possible work around. While it may seem odd to use the Tascam without DAW, the plan was to replace all of my internal PCI sound cards and use it to "stream radio" via the multiple inputs on the external Tascam. I have been communicating with another Tascam owner (FW-1841) who claims he is doing just that without a DAW. I had asumed that Firewire vs. USB 2.0 wouldn't make any difference for my intended use? The other thing that threw me for a loop is that my Delta M-Audio 1010LT can do excatly what I'm looking. All 4 Ins/Outs show up in Windows sound without any DAW.

Thanks again for the quick reply. Still hoping that somebody here may have some magiical solution for me...
 
Just wondering if anybody else might have a suggestion or workaround that I could try? Or confiration that it is technically not possible.....

Thanks again
 
I know this thread is old, but I was actually looking for it today, so I can give at least one reason:

Right now (well later tonight...) I'm using Wirecast to do live streams to Youtube. The actual audio is coming from a live Reaper session on my studio machine, but I can't host Wirecast itself on that machine for a number of reasons:

1) The Wirecast client requires Windows 7 or better, the studio machine is XP
B) When Wirecast is running it hammers the CPU, and Reaper kinda needs that horsepower
III) I have a rule that the studio machine never connects directly to the internet

So, I'm using my live laptop as the streaming server, and I'm sure as fuck not going to just plug into the mic input! It's already connected to the US1641, so why not use that? Ideally I could patch S/PDIF between the two and avoid a D>A>D conversion step. Failing that, I could plug balanced cables from the studio "interface" to one of the Tascam's line inputs.

But no. Wirecast only sees the inputs that Windows exposes, and all it get is Microphone 1 and 2 for Left and Right. No other options. So I end up patching from the line outs on my studio machine to the Mic inputs on the Tascam, and I don't actually have those cables... I've been using a passive DI, which works, but I've hacked that into a pseudo-balancing box (bypassing the transformer and its attenuation) which works better, but it still feels kinda half-assed...

This situation is going to change very soon because I'm replacing the laptop in my live rack with a more powerful desktop machine, and I will be connecting the Tascam to that machine. The laptop will then be more or less dedicated as the streaming server. So now I need to find a way to get the audio from either the studio or live rig into the laptop. A decent 2 channel balanced interface would work fine (as long as it comes up as a device in Windows!) but I'm actually hoping to find a network based solution. It's already going to connect to the live machine either via wifi or ethernet, and I might could do the same with the studio machine. Haven't quite looked to far into what I would need to make this work. Reaper has network collaboration stuff built in, but how to get all the pieces to fall together without crashing everything...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top