Tascam US-1800 DROP OUTS/PROBLEMS!

Hey everyone I just joined this forum and I'm having some technical difficulties with the 1800. I'll briefly explain what i'm experiencing. Just recently the US-1800 has frequently been dropping out or hiccuping sporadically for the duration of 1-3 seconds when playing back only 4 tracks of audio. I use a Dell Inspiron laptop with Win 7 64-bit, 1st Gen Intel i5 460m @ 2.53 Ghz, 6gb of ram, 500gb hard drive, and I use Cubase LE5. When I use Cubase I disable my wifi adapters, firewall/antivirus, and unneeded graphics. I called Tascam support yesterday and talked to a tech who right off the bat told me my computer(Dells) are not very good. Then he said I could try updating Cubase and using an external, powered usb hub to connect the Tascam. I tried all of this today with still no luck. I've also monitored my computer with the DPC latency checker and have concluded that it is not a latency problem because when the audio drops out there is no rise in latency. I'm guessing that there may be a problem with the unit itself or just not compatible with my cpu. What do you think? I would really appreciate your input. Thanks


p.s. This problem also persists when playing mp3's on windows media player but to a lesser extent
 
No, there are only 3 USB 2.0 ports and 1 eSATA port. Some additional information that may be useful; when the audio drops out during playback, I noticed the output meter on Cubase corresonds to it. The meter shows that audio is not being sent through the main outputs for the duration of the drop out. Hope this helps narrow the problem.
 
Not sure how I missed that you have a laptop. It has been a crazy week. :eek: My experience is mostly with desktops.

If the master outputs are not showing signal, then it would seem that your processor is not keeping up, or drive speed possibly. Does the sound tend to 'fizzle' out, or cut out immediately? Have you increased your buffer size (latency in the Tascam Control Panel)? Another problem could be Auto Save in Cubase, but the default is every 5 min, and I'm not even sure LE5 does that.
 
How long have you been using this setup? If you've been using it for say 1 month or more with no problems, and you disable all apps not needed, and you have not recently installed conflicting drivers,,,,,did you do a virus scan? and I'm assuming all of your software is legit....if not that could cause problems.......If all that stuff is good, I'd say swap out the 1800.

I use a lap top with no problems. I don't use Cube, but Sonar with few problems. The only time I get drop outs is when I'm using to many plug ins. and never when I'm playing back mp3's.

It's the playing back of mp3's that makes me think either virus or the 1800.
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys. During playback the the audio always cuts out immediately. I tried switching the buffer size on the Tascam control up all the way to highest latency but had the same exact problem. I have been using this setup for almost a year, and have been doing more serious multi tracking within the last 4-5 months. Since I first got the Tascam(my first interface) it has always dropped out a little here and there but has become more frequent and consistent over the last 2 weeks. It actually started like this when I tried Reaper for the first time. I recorded 5 audio tracks simultaneously and noticed it dropping out all over the place when playing it back. So I immediately went back to Cubase and noticed it was still doing it but a bit less. This happens even on old Cubase projects which at one time played back perfectly fine. I have no viruses that I know of (scanning now) and everything is up to date. If any program or virus was conflicting with my cpu or my processor was being overworked, wouldn't it show up on the DPC latency detector? This leads me to believe that it is a USB connection issue but I would still like to make sure. I'm also uncertain if there is something incompatible with my laptop's USB hub and the Tascam?? I may have to utilize my GC warranty and replace it with a new unit as last resort.
 
I would say to go ahead and return the unit in exchange for a new one. At least you will eliminate the fact that the Tascam is to blame. Well hopefully. Seems most other possibilities have been addressed already. Good luck man.
 
Thanks for the help man. I just called GC today and i'll be sending it in for repair next week. I'll keep you guys posted on it once I get it back.
 
I've been having clicks on my FW-1884 and took a closer look. I noticed that the "Sync" indicator on the FW-1884 Control Panel would disappear in time with each click. I was doing something in my browser (Firefox). Testing showed that everytime I start Firefox there is a click. Then I opened up Windows Audio Properties app to see if my FW-1884 had gotten selected as the default I/O device or something (it hadn't) and got another click. Lord knows what else does it but a good guess would be anything that accesses audio output. This is while the 1884 is selected for output with Abelton Live running. Haven't tried it in Cubase.

Do you have a browser open when the drop outs occur? With all the objects that push graphics to cycle images in their ads there can be a lot of activity going on that you don't realize - even when yer browser is in the background.

Try watching the Task Manager (<Ctrl><Alt><Del>)->Performance->CPU Usage History graph(s) when the drop outs are happening - that'll tell you if CPU load is starving your audio programs for cycles. If it is, look at the other tabs: Applications and Processes (sort by different columns, CPU time, I/O bytes, etc.) and see if the culprit is identifiable. If so, you can take steps to stop it (Close it, Disable it's Startup or Services if it's automatic - lots of info on the web on how to do that in your OS).

You describe a problem that has recently gotten worse. My first rule of debugging is if something began (or got worse) at a particular time, then, something changed at that time and that's what to look for. Sounds like Reaper would be an obvious instigator.

> "..has become more frequent and consistent over the last 2 weeks.
> It actually started like this when I tried Reaper for the first time."

[Feel free to self-inflict damage at this point ;-> ]

Maybe it changed something? Perhaps you could do a Windows System Restore to a restore point from before you downloaded Reaper?

I don't think it's the Tascam hardware.
 
Also,

>"...the output meter on Cubase corresonds to it. The meter shows that audio is not being sent..."

These problems are often driver related but the 1800 is mature enough it shouldn't be. I'm curious if the Tascam is the only audio playback device in your system? Is Windows using it for it's sound output? Check Sound and Audio Devices Properties->Audio->Sound Playback and see if the 1800 is the default playback device. You can stop Windows sound output in the Sounds Tab by selecting "No Sounds" for the sound scheme. Still, if the 1800 is the default playback device, you should set it to some other device like if your video card has an HD Audio Out or yer motherboard default. Then only apps you configure to use the 1800 will access it.

Whatever you do I hope you come back and tell us if you banished the problem.
 
Hi Mercuriari, I'll try setting my internal soundcard as the default playback device instead of the US-1800 and report back. To answer some of your earlier questions, I do not have any web browsers open when the drop outs happen. I normally disable my wifi and network adapter just to maintain optimum latency. I've monitored my playback with task manager, DPC Latency Checker, and Latency Mon and they all display that my cpu load is low and that no programs are interfering causing latency during the drop out period. As far as Reaper is concerned, it had been installed on my computer for months before the problem worsened and I dabbled with it occasionally. The first time I tried multi-tracking with Reaper it gave me those frequent drop outs. I noticed last night when playing back a 4 track project on Cubase that when the audio came back from the drop out the disk cache meter would peak. I think I should note that the audio tracks in my 4 track project are very long, about 30-40 min. This is probably not a problem but thought I would throw it in there.
 
No Esar, do everything you can to 'NOT' use your internal soundcard. I think you may have misread Merc's post. I assumed you already changed your default in Windows to the Tascam, because you were playing MP3's. The 1800 'IS' your 'Default' audio device. It should be selected everywhere. If there were a way to physically remove your internal, and beat it to death with a baseball bat, that would be the best option.

:D
 
:laughings: I actually disabled all the soundcards as default and nothing changed unfortunately. I'm wondering if my problem could be fixed by a software tech? There's not much else that I know how to do on my own.
 
YAY!!! Here's what I found out while troubleshooting last night; the drop outs are NOT related with the Tascam. I tried playing my Cubase project through my laptop's internal sound card and the problem was still there. What's interesting is that I tried playing the same audio files in Reaper with no issues with both sound cards. This leads me to believe that this is a Cubase LE 5 issue. I regret initially attributing the drop outs to the Tascam but I just didn't guess it could have been software related. I think the drop outs I was having with Reaper a few weeks ago may have been latency related but I need to do some further testing to make sure. As far as i know the Tascam is working perfectly fine! Thank you all! :)
 
Glad you are getting closer, and that the interface isn't the problem. I think it is more an issue with your computer than with Cubase man. I have never heard of LE5 being he cause of dropouts. The software is almost never the cause. How your system is setup to use it is usually the case. Keep us posted though, I am really curious how this all pans out. :D
 
Yea, good debugging job. I agree with jimmy, Cubase has been pretty solid for a while. So it's not a Cubase bug. But it could be something in your configuration in Cubase. And you mentioned in your first post that you had demonstrated the problem with your MP3 player? Try that again. You could eliminate Cubase then.

The disk cache peaking after each drop out is a good piece of detective work. If you have 30 - 40 minute tracks there's a lot of data to handle there - shouldn't be a problem for Cubase to playback but maybe there's some processing that requires reading the whole track. If you're running tracks through some processing, compressor, eq, reverb, try 'freezing' the tracks or bypassing the processing and see if that makes any dif. Realtime rendering can 'cause stress too. Perhaps you can "reset to default. Where are your libraries at and your working directory, etc.

More likely, something that affects disk handling that Reaper isn't sensitive to. Check your disk drive configurations. Make sure you've enabled DMA options in your BIOS Disk options. Set Windows system cache to a fixed size so it doesn't have to be managed by windows while it's running and set it to one disk drive (one other than the drive where your audio data resides). Check there's no unnecessary software between your apps and your disk(s). Do you have drop outs in Cubase with short tracks?

Basically, you can probably think of other stuff to test for funky behaviour. Read about optimizing Windows for audio applications (be skeptical though, especially old opinions). You've displayed the ability to seek out problems and test them. Keep at it. And report back here. Once again Good Luck!
 
Sorry guys, school has been keeping me distracted for the last couple days. Here's the update; the Tascam has been working fine without any issues. I did a few recordings with Reaper today involving 4 simultaneous mic tracks which went very well. I've decided to give Cubase a break for the time being. I did playback a shorter project on Cubase and did NOT notice any drop outs. Overall I have noticed a positive change in my cpu performance from the optimizing I've done in the process! @ jimmys69, thank you for the link. So far I have taken all the steps listed on the page except for "Enable DMA on each IDE channel" which I tried to do in device manager but it seems it's not an available option under my IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. I would like to know how to enable DMA in the BIOS Disk options as Mercuriari had mentioned and also how to set the windows system cache size. Would it also be beneficial for me to increase my Large System Cache by going to the registry editor>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Control>SessionManager>MemoryManagement? I'm really just a beginner at computers and don't even know what i'm doing half the time. So far the information I've received has been very useful and I would really like to learn more from you guys. Thanks again for putting up with my noobiness ;)
 
Back
Top