Does anything suck about the Tascam US428?

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coloradojay

coloradojay

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I desparately need to move from my Roland VS 880EX to a PC based recording solution. It is just way too much of a hassle to get things to the PC and to CD, and deal with file management. I have been eyeballing the Tascam 428 for some time now (especially at ~ $350), and have seen at least a couple of happy users post here. I know it is only a 48Khz sample rate but at 24 bits, which is still better than the 20-bit 880 which only does 32,44,48 anyway.

With the low-end prosumer signalpath I'm using, I've been pretty pleased with the quality of the Roland. Will the DAC/ADC in the Tascam be comparable quality-wise with the ones in my Roland?

These things seem to be sold like hotcakes on eBay. Is there a reason that people are getting rid of so many of them? Does anything about them suck?

Has anyone here had a bad experience with one?

Fire up the flamethrowers, let's hear about it...
 
I don't know how it would compare w/ the roland... But I don't really have any complaints about it. If an all in one midi/audio/control surface is what you need, I think you'll be happy with it.
I think I'm going to eventually get a better soundcard with more in's and outs to use for audio and keep the 428 for the control surface. It's nice having buttons, dials and sliders rather than using the mouse.

The only drawbacks really are the limited ins and outs. But it's got a little bit of everything midi x2 in/out, mic pre's, digital in/out and of course control. So if the limited ins/outs don't bother you I'd say get one.
 
Yeah, I got a little spoiled having the 6 analog ins, but I almost never used more than 4 at a time (4 seems plenty to track my drum kit for now). I got a little spoiled not having to bounce tracks, just plug into another track and record!

I kinda wanted a C-port or a Delta1010, but budget doesn't permit it right now. In that scenario, I'd prolly keep the Roland as a control surface/portable recorder. With the Tascam, it's USB so I can take it and my laptop and have that covered. With the Tascams so cheap now, I can buy one, dump everything via Toslink as full mixes, or track pairs, from my Roland (and 3 freakin external 4 gig SCSIs), into my PC, and sell the Roland for what the Tascam costed- net cost $0!!! Such a deal! :cool:

Somebody must hate this rig! Anyone?

Thanks for the reply Subtractor (love your avitar too- I pirated it a long while ago for imbedding in emails etc).
 
subtractor said:
I think I'm going to eventually get a better soundcard with more in's and outs to use for audio and keep the 428 for the control surface
Click to expand...


P.S. I think that down the road, I might pick up a higher end interface for the P.C. even if it's only 2 channel, just as kind of a gold channel to track vocals/instrumentals/etc.
 
i've got the us-428 and i have no complaints at all.

i use it with my dell laptop.
 
I'm basically from a Portastudio & analog reel background.

I got the Tascam US-428 with all the best intentions, and I HATED IT.

It was gen-1 software & drivers, and it SUCKED. It was not stable. It would freeze and crash the computer. I was unable to get a clean, buzz-free audio signal on the US-428, and despite playing with it for about a week, I was never able to make a decent sounding recording with it. I returned it to GC at my soonest convenience for a full refund, & ended up buying another Tascam Portastudio with the money instead, which I've been very happy with.

Maybe I'm the minority, and I've heard the gen2 software may be more stable, but I HATED the US-428. I don't like 'puter recording in general, but I hated the US-428 even worse than that.

I bought the US-428 with the best of intentions of 'puter recording, but ended up hating it very quickly, and it was the ONLY Tascam product I've ever bought and felt I needed to return. I was very disappionted with Tascam after experiencing the US-428. The new breed of all-digital products from Tascam are NOT for me.

Unless Tascam unveils or revives more pure analog recorders/mixers, it's safe to assume that I've bought my last new Tascam product.

The upside is that the used analog market is a boon for someone like me, and I'm scheming & dreaming of the 2"-24-track reel recorder, which is now affordable to the average home recordist.
 
I like mine, though I'm not using it much anymore.

I REALLY do wish that the darn thing had phantom power. It's almost a do it all device for mobile recording, but I still have to carry around another preamp to use condensor mics. Oh, well.

It does its job well. With the most updated drivers I never had any problems with it.

Take care,
Chris
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Cross, I had read some of the other threads you posted to, and your liking the unit has helped my decision for sure. Thanks, for the reply.

Chris, Digi now huh? Check out the thread in the Cave- Digi bashing goin on, pretty funny. Still keepin the 428 though, that's a good endorsement.

Reel, that sucks it didn't work well for you. I think I'll have a bit of a learning curve at first. Sounds like you got a bum unit/drivers or both. It sounds like you are an analog kinda guy anyway. "A Reel Person" so to speak. Thanks for the comments, I think I'm going to give it a shot anyway. At ~$300, if I hate it, I'll just sell it off and use the Roland for a while longer. I'm not parting with the Roland until my replacement solution is totally in place.

Seems like the deal of the century right now all over ebay $300-350 barely used. Even just as a non-automated control surface, that's not too bad of a price.
 
Jay,

Yeah, Digi isn't the holy grail of recording. Its just another interface that has its pros and cons. In my case, the pros outwieghed the cons and it seemed like a good buy. The 002 works really well for me as a hardware upgrade (18 ins and outs, better convertors, motorized, etc.) and the Pro Tools software does the job as well as any other. There are new ASIO drivers out for it so I can still use Cubase if I want to, though I lose the control surface and MIDI ports.

I don't buy into platorm wars at all. What matters is your skill and talent. The rest are interchangeable tools. If your tools all work together and you can accompish what you want it doesn't much matter what those tools are.

The 428 is a good little workhorse and a very useable control surface with the right program. It works flawlessly with Cubase, but I haven't tried it with any other programs. Some people find the convertors sound a little "dark." I don't know. I just move the mic around till it sounds the way I want it to.

All the tunes at my sites were recorded with the 428, if you want to hear what I've done with it. I haven't posted any of the work I've done with the 002, yet.

Take care,
Chris

Chris
 
Thanks Chris. I gave a couple of tunes a quick listen, and they sound good to me. BTW, what else is in your signal path? Did you use the pres on the 428 at all, or did you go through outboard pres?
 
Good question. I should have mentioned it to begin with.

Bass is usually DI'd through an Art Tube MP. Vocals occasionally go through it as well. I sometimes ran stereo guitar setups through an RNC, as well, but not too often.

I used an Alesis Studio 24 mixer for phantom power and just left the mic cables plugged in all the time. Even if I didn't need the phantom I'd run through the board just to avoid messing with cables all the time. So none of the tracks are actually recorded with just the 428.

Oh, well. I didn't really think about that when I mentioned it. I use condensors so often that I don't think I ever used just the 428.

And thanks for the "sounds good" comment. I like to think that I do the equipment justice.

Take care,
Chris
 
I've got a mixer, and a DMP2, that I'll probably be using for pre and phantom. I think the only application I might try using the balanced XLRs on the 428 for is 57s on the drums, and then run the DMP2 to the unbalanced ins for 4 ins total.

Thanks for all the info.
 
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