Tascam US-122, best in this price range?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve-Keys
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Steve-Keys

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Hi All,

I am really looking forward to buying a US-122 next month (birthday prezzy!!). I have seen mixed reviews but it seems to be what i want. I want to try my first attempt at recording our band (Keyboard, Guitar & Vocals) and i only have a small computer ( P2 350mhz, 128meg ram, 10gig h/d, Windows 98SE) although i think it will do the job.
While i have been researching i have seen other models i.e. Novation Speedio & Edirol UA20 which appear to do the same thing but are cheaper. Can anybody give me some advice as to wether i am getting the right bit of gear for my first attempt at recording with the US-122?.
I would really appreciate any comments you may have,

Thanks a lot,

Steve
 
i'll tell you right now man, you are gonna hear some things about the tascam us122 and USB interfaces in general. USB isn't the best for multitrack recording and your comp being a bit older may give you some hassel.

I'll just tell you what i think though anyways. I started recording on the US122 and i have never had a problem with it what so ever. It only has two imputs though so you will have to layer your recordings (maybe guitar, then keyboard, then vocals). Although i have not tried much else i would recommend the us122. I think it will work very nicely for your intentions. It has direct monitoring with zero latency which i is very nice. It's midi works well also. In my opionion, it has everything a starting musician needs in tersm of a sound card. I beleive it comes with gigastudio and cubase vst (at least it used to). Personally i don't like cubase but you might.

For that price, my number 1 suggestion would be an m-audio audiophilie but since you need usb ( i am assuing you don't have firewire in your computer) i think the tascam is a very good choice.
 
Thanks for the reply,

It was great to get another opinion.

I forgot to mention previously, i want to record our midi bass & drum track with the live layers, can i have that playing while we record each layer of audio? ( i guess we would have to if we wanted the timing).
Is the midi recorded as an audio track the same as the live instruments?
 
The US-122 is my favorite in it's class. The preamps are surpisingly good, and having the abililty to control your monitors and headphones separately is a real bonus. Should work just fine with your P2, and as long as you're not doing tons of tracks with a lot of effects. Concentrate on capturing the sounds the way you want them to start with, and you should be able to get very acceptable results.

Jay
 
I forgot to mention previously, i want to record our midi bass & drum track with the live layers, can i have that playing while we record each layer of audio? ( i guess we would have to if we wanted the timing).
Is the midi recorded as an audio track the same as the live instruments?
Click to expand...

i could be wrong but...
I do not think that the tascam us122 has an internal synth. by that i mean i don't think you can use to play midi GM sounds. If your software is able to use softsynths (like sonar 3 or cubase new version) than i would definately suggest using midi in that way. It does have a midi out so you could hook up a midi playing synth but i'm pretty sure it does not "play" midi itself at least i could never get it to.
 
Yeah, sorry for the confusion, i wasnt very clear, i have a gm midi keyboard that i play midi thru at the moment from the computer. I wanted to know if i can play and record this midi track while recording my first layer (say guitar), then do i record the next layer (keyboard) while playing back the recorded 1st layer & midi?, can the us-122 do this?, or how else would i do it?

Thanks
 
I have a US-122 and get along quite well with it, and would join with the previous replies in recommending it.

The above question does not involve the US-122 directly, but is more a question about your keyboard and the software you're using.

Is your keyboard capable of multi-timbral playback? Does the software you use have both midi and audio tracks? If the answer to both of these questions is yes then you're all set to go once you've added the US-122 to your setup.
 
As far as i know my keyboard is multi-timbral (its a Roland EM-10, quite cheap but a good sound card for playing midi thru) and i guess i would use the software bundled with the US-122 ( I also have an old version of Cakewalk Pro Audio 8.0 if i need it).
Would Cakewalk Pro Audio 8.0 give me everything i need?
 
Hey, Steve.

I've got a US122, and love it. I used it to record the song in my signature line. Your computer will probably be OK as long as you don't put too much strain on it, like GigaSampler.

A couple of things I like: the knobs where I can reach them, the DI for guitars/bass, the tuner, phantom power.

You may want to consider a different software package, like Home Studio.

Good Luck!
 
Back on topic;

Yes, I think you will be fine with the Roland keyboard and Cakewalk Audio 8. I found the software bundled with the US-122 to be more trouble than it was worth, but give it a try - a stripped-down version of Cubasis and a similarly handicapped version of GigaStudio is what came with my unit here in the states...
 
Is there a FireWire model of the TASCAM US-122?

Has anyone recorded acoustic drums with it? If so, any tips & suggestions?


Thanks!

Jeffery
 
planetfall said:
Is there a FireWire model of the TASCAM US-122?

Has anyone recorded acoustic drums with it? If so, any tips & suggestions?


Thanks!

Jeffery
Click to expand...

1. no but there is a tascam fw-1884 bout 1200bux
2. can't answer that all my drums come by way of mpc
 
Steve
If you want to buy that US122, try and get it on appro so you can return if you can't get it going.

When I was running 98, it just refused to have anything to do with usb
 
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