Tascam US 1800 Recording

Z

Zach Frazier

New member
I have a Tascam US 1800 and am using pro tools 10 with Pyle pro pdkm7 microphone set. I have all my connections hooked up correctly because I am getting good wavelengths when I record my drums. I have my windows 7 computer set to record and playback through the Tascam unit. But when I play back what I recorded the volume in my headphones is very quiet. I have to turn up the volume all the way to get the desired sound I am looking for. I have used compression and reverb to try and get a better sound and it does work to some point, but my volume is still turned up a great deal. I don't know if I need to get a headphone amp to increase the volume or what? I am at a big loss when it comes to this problem, I have contacted the Tascam support and they were little to no help. If anyone has any solutions or ideas that would be really helpful, even if it is a simple step by step with how to connect everything. I am fairly new to this so anything helps.
 
Hi. I use an 1800 myself. Same problem, low headphone levels, So I added a headphone distribution amplifier, problem solved! Others around here have had the same issue.

Also make sure that the "mix" knob on the 1800 is fully clockwise on playback.
 
Your headphones may not be as efficient as some, hence the lower volume. A headphone amp is an easy and inexpensive solution.
 
There are 2 answers to this:

1) It's totally normal to have to crank up your headphones/speakers while recording. If anything, it means you're recording at proper levels, most probably. It will never never be as loud as commercial CD's or finished songs.

2) Having said that, I have the US-800 and there is no way I would be able to use the headphone out to monitor without using a headphone amp of some kind. It's extremely low. I ended up not even using the US-800 to monitor. I monitor through the receiver which powers my speakers. Those TASCAM units are extremely low. It would be impossible to lay down something like a drum track using the TASCAM to monitor without some kind of headphone amp.
 
I do use a US800 with no headphone amp for monitoring during tracking, but I don't record anything loud like a drum kit or Marshall stack. During playback, I will often have to turn up the headphone volume most of the way.
 
Hmm, I have a US-1800, and don't seem to have low level issues......yeah, I have to crank up the volume and adjust the mix knob....but I get good levels. Maybe you cans have a high impedance?
 
fuzzsniffvoyage said:
Hmm, I have a US-1800, and don't seem to have low level issues......yeah, I have to crank up the volume and adjust the mix knob....but I get good levels. Maybe you cans have a high impedance?
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I think it depends what you track with them. Do you record real drums with them?

I must admit that I love a lot of volume in my cans when I record. But even if I didn't, there is no way I can record real drums with the headphone out.
 
When recording drums, I've never yet had a machine in which the headphone output was sufficient in volume to compete with them. In the old days, I got around this by pure instinct and feel but over the last few years, I pass my DAW into the amp I use to power the speakers too. I put the guitar or bass in the drummer's and my cans and we go from there. I don't need the drums in my headphones. I'm so close to them, it's not possible to not hear them !
 
Speccy/pedantic dave butting in here!
The 1800 has a headphone output spec' of 50mW into 32R (for 1% distortion and that's therefore a gnat's off clipping) That equates to a sniff over 1volt rms and since most cans produce about 100dBSPL for a volt in it is plain why you have to crank the knob, especially since your normal recording level will be 20dB below that!
What an external amp is doing more than anything is adding more gain. If you could somehow kick the Tascam circuit up the arse by 20dB you would be fine (err? just about!)

Don't forget. If you buy a pretty decent 30+30W hi fi amp from a s/h shop, with a bit of work (Rs in a tin) you can drive a score of headphone sets.

Dave.
 
My biggest concern is not while I am tracking the drums, it is when I go back and listen to what I have recorded it still seems so darn quiet. Even if I unplug my headphones and play it though my laptops speakers it is still as quiet as when I listen to it through the headphones? I change the computers playback engine to the laptops speakers and crank it all the way up but still no luck. I don't know if this helps any. But for the headphone amplifies, does anyone have any suggestions/input on which one I should purchase? Thanks again for all your help.
 
Normally, recorded tracks are going to be quiet. Way quieter than the tunes on your iphone. It's not until you have all your tracks recorded, the song mixed and you run it through a final limiter does it get louder. You might be comparing to commercial releases and your drum tracks or mixed song won't be at the same level. No where near the same level. Don't worry about it, that's normal. Especially if you're listening with your laptop speakers. Don't do that... stop doing that.

The headphone amp will help you listen better when tracking. I don't think there is a need for high end stuff for a headphone amp. Samson makes one for about $50, but you can find them cheaper and more expensive.

And also, you might check out this thread....
https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...volume-playback-issues-when-recording-364467/
Oh wait, that's your thread where you basically asked the same thing and got the same answers.
 
Sorry I am so new to this but what do you mean when you say run it through a final limiter? And thank you for pointing out that I am not going to have high levels of sound during the recording phase. I have been trying to just figure out the basics on how to record my live drums and bring them up to a nice sound level where I would be able to cover my own songs and write my own songs. Just been struggling before when the sound was so quiet compared to other music, and now I think I am understanding that this will not happen until I run it through a final limiter.
 
During the mastering phase of music production is when you get your volume levels up to "commercial levels". There's so much debate and discussion on the topic. Google "loudness wars" and read.... or even do a search in this site.

A limiter is capable of raising volume by compressing the peaks down to match the main body of the audio signal, then raising the overall gain. These days, it's too much of a good thing can be bad. Still, you can raise your volume by quite a bit and still keep the song sounding good.

Lots to learn, so keep reading and asking questions. Read, read, read. :)
 
Hi Zack,
A few numbers and "real world" observations might help you.
A rock drum kit will produce around 100dBSound Pressure Level on average and spikes much higher than that (and that if you only feed the drummer COOKED meat!) . That level would be painful in headphones and at the limit or beyond what most sub $1000 a pair monitors can produce (well beyond "mid-fi" or a telly!) . And that's just the drums! Even a 15W guitar amp and decent 12" speaker is also beyond the capability of most projjy monitors....So, something has to give and that is overall monitor level, things HAVE to be loundness "scaled".

Now, when at home, my son would record acoustic guitar. This is at 80-90dB SPL and so, recording of the SOLO instrument, done at -20dBFS COULD be jacked up so that the finished SOLO track reproduced via my Tannoy 5As at live levels...But, NO WAY could we do that with his Strat and an HT-20 valve amp into even a fairly civilized Greenback, IF he was doing AC/DC noises!

Dave.
 
Zach Frazier said:
My biggest concern is not while I am tracking the drums, it is when I go back and listen to what I have recorded it still seems so darn quiet. Even if I unplug my headphones and play it though my laptops speakers it is still as quiet as when I listen to it through the headphones? I change the computers playback engine to the laptops speakers and crank it all the way up but still no luck. I don't know if this helps any. But for the headphone amplifies, does anyone have any suggestions/input on which one I should purchase? Thanks again for all your help.
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Ah, that's a different story. In that case, what Chili said. We all have to crank up our monitors/phones to play back what we record. Getting the volume up happens later int he process if you choose to get a higher final level.

Having said all that, the headphone out on the TASCAMs is still very low.
 
One obvious thing that I don't think has been said in this thread is to make sure you are recording your tracks at a decent level... There have been huge debates around here about what proper recording levels are, which I'm not looking to get started again, so I won't even suggest a target. It just occurs to me you might be tracking too low.

In your DAW you can also probably normalize your tracks which will make them as loud as they can be short of dynamic range treatments (compressors/ limiters).

J
 
PS - normalizing does the same thing your faders do (multiply all the samples by a gaine factor), but it happens before any effects, so it will seem like track was recorded that way. The software will just goes through your track and find the single biggest sample in the whole thing, and multiply all the samples by whatever gain factor is necessary to take that peak sample to full scale.
 
jjjtttggg said:
There have been huge debates around here about what proper recording levels are, which I'm not looking to get started again, so I won't even suggest a target. It just occurs to me you might be tracking too low.
Click to expand...
Don't want to start that discussion again, either. But, the fact is, it's almost impossible to record "too low", unless you're recording at -50db. There's certainly no reason to get up near 0db. Either way, even at higher levels, those TASCAM interfaces have a very low output on their headphone outs. It's almost impossible to track anything that's loud, like drums or a mic'd, distorted guitar amp.
 
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