JimmyS1969
MOODerator
I have not a clue about it's compatibility with Mac.
Tascam us800 testing
- Thread starter JimmyS1969
- Start date
I love my US-800 on my iMac
I've been using the US-800 on my iMAC core i5 that I got a year ago. I picked up the US-800 in January for 107 bucks shipped. Bummer to see it now going for over 200 new.. Is it really discontinued?
I absolutely love it.
I have it connected to my 8 channel powered mixer. I love how small it is and it is perfect for my compact band recording setup.
I have The 4 mic/line inputs of my mixer piped into the 1/4 jacks on the back of the US-800 using the Inserts so it gets it post mixer pre-amp but pre EQ and Effects. This gives me the most flexibility and allows me to hear the instruments/mics like I would for our live home studio performances, but also get a copy of the mix for recording.
I have the MIDI going to and from my TD-10 Studio V-Drum setup. And I have the stereo audio from the drums going into the SPDIF input via a 30 dollar A/D Analog to SPDIF converter. No noticeable latency, works great, but forces the whole system to run at 48000 sample rate though, no biggie.. I am able this way to record both the MIDI and audio tracks and if I didn't like a drum kit, simply arm the audio track and replay the midi track and bam, new set of drums..
So two Mics, Guitar and Bass go into Channels 1-4 of the powered mixer and channels 3-6 of the US-800 via my insert passthrough cables I made. The Audio output from the drums like I said go into the SPDIF and are also Y connector routed into the powered mixers channels 5,6 channels 7,8 of the mixer are the line output of the US-800. The two front channels of the US800 are now left for recording another guitar, or I can switch in a third mic if my other bandmates would attempt singing and have two guitars coming in the front for monitoring.. So I have tested recording of all 8 channels using Reaper and it works great. Monitoring also works just fine when you get to know the US-800 and how to use it properly..
I just figured out how to make a "Aggregate Device" output on the mac so I can select the internal speakers of the mac or one of the inputs of the mixer to the main output speakers. This way Reaper can control both of them each with their own faders, some times I play back just for me on the macs speakers, and sometimes on the main powered mixer monitors..
The ONLY weird problem or quirk I have with the US-800 is that it doesn't deal with the computer sleeping and waking back up. I have to reboot and log into my account and THEN power on the US-800, then it is rock solid. If I then let the computer go to sleep and come back, it will never work right without a reboot. Aside from this and knowing how to setup the sample rate in reaper properly, it is absolutely fantastic for my setup. I wonder if some of the bad ratings the US-800 get are because people just don't spend the time to figure out how to use it and how fricking powerful it really is..
I also now have a keyboard with a MIDI USB interface connected to Reaper, I can pipe the midi to Reaper, turn on a FX synth machine, open another channel to record midi and one to record audio, monitor the output of the line-output of the US-800 and I get to 1. record midi keyboard, 2. record syth audio as an audio track at the same time, 3. monitor the output from the US-800 to hear the synth FX as I play. I was really thrilled as I figured how how to set this all up last night.. To do this I setup a track in Reaper to have the MIDI input, enable the VST Synth effete and set the IO of the track to record stereo audio as the output. Then on a second track I set it to record midi input, but have it setup to "Send" the track to the previous channel. This allows me to record midi and record audio, then if I don't like the audio, I can tweak the midi performance, then remaster the audio back to the audio track for rendering.. All the while monitoring it on the US-800 output..
Anyway, let me know if anyone has insight into why this kick-ass US-800 is getting discontinued..
-Jeff
I've been using the US-800 on my iMAC core i5 that I got a year ago. I picked up the US-800 in January for 107 bucks shipped. Bummer to see it now going for over 200 new.. Is it really discontinued?
I absolutely love it.
I have it connected to my 8 channel powered mixer. I love how small it is and it is perfect for my compact band recording setup.
I have The 4 mic/line inputs of my mixer piped into the 1/4 jacks on the back of the US-800 using the Inserts so it gets it post mixer pre-amp but pre EQ and Effects. This gives me the most flexibility and allows me to hear the instruments/mics like I would for our live home studio performances, but also get a copy of the mix for recording.
I have the MIDI going to and from my TD-10 Studio V-Drum setup. And I have the stereo audio from the drums going into the SPDIF input via a 30 dollar A/D Analog to SPDIF converter. No noticeable latency, works great, but forces the whole system to run at 48000 sample rate though, no biggie.. I am able this way to record both the MIDI and audio tracks and if I didn't like a drum kit, simply arm the audio track and replay the midi track and bam, new set of drums..
So two Mics, Guitar and Bass go into Channels 1-4 of the powered mixer and channels 3-6 of the US-800 via my insert passthrough cables I made. The Audio output from the drums like I said go into the SPDIF and are also Y connector routed into the powered mixers channels 5,6 channels 7,8 of the mixer are the line output of the US-800. The two front channels of the US800 are now left for recording another guitar, or I can switch in a third mic if my other bandmates would attempt singing and have two guitars coming in the front for monitoring.. So I have tested recording of all 8 channels using Reaper and it works great. Monitoring also works just fine when you get to know the US-800 and how to use it properly..
I just figured out how to make a "Aggregate Device" output on the mac so I can select the internal speakers of the mac or one of the inputs of the mixer to the main output speakers. This way Reaper can control both of them each with their own faders, some times I play back just for me on the macs speakers, and sometimes on the main powered mixer monitors..
The ONLY weird problem or quirk I have with the US-800 is that it doesn't deal with the computer sleeping and waking back up. I have to reboot and log into my account and THEN power on the US-800, then it is rock solid. If I then let the computer go to sleep and come back, it will never work right without a reboot. Aside from this and knowing how to setup the sample rate in reaper properly, it is absolutely fantastic for my setup. I wonder if some of the bad ratings the US-800 get are because people just don't spend the time to figure out how to use it and how fricking powerful it really is..
I also now have a keyboard with a MIDI USB interface connected to Reaper, I can pipe the midi to Reaper, turn on a FX synth machine, open another channel to record midi and one to record audio, monitor the output of the line-output of the US-800 and I get to 1. record midi keyboard, 2. record syth audio as an audio track at the same time, 3. monitor the output from the US-800 to hear the synth FX as I play. I was really thrilled as I figured how how to set this all up last night.. To do this I setup a track in Reaper to have the MIDI input, enable the VST Synth effete and set the IO of the track to record stereo audio as the output. Then on a second track I set it to record midi input, but have it setup to "Send" the track to the previous channel. This allows me to record midi and record audio, then if I don't like the audio, I can tweak the midi performance, then remaster the audio back to the audio track for rendering.. All the while monitoring it on the US-800 output..
Anyway, let me know if anyone has insight into why this kick-ass US-800 is getting discontinued..
-Jeff
I bought the US-800 a few months ago, intending to use it for live recording - I am the "sound-guy" for a local rock band, and I've been behind a mixing board for 15 years, but never really branched out into recording. At this price, it seemed like now would be as good a time as any. Now I've recorded about 20 hours of live audio with it.
It's hooked up to a MacBook Pro, OSX 10.6, via a powered USB hub. The hub also has a Behringer UCA202 and a USB line from the Carvin mixer (c2444). My intention was to record three vocal mics and three instrument mics through the US-800, the stereo house mix with direct USB to the mixer, and a drum mix and vocal mix coming off of bus outputs on the mixer with the UCA202. I've got the Aggregate device set up for this, and I've been able to get my DAW to find all the channels (a total of 12 in/6 out). The only complaint with the aggregate setup is that the Carvin USB and Behringer USB both detect as the same generic "USB Audio Codec", so it can be tough figuring out which is which, and it doesn't seem to always put them in the same order (last night I had channels 1/2 from the UCA202, 3-10 from the US-800, and 11/12 from the board.
Frustrations so far: (some are certainly caused by my noobishness to recording)
- figuring out how to use knobs on US-800 and US-800 mixing panel. After some reading - and cheers! a lot of it in this thread - it seems I can ignore the US-800 mixing panel altogether, as I'm not monitoring it through the US-800. As to the knobs, the only way it has worked at all so far is to record with all knobs all the way right, shut down. The vocals/instruments are all coming off inserts, some also going through compressors, but I think I've got them split out prior to the compressor stage in that loop. I think this actually makes sense, if those knobs are ONLY for pre-amping, which it would appear I do not need to do. So, two things I may be able to safely ignore.
- clipping. My experience is to run the gains on the board relatively hot, but not hot enough to clip on the board (except drums - I let those channels trip the channel clip indicator lightly on impact) - and the main mix ends up running between 0 and +6. I think this gets pretty close to unity, and if it does get a little hot, the main mix is running through a DriveRack Pro which has solved lots of problems. This whole setup seems to be crap for live recording though. On the US-800, even with no preamp, I'm getting clip indicators all over the place. I think this may be because while the board shows clipping at over +18, the US-800 shows clipping at anything above -2 - which if I'm working towards unity at 0, doesn't really make sense to me.
- weak input hardware - I think I broke one of the 1/4 inserts the first night. however, XLR still works all around, and overall quite well. This is really just about plugging in with 1/4 cables, which feels horrible.
- does not seem to handle Expose/Spaces very well. This is Mac-specific, but I tend to run a DJ application for bumper music between sets from a different Space than my DAW - and perhaps have mixer levels and such in another space from the main DAW window. When I switched to the DJ App space during a break, then switched back to the DAW space when we went back live, the US-800 mixer had locked up, and signal was no longer properly getting to the DAW (although it did show some low signal level - I didn't bother trying to listen back to that yet, I think I trashed that segment already.) As with lots of things with this interface, power-cycling it fixed everything, although the DAW complains when you suddenly change the composition of the Aggregate device by dropping 8 channels out of it briefly. Annoying, but not a deal-breaker. I think a(nother) driver update could fix this, although I understand with it being discontinued, that probably won't be happening.
That gets to my main issue, which I haven't been able to get past - horribly echoey staticky loud segments in the recordings, across ALL channels. Sometimes just for a second or two, sometimes for a whole song. I started by using CuBase as the DAW, as that is what came with the US-800. It seemed like a bit of overkill for just recording a few tracks, but I got it all set up, got all the signals running at about the levels that looked right, clipping indicators not lighting up, except for what I think is the output channel, which I wasn't really using anyway? The main board channels also seemed to run a little hot. Still, my recordings were speckled with these bad segments, which seemed may be linked to the lead guitar channel initially, but I'm not so sure. The frustration is that the noise goes across ALL the channels.
So I figured I was over-loading CuBase, and decided to try a simpler tool. I shelled out $120 for MultiTrack Studio, which seemed a lot less complicated - and I couldn't seem to keep the channels from clipping at all, but I think this may go back to the clipping indicator being at zero. last night's recording was all horrible staticky looping, all 3 hours or so worth, although a little less so; I could kind of hear the instruments and vocals behind it all. So, if the same thing happens with two different DAWs, then they probably aren't the problem. I don't want to blame the US-800 either though, I think I'm just approaching something wrong.
So, my options as I see them:
- re-set all my gains on the board 30% lower, turn up all the levels on the speaker amps (we just went all-active, against my preferences), and try to run the entire board at -6 out, with faders still at -0-.
- try pulling the US-800 out, and record a set with just the UCA-202 and the board, or even just the board, then just the UCA-202, and see if I can troubleshoot/eliminate my way out of this. Then I can just hope it's not the US-800, until it is?
We only do a couple shows a month, so I don't have a ton of opportunities to test things at live levels. I'm really close to getting this right, so any recommendations or head adjustments would be appreciated. Again, I'm new to the recording side, and I want it to sound just as good as what I already know to do with the FOH and stage sound.
It's hooked up to a MacBook Pro, OSX 10.6, via a powered USB hub. The hub also has a Behringer UCA202 and a USB line from the Carvin mixer (c2444). My intention was to record three vocal mics and three instrument mics through the US-800, the stereo house mix with direct USB to the mixer, and a drum mix and vocal mix coming off of bus outputs on the mixer with the UCA202. I've got the Aggregate device set up for this, and I've been able to get my DAW to find all the channels (a total of 12 in/6 out). The only complaint with the aggregate setup is that the Carvin USB and Behringer USB both detect as the same generic "USB Audio Codec", so it can be tough figuring out which is which, and it doesn't seem to always put them in the same order (last night I had channels 1/2 from the UCA202, 3-10 from the US-800, and 11/12 from the board.
Frustrations so far: (some are certainly caused by my noobishness to recording)
- figuring out how to use knobs on US-800 and US-800 mixing panel. After some reading - and cheers! a lot of it in this thread - it seems I can ignore the US-800 mixing panel altogether, as I'm not monitoring it through the US-800. As to the knobs, the only way it has worked at all so far is to record with all knobs all the way right, shut down. The vocals/instruments are all coming off inserts, some also going through compressors, but I think I've got them split out prior to the compressor stage in that loop. I think this actually makes sense, if those knobs are ONLY for pre-amping, which it would appear I do not need to do. So, two things I may be able to safely ignore.
- clipping. My experience is to run the gains on the board relatively hot, but not hot enough to clip on the board (except drums - I let those channels trip the channel clip indicator lightly on impact) - and the main mix ends up running between 0 and +6. I think this gets pretty close to unity, and if it does get a little hot, the main mix is running through a DriveRack Pro which has solved lots of problems. This whole setup seems to be crap for live recording though. On the US-800, even with no preamp, I'm getting clip indicators all over the place. I think this may be because while the board shows clipping at over +18, the US-800 shows clipping at anything above -2 - which if I'm working towards unity at 0, doesn't really make sense to me.
- weak input hardware - I think I broke one of the 1/4 inserts the first night. however, XLR still works all around, and overall quite well. This is really just about plugging in with 1/4 cables, which feels horrible.
- does not seem to handle Expose/Spaces very well. This is Mac-specific, but I tend to run a DJ application for bumper music between sets from a different Space than my DAW - and perhaps have mixer levels and such in another space from the main DAW window. When I switched to the DJ App space during a break, then switched back to the DAW space when we went back live, the US-800 mixer had locked up, and signal was no longer properly getting to the DAW (although it did show some low signal level - I didn't bother trying to listen back to that yet, I think I trashed that segment already.) As with lots of things with this interface, power-cycling it fixed everything, although the DAW complains when you suddenly change the composition of the Aggregate device by dropping 8 channels out of it briefly. Annoying, but not a deal-breaker. I think a(nother) driver update could fix this, although I understand with it being discontinued, that probably won't be happening.
That gets to my main issue, which I haven't been able to get past - horribly echoey staticky loud segments in the recordings, across ALL channels. Sometimes just for a second or two, sometimes for a whole song. I started by using CuBase as the DAW, as that is what came with the US-800. It seemed like a bit of overkill for just recording a few tracks, but I got it all set up, got all the signals running at about the levels that looked right, clipping indicators not lighting up, except for what I think is the output channel, which I wasn't really using anyway? The main board channels also seemed to run a little hot. Still, my recordings were speckled with these bad segments, which seemed may be linked to the lead guitar channel initially, but I'm not so sure. The frustration is that the noise goes across ALL the channels.
So I figured I was over-loading CuBase, and decided to try a simpler tool. I shelled out $120 for MultiTrack Studio, which seemed a lot less complicated - and I couldn't seem to keep the channels from clipping at all, but I think this may go back to the clipping indicator being at zero. last night's recording was all horrible staticky looping, all 3 hours or so worth, although a little less so; I could kind of hear the instruments and vocals behind it all. So, if the same thing happens with two different DAWs, then they probably aren't the problem. I don't want to blame the US-800 either though, I think I'm just approaching something wrong.
So, my options as I see them:
- re-set all my gains on the board 30% lower, turn up all the levels on the speaker amps (we just went all-active, against my preferences), and try to run the entire board at -6 out, with faders still at -0-.
- try pulling the US-800 out, and record a set with just the UCA-202 and the board, or even just the board, then just the UCA-202, and see if I can troubleshoot/eliminate my way out of this. Then I can just hope it's not the US-800, until it is?
We only do a couple shows a month, so I don't have a ton of opportunities to test things at live levels. I'm really close to getting this right, so any recommendations or head adjustments would be appreciated. Again, I'm new to the recording side, and I want it to sound just as good as what I already know to do with the FOH and stage sound.
The aggregate device is a Mac thing, (How to combine multiple audio interfaces by creating an aggregate device on Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard) which may not have existed prior to Leopard (OSX 10.5). It's a really neat concept, and together with Soundflower, HiJack Pro, and WireTap Anywhere, you can make whatever Frankenstein mess of audio devices you would like. Prior to recording, when I was doing more DJ work, I needed several output channels (music main, cue main, backup music, karaoke audio at times) that I could mix separately, and I was pretty used to pushing the boundaries of internal audio. Generally it all works great, until you change something - pulling the headphones out of their jack in the lappy could throw the whole setup into a lockup. So, I got used to keeping the USB and laptop I/O very stable, and making all of my adjustments on the mixing board. For the recording side of things, I see it the same way - get a clean signal, and leave it alone.
trying to attach a sample. the issue is at about 12s in, lasts about 2 seconds. More of the file is there, including where the track builds up a little bit, with no issues. I think the oddest thing is that this occurs at the same point across all tracks. The attached track is actually the board mix, NOT coming through the US-800, but through the board's USB interface.
I noticed similar staticy problems during playback when I didn't have the audio device setup right in terms of sample rate. There was a feature called (request sample rate) from the device in reaper and that seemed to resolve it. I'd also get weird delays in playback where I'd hit stop but it would keep going for a few seconds when I had it in this funky static mode. I bet if you can't hear the problem on any live feeds, then this is your problem..
Question:
Does the static come through on the Monitor out of the US-800? If so it might be some ground loop picking up noise in the mixer..
Does the static go away if you don't use the aggregate device?
What sample rate is everything doing the recording setup for?
Why are you half inserting your insert cable? Isn't that risky? I made my own stereo to mono cable using actual stereo jacks on the mixer board (tip and ring soldered together) and mono jack going to the US-800..
Why are you shelling out money for a DAW when Reaper is free to try?
I'd double check your preferences for ajusting sample rate..
Doing anything with SPIDIF? If so, need to set everything to 48000...
-Jeff
Question:
Does the static come through on the Monitor out of the US-800? If so it might be some ground loop picking up noise in the mixer..
Does the static go away if you don't use the aggregate device?
What sample rate is everything doing the recording setup for?
Why are you half inserting your insert cable? Isn't that risky? I made my own stereo to mono cable using actual stereo jacks on the mixer board (tip and ring soldered together) and mono jack going to the US-800..
Why are you shelling out money for a DAW when Reaper is free to try?
I'd double check your preferences for ajusting sample rate..
Doing anything with SPIDIF? If so, need to set everything to 48000...
-Jeff
Haven't yet even tried to do any monitoring or utilize any of the outs on the US-800 - when we're live, I've got the FOH and stage sound to listen to, and that keeps me pretty busy. Trying to listen for these relatively brief sections of static while live would be a bit of a PITA. Still, Fri night's show was almost completely static, so I may be able to try this at the next show (this Fri and Sat).
Don't know yet, but I think at the next show I will be trying some different configurations - I should try a few songs with JUST the US-800.
According to the US-800 panel, the default is 44100. CuBase seems to also be defaulted to 44100. MTS is at 44100.
Because that is what is recommended by Carvin. I don't think your solution would work, because with having the jack all the way in, the board would be expecting a return signal to complete that signal path before going through the rest of the channel controls on the board. (From Carvin manual - DIRECT OUT -
Plug a 1/4” mono cable “half way” into the Channel Insert Jack. The “half” insert connection creates a send signal without breaking the channels signal path. The insert in this mode is no longer used as an insert but becomes what is called an DIRECT out.)
Perhaps the best question! I must have thought Reaper was PC-only. I see that it is available for Mac as well, and will likely be giving it a try. Still, the simpleness of MTS is really nice, compared to how complex CuBase was. Again, I'm not mastering or really doing any post-processing yet; I just need to record 10-12 clean signals. I've been giving those wav files to someone else who is doing the post processing in GarageBand, I think.
Well, I didn't see anything there. I'm actually thinking my problem is with running into a lack of headroom and a 0db limitation with digital recording.
No. The board has a SPDIF out, but I haven't messed with it yet. It doesn't really seemed purposed for what I am doing.
Thanks for your ideas.
Regarding the insert:
I'm doing the exact same thing that your doing. By taking a mono patch cord and pluging it in half way, you are shorting the tip to the ring of the jack creating a passthrough as well as a tap off to the other end of your mono plug. I'm doing the exact same thing with my custom cable, taking a stereo plug, soldering the tip to the ring inside the plug, then routing mono out. Insert passes through on the mixer, but tee's off before the EQ. I don't feel comfortable leaving a 1/4 jack plugged in half way.. What if you sneeze? I sneeze a lot..
I know it works because I'm using it on all four of the 1/4 inputs on the back of the US-800..
Also, when you power up the system are you powering everything up with the US-800's power unplugged? And then once you are to MacOS desktop, THEN and only then, do you plug in the US-800 and then go to start using it? Don't unplug the USB, unplug the power. This is a cricital quirk of this device..
There is also a setting on the US-800 control panel. Make sure you actually click on the sample rate that you've selected in the agregrate device menu, and also make sure you have clicked internal clock source, If you have the option for external clock source, that is something to try..
Next time your doing sound check, try a few quick takes after following these steps..
-Jeff
Good suggestions. I don't sneeze much, and the inserts are not that close to where my hands would be...
See frustration #3! One of my complaints is how often I seem to need to power-cycle it. Yes, that is the power cable. to be more specific, the power cable going to the back of the US-800. I generally have laptop closed/sleeping, plug in the powered USB hub with everything attached, then unplug/plug back in the US-800 at the beginning of show. This has worked, until I move to another space, or heaven forbid leave the laptop alone long enough for it to go back to sleep. Then, I have had some success just power-cycling the US-800 again to regain its majick.
I'm actually going to try forsaking the US-800 control panel altogether! I don't really want to monitor anything using it, aside for troubleshooting this mess, and not having it open *may* save my spaces issue! Granted that I may have to power cycle the US-800 3 or 4 times during a show, going in there to re-select sample rates and clock sources is going to be a headache. I'm not sure how relevant the clock source really is in the context I am using it. I think I've been setting it as the clock source for the aggregate device, but I'm not sure that the setting actually stuck after power-cycling it. I think it did. Perhaps I should change the clock source to be the UCA (in the Aggregate device), as I won't be doing anything to change it during the show. No idea how that would/should translate to the clock source setting on the US-800 control panel.
We've got a gig Friday night - I will be testing a lot of things, I think. Our sound checks are generally very short, as I've got the board pretty dialed in for our sound and stage preferences already. Often we just play a couple minutes with just the two guitars to make sure the guitar amps aren't too loud and are roughly even in output, then play a another couple minutes, maybe through a full song to check the room dynamics, feedback, vocal levels, monitors - and then do most of the fine tuning based on that. The bars we're playing in don't want the patrons to be subjected to a full sound check, and that is OK with me. As I'm thinking of re-setting all the input gains on the board, and setting the active speakers to (close to) full gain output on their amps, Friday may take a bit more work! I'll definitely be a bit more sensitive to the clock and sample rates, though - thanks for that tip.
I've spent most of today familiarizing myself with Reaper, and I think I've got it almost ready to go for Friday's show. I'm not sure how to handle recording multiple songs with no real break in between, but that isn't a deal breaker; with MTS I was recording entire sets and resetting everything during our breaks. (EDIT - I figured this out, now have my saving prefs all working properly to save on stop without prompting.)
I appreciate all your help, Jeff - and since Jimmy doesn't know how Mac-compatible the US-800 is, I hope our discussion will help other Mac users. I'll be posting successes as well as failures.
See frustration #3! One of my complaints is how often I seem to need to power-cycle it. Yes, that is the power cable. to be more specific, the power cable going to the back of the US-800. I generally have laptop closed/sleeping, plug in the powered USB hub with everything attached, then unplug/plug back in the US-800 at the beginning of show. This has worked, until I move to another space, or heaven forbid leave the laptop alone long enough for it to go back to sleep. Then, I have had some success just power-cycling the US-800 again to regain its majick.
I'm actually going to try forsaking the US-800 control panel altogether! I don't really want to monitor anything using it, aside for troubleshooting this mess, and not having it open *may* save my spaces issue! Granted that I may have to power cycle the US-800 3 or 4 times during a show, going in there to re-select sample rates and clock sources is going to be a headache. I'm not sure how relevant the clock source really is in the context I am using it. I think I've been setting it as the clock source for the aggregate device, but I'm not sure that the setting actually stuck after power-cycling it. I think it did. Perhaps I should change the clock source to be the UCA (in the Aggregate device), as I won't be doing anything to change it during the show. No idea how that would/should translate to the clock source setting on the US-800 control panel.
We've got a gig Friday night - I will be testing a lot of things, I think. Our sound checks are generally very short, as I've got the board pretty dialed in for our sound and stage preferences already. Often we just play a couple minutes with just the two guitars to make sure the guitar amps aren't too loud and are roughly even in output, then play a another couple minutes, maybe through a full song to check the room dynamics, feedback, vocal levels, monitors - and then do most of the fine tuning based on that. The bars we're playing in don't want the patrons to be subjected to a full sound check, and that is OK with me. As I'm thinking of re-setting all the input gains on the board, and setting the active speakers to (close to) full gain output on their amps, Friday may take a bit more work! I'll definitely be a bit more sensitive to the clock and sample rates, though - thanks for that tip.
I've spent most of today familiarizing myself with Reaper, and I think I've got it almost ready to go for Friday's show. I'm not sure how to handle recording multiple songs with no real break in between, but that isn't a deal breaker; with MTS I was recording entire sets and resetting everything during our breaks. (EDIT - I figured this out, now have my saving prefs all working properly to save on stop without prompting.)
I appreciate all your help, Jeff - and since Jimmy doesn't know how Mac-compatible the US-800 is, I hope our discussion will help other Mac users. I'll be posting successes as well as failures.
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Yaa..
I don't actually do anything with the control panel, just make sure I click on the clock source and sample rate once, then close it..
Also, I have not had any luck with the laptop going to sleep and not getting the weird noise. A clean reboot and I'm good to go...
Unplug US-800 power, REBOOT! (not wake from sleep), then plug it in after the desktop is up. Then launch reaper.. I wouldn't let the laptop sleep. I think that is probably the design flaw with the US-800, not designed properly for sleep..
Never have a problem if I do the procedure above.
I don't actually do anything with the control panel, just make sure I click on the clock source and sample rate once, then close it..
Also, I have not had any luck with the laptop going to sleep and not getting the weird noise. A clean reboot and I'm good to go...
Unplug US-800 power, REBOOT! (not wake from sleep), then plug it in after the desktop is up. Then launch reaper.. I wouldn't let the laptop sleep. I think that is probably the design flaw with the US-800, not designed properly for sleep..
Never have a problem if I do the procedure above.
Hi Everyone,
First post on this board so please excuse me if I accidently leave a door open or step on the cat.
I recently picked up the US 800 against the better judgement of the internet and am so far liking it, even if it is a little quirky. One of the biggest pains for me was having to unplug the unit on each reboot. I have three boot partitions on my machine and switch between them several times a day. Given that the US 800 is in a somewhat awkward spot and I'm not overly keen on plugging and unplugging cables in case they cause problems with the connections later on, I decided to steal the remote switch that the wife uses (or used) to turn on the Christmas decoration lights.
View attachment 71730
It works a treat and has reduced the amount of bad language the US 800 hears. Anyway, just thought I'd share than incase others are in a similar situation.
In terms of my experience getting the US 800 working, it was a little trial and error but for a reasonably short period of time. I can boil my advice down to:
1. While many drivers and applications will happily install from inside a zip file without extracting first (I got the latest driver straight off the site, didn't bother with the CD) - This driver is not one of them. I had a string of errors and had to the install "properly" the second time.
2. The US 800 is very sensitive about the company it keeps in terms of other USB devices and drivers that may be installed on your system (for me that is Win7 Ultimate x64).
3. As previously stated, it does not play nice on USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 ports are supposed to be backward compatible but my experience is that they are selectively backward compatible.
4. One of the setups I purchased the unit for includes Ableton Live as the Central DAW and Traktor Scratch Pro feeding into Ableton. This is very possible providing you don't want to run both applications on the same machine. Even with Traktor using separate hardware, its own dedicated 4 channel soundcard and connecting to the US 800 through 2 x 1/4 jacks into 3-4 - it immediately brought Ableton to a standstill. This was not a system resource issue either as the machine was barely being taxed. As of now I am running Traktor on a separate machine and all is well.
So I do have a question
I think I have something incorrectly set up or am misunderstanding how this unit works.
While I can happily output the sound that comes FROM the computer TO one of the three pairs of the soundcard outputs, I cannot do the same with the sound that is coming in from the MIC/LINE-IN inputs on 3 & 4. The 3&4 channels show a signal coming in on the Mixer tab of the Tascam control panel but I see nothing on the Output tab. Do I have something set up incorrectly? Is what I am looking to do not supported? Do I have a duff unit? I am really hoping its the first one as I quite like this unit and would rather not have to look for something else.
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Cheers,
SmiTTTen
First post on this board so please excuse me if I accidently leave a door open or step on the cat.
I recently picked up the US 800 against the better judgement of the internet and am so far liking it, even if it is a little quirky. One of the biggest pains for me was having to unplug the unit on each reboot. I have three boot partitions on my machine and switch between them several times a day. Given that the US 800 is in a somewhat awkward spot and I'm not overly keen on plugging and unplugging cables in case they cause problems with the connections later on, I decided to steal the remote switch that the wife uses (or used) to turn on the Christmas decoration lights.
View attachment 71730
It works a treat and has reduced the amount of bad language the US 800 hears. Anyway, just thought I'd share than incase others are in a similar situation.
In terms of my experience getting the US 800 working, it was a little trial and error but for a reasonably short period of time. I can boil my advice down to:
1. While many drivers and applications will happily install from inside a zip file without extracting first (I got the latest driver straight off the site, didn't bother with the CD) - This driver is not one of them. I had a string of errors and had to the install "properly" the second time.
2. The US 800 is very sensitive about the company it keeps in terms of other USB devices and drivers that may be installed on your system (for me that is Win7 Ultimate x64).
3. As previously stated, it does not play nice on USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 ports are supposed to be backward compatible but my experience is that they are selectively backward compatible.
4. One of the setups I purchased the unit for includes Ableton Live as the Central DAW and Traktor Scratch Pro feeding into Ableton. This is very possible providing you don't want to run both applications on the same machine. Even with Traktor using separate hardware, its own dedicated 4 channel soundcard and connecting to the US 800 through 2 x 1/4 jacks into 3-4 - it immediately brought Ableton to a standstill. This was not a system resource issue either as the machine was barely being taxed. As of now I am running Traktor on a separate machine and all is well.
So I do have a question
I think I have something incorrectly set up or am misunderstanding how this unit works.
While I can happily output the sound that comes FROM the computer TO one of the three pairs of the soundcard outputs, I cannot do the same with the sound that is coming in from the MIC/LINE-IN inputs on 3 & 4. The 3&4 channels show a signal coming in on the Mixer tab of the Tascam control panel but I see nothing on the Output tab. Do I have something set up incorrectly? Is what I am looking to do not supported? Do I have a duff unit? I am really hoping its the first one as I quite like this unit and would rather not have to look for something else.
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Cheers,
SmiTTTen
Well, last night I was recording a live show, but I wasn't using my board or sound setup, so I only recorded the main board mix through a Behringer UCA-200. I recorded with Reaper, and I was peaked almost constantly - the board was set up VERY hot, but since it wasn't mine, I didn't make too great an effort to re-set all the gains.
So, I brought the tracks up today, thinking they would likely be crap, and I was surprised to find that these may be the best tracks I have recorded of this band to date! There's a little pop and crackle from the hot gain, but nothing that can't be filtered out. Just throwing a little compression and a peak limiter, along with some additional reverb made the tracks very listenable. Maybe not quite live-recording CD master quality, but probably demo-worthy.
So, this was without the US-800. Also, without the Aggregate Device setup. (Also, without the UCA-202 and the Carvin board USB input.) And, without most of my drum mics (only mic'd snare and kick last night.) Back to basics, I guess, but it gives me a nice baseline to work from.
Tonight, I hope to try the US-800 by itself, the UCA-202 by itself, the UCA-202 and the board USB together as an aggregate device, and possibly all three with a lot quieter gain profile. I'm also going to talk to our bass player and see if he has an output level on his bass head for its line out, as it was pretty over-powerful last night.
I'll update tomorrow if I get some good results as to where the annoying distorted sound is coming from.
So, I brought the tracks up today, thinking they would likely be crap, and I was surprised to find that these may be the best tracks I have recorded of this band to date! There's a little pop and crackle from the hot gain, but nothing that can't be filtered out. Just throwing a little compression and a peak limiter, along with some additional reverb made the tracks very listenable. Maybe not quite live-recording CD master quality, but probably demo-worthy.
So, this was without the US-800. Also, without the Aggregate Device setup. (Also, without the UCA-202 and the Carvin board USB input.) And, without most of my drum mics (only mic'd snare and kick last night.) Back to basics, I guess, but it gives me a nice baseline to work from.
Tonight, I hope to try the US-800 by itself, the UCA-202 by itself, the UCA-202 and the board USB together as an aggregate device, and possibly all three with a lot quieter gain profile. I'm also going to talk to our bass player and see if he has an output level on his bass head for its line out, as it was pretty over-powerful last night.
I'll update tomorrow if I get some good results as to where the annoying distorted sound is coming from.
Yeah, I plan on doing something similar if I end up continuing with the US-800. Even just having it on a switched power strip that I can safely flip off/on would be an improvement over messing with the plug on the back of the unit each time.
>>Sedge
JimmyS1969
MOODerator
mjbphotos
Moderator
You don't want to use something like that, it relies on cutting one of the wires and bayonet inserts - pieces of crap. I've got my US800, reference amp/speakers, Mackie mixer and monitors on a power strip, wire-tied to my mixer desk legs, easy access and out of the way.
JimmyS1969
MOODerator
Yeah, that would be kinda ghetto......
R
RAMI
Guest
I love spaghetto. I'm hungry.