Tascam US122 Quiet

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Drewdt3

New member
I've just taken delivery of a Tascam us 122. Being a newbie it is the first decent sound card that i've used. CAn anyone tell me why I have to have the nic volume completely up to get a decent recording level on the pc. Is there something that I could be doing wrong? or are these units quite quiet anyway. On the good side it's loads quieter (noise wise) than my old onboard sound card. I thought the headphone valume might have been a bit louder too. \perhaps i'm expecting too much. I'm using audition 1.5. Can anyone suggest anything??
 
Dunno bout the Tascam, but I've got a Zoom DAW, and I have to crank the levels when I'm recording as well. I was surprised by that too. But the sound that goes to disk is pretty quiet, so I'm not too bothered by it. Maybe weak preamps is a feature of affordable DAWs?
 
Ditto when I was using a US-428. I don't seem to have the same problem with my current setup (Terratec ADAT sound cards) but maybe I've just gotten used to it. I remember several years ago, when I first started out with Cool Edit Pro 1.2, it irritated me that I couldn't record at the level I was used to with tape. I was using an analog mixer and a Lexicon sound card with a breakout box then.
 
The headphone out on the US122 isn't very loud, so I usually run the line out to a small mixer to boost the volume in the cans if I need it. I've always been able to overload the inputs with my RØDE NT3. If you're recording at 24 bits, you don't need to get all that close to 0dB anyway.
 
Drewdt3 said:
I've just taken delivery of a Tascam us 122. Being a newbie it is the first decent sound card that i've used. CAn anyone tell me why I have to have the nic volume completely up to get a decent recording level on the pc. Is there something that I could be doing wrong? or are these units quite quiet anyway. On the good side it's loads quieter (noise wise) than my old onboard sound card. I thought the headphone valume might have been a bit louder too. \perhaps i'm expecting too much. I'm using audition 1.5. Can anyone suggest anything??
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What microphone are you using? A dynamic mic (like the SM57) will have lower output than a condenser and require more preamp gain. The pres on the US122 only put out about 45-50dB of gain, IIRC. Software/Hardware compression or limiting can be used to boost the gain, if needed. However, once you sum all your tracks together, you may not need it.
 
Thanks

:) Thanks for all your replys, I feel better now that I know it's not a faulty unit or that I'm not doing anything wrong. I've only tried it with an SM57 at the moment but am just about to order a Studio Projects B1 which I believe are a very good condensor mic for the money then I shall start in earnest and try a song. Any views on the Studio Projects mic would be greatly accepted
 
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