Tascam USB audio interfaces

I bought this unit at Guitar Center in Hollywood for $199. I needed a means to input audio into my computer for film work. Solidly built, simple interface, good input options. Attractive in appearance -- so it looks good beside your computer. My computer setup doesn't have space for a full-sized mixer, so the compact size of this unit is a major plus. When I first acquired it, the US-122 was guaranteed to work with Macintosh computers. It didn't -- at least, not for awhile. Tascam tech support responded quite promptly, to its credit, but I had to download a new driver from their website several months after the purchase, and then suddenly the unit started working. Now it does a fine job, but I felt I shouldn't have had to go through the hassle. Most of the bonus software that comes with the box (Cubasis, GigaStudio 24) couldn't be installed on my Mac G5. Finally, you obviously don't get the number of channels as on a real mixer -- it's not what this thing was designed for. Looks and feels very well built. The metal chassis feels like it can withstand a beating, even though it shouldn' t have to. The driver problem is what I had been really concerned about. Looking back, I think I might have been better off spending double the money and getting the Digidesign Mbox bundle, which is tried and true with Mac-based film-production systems. Still, after some hassle, this unit now does work with my computer and is doing its job, so at least I'm finally getting my money's worth. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this unit from http://www.GearTree.com for $180 including free shipping. all I had to do was call for a lower price. I purchased the unit because I needed a portable easy to use audio interface for demo recording. I love the fact that this unit comes with phantom power, 2 XLR inputs, and is powered bu the USB connection. These features make portability a snap - use on your laptop and bring it home for power editing on your PC. It works equally well on a Mac. I prefer faders for audio volume, but cost and space likely caused Tascam to include knobs instead. No big deal. Quality is rugged duty, and the unit has rubber feet that allow it to stay put. Knobs are plastic and might be vulnerable if handled roughly. Great piece of recording equipment, affordable. You can't beat this deal - especially the price I got from http://www.GearTree.com. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Tascam US 122 MK II is a very affordable small interface made by Tascam, and it accompanies the US 144 MK II. Both of these interfaces offer two microphone and two line inputs each. They are both very affordable and very portable, and they both include midi, headphone monitoring, and line outs. What the US 144 MK II has over the US 122 MK II is its inclusion of digital. This US 122 MK II does not. Another strange limitation that seems to both me is the lack of separate knobs for headphone and line outputs, which the 144 has. This bothers me because I find this lack of inclusion very convoluted, and nothing but a way to upsell the customer to the 144. Either way, the line and phone output situations should not affect a recording situation too much, especially since this device probably will not be used in a situation where the lines and headphones will both be used anyway. UTILIZATION The drivers for this are very stable, and the latency is very low from when I used it. I have heard some strange things about them being incredibly unreliable on 64 bit systems though, so if that is true, and this is a universal complaint, so maybe it is, then it would mean that this product is practically unusable, since most people have already moved to 64 bit systems. Buyer beware, and test this out before you commit to this unit. GETTING STARTED Personally, I have found that the drivers on the computer I tried this on to be very simple and run with incredibly low latency. The preamps on this machine were also very pristine, oddly enough. I found them to be entirely sufficient, especially for the use that I know this machine will see. So I am not worried by this. Again though, the drivers seem to not work on 64 bit machines, so be careful! OVERALL OPINION I love this interface for what it is. I has a couple of silly limitations like the lack of separate knobs for headphones and line outputs, and the strange driver issue on 64 bit systems. The truth is, while this is a good unit in its own right, I cannot really recommend it to anyone for these annoying problems!