Tascam US-122MKII

The Tascam US 122MKII is a USB 2 channel interface. It has switchable phantom power right on it. There are two XLR inputs for mics and 2 low noise microphone preamps. It comes with Cubase LE 4 and works great with multiple DAW software programs so you do not have to use it with Cubase LE if you do not want to.

UTILIZATION

This interface was pretty easy to set up, the preamps are quiet and have headroom. On Mac operating systems is where I ran into some issues with it. I had a fast processor and I was running a newer version of Macs OS X but for some reason it would not recognize it all of the time. It only would about 50 percent of the time and I would have to unplug and plug it back in for it to recognize it.

GETTING STARTED

On my Windows computer running XP 32 bit service pack 3 it ran smoothly every single time. I have even run it on a Vista system before and it never had any issues.

OVERALL OPINION

This interface gets its power from the computers USB port and it is very lightweight making it portable. There are MIDI ins and MIDI out 5 min connections. The sampling rat is 44.1 48 kHz, 88.2 and 96kHz. This interface did come with a manual (book) and I also had a PDF manual for it as well but never really needed to look at it. If you are a Mac user, I would not recommend this interface because there are some compatibly issues that can arise. Windows users will love this interface and the preamps in any software they choose to use it with.
This interface was pretty solid and could withstand a lot of use, the side panels where made of aluminum and it never let me down. I recommend it (to Windows users).

This is a really small interface, the Tascam US 122 can be purchased online used for really really cheap. I was surprised by how cheap a used one was, so I looked to see how much it was brand new and it wasn’t much more. After seeing the prices on them, I was curious on how it sounded, after getting one I can say that the sound was great, the latency was basically absent and the quality was very clean and precise. I also noticed when I used a cheaper mic with it that the quality was not so good at all. So it really comes down to the daw and the mics that you will use with interfaces. That is my theory, so paying a lot of money for an interface really isn’t necessary , only reason I will pay a large amount of money for an interface from this point forward is for the ability to record multiple mics and instruments at the same time, and to have a rack able unit.


UTILIZATION

I didn’t find anything wrong or negative to say about the Tascam US 122. I have been using Tascams products for years now and they always hold up and never cause me any problems. Between them and Behringer, those are the two best small interface providers in my book.


GETTING STARTED

No manual was needed everything is labeled and very easy to understand.


OVERALL OPINION

You will love using the Tascam US 122, its easy to use, and small. It will give you great recording quality as long as you have a good mic or at least a decent mic to plug into it. Invest more of your money into a good mic and good cables and get the Tascam US 122 used for around 45 dollars and you will have a good setup.

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!