TASCAM US-800 user experiences, tips, etc.

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This 8 in, 2 out interface is on sale again for $99. I bought one back in 10/2011 for that price.

I'm curious as to other owner's experiences. TASCAM doesn't host a forum, but perhaps we can do one here.

I've had a couple go arounds with both audio and midi tracking/mixing with this device.

Pros:

1. The mic preamps seem pretty danged clean. Much cleaner than I expected for $99. I would say they are better than on my PreSonus FireBox. Unfortunately I can't do a shoot-out between the devices. Don't expect loads of gain with dynamic mics. I have an ElectroVoice PL80a (designed for stage use, unidirectional, etc.) and have to crank the pre-amp input knob to 100% for close-mic'ing a classical guitar. I know, not an ideal mic for the situation, but I 'run what I brung'. Still a nice clean signal but I would have liked perhaps another 5-10 dB of gain.
2. While connected to the computer, the device can function like a mixer, don't need your DAW software open to set mic levels.
3. It is 6 mic or line inputs, with phantom power, for $99 - almost unheard of.

Cons:

1. You MUST wait until your PC is completely booted, before powering up the unit - otherwise Win 7 will not see the device.
2. You MUST reset the latency on the unit's GUI each and every time you use it - hassle.
3. I was at the middle of a 3 hour recording marathon (that's a marathon for me, don't have the kind of time I used to for this stuff) and Win 7 decides that it no longer recognizes the device - right in the middle of a tracking session. Crackles, then just plain stoppage of the DAW software. Had to exit all the way out of DAW software then reboot Win7, turn on the unit, reset latency to my desired setting, etc.
4. TASCAM customer support takes over a day to reply to inquiries. The unoffical but only existing tascam message board/forum is a pay-for service - can you believe that? It's a small fee, but still, you would think Tascam could host something like this without charging customers. They choose not to host any user-contributed help and allow an outside entity to do this.

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i have the tascam us1641 not the us-800 but atleast it might give you an insight.

the drivers/card are fast but very temperamental. crash a bit but using asio4all the tascam is much more stable than the tascam written one. asio4all seems to work perfectly except the delay compensation calculation is way out. but that can be editted in asio4all.

watch out for tascam equipment's spec. they like to use balanced inputs only on their kit.

hope thats ok for you.

on the whole i would recommend them as the prices are very good value.
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Anyone else?

Depending on the phase of the moon, mine will work and then not work. I'll be tracking away, and then Windows 7 says "Hey, that device just decided to stop working - so sorry!".

Very frustrating. I see that it seems like it has disappeared from major online retailers in the US. I'm guessing it's a turd product, quickly introduced then just as quickly removed.

I'm ready to wage war with customer support, one slow e-mail at a time.

It's a useless product if I can't rely on it.

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rockstar_not wrote:Anyone else?

Depending on the phase of the moon, mine will work and then not work. I'll be tracking away, and then Windows 7 says "Hey, that device just decided to stop working - so sorry!".

Very frustrating. I see that it seems like it has disappeared from major online retailers in the US. I'm guessing it's a turd product, quickly introduced then just as quickly removed.

I'm ready to wage war with customer support, one slow e-mail at a time.

It's a useless product if I can't rely on it.
Are you using MIDI in\out or just audio I\O, ASIO app's or also windows App's (they have a memory leak in windows app's)?

So far since November using only audio ASIO with no MIDI device connected the US-800 has not given me any problems with crashes. As long as the unit is switched on after OS boots (kind of a pain in the *ss). And yes I have to reset the buffer at every boot (another pain in the *ss). Now that is with no MIDI connection which I need (real big pain in the *ss).

Sent a support ticket in December got a reply to call support, so I did the guy was useless and just said I think we are working on the driver. So another support mail sent in January after about a week I got a reply that said they are working on new drivers. Been a couple weeks so we will see what happens?

Please help me and yourself by contacting them until they fix this driver, I will keep the mails being sent to them also.

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I'm starting to be able to diagnose issues with the unit and have generally avoided failures the past several nights of use.

1. I connect the US-800 directly to a USB port on the laptop. I was using a powered usb hub on the other available port on the lappy, but only when i'm sitting at my recording desk. I've not had issues with the US-800 when I'm just using it alone with the lappy, basically no issues. I believe it's actually the hub that hiccups and when it does, even though the US-800 isn't plugged into it, USB is a SERIAL bus, so when one device in the chain takes a poop, the rest follow suit. Remove the powered hub, no issues with the US-800

2. I added a wireless mouse to this laptop a month or so ago. After I had done the latest US-800 drivers. So I killed the US-800 drivers and re-installed from the 1.0.4 drivers, then to the 1.0.8 drivers.

Since then, it's been nearly trouble free; excepting all the stupid power on sequence and latency resetting issues you eluded to.

With that said. somehow the control panel for the US-800 does remember a different latency setting than the largest buffer. When I fire up the control panel, it's using 240 samples, rather than the unusable 576 samples. In the past, it would always default to 576. Why it's now remembering 240, I don't know. I am able to cut that to the lowest setting at 192 and I'm glitch free still with several tracks running.

I do think that Tascam is on thin ice with this product, however. Last time I actually got a reply from tech support, they said there were no plans to update the driver. There's a reason this thing has been on fire sales at Musician's friend, for $99, while the rest of the line-up costs more, even for lower channel counts. I think that Tascam knows it's a bit of a turd product.

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rockstar_not wrote:I'm starting to be able to diagnose issues with the unit and have generally avoided failures the past several nights of use.

1. I connect the US-800 directly to a USB port on the laptop.

2. I added a wireless mouse to this laptop a month or so ago. After I had done the latest US-800 drivers.

Since then, it's been nearly trouble free; excepting all the stupid power on sequence and latency resetting issues you eluded to.

With that said. somehow the control panel for the US-800 does remember a different latency setting than the largest buffer.

I do think that Tascam is on thin ice with this product, however. Last time I actually got a reply from tech support, they said there were no plans to update the driver. I think that Tascam knows it's a bit of a turd product.
For #1 Yeh! forgot to mention I did have a crash when trying to use an external USB drive with the us-800 connected with no app running. Bad solution but I now make sure the card is Off when using any other USB ports for drives.

#2 I am using the us-800 on a laptop with USB keyboard and mouse with no problem. Actually its connected with a KVM switch so I can use the same keyboard, monitor and mouse with my desktop also.

For the buffer setting, when I reboot the us-800 shows the last set buffer size in the control panel. But in the booted applications ASIO settings it shows that it is at 500? So I have to reset at each OS boot.

Yep kind of a "turd" but of all the problems I am having, I still think they could be resolved with a proper driver. MIDI is the worst problem I am having even if I make sure the MIDI device is off when I boot an app I still get blue screens when I close the app.

Kind of a shame its not a bad sounding interface. All is not totally lost I received this reply from Tascam on January 27

2012-01-27 11:30:02
Hello Joseph,
Thank you for contacting TASCAM.
Our customer support representative, RBlanco, has written
the following response to your message:


Joseph,

We are in the process of developing new drivers for that unit. Hopefully they will be available soon. If you registered your product on our website then you should receive emails when any updates have been done.

Joe

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I do have to say that the pre-amps are pretty danged quiet for what I paid for the interface.

I sure hope they do a usable driver.

-Scott

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FrettedSynth wrote:
rockstar_not wrote:Anyone else?

Depending on the phase of the moon, mine will work and then not work. I'll be tracking away, and then Windows 7 says "Hey, that device just decided to stop working - so sorry!".

Very frustrating. I see that it seems like it has disappeared from major online retailers in the US. I'm guessing it's a turd product, quickly introduced then just as quickly removed.

I'm ready to wage war with customer support, one slow e-mail at a time.

It's a useless product if I can't rely on it.
Are you using MIDI in\out or just audio I\O, ASIO app's or also windows App's (they have a memory leak in windows app's)?

So far since November using only audio ASIO with no MIDI device connected the US-800 has not given me any problems with crashes. As long as the unit is switched on after OS boots (kind of a pain in the *ss). And yes I have to reset the buffer at every boot (another pain in the *ss). Now that is with no MIDI connection which I need (real big pain in the *ss).

Sent a support ticket in December got a reply to call support, so I did the guy was useless and just said I think we are working on the driver. So another support mail sent in January after about a week I got a reply that said they are working on new drivers. Been a couple weeks so we will see what happens?

Please help me and yourself by contacting them until they fix this driver, I will keep the mails being sent to them also.


I have one too..I can confirm the midi prob in win 7 prof 64.
Midi with the latest driver can't be used..just crashes and Bscreen.
So I use it for audio alone together with separate midi in device.
Works flawless..stable use with Tascam drivers.
Great sound..low price etc..
Very happy with it.

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Sorry for resurrecting a pretty much dead thread, but didn't want to create a new one.
Tascam was supposed to be making a new driver for US800 but still nothing available. Anyone in the know?

Only reason why this interface sucks is because of the driver. I stay well away from the MIDI in, and have to keep using on-board sound card through SPDIF to avoid all the trouble.

It makes me somewhat angry because it cannot possibly take this long, and part of me thinks why this went out for $99 is because they couldn't make it work.
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another US-1641 used here, using it in my i7 Samsung laptop... and I can (and do) run the unit at its lowest latency setting when using it with a single 'average' softsynth (or MIDI devices), and regularly run moderately complex projects at 256... so I'd say its a unit-specific thing...

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I still have random issues with it. Most often just the thing where it disappears right while I'm tracking. Crashes the DAW. Have to shut down the whole system and start over.

I don't use MIDI with it - my controller keyboard is a USB Midi interface.

-Scott

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I have already sent an email... like a week ago? To Tascam. No answer. I am wondering whether Tascam takes customer service seriously, as there is an only half-functioning driver and the promised driver update hasn't been here for 15 months. Right! 15 months. I am done buying stuff from Tascam.

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Take note that nearly all other US-xxx or US-xxxx products are still available at higher prices. Something about the US-800 is wonky and TASCAM knows it. We should all get rebates. This thing is discontinued while products released before and after it are still selling at their intended original prices.

Probably not enough of us to do a class-action lawsuit. But nonetheless, it would be nice to have a functioning interface.

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rockstar_not wrote:Take note that nearly all other US-xxx or US-xxxx products are still available at higher prices. Something about the US-800 is wonky and TASCAM knows it. We should all get rebates. This thing is discontinued while products released before and after it are still selling at their intended original prices.

Probably not enough of us to do a class-action lawsuit. But nonetheless, it would be nice to have a functioning interface.
Yes, we bought it, we knew there were problems, but who thought a developer would not develop an actually working device for 15 months? Price might have been cheap because they were not fully stable at that stage; but a business should not be selling products because they think it may never fully function. That's plain fraud!

We should really get some rebate or should be able to trade it in for a higher model. We waited long enough -- and we aren't even sure if they are making one.

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schnapsglas wrote:
rockstar_not wrote:Take note that nearly all other US-xxx or US-xxxx products are still available at higher prices. Something about the US-800 is wonky and TASCAM knows it. We should all get rebates. This thing is discontinued while products released before and after it are still selling at their intended original prices.

Probably not enough of us to do a class-action lawsuit. But nonetheless, it would be nice to have a functioning interface.
Yes, we bought it, we knew there were problems, but who thought a developer would not develop an actually working device for 15 months? Price might have been cheap because they were not fully stable at that stage; but a business should not be selling products because they think it may never fully function. That's plain fraud!

We should really get some rebate or should be able to trade it in for a higher model. We waited long enough -- and we aren't even sure if they are making one.
I also think they should either release a working driver or offer some type of trade.

The first response I had from them said
"2012-01-27 11:30:02
Hello Joseph,
Thank you for contacting TASCAM.
Our customer support representative, RBlanco, has written
the following response to your message:


Joseph,

We are in the process of developing new drivers for that unit. Hopefully they will be available soon. If you registered your product on our website then you should receive emails when any updates have been done."

So I registered and got no notification for new drivers. Sent an email about a month ago to RBlanco got only a short reply to say "I am sorry there are no new drivers for that device. I have to agree with schnapsglas that its fraud to sell a device without giving the potential customer information that the device don't work.

Joe

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