Sound problems with Tascam US122L on Windows 7

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Hello,

My Tascam interface behaves fine on OSX and did so on Windows XP. However I'm now running Windows 7. I've upgraded the firmware and drivers accordingly.

Every now and again the output from the interface sounds like it's going through a bit crusher. Sometimes it can run normally for hours. And sometimes it happens every 20 minutes.

It's really starting to piss me off.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I know it's a budget interface and I should probably upgrade but it seems to run fine on my Macbook and I suspect it's something to do with Windows 7.

Thanks in advance.

Rich
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Though I have had different problems, I have found that the latest drivers helped the massive glitches I found for my US144. Originally I had thought the problem to be that the 64-bit drivers were flaky, but when I tried the latest drivers (which are now the second-latest) on XP 32-bit, the same flakiness appeared.

Is this occurring only during using the ASIO driver? Are ordinary Windows sounds alright? I still have a strange issue with my playback, so I've switched to using ASIO4ALL on Windows 7 for my US144, which I find operates just fine (as I only have issues, now, with ASIO playback (before it was with any playback)).

That's all I can say really. You could try contacting support! I highly recommend it, but they have been terrible with quite a few customers, with limited, unhelpful and even rude support sometimes. It's still good for them to get feedback though, so I'd let them know about this.
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Sounds like a driver issue, I had a similar problem with the M-Audio 410 with their earlier Windows 7 x64 driver. Only way to work with it was to make sure that I was only using one audio program at a time. Make sure your system sounds are turned off and that you're not browsing the internet when you're recording.
tr309 wrote:Hello,

My Tascam interface behaves fine on OSX and did so on Windows XP. However I'm now running Windows 7. I've upgraded the firmware and drivers accordingly.

Every now and again the output from the interface sounds like it's going through a bit crusher. Sometimes it can run normally for hours. And sometimes it happens every 20 minutes.

It's really starting to piss me off.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I know it's a budget interface and I should probably upgrade but it seems to run fine on my Macbook and I suspect it's something to do with Windows 7.

Thanks in advance.

Rich
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druid wrote:Though I have had different problems, I have found that the latest drivers helped the massive glitches I found for my US144. Originally I had thought the problem to be that the 64-bit drivers were flaky, but when I tried the latest drivers (which are now the second-latest) on XP 32-bit, the same flakiness appeared.

Is this occurring only during using the ASIO driver? Are ordinary Windows sounds alright? I still have a strange issue with my playback, so I've switched to using ASIO4ALL on Windows 7 for my US144, which I find operates just fine (as I only have issues, now, with ASIO playback (before it was with any playback)).

That's all I can say really. You could try contacting support! I highly recommend it, but they have been terrible with quite a few customers, with limited, unhelpful and even rude support sometimes. It's still good for them to get feedback though, so I'd let them know about this.
It's occurring now even when just listening to audio streams from the BBC iPlayer. I haven't tried ASIO4ALL with it yet.

I'll try Tascam support and see what they say. I'll give ASIO4ALL a spin as well.

Thanks,

Rich
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i have the us-144 on a Windows 7 x64 system (and a us-122L before that), and i have had no problems whatsoever with no need for asio4all. i use it every which possible way at the lowest latency settings with no glitches. i would start looking at other possibilities as the source of your problem
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Dominus wrote:Sounds like a driver issue, I had a similar problem with the M-Audio 410 with their earlier Windows 7 x64 driver. Only way to work with it was to make sure that I was only using one audio program at a time. Make sure your system sounds are turned off and that you're not browsing the internet when you're recording.
As I mentioned to Druid it happens at any time even when listening to online radio streams not necessarily when I'm in my DAW. It has happened when offline as well.

I'll see what Tascam have got to say. I'm leaning towards a driver/Windows 7 issue but not sure.

Rich
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I've sent a support email to Tascam/Teac. My experience of customer support from audio companies has not been great in the past so I'm not getting my hopes up :P E.g. M-Audio have terrible customer support - you can wait weeks to get a reply.

This is what I've sent:

"I have a Tascam US122L. Every now and again the sound starts becoming really distorted and crunchy as if the bit-rate is being reduced. I ran the interface on Windows XP for a long time with no problems. I've since had to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit which is when the problems started to appear. I do also sometimes run the interface on my Macbook Pro and have experienced no problems with this.

Are there driver issues with the interface and Windows 7 64 bit? Is there anything I can do?"

See what they say.

R
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did you find a solution ?

I think I have the same problem. (Every now and again the sound starts becoming really distorted and crunchy as if the bit-rate is being reduced.)
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Yeah we've got exactly the same problem running a Tascam US122l in windows 7. I agree that it's incredibly frustrating because it seems to happen randomly without any definable trigger, we have also tried updating everything possible but to no avail! Please let us know if you get a response from Tascam as we are desperate to find a solution to the issue.
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yeah, i got the exact same thing. do we know yet if it's just a 64-bit issue? i'm thinking of putting windows 7 32-bit on my mac mini so maybe i can test it out.

and maybe we should all send them an email?

jack.
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I hazard a guess at yes...we've switched to an alternative soundcard which seems to have solved the problem...so it looks like an issue with Tascam drivers and windows 7 64-bit bells and whistles!
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phlegmboy wrote:...so it looks like an issue with Tascam drivers and windows 7 64-bit bells and whistles!
yep, i ran it for a while last night under windows 7 32-bit and didn't encounter the problem.

(i actually got some sound out of it under fedora 13 too---very proud of myself, i'm a bit of a linux noob---but that's a different story.)

jack.
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I hate reading about this stuff, but I'm glad you guys are weighing in on it.

I've had a US-122 for years. Works great on my XP system, but I'm really skittish about upgrading anything because my current system really works well, even though it's not 64 bit, etc.

When Tascam first introduced the newer model with USB 2.0 compatibility, I bought it but eventually returned it because it just didn't work right. Kept updating the firmware, etc., but it was really finicky.

I'm probably a year or so from a new machine with Win 7. But I'm very interested in what you guys find out here. I may well wind up tossing Tascam and getting into the E-MU stuff or another budget (working) interface.

Cheers
-B
Berfab
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partmush wrote:
phlegmboy wrote:...so it looks like an issue with Tascam drivers and windows 7 64-bit bells and whistles!
yep, i ran it for a while last night under windows 7 32-bit and didn't encounter the problem.

(i actually got some sound out of it under fedora 13 too---very proud of myself, i'm a bit of a linux noob---but that's a different story.)

jack.
Now there's an idea...haven't tried the 32 bit option but i suppose it might be worth a go....for all the hastle it's caused we're still really attached to the us122 so it would be a shame to give up on it!
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I've got exact the same situation as described above. My Tascam US-122L was working fine on my previous laptop with Vista but now on my new computer with Win7 64bit it is giving exact the same problem as other(s) have.

The last days the noise moments are shorter but also more often.
I asked Tascam support and they replied with the following email.

Before you update to the latest driver 2.0 and up you must up date your firmware to the earliest driver 1.12 with the 1.12 driver install first.
- If you have the 2.0 0r the 2.01 driver installed, you have to uninstall it with the 2.0 install/remover first. Before you uninstall or in stall make sure the unit is unplugged.
- If you have a PC just use the installer and when the section when it ask if you want to install or remover it says if you select remove, your computer will restart
- Install the 1.12 driver your computer will restart
- Install the 1.12 firmware
- After installing the firmware Unplug your US144/122l and uninstall the 1.12 driver with the 1,12 remover
- Install the latest driver 2.00/2.01 with the unit unplugged. For PC user wait until the installations ask you to plug in your unit.

I have done eveything, and all the installations and uninstallations worked fine but the end result stays the same.

Does anyone else have more news?
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