Tascam US-600 with CCK -- does it work?

[DrApostropheX]

Looking around, I'm not seeing a lot of US-800s left on the market, so I am wondering if the still-available US-600 also works with the CCK for recording multiple inputs on an iPad. Is anyone using a US-600?

[Breeze]

Quite simply:no. The US-800 is the only one of that series that understands core audio and core MIDI. It couldn't have done well for them as a product overall for them to blow them out at less than a 1/3 MSRP and leave the drivers in the incomplete transitory state they're in (esp. on the PC)

But with the growth of Multi-channel audio recording and playback on the iPad, I wouldn't be surprised if they're not waiting in the wings to see how Auria and Multitrack DAW do before they make something new like an "IU8" or "US-800 Mark II".

[DrApostropheX]

Thanks for the info! That is very helpful and saved me a potentially costly misstep! I imagine the same is true of the US-144mkii and its siblings: no CORE audio/MIDI support?

[Breeze]

I imagine the same is true of the US-144mkii and its siblings: no CORE audio/MIDI support?

When I looked into it the mkii's didn't support Core Audio/MIDI either, though I think the version 1 of the 122 or 144 did; however it's an older design and hard to find, so I passed.

BTW, Auria keeps an active list of viable interfaces on this page.

Multitrack DAW has some reports of viable interfaces on their forums, but it isn't always actively updated.

And another BTW: the US-800 is a workable iOS interface and you can get on with it, but there's a lot of things wrong with it: it overheats over time, there's no way to set it up directly from iOS (you have to set up the I/O using the Mac or PC setup utility, keep it powered and then plug it into the CCK/iPad), it uses unusual audio buffer sizes (doesn't work with PT), the Mac drivers are tolerable, but the PC drivers totally suck, the converters are decent but certainly not in same class as almost every other box on the Auria list, and worse of all, Tascam seems to have completely given up on it and support is really EOL. It was worth getting when it was cheap; if you can find one in the $100-150 price range I'd say its worth it, but over $200 I'd start looking for something else.

[DrApostropheX]

Thanks again for the great advice and the links. I won't set my heart on a US-800, then. To be honest, I'm looking seriously now at that ART Dual USB thingie. I like that it can provide phantom power on its own (via a 9V battery). I don't need a ton of inputs, but I would like to get something that can provide more than just 16-bit/44.1kHz via the CCK.

[Breeze]

...but I would like to get something that can provide more than just 16-bit/44.1kHz via the CCK.

I'd investigate that carefully because currently with iOS 5.0.1, 16/44.1 is the defacto standard output rez and that's not up to the interfaces capabilities. Only the Multitracks seem to be able to do more because they've done their homework and found the workarounds. Until the standard output resolutions gets upped directly in Core Audio by Apple, most apps will default to the system's 16/44.

I would like to see Apple provide a proper Audio/MIDI control panel in the iPad preferences like they've done with OS X. That would go a long way towards streamling things for us and the devs.