Tascam Us-1641 USB 2.0 any good?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:43 am

Im looking to buy a new interface, move up from the stereo one i have now, Any comments about the performence of the unit, or suggestions of other units i should get

I dont Run any other USB devices on my laptop and i only have a 4 pin firewire port, but i can get a PCMCIA card for 6 pin if anyone has a firewire interface in mind that blows this one away

Thanks everyone.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:20 pm

Do you want to be able to go portable?
A PCMCIA card to hook up a 6 pin Firewire for Live concert recording is a great idea.
With this Tascam you will only be able to record in 96Khz, as opposed to the Firewire units such as the Yamaha GO46 which will record at 192Khz, but with only two XLR inputs.

http://yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/0,,CNTID%25253D64703%252526CNTYP%25253DPRODUCT,00.html

How many simultaneous tracks do you wish to record through USB with the Tascam?[/url]

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:00 pm

I just got mine a few days ago from sweetwater. I paid $350 and I love it. I like the amount of inputs/outputs and the layout. I don't have any complaints. It sounds good for my home studio. I'm pretty much using it to record multiple tracks (like tracking drums) then I import the tracks to protools and mix from that. I use my 1641 along with an mbox 2 mini. The mbox isn't the best but I'm familiar with PT. I really like the tascam, not too shabby.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:35 am

First of all recording at 192K is idiotic as it has been pointed out several times to Mr. Filmmusic. Please stop suggesting this to people who may not have a clue. 192K is great if you have the hard drive space and the monitoring system and acoustic space that will allow you to take advantage of it. Since of course most of us end up converting our files to 16bit 44.1k files, any benefits there might have been to a high res file will be all but lost. END OF STORY. Don't bring it up again! Misinformation is NEVER a good thing and though I can't help but think you are a victim of such, stop propogation this nonsense!

Secondly, I have to question how many physical inputs this Tascam can record simultaneously since it is USB 2.0. I know that the site suggests that the throughput is sufficient but, it's not continuous throughput.

KHilbert want to fill us in on how many simultaneous tracks you are able to record? It would be great to have the experience of the person that owns one.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:45 pm

hueseph wrote:

Since of course most of us end up converting our files to 16bit 44.1k files, any benefits there might have been to a high res file will be all but lost. END OF STORY. Don't bring it up again! Misinformation is NEVER a good thing and though I can't help but think you are a victim of such, stop propogation this nonsense!
.

Don't bands and artists make Music Videos nowadays? If so, then nothing needs to be converted to 16 bit 44.1 kHz from 24Bit 192kHz.

The CD is the Stone Age.
Many (tons) of people have DVD players built into their cars which play 192 kHz.
If millions of people watch DVDs in their autos, then logic says they can listen to DVDs also. Might even be safer.

I really would like to understand your point though.
Please consider this wisdom from Neil Young in his decision to release his albums on DVD instead of the old CD format ...

"There won't be CDs. Technology has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're able to actually present it."
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Article3638.phtml
[url][/url]

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:09 am

More misinfo. Please leave it alone. You think that Hi Res is where it's at? Explain the IPod.

192k is nice but how many people do you know that have DVD audio players? Do you have one?

Edit: as it has been pointed out before Audio for Video for the most part is still 48k.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:09 pm

filmmusic2008 wrote:

hueseph wrote:

Since of course most of us end up converting our files to 16bit 44.1k files, any benefits there might have been to a high res file will be all but lost. END OF STORY. Don't bring it up again! Misinformation is NEVER a good thing and though I can't help but think you are a victim of such, stop propogation this nonsense!
.

Don't bands and artists make Music Videos nowadays? If so, then nothing needs to be converted to 16 bit 44.1 kHz from 24Bit 192kHz.

The CD is the Stone Age.
Many (tons) of people have DVD players built into their cars which play 192 kHz.
If millions of people watch DVDs in their autos, then logic says they can listen to DVDs also. Might even be safer.

I really would like to understand your point though.
Please consider this wisdom from Neil Young in his decision to release his albums on DVD instead of the old CD format ...

"There won't be CDs. Technology has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're able to actually present it."
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Article3638.phtml
[url][/url]

There is a large difference between what technology is available, and where the future might go---and where the majority of the buying public still is at present.

Just because everyone has a DVD player, doesn't mean they use it for music. Most people don't even have a sound system that can take advantage of the sound quality provided by a DVD player. Most people still use CD's, or they've moved over to digital with iPods, which is a lower khz than CD anyway.
So, for someone running a home or project studio, how likely is it that anything they produce will ever be released on DVD? Will recording anything in 192 ever benefit the things they produce in those settings? Not for a long long time.

A good analogy is small video business like Wedding Videos. Yeah, the technology is there to record these in HD, and sell them an HD-DVD of their wedding---but most people still don't have an HDTV or a player. So the cost of buying HD production equipment doesn't yet make sense for what you can actually sell.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:05 pm

Just tested recording 6 tracks at a time and had no problem. I'll be testing more in the future but I had no problems as far as anything dropping out (happens every once in a while when I'm recording with my mbox mini on my laptop). I haven't tracked for extended periods or with more than 6 tracks yet though. When I do I'll fill everyone back in. I like this thing so far. Easy to install, easy to use, lots of inputs and flexible outputs. At the price, you get a lot!

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:38 am

Well, I just got my Tascam US1641 earlier today, so I'll soon be able to tell you what I think. So far, I think the headphone out is really underpowered (into AKG 240s [55 ohm]). I'll really be putting the US1641 to the test, because at the moment, I'm running it into a Dell Pentium III 600mhz (640 RAM), running Windows XP--which is about 1/3 of the MINIMUM computer they recommend. Frankly, I'm surprised the thing even installed.

Luckily I already had a USB 2.0/Firewire Combo card installed about 6 months ago when I needed to capture some video from a Sony firewire digital 8 handycam to make a DVD for my band (Cabin Fever http://youtube.com/billallyn). Surprisingly, I was able to capture 1.5 hours of video without a dropped frame (over firewire).

Of course, I have every possible service and startup program turned off so that there are only 17 processes running (_only_ 17?!?!--how ridiculous!) at startup, and I spent about 3 or 4 days tuning the computer to get it to not drop frames. No 3D, no menu animations, etc.--my XP looks more primitive than Windows 95, seriously... But I like it that way.

I'm using Adobe Audition 2.0. I haven't bothered trying to install Cubase 4 LE, which comes with it. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to sync this unit with my Echo Layla 24/96. There's no word clock in or out on the Tascam. And Audition will let me select Tascam inputs or Layla inputs, but not both. I don't suppose you can sync them up using the SPDIF jacks? I kinda doubt it.

I'll let you all know how things go. And in a few months when I get a real computer, I'll let you know how that goes. Any ideas on a good cheap computer for digital audio? If I could do it under $600 (box only), that would be nice. And I don't have any problems building it myself if it comes to that. Let me know if any of you know any good deals.

Also, when I have time, I'll do a write-up about my band's (Cabin Fever) recording project last month, and make a few mp3's available for you all to critique. It was a very interesting project...

And lastly, I'm a noob here, so a big hello to all, and I'm glad I found this place.

Bill Allyn (billallyn@gmail.com)
billallyn.com
deweesbros.com (my band, Cabin Fever)

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:24 am

I'll bet you can "daisy-chain" the inputs from Layla and Tascam using SP/DIF...

BTW, I had a TASCAM US-122 that I thought was excellent... Frontier Elec. made the guts. Don't know about the bigger ones...

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:12 am

BillAllyn, have you given any consideration to just upgrading your CPU/mobo/RAM?
Unless you have to change from DDR to DDR2 you can even keep the RAM.

Granted that you're basically buying a box but minus the case, graphics card and hard drives; and you might even want to swap them.

Just remember that you don't need to buy a whole new uberbox 9/10 times.

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:18 pm

Well, I plugged into all 14 (analog) channels of my Tascam US1641 and recorded for a minute or two--definitely a no-go--no big surprise there, since my computer is damn near 10 years old. I then recorded 6 channels, which worked, but when I tried to play it back, it choked, and wouldn't play normally until I rebooted the program, and then it played fine. Bottom line is, my computer just ain't good enough for this thing. But I've been planning on retiring it (put it in the kitchen for internet recipes, tunes while cooking, and such) and getting a new one, so this just lights a fire under my butt.

Here's a few more thoughts on the US1641:
1. Phase inverters on several of the channels would have been nice.
2. More headphone output (although it sounds pretty good).
3. Word clock would really be nice
4. The signal lights work pretty good
5. Better efficiency--the USB driver creates quite a load on the system (cpu usage fluctuates between 15% and 30%) even when you are idling and doing nothing. If the box is on, it's causing the load. My Echo Layla 24/96, on the other hand, runs at 1% cpu load until you're actually using it.

--Bill Allyn

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:19 pm

I'm getting the last of my pieces together and should be tracking drums (6+ tracks) within the next month or so. I'll let everyone know how well it works. I'm excited because I used it last night to record a violin, bass, guitar trio and it sounded awesome. I really like the 2 line/guitar ins on the front (The violin player had a dean markley pickup that she stuck on the violin body. sounded pretty good) because I was able to plug the violin in (with the preamp engaged) and the preamp out of the bassists amp in (no preamp) really easily in my small one room studio.

I'm slowly turning my dinning room into my live room and I'm going to run 2 outputs stereo into the headphone amp in there. I do have a question though. Will this give me a delay problem? If I'm tracking drums and bass at the same time will the bass be delayed in the headphones since it has to go into the 1641 and sonar then out to the headphone amp? If there is delay is there a good way to solve the problem (small mixer: input from bass preamp then outputs 1 to 1641 and 1 to headphone amp)?

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:37 am

I have owned the Tascam 1641 for 2 weeks . Although there is a bit of a learning curve with configuring inputs/outputs, and so forth, it appears to be everything it's advertised to be. I record 8 tracks simultaneously with no problem - so therefore this is proof that the 2.0 usb is quite capable of recording multiple tracks. There are many bottlenecks, and certainly an older computer with a pentium chip is not going to cut it - short of recording one track at a time. I decided from the getgo to get the best PC I could, so I started with a Quad Core, added 4 Gig of RAM (Windows can use 3 max), added a 500 gig data drive (I should add another 500G at Raid 0 for dual access) and I am not experiencing any problems. Again, I do run into configuration issues with I/O but that's because I'm still learning. I'm only using the Cubase that comes with the unit currently (I've spent my $ on everything else) but will likely upgrade to Sonar 7 or Protools in the near future.

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 8:37 am

Sonar? Ok. ProTools? NO. Only Digidesign or M-Audio products work with ProTools LE/M-Powered.

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