[PlanetCCRMA] Tascam US-122 on FC5/CCRMA

[Dan Easley]

On 1/2/07, linuxmedia4@netscape.net <linuxmedia4@netscape.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been keeping emails and storing information on Audio/Midi
> interfaces that people have used on their Planet systems. I'm ready to
> purchase one now and I *really* like the Tascam US-122 and just wanted
> to get more info from anyone using it with their FC5/CCRMA setups.

Firstly, there is a US122L and a US122 - they're demonstrated here:
http://www.audiomidi.com/US-122L-P8289.aspx and here:
http://www.audiomidi.com/US-122-Interface-P3628.aspx respectively.

The US122 has apparently been discontinued.

According to a post Derek Pidhirnyj made to this list yesterday,
there's no linux support for the US122L currently - no firmware
available.

I have a US122 and use it with a laptop running FC5/CCRMA.  I only
ever really use freewheeling, timemachine, and sometimes jack-rack.
It's gotten through an hour-and-a-half on stage without crashing, but
it has crashed randomly during most rehearsals.

I used this guide to set up the US122 - this takes care of
automatically loading the firmware and drivers on power/connection -
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~mcs/tascam_us122/

I followed the quoted reply in this post to use the experimental
driver which enables low-latency performance (which was a requirement
for me) - http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/pipermail/planetccrma/2005-February/008274.html

Perhaps I'm spoiled by the rock stability of the M-Audio Delta series
of pci cards, which I've had great results with, but I'm not convinced
that the us122's a good solution - and I worry about usb devices in
general.  I found setting up the thing to be a fairly arduous process,
and it still crashes more than I'd like - but the problem could be
with the tascam, with my laptop's usb system, with the applications
I'm using, or with me - I haven't managed to track it down yet.  If I
could rethink the purchase I'd try to find a supported PCMCIA card.
I've no experience with firewire/freebob devices but I worry about
their newness - they do look shiny, though.

i can't speak to bit-depth - i've only run it at 44.1/16-bit.  i've
run an SM-58 into it as well as cheap electric guitars and keyboards,
and they all sound fine.  i like the hardware volume knobs but they
feel flimsy and i'm nervous moving it about.  I like the balanced XLR
inputs and absolutely detest the RCA outputs.  I have to use an
adapter to run my laptop ungrounded, otherwise I get a horrific
groundloop hum out of those things.

hope that helps.

-- 
daneasley@gmail.com
dan@towndowner.com dan@burntpossum.com
http://towndowner.com http://burntpossum.com