Audio Interfaces 101

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:35 pm

Vista 64 bit is not a good choice for a DAW. Not because it's a bad OS, it's just not a good choice for recording multitrack audio at this point. I'd suggest getting a copy of XP Home Edition and starting over.

ujnhunter · Post by **ujnhunter** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:38 am

Vista in general is not a good choice for anything...

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:22 am

ujnhunter wrote:Vista in general is not a good choice for anything...

I thought that at first, too, but it seems to be sort of stable now after 200 or so 'security' patches.

Windows7 is supposed to be pretty good from what I hear.

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:31 am

Märk wrote:
ujnhunter wrote:Vista in general is not a good choice for anything...
I thought that at first, too, but it seems to be sort of stable now after 200 or so 'security' patches.

Windows7 is supposed to be pretty good from what I hear.

Mainly what I've heard about Windows7 is "It doesn't suck," which I think might be the result of lowered expectations from Vista.

Why can't anyone seem to design an OS that actually doesn't suck?

Post by **Lunkhead** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:42 am

Apple did, it's called Mac OS X. Reist, is it too late to return your new PC and get a Mac instead?

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:23 pm

Eh, it's all subjective. I've never been fond of working with Macs, even OSX and beyond.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:57 pm

Lunkhead wrote:Apple did, it's called Mac OS X. Reist, is it too late to return your new PC and get a Mac instead?

Why would he have to do that? He could just install OS X on his PC and save himself a thousand bucks.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:19 pm

Whether or not that would save him $1k is debatable. We'd have to know the specs of his new PC. Whether or not he could actually get OS X working on his new PC is also debatable. From what I've read it's not necessarily a straightforward process. Whether or not he'd subsequently have hardware support issues is, again, debatable from what I've read. Mac OS X on a Mac would be likely to "just work". Of course, I'm only judging from my personal experience. I've never needed to regularly wipe my hard drive and reinstall my OS. I don't need to worry about having one PC for music recording and a separate one that's connected to the Internet, so that my music PC doesn't get ruined by malware. I've never had a problem with FireWire audio interfaces not working, or with my computer not even having FireWire (though that's an issue with new Macs). I've never had a problem with sound mysteriously breaking. Etc. etc. etc. Anyway, I'm going to stop there because I'm going to be written off as a "crazy Mac zealot" at this point, most likely...

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:44 pm

Well, it's certainly not as easy to plop an OS X disc in a PC and install. This is mainly because Apple didn't want people doing that. They only want OS X running on their own hardware, so they put some preventative measures in there. Other than getting around these issues, it runs fantastic on PC hardware, because that's what it was written to run on. Mac Zealots used to rave about Apple hardware being so much better than PC hardware, now it's the same hardware. Then they raved about how much better OS X is than Windows. Now OS X runs on clone hardware. Really, unless Apple drops the price of their hardware (by like 50%) I see absolutely no reason to buy a Mac. I do, in fact, like OS X, perhaps even more than Windows (certainly more than this abortion called Vista) which is why I took the time and effort to get it running on my Toshiba laptop.

It's okay to be a zealot, as long as you provide some good reasons for being so

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:35 pm

Lunkhead wrote:Apple did, it's called Mac OS X. Reist, is it too late to return your new PC and get a Mac instead?

No macs for me, they cost too much. I don't want to spend twice the amount on a computer with the same power. I'm just going to go return the interface (if I can) and buy one that actually supports a 64 bit OS, and I already reported Tascam to the BBB for their shady treatment of customers.

ps - in my rage, I googled "tascam sucks" to find some information, and josh woodward's site was the first to come up. Weird, eh?

ujnhunter · Post by **ujnhunter** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:43 am

But wait... I like my Tascam interface...

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:09 pm

ujnhunter wrote:But wait... I like my Tascam interface...

Then you just better hope it doesn't break...

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:56 pm

ujnhunter wrote:But wait... I like my Tascam interface...

Me too - I've had one for years and it works perfectly.

...but then again - I have a Mac

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:42 am

ujnhunter wrote:But wait... I like my Tascam interface...

Do you use vista 64 bit? I loved my interface until I made the switch.

ps - I traded my tascam and 200 bucks for a roland interface, and it works perfectly, right out of the box.

ujnhunter · Post by **ujnhunter** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:15 am

Nah, Vista 32 bit. I have no need for a 64 bit operating system, everything I use is 32 bit.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:20 pm

ujnhunter wrote:Nah, Vista 32 bit. I have no need for a 64 bit operating system, everything I use is 32 bit.

Yeah, I would've gone 32 bit if I had known it was going to screw me over so badly.

nyjm · Post by **nyjm** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:33 pm

They can pry my Windows XP from my cold, dead hands.

This is a great thread, folks. To further the discussion, I am now curious. What's the difference between these various A/D interfaces (Tascam, etc.) and the Line 6 POD Studio UX1 I bought as a virtual amp for my electric?

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:24 pm

nyjm wrote:They can pry my Windows XP from my cold, dead hands.

This is a great thread, folks. To further the discussion, I am now curious. What's the difference between these various A/D interfaces (Tascam, etc.) and the Line 6 POD Studio UX1 I bought as a virtual amp for my electric?

I don't know - but I used to just plug my acoustic into my Tascam and got away with some reasonably convincing electric guitar imitations.

Earlier this year I finally got around to buying a Stratocaster - and I have been a bit unimpressed in some ways with my recordings. I doubt that the Tascam is the problem though - probably more the amp sounds on my Mac. I am thinking of trying one of those pod things

ujnhunter · Post by **ujnhunter** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:28 am

Caravan Ray wrote:Earlier this year I finally got around to buying a Stratocaster - and I have been a bit unimpressed in some ways with my recordings. I doubt that the Tascam is the problem though - probably more the amp sounds on my Mac. I am thinking of trying one of those pod things

Native Instruments is running a 50% off sale on it's Guitar Rig 3 software right now I believe. Not sure if that's what you're looking for though.

nyjm · Post by **nyjm** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:50 am

Caravan Ray wrote:I am thinking of trying one of those pod things

Do so. I love my POD; it gives me an unbelievable variety of tones and they all sound great.

Now I just have to get a decent microphone and see how the pre-amp settings sound.

... my God, 350 dollars Australian? That's like... $ 272.80 U.S. Damn.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:16 pm

nyjm wrote:... my God, 350 dollars Australian? That's like... $ 272.80 U.S. Damn.

...and I think about $5.4 billion New Zealand

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:43 pm

Caravan Ray wrote:I don't understand much of anything - but I bought one of these a few years ago:

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-122.html

and it just made everything so much easier.

I used to plug straight into the computer and it sucked. This Tascam thing is probably not the best of what it is - but I would place it (or something like it) very high on my priority list. I would rather have it and a crappy guitar and mic. Than a good guitar and good mic and nothing.

My unit is about 5 years old now - but it cost me about AUD$300 back then and has been worth every cent.

But on the other hand - if you have no problems with what you do now (I did - listen to the bad "hiss" on a lot of my early Songfights)) - there is probably no reason to change anything

2 years since this post - and some 7 years since buying the unit - I think my Tascam US-122 is starting to die. I have been getting a lot of bad staticy sound and hissing recently. Unplugging and reconnecting seems to make it go away - but next time I turn on - it it there again. Annoying more than anything - but I guess 7 years if a pretty good life for a piec of kit such as this.

Any suggestions on a replacement? Something cheap, idiot proof and with an input for 1 guitar and 1 mic (phantom power) is all I need.

My local shop has one of these (albeit at $100 more than MF):
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/computer ... -interface

Anyne had any bad experiences with these?

Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101

Re: Audio Interfaces 101