Tascam US-1641 USB 2.0 Audio Interface Review

[jforbesii]

How have you been getting past the latency issues and the strange noises during playback?

[CraziFuzzy]

Originally Posted by jforbesii

How have you been getting past the latency issues and the strange noises during playback?

Can you be a little more specific about what issues you are concerned about? For the high number of channels, I feel the latency is quite good, and I have not heard any issues on playback.

[jforbesii]

during playback for overdubs, the latency is quite high between headphone time and recording time. also there is a strange high frequency noise during playback that comes randomly and last for 20-30 secs at a time.

[CraziFuzzy]

Originally Posted by jforbesii

during playback for overdubs, the latency is quite high between headphone time and recording time. also there is a strange high frequency noise during playback that comes randomly and last for 20-30 secs at a time.

I've only been playing with it for a couple days now, and I have niticed that latency is high, but it hasn't really been an issue, as I haven't done much in the way of overdubs. I use Sonar 7, which does a pretty good job at the correcting for the latency.

I havne't heard any strange noises from the system, other than finally having the fidelity to realize how crappy some of my mics/instruments are.

I am currently using my onboard nvidia usb, which i hear has some issues with the tascam 1641. I am going to get an addon card and see if it allows me to go down on the latency any, but as I said, it isn't that big of a deal for me right now.

[jforbesii]

Well I have an aftermarket 2.0 card just for the unit. Run the drives off of firewire. I have multiple sound cards so I can use those for overdubs, but the wierd noises during playback are intolerable.

[CraziFuzzy]

Originally Posted by jforbesii

Well I have an aftermarket 2.0 card just for the unit. Run the drives off of firewire. I have multiple sound cards so I can use those for overdubs, but the wierd noises during playback are intolerable.

Sounds like you've got a defective board... I'd try to get it repaired/replaced. Are you hearing the noises on a specific output? I have not experienced anything like that with mine (at least, I haven't as of yet).

[jforbesii]

I think its a little easy to say that there is a defective board, especially when the noise is unexplainable. The track record fine and play back fine 90% of the time. The other 10% there is a strange noise. It could be the machine, the computer, or the USB 2.0. The latency issue is definitely the machine. Overall though I am happy. Just want the noise to go away.

[BBJones]

I've definitely not had any issues like that. I have a new and very fast computer which I'm sure helps a lot. But I've been doing lots of overdubs and have zero playback noise and no issue with latency at all. I'm running mostly audio tracks but do also use midi and run upwards of 20 tracks (16bit) full of inserts with no problems so far.

[Ryan D]

Sounds like a USB 2.0 issue to me. I had latency + balls-tighteningly loud random noise issues when I ran the US-1641 on the same hub as my TonePort UX2 and wireless mouse and keyboard.

Surprisingly enough, it worked quite well most of the time, but there would be a dropout and a loud, loud noise every 10 minutes or so. I suggest buying a separate PCI USB 2.0 card for ONLY the US-1641 if it's do-able. They cost $10 from Newegg and usually have free 3-day shipping.

[jforbesii]

I actually already bought a new USB 2.0 Card. The Tascam is the only thing plugged into it, so I don't know what is going on.