USB Interface question

[Mark Wein]

Hi guys....

I had a quick question regarding the Tascam US1641 interface...I did a search and found a question but no real anwers here:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2051593&highlight=Tascam+US1641

I own a small music school and in my office I have a Mac/M Box/Protools 8 recording setup.

We have one large classroom with a PC in it and I ran across this Tascam USB interface with 8 mic preamps for $350 and thought it would be cool for recording classes, doing small student demos and tracking drums that I could walk a hard drive down the hall to my office and dump into protools for the rest....

anyway.

Does anyone know if this is a piece of garbage? Its cheap but it might fill a gap until I take the plunge on something more substantial. Our studio will also be offering desktop reoding classes later in the year and I think it might be cool to have at least one PC -based setup to work with....

Thank in advance!

Mark

[Phil O'Keefe]

Hey Mark,

I have not tried that Tascam, so I can't give you a thumbs up or down on it. Cubase LE is actually pretty cool though. If you're going to be teaching recording, there may be an advantage to having multiple programs available, but OTOH, you'll need to be up to speed on both, so staying with a Digidesign [or M-Audio] interface and Pro Tools for the second computer may make sense too.

[Mark Wein]

Thanks Phil!

I actually have instructors in the studio who are real engineers (as opposed to me...I guess I'm more of an "engineer of convenience" :o) who will actually be teaching so I'm not worried about that so much as just not buying something that has a reputation for not working.

I think it would be cool to have a variety of platforms available since not every "home engineer" has Protools but I'm still in the research phase for a recording program here. I took my own last recording class in 1989 and haven't kept up to date much in the last several years....:)

[Thrashy]

I have had one for a little over a year and it does exactly what I want it to, It has been very solid for my uses, I'm not a pro (my recordings show that :)) but I use it in a rack with a compressor, EQ, couple of VST's and reaper and it is fine on the three computers I use it on,( none are special)