Tascam US-144, Garageband - I'm just starting...need help!
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Posted on Feb 17, 2010 12:12 am
Daniel Magnuson
Member Since: Feb 16, 2010
I just bought a Macbook Pro OS X 10.6.2 "snow leopard". I bought the audio interface device Tascam US-144. My goal is to begin recording my guitar music (archiving my compositions). I have no recording experience. I'm pretty sure I'm hooking things up right. I read through the manual. I updated the drivers so it's the latest drivers from the Tascam website. Garageband recognizes my device, that is to say, it shows the words Tascam US144 as an input source on the screen. However, the recording level is all the way down and locked so I can't adjust. When I play my guitar, I'm not getting any readings within the track header....no red indicator lights within the level meter are flashing at all. I've done a lot of reading and researching on this issue but have not found in depth solutions. So, I decided to sign up to this site and see if anyone with experience could help me walk through some solutions or work arounds. I need someone to point me in the right direction. I've been playing guitar for 20 years...not going to give up easily on recording. Thank you, Dan
P.S. Just as I posted this I'm going to bed. Will see in 24 hours if any responses. Have a great night all. Mags
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Nate Mc.Formally Hydrial69Member
Since: May 06, 2009
Feb 17, 2010 12:16 am hey man! welcome,
i have the same interface and use it often :P
your levels all the way in are all up? that would seem to be my first potentail issue, do you know anything of signal chain? if so, let me know what your signal chain is, right from the guitar all the way to the computer if you can, helps me/you track down where anything major can go wrong
Feb 17, 2010 12:29 am I will work on setting up tomorrow. None of my guitar stuff is out right now. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT OR DIE TRYING. I've been pumping myself up for years about recording. First off...please speak to me like I'm in kindergarden when it comes to recording lingo or concepts. I know zilch....ZILCH! So...signal chain. What I can do is tomorrow...set up...then email what I tried and what all the buttons looked like. If you have any ideas, like if you could type a walkthrough that might help me. Tell me where cords should go...or what channel I should choose or should I turn phantom power on or off (I just read "off" as I'm not using a condenser mic...which I didn't even know what that was). Do I need to change something in the system prefences regarding sound? Do I need to adjust settings on my guitar. I'm using an acoustic guitar. So tomorrow...signal chain...I'll work on that. Thanks again. Dan
Nate Mc.Formally Hydrial69Member
Since: May 06, 2009
Feb 17, 2010 01:07 am well the us-144 will give you signal lights if its getting signal, so step by step, ill give it a shot for yea ;)
for a simple as you can get guitar set up, something like this is good:
guitar --> amp
Amp headphone jack, our output preferably, if it has one ----> input in 144 (make sure its input not insert)
so now its in an input on the 144, which is controlled (if like my older one) there is a nob, make sure you turn the input on a or b, or both to be sure, up and you will see there is a "signal" light (on my green, once again may be older) and it will flash if the signal is getting that far,
from there its all digital and unsoally more specific problems, so let me know if you can get yourself to the point of getting a signal indicator light on your 144, and we can work from there
hope this isnt to wordy :S good luck
oh an phantom doesnt matter but i'd keep it off if not needed.
so yea, if you have any questions, i live near my computer so hit me up on msn, or an email, and ill get back to you asap, which wont be long
[email protected]
[email protected]
Feb 17, 2010 06:28 pm It's 5:30 PM here Thursday. My 20 month old was up all last night....so I am heading to bed early tonight. I might wait another 24hrs before trying. Thanks...maybe I'll just email you the next time I devote some time to working on this. Thanks again....Dan
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 17, 2010 06:47 pm Welcome to the HRC Daniel, you certainly shouldn't fret (ha, see that pun there), we'll get your connections sorted.
I'll add a few more questions,
are you using a Microphone on the Amp's speaker? if so, then what microphone? You say not condensor, so yes, it's good to keep the phantom power turned off. No need to add any electrical signal where you don't need it (on the preamps).
If you're plugging a microphone into the MIC IN port (3 pin XLR input) then you would need to play the guitar and change the INPUT L dial so that there's signal light flashing or steady on (maybe green, or orange), but not the OL Red, which means overdrive or maybe overload. Anyway, Red is bad.
This is called 'gain staging'. You're setting the amount of 'gain' the preamp is using. This is like saying how 'hard' the preamp is going to listen to the incoming signal.
If you use the RIGHT side of the device, you can plug a guitar into the LINE IN R jack, and slide the switch to GUITAR. Otherwise, if you're using a Microphone, then keep the slider on MIC/LINE. This only applies to the RIGHT input, as the LEFT doesn't have the mic/line/guitar switch.
I think if you get the gain turned up appropriately, then you should have enough signal in your program.
Let us know if you're plugging directly from the guitar to the us144 as well, as that can change things a bit.
I have the older version of the US122, so I've knocked about a bit with this too, like Nate above.
Let us know how your getting on, and we can help further.
Feb 17, 2010 10:14 pm Thanks guys,
Screw it...I just set up....sleep can wait a bit. Here is some more information about how I'm going about this and what I'm observing.....
1. I'm using an acoustic guitar and plugging right into the Tascam US-144. I am plugged into line/Guitar IN R...and the input R toggle switch is on Guitar.
2. Phantom is off. I'm starting simple and just trying to lay down a simple guitar track. Singing.....that can wait a bit.
3. I set all the 5 round dials (Mono Mix, Line Out, Phones, Input L, Input R.) in the middle. Not sure what they all do or what purpose each serves. I'll discover that later...but that might be a variable in not getting the signal through...not sure.
4. USB light is solid green and steady. The input R light was on and pulsating a few minutes ago before I set all the dials to the middle. Now...there is no green light flashing at all for the Input R...hmmmm.
5. I just turned all the dials to the right and when I strum I see the green light come on as I strum....so that seems good. I just discovered that.
6. Moving on....I'm not sure if Mono should be turned on or off. I think I'll leave it on for now.
7. Nothing else to report about the actual USB device...let me move to the computer.
8. One question I have is which....wait...I just started messing in the computer and realized I had the audio output set as US-144. I changed it so just the input was the US-144 and the output was the built in mic. I've been playing now for about an hour and so far so good. I'm recording. Whew...that was a first big hurdle. I am really excited. Thanks guys. I will stop back with my next set of questions soon enough I'm sure....especially once I start doing voice recording. Thanks, Dan
4.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 18, 2010 01:04 pm Sweet, it's always fun when things start making more sense.
Mono can be turned off, but no big deal for now.
INPUT L and INPUT R will certainly have an effect on what signal is getting to the PC. They are like a little floodgate: the higher the dial, the more signal passes from the INPUT to the USB -> PC connection. So you need to turn the INPUT R dial up (to the right) so you see the green signal flashing, but NO RED. If it flashes RED when you're playing loud, then turn down the dial a little bit, like 1 line on the dial.
Change your output to where you want the playback signal to go. This can be the US144, but you'll need to hook some sort of speaker setup to the US144 outputs. You don't want built-in mic as the output, that's kinda strange that it even would let you, but oh well.
If you have to turn up the INPUT R dial all the way, that means the the guitar isn't sending a real HOT signal. You are compensating for now by turning the gain all the way up, and it's working, so I wouldn't be real worried about it, but I just wanted to mention that preamps (the INPUT R dial) can make noise, that gets recorded, if they're turned up all the way. There are ways to adjust this, so it's a bit more proper, but don't worry much about it for now.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 18, 2010 01:07 pm I'm curious as to how you're listening to the sounds played back. Internal speaker? computer speakers plugged into MAC?
Feb 18, 2010 08:35 pm Thanks for the feedback. I was messing around with recording for a few hours last night. Lot's of fun. I think the next step is how to get the most pure sound. There were some pops/cracking but very minor and every time I even moved a little the mic was picking that up as well. So...I'm just experimenting with settings on the guitar, the Tascam, and the computer itself. I'm just listening to the recordings using headphones or the computer speakers. I have my whole little recording studio set up in my kitchen on about a 3 ft by 2ft countertop section. Here are a few questions.
On my guitar...
Do I need to mess with notch, phase, blend, contour, frequency? Should I be concerned at all with these buttons? It's a built in Fishman pickup.
Tascam...
If I want to start recording voice do I record it while I'm playing or do the guitar track first...then the vocal track? Maybe it puts too much data on the interface to do both simultaneously. Not sure.
Thanks for your help. Dan
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 18, 2010 10:37 pm Quote:
Do I need to mess with notch, phase, blend, contour, frequency? Should I be concerned at all with these buttons? It's a built in Fishman pickup.
Not sure about those, I'm thinking you have 2 pickups, so you can have them in phase or out, blend the two together, or one or other. The contour and freq sound like EQ.
Quote:
If I want to start recording voice do I record it while I'm playing or do the guitar track first...then the vocal track? Maybe it puts too much data on the interface to do both simultaneously.
You can do both at the same time. 2 tracks is pretty easy for most computers to track without problem. But, to go back and edit later, for this you may want to track them separately. I would set up a click track of sorts, either a simple drum loop (boom, tick) or a metronome of some sort. Then record the guitar part over the click in a new track. When that's in good, then go back and listen to the guitar track, but record a vocal track on a new track in software. Then each take can be focused on individually.
But, that said, I've seen some people who need to do both at the same time, which sux because you'll get guitar in with the vocals, then you can't keep them separate.
But, to each his own, i guess. Try and see. Experiment is key, and experience is the best result.
Mar 04, 2010 09:25 pm Hi, I'm buying a tascam us144 in a week, and since having CERO experience in recording but a lot in playing, just wanted to know where to hook up the monitor speakers, thanx
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Mar 04, 2010 11:43 pm If the monitors are powered (they have their own amplifier built in) then you can connect from the outputs of the US144 directly to the speaker inputs. Cables with proper ends may need to be purchased, but patch cords should be the ticket.
If the speakers are passive (no amplifier built in) then you'll need some sort of amplifier. Then connect from us144 outputs to the inputs on amplifier, then connect from amplifier outputs to the speaker inputs.
I've used a bookshelf stereo receiver thing as a cheap amplifier before, and it worked pretty well. My monitors are powered now, so I connect from my interface directly to my speakers.
Please be a little more detailed on what you're using, what gear and models, and we can usually be a lot more detailed in the answer.
Mar 08, 2010 05:14 pm I will, but for now that was a big help!!!, thanks, I will be posting any troubleshoots as soon as I get it, cause I know I will have.
Mar 10, 2010 09:58 am any one got a boss br 1600.
badcatMember
Since: May 31, 2010
May 31, 2010 02:39 pm Hello, I am new to this forum and its already helping me hook up my Tascam 144 to my new iMac, but I am not there yet.....I have good green signal in on the Input to the 144 but can't see signal in GB, I have the input and output set as the 144 in GB but I am expecting to see some color in the signal bars in GB? How can I test this?
thanks for any help.....
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Jun 01, 2010 01:36 pm Please start a new thread. This one is already associated to someone's issue.
