REVIEWED TASCAMUS-1800
Tascam’s new USB 2.0 rack mountable audio interface offers a wealth of great features at a very tempting price…
Words: Hayden Hewitt
With home recording becoming ever more accessible these days there comes a point when many of us have reached the limits of what a simple project studio set up can accomplish. Before long we start to look at ever more complex (and expensive) gear to help us get that one step closer to pro-level results. Tascam have stepped up to the plate with a range of USB 2.0 Audio interfaces which deliver the goods for a surprisingly reasonable price.
On the rack
The US-1800 sits close to the top of the US range and is a rack mountable audio interface with 16 simultaneous inputs and four simultaneous outputs. Yes, you read this correctly – all of the US-1800’s
TASCAM US-1800
SRP £310.00
All prices include VAT CONT
ACT
Tascam UK T:
W: 01923 438880
www.tascam.co.uk 30 3pickup
inputs and outputs can be used simultaneously, which makes this unit perfect for live recording too, besides which the US-1800 also offers pretty much all most home recording folks would need in terms of connections. The analogue inputs comprise of 8 separate XLR inputs with phantom power assigned to mic groups 1-4 and 5-9. Your first instinct might be to mourn the lack of phantom power per channel but if you really analyse how you use most of your mics this
and MIDI ins and outs. Everything here is certainly laid out in a logical and straightforward manner and the ‘stripped-for-action’ approach conveys the feel of a serious piece of kit that is perfectly focused on the job in hand.
In Use
Setting up the US-1800 to work with our test computer was easy. We simply hooked up the unit to the computer via the USB 2.0
high standard and in a home studio where you need all your gear to multi task the Tascam works very well with a variety of media including video and vocal chat without complaint (7.1 surround fans should probably stick with their SoundBlaster cards though). Clearly this isn’t the main reason for choosing a high quality audio interface like this so it’s time for us to head over to Cubase and do some tracking. It’s nice to find that Cubase LE comes bundled in
With the US-1800 we were tracking quickly and accuratey without detecting any ‘feel’ or zero latency issues…
probably won’t end up being too much of an issue. Moving to the right on the front panel you get two rather clever ¼-inch jack inputs that allow you to choose between line level and instrument level input signals, matching the input perfectly to its intended use. Also on the front are the channel gain knobs along with dedicated monitor and headphone outputs (the US-1800 also features zero latency monitoring). Moving around the rear of the unit you are treated to four more (balanced) line in connections along with your digital
port, installed the drivers from the provided CD, and it was all done and dusted. As a sound card we certainly have no complaints about the US-1800, audio quality is of a
with the US-1800 which is a nice touch that adds extra value but we can’t help wondering if it’s actually something people who are buying this sort of interface need? Most
The US-1800’s control panel presents hassle-free monitoring between the raw signal and your computer’s processed output.
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