Description
The TASCAM UX-16×08 captures 16 mic and line inputs to your computer with clear sound quality and advanced features to manage big sessions. Eight Ultra-HDDA microphone preamps deliver the cleanest and quietest operation in their class while delivering up to 57dB of gain. An additional eight line inputs are provided, two of them switchable to instrument level for direct guitar or bass recording. Built into the US-16×08 is a DSP mixer for low-latency digital mixing. The US-16×08 can also be used as a standalone mic preamp. Whether using the ergonomically-designed angled desktop stand or mounting with the included rack ears, the US-16×08 includes enough I/O for almost any music recording application.
From the manufacturer
Features at a glance
- Ultra-HDDA (High Definition Discrete Architecture) mic preamps with −125dBu EIN
- Eight Ultra-HDDA mic pres with XLR connectors, eight TRS inputs
- Standalone mode for use as an independent mic preamp
- Support for Windows and Macintosh
- +48V phantom power available for all microphone inputs
US-16×08
USB Audio Interface / Mic Preamp
The TASCAM US-16×08 captures 16 mic and line inputs to your computer with clear sound quality and advanced features to manage big sessions. Eight Ultra-HDDA microphone preamps deliver the cleanest and quietest operation in their class while delivering up to 56dB of gain. An additional eight line inputs are provided, two of them switchable to instrument level for direct guitar or bass recording. Eight balanced line outputs are also available, two with a level control on the front panel for monitoring.
Built into the US-16×08 is a DSP Mixer for low-latency digital mixing. Each channel has four-band EQ and compression for polished-sounding monitor mixes. In addition to interface mode, the US-16×08 can be used stand alone as a standalone mic preamp. Mac and Windows drivers are provided, as well as USB Class Compliant 2.0 drivers for tablets like Apple’s iPad. MIDI input and output are also available on the rear panel.
Main Features
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
Ultra-HDDA Mic Preamps Deliver Low Noise& Low DistortionTASCAM’s Ultra-HDDA (High Definition Discrete Architecture) mic preamp design is based on discrete components, just like classic professional gear. They achieve an incredible EIN rating of -125 dBu, meaning their noise level is practically below the range of hearing. Other impressive specs include a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 dB, out-speccing anything in its price range. But instead of judging the design merely by test measurments, key components were selected following extensive listening tests. |
Rock Out with Amp Simulator Software using the Guitar InputsThe first two channels can be switched to direct guitar inputs. They’re ideal for direct recording of electric and acoustic guitar and bass without the need for a preamp. Use them with amp modeling software, like the TH2 effect included with SONAR X3. * Guitar effect plug-ins sold separately. |
Angled design provides excellent usability on a desktopThe angled design makes desktop viewing and operation much more comfortable for tabletop use. All other interfaces have their controls on the front or the top of the device, causing you to crane your neck to read the knobs and switches. The US-16×08 are at a natural angle, making operation easier to keep you creative. A pair of rack ears are also included for use in a standard 19″ equipment rack. |
Separate Volume Controls for Headphones and Line OutputThe US-16×08 includes both headphone and line output volume controls. Even when both powered monitors and headphones are connected, the user can set an optimum level for each during operation. And when you want to work on headphones, you don’t need to reach around to switch off your monitors. |
Sleek Industrial Design Inspires Creativity
These powerful new interfaces are housed in modern industrial designs that are as ergonomic as they are stylish. TASCAM was the first company to offer a USB audio interface, and we have fused our years of experience with acclaimed German from designbox.
TASCAM’s new US series satisfies the needs of musicians from an aesthetic as well as ergonomic perspective. With its unique honeycomb structure on the side panels, the main body has a sense of weight while also maintaining a delicacy that matches the user’s needs. Honeycomb structures are a feature of modern architecture, but are also a vital resource whose exceptional technical structure we can use in design. As this structure is found in nature, it has a stability and flexibility which comes with being an organic form.
-Axel Hartmann@ designbox
designbox : A German audio design company founded by Axel Hartmann and Stephan Leitl in 1995, designbox has worked on famous music industry products such as synthesizers, effect pedals and amp simulators.
Amazon Customer –
After 2 years of owning this product as a fulltime musician and audio engineer, my thoughts.I don’t think I’ve written more than two or three product reviews in the past 5 years, but having had so much experience with this product, the good and the bad, I wanted to offer input for anyone trying to decide. For background, I’m an audio engineer and musician full time and this is my primary audio interface, since I record live drums often. For those looking for the cheapest option to record a fully mic’d kit (and then some), this is it. 16 mono inputs, 8 outputs, and midi 5-pin give you a lot of versatility. I can’t speak to the quality of the live mixer as I use it solely as a USB interface.GOOD STUFF:You get 8 xlr inputs, with the option to switch on phantom power, grouped by two switches (1-4 and 5-8). Two more 1/4″ inputs on the front give you the option to switch between balanced line or instrument cables for each. The pre-amp for the instrument switch isn’t great, it isn’t terrible. It doesn’t degrade your raw guitar/bass sound, but doesn’t improve it all that much either. The primary line outs don’t seem to color the sound output whatsoever, having taken extensive audio measurements of my studio and compared it with the response charts (through REW) of other audio interfaces. –if you’re not sure what I’m talking about in this last sentence, all I mean is that the sound coming out of the interface is accurate and clean, compared to some interfaces which will alter your sound output, for the better or worse.THE NOT SO GOOD STUFF:The Windows drivers supplied by Tascam, as many have said, are terrible. After owning this product for two years, and downloading every update, including the most recent one released about a month ago (writing this review in July 2020), the primary issue has not been been fixed. That is, the latency will begin to drift over time, no matter your buffer settings. This means, that if you’re using these Tascam drivers to record drums or guitar with say, a 10 minute song, the audio itself will actually stretch and even if you have god-like timing, the recorded audio will begin to gradually drift off time and by the end could be as much as a 16th note off of what you played. Also, as someone who uses a lot of VST instruments, live monitoring is practically worthless as before long, it sounds like the buffer settings have been maxed out. HOWEVER, if you use Asio4all (the generic asio driver for windows), the issue is nonexistent. In terms of capability as a sound card of handling tons of processing, it’s not terrible, it’s not great. I have a powerhouse desktop I built myself purely for music work, and the weak link in my set up is the interface, as a lot of other interfaces I’ve used tend to provide slightly better processing before I need to start messing with my buffer settings.Also, my first device stopped working inexplicably within two weeks, not registering a usb connection on either end, but Amazon replaced it immediately and this one hasn’t had issue in that regard since. It has survived everyday all day use for two years and even made it through a move undamaged. So I’m going to chalk my first product up to a one-off defect, but thought it was worth mentioning.RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THIS PRODUCT:DO NOT USE THE TASCAM DRIVERS ON WINDOWS. Use Asio4all.As I’d imagine this will be the first serious audio interface for many people buying it, make sure you’re doing research on the proper way to set up audio connections. Use balanced cables to connect to your monitors, know when to use the switches for line vs. instrument or the ones on the back labeled +10dbu and -4dbv.It’s a great value for a budget interface, and I’ve been using it for two years, but my next interface will definitely be something more reliable and capable, specifically in terms of drivers. Owning this interface has showed me firsthand why people will pay $1500+ for an RME, which is probably what I’ll upgrade to in the very near future to have something long-term.
Amazon Customer –
Great Sound Quality, Affordable, Quirky with WindowsThe Good:There is a lot to like about this Tascam 16×08. It is advertised as 16 inputs and 8 outputs. While it has 16 physical inputs and 8 physical outputs, when connected via USB to a DAW it will record 16 separate tracks at the same time. In the photo we are using 10 mics to record a drum session. The sound quality is great. There are separate volume controls for the headphones and for the main output. Phantom power of is available on 8 of the XLR inputs. Each input has a volume control and a clipping indicator light. The unit seems well built and it is fun to use.The Bad:The Tascam 16×08 does not like Windows. This has been a known problem for some time. Tascam recently came out with a firmware update (I think it is ver 4.0) that was supposed to address these issue. So, I purchased the unit thinking everything would be fine. I am running Windows 10 with Studio One v5 Artist. I installed the latest firmware update which was not hard to do. However, all of the bugs are not yet worked out. On the initial set up you have to go to your computer “power management settings” and set it to where the computer is continuously in the High Performance setting. If you do not do this the audio will be absolutely terrible.Once everything is up and running, if I stay in Studio One, everything seems to work great with no issues. Everything seems to interface nicely and record and playback work as they should. I can do mixdowns and there are no problems. However, if I try to click out of Studio One to save the mixdown in my music folder on my desktop, the curser arrow freezes and everything locks up. If I try to open my email to email the mixdown to my band members the curser freezes. Just about any thing I do outside of Studio One, the curser freezes 90% of the time. I quickly learned that if you just switch off the Tascam 16×08, the computer functions are instantly restored. The mouse and curser and everything works well. The problem is that if you have the Tascam set to be your audio out, then you lose your audio out when it is switched off. Most of the time though you can just switch it off long enough to do what you want to do and then switch it right back on and is will usually play your mixdown or other music files from the music folder on the desktop.All in all, it is more of a nuisance than a serious problem. It is easy to switch the unit off and on but when you turn off the Tascam 16×08 a little error window pops up that says “USB Connection Lost. Reconnect USB”. Just turn the unit back on when you are ready to use it and click OK in the error window and everything is restored for recording and playback.You can’t beat the quality and features for the price. The Tascam 16×08 makes great recordings on up to 16 tracks simultaneously. I have only recorded 10 tracks at a time but I was very happy with the performance. There were no latency issues recording 10 tracks. I would buy it again and recommend it. Once you figure out the little quirks it has a great sound and seems to be well built. I am having fun using it. Hopefully Tascam will keep working on the Firmware for Windows computers and come out with another update soon. I have read a lot of reports that it does not have any problems like this with Apple computers but I have not tried it on an Apple setup.
Swindell Family –
Should’ve been called US-16×16I had the impression that this unit would accept up to 16 analog inputs (8 microphones, 8 line/instrument inputs) and mix those into a maximum of 8 “channels” of up to 96kHz 24-bit audio over USB to the digital audio workstation (DAW) software on a computer. This impression was wrong: The unit will actually send *all* 16 separate inputs as separate channels over USB 2.0 to the computer/DAW!The “x08” in the product name apparently refers to the 8 analog outputs from the unit, which I really have no use for. For me, this is an A to D recording device and while I will likely use it for monitoring pre-recorded tracks through the headphone output, the other outputs will likely go unused. The ability to record every one of my 14 drum microphones onto a separate DAW track opens up a world of possibilities and eliminates the need for several analog devices (mixer, gates, compressors, etc.) in my studio. This device has been a major game changer for me and had it only supported the recording of 8 discrete channels, like the competitors’ products, that would not have been case.I was considering the (currently more expensive) M-Audio M-Track Eight and Presonus 1818VSL units, but chose the TASCAM in the end and boy am I glad I did! I’ve recorded about an hour’s worth of 12 channels of drums (all recorded simultaneously) into Reaper DAW software (for Windows) at the maximums sample rate/resolution, and I haven’t heard a single drop-out, pop, click, or “glitch”. The mic-pres have been silent with no audible distortion or coloration.The only issue I had was one microphone input into the unit was triggering an overload indicator (on the loudest drum strikes) in the DAW software even with the physical gain pot turned all the way down. I resolved this issue by using the dynamic compression feature in the TASCAM “Settings Panel” to apply a slight taper of the peaks on that channel. I wasn’t actually planning on using the EQ or compression features of the DSP in this unit, but in this case, it was the only remedy besides changing the physical microphone configuration.The device driver (running on Windows 8.1 x64) has been solid. I’ve used both the ASIO drive for multi-track recording and the WDM driver for stereo playback and monitoring. I did have an issue with Open Broadcaster Software being able to capture from the ASIO driver, but that appears to be a bug or limitation in OBS with regards to devices with more channels than it expects.I was initially hesitant about this device due to the shipping delays apparently to address software and/or driver problems. With the exception of the occasional oddity, the software has been very reliable. These oddities (I’m not willing to call them “bugs”) include:- Although the manual makes reference to applying compression to the “master” bus, I’ve found no actual way to do this.- When “unlinking” inputs, the EQ settings don’t revert to the pre-link state.- When “unchecking” the LCF (low cut filter) button in the EQ, the EQ is not restored to the pre-LCF state.- You have to select each input individually to view it’s EQ and compression settings.- Changes made to the level fader, panning, mute and solo have no effect on the signals sent to the computer over USB (apparently by design).- Although there’s an entire tab dedicated to the “output” routing, this is really for configuring the analog outputs, not the output to the computer (i.e. there is no way to mix inputs 1 and 2 into a single “channel” over USB).Feature omissions:- You can “link” pairs of inputs for the purpose of sharing a single EQ and compression setting, but you cannot link more than 2 channels (e.g. to use the same EQ and compression settings for 3+ tracks)- There’s no noise gate.I don’t really expect to be using the TASCAM “Settings Panel” software all that much, so I’m not too concerned about these oddities. My main concerns are with regards to audio quality and reliability and so far, this unit really shines in this regard. I think TASCAM marketing could make it more clear that this device actually delivers *twice* the number of channels as the competition.I made a couple of videos and put them on youtube (search for my channel: rswindell).UPDATE (August 2015):After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Pro (64-bit), the TASCAM 16×08 device driver no longer works. I upgraded the driver from v1.00 to v1.01 (the latest version currently available from TASCAM) and still, no worky. So if you’ll either want to wait to upgrade to Windows 10 or if you’re already running Windows 10, don’t buy this product (yet). Bummer. Deducting one star (from 5 to 4). I’ll continue deducting stars every month until TASCAM fixes their device driver.UPDATE (September 2015):TASCAM released a new Windows device driver for this interface in September (v1.03) and I can confirm that this new version does in fact work with Windows 10 (x64). Why it took them this long to support the current version of Windows is anyone’s guess, so I’ll leave the star deduction in place.
melanie grim –
Replaced 2 Presonus Firestudio Projects on a WIN 10 PC running SONAR X2Today is September 3, 2020I have been running 2 Presonus Firestudio Project sound interfaces daisy chained together since c. 2013. I was using stock HP’s bought from their website. The last one I bought was in 2014. It was time to upgrade.I got a new WIN 10 Solid State PC for recording my music in August 2020 and installed my “system” on it. The drivers on the presonus’ starting glitching badly a few weeks after use – I was using driver version 1.7.1. That is an old driver. So I updated the drivers (following all the proper uninstall procedures – deleted folders and ran C Cleaner) and used the newest driver 1.7.6. Works but glitches. Then I spent a day freaking out and installing every version of Universal Control, until I realized it was time for a new sound interface. The Firestudio Project has been discontinued for five years now.I read several customer reviews before purchasing anything on amazon. A couple of reviews had me a bit worried at first regarding WIN 10, but I went ahead and bought the thing. It is $270 right now and is the only affordable interface with 16 inputs.(I also bought 8 JOLGOO XLR male to TRS female to use my existing recording snake cable, fyi.) Another $60.**TECHNICAL NOTE: This interface is replacing 2 Presonus Firestudio Project interfaces that are connected to a 48 channel mixer with 8 subgroups. (Subgroup 1 – 8 are connected directly to channels 1 – 8 on interface 1, and direct outs are connected from the drum mics to interface 2. The outputs from interface 1 were returned to channels 41 – 48 on the mixer for monitoring purposes. Interface 2 had no outputs connected to the mixer. )After installing the software and rebooting, the interface synched up correctly, plays all my audio files, runs correctly in Sonar X2 and the MIDI is faster than ever. I going to have a beer to celebrate. Oh yea, since I am running subgroup level (+4dbu) into microphone level inputs, I have to turn down the mixer subgroup faders down – 6 db. And, the routing on the 16×08 is a bit different than the Firestudio, but any engineer can figure it out easy.NOTE 2: A reviewer on sweetwaters site had mentioned that the crispiness on the top end was lacking. Maybe it’s due to the Blackfin audio DSP processor in the interface. That is a 32 bit processor! Bypass it by clicking on ‘true mixer bypass’ (its in the newest drivers I guess, ’cause it isn’t shown in the ref manual.)This information is honest, and I was not incentivized to say this. Writing this took a hot minute. This is to aid other audio engineers.If, in the future the interface behaves in a manner that is contrary to this review I will write another review.Have a great day.
Will –
Packs a punch – very capable audio interfaceI bought this five years ago so it has held up very well. If you’re just starting out and don’t know anything about audio interfaces and DAWs you might feel overwhelmed at first as I did, but it didn’t take long to get running using the basic features. I’m currently using it with Windows 10 on an older HP laptop with an Intel Core I7 dual core processor and 8 gb of RAM for tracking, and an older desktop PC with a Intel Core I7 quad core processor and 16 gb of ram for mixing and mastering and it works fine with no issues. The connections are pretty convenient with 8 XLR and 2 line/instrument inputs on the front as well as a headphone output. There are 6 more line inputs on the back and 8 line outs. Also it has midi in/out which I haven’t used so I can’t comment on that. So this unit provides a total of 16 inputs and 8 line outputs. Two of the line outputs are dedicated as the main left & right output to powered monitor speakers. There is a volume control for those on the front which is very convenient. That leaves 6 outputs that can be used as needed. Depending on your DAW that gives you a lot of options to run some outboard gear, create submixes for monitoring or whatever. It did take me some time to figure out how to apply some of the I/O features and your results may vary depending on your DAW setup but if you have some home recording experience you’ll probably be fine. The knobs feel pretty solid despite being plastic. They should be fine if you don’t knock this around. Rack ears are provided if you want to use a rack mount. I have mine in a rack case with a patch bay so all the Tascam’s back panel connections can be accessed from the front of the rack. Highly recommended.I have not tried these last two features but the manual says it is capable of running as a 16 channel mixer using the Tascam US 16×08 Settings Panel application on your pc as well as a stand alone 8 channel mic preamp when not connected to a computer.What I don’t like about this is the gain controls for channels 1-10 on the front panel are a bit small and placed close together so you have to be careful when adjusting levels to make sure you don’t accidentally move one of the adjacent knobs. Not a huge issue if you don’t have fat fingers like me.Anyhow bottom line is this is a great interface for a good price.
Steve –
Good and cheap for what it isI bought this product 2 years and 1 month agoWhy did I pick this product:-Music is my hobby, and I have a limited budget.-I needed(Wanted) something rack mountable-I have several audio devices including sysnths and drum machines-I wanted those devices to have their own input-I wanted to be able to control those inputs through my DAW in liu of a mixer-It looks nice and has nice feeling fadersMy experience:-It’s pretty flipping cool when you can control the inputs seperately through a DAW. I use a Novation Launch Control(The small discontinued model, which is the best damn utility MIDI controller I’ve ever found) and FL Studio. I mapped those faders on the Launch Control to the audio levels for the individual inputs within the DAW. Worked like a charm.-Windows 10 drivers. The software is a little weird, but it works. I think I did experience crashing a while ago. I don’t anymore. This machine works very smoothly for me now. I don’t know if I can attribute this to the fact that I have kept the device up to date, or the fact that I use fewer inputs these days.-My workflow has changed, and I mostly use VST’s now. I use Serum, Diva, and Kontakt mostly. I play these VST’s with a MIDI controller keyboard. Because of this, now I fight with latency on this device. If you turn the latency down too much, the sound crackles and sputters. If I turn the latency up, it can play anything I throw at it like a dream, but there is a delay making finger drumming, or playing a keyboard frustrating and useless. I often find myself fiddling with these options to strike a ballance, depending on the project I am working on. I’d much rather have something I can set and forget. Some of this issue could also be caused my my CPU, i7 3770. Lets not forget that the CPU also plays a crucial role in the generation of sound through a VST.Final thoughts:This interface is good , and it will require you to do some fiddling and learning which is great for begginers/intermediate users. You get a lot of mixing utility, but it will require you to develop a strong understanding of sound paths. I have even sent one OUT to another IN for capturing the generated sound for streaming, all on the same PC because of the flexibility of this interface. At this point though, I am about ready to buy another interface with fewer inputs/outputs, and less latency.
Blockhead –
Getting past installation and support this thing could rock!I’m assuming that some of the negative feedback is due to confusing support. This thing actually rocks, but getting it up and going is frustrating. There are things I absolutely love about this interface. It simply works flawlessly if at the very least they would give you a tutorial. The build quality is very good. Support however is all over the map. A few examples: The website they direct you to for registration doesn’t have a registration link, (there seems to be two conflicting websites). The manual that it comes with is incomplete and has outdated information. I had to google to find the current one since I could not find it in either of the TEAC/TASCAM websites. Information about Win10 support is conflicting and one can get rattled trying to figure out which driver is or isn’t compatible, (I’m happy to report that the last one which is not actually confirmed to be compatible by Tascam worked for me in my Win10 OPS). Once I got past this madness the interface truly shined. I’ve also got the Focusrite 6i6 and its not as good as this Tascam. It seems like support is the hit or miss with these interface makers. M-Audio is another fantastic maker of quality interface hardware and ghastly support.*****UPDATE****No support is really getting to me. Asked a simple support question and never got an answer. Registered my product and I don’t even get as much of an acknowledgement. That’s pretty pathetic. Currently having an issue which is background noise. Its irritating as hell!! Tried my other interfaces to see if maybe my Desktop was the issue but they gave off no noise, plug this one in and it sounds like a low pitch old school modem. Tried different USB cables, plugging it into a different port but to no avail. Tried the latest divers, same deal. Back dated the drivers…still the same!!! Here’s the kicker, plugged into my back-up DAW Win 7 32bit system…NO NOISE! My best guess is that it seems that the drivers for Win 10 are really not ready. In my case my main axe, a Win 10 64bit system, is not happy with this interface. But my older unsupported Win 7 OPS is. ANNOYED and AGGRAVATED!!********New drivers available. Resolved the noise issue on Win 10. However I will never ever buy anything from Tascam again. No customer service, no response, no warranty verification. Great equipment but no support. Seems to be modern day standard protocol and operating procedure with these companies.
M S T –
Delivers on its promise.I’ve owned the 16×08 for over 2 years now. Before this, I had the 4×4. I feel qualified to weigh in on how these devices work for me. Well, they definitely work!I can just walk into my studio and getr cracking in less than a minute’s time. The large amount of inputs means that I can set up stereo inputs, mikes, direct inputs, whatever I need, and leave them all connected! While recording, the software performs brilliantly (I use Reaper on Windows).The rest of this review will be some minor gotchas.The volume dials seem very arbitrarily calibrated; rarely do I have them at the same level for stereo inputs, which is a little odd.On Windows, the software can get a little wonky. Also, Internet devices can’t seem to detect the field mike. So if I’m on say a Zoom meeting, I can’t use any of this awesome hardware. No podcasting using this device, it seems.On Mac, the microphones do work. However, sometimes, the driver just completely and randomly gives up. You’re shunted back to your Macbook sound. I suspect the problem here is related to the proliferation of dongles I have to go through because the Macbook lacks a USB-C port. These dongles add latency. Fortunately I don’t use a Macbook much.In no way do these gotchas take away from the ability of this product to perform its intended purpose, which was to record high-fidelity music. I’m able to do this with the 16×08, just as I was able to do with the 4×4. I’m annoyed at not being to run a radio show during Covid, yes, but the years I’ve spent working with Tascam devices have been productive. I recommend this device for recording. And if anyone else knows a good device for streaming audio, let me know!
Aging UNIX gal –
Very nice device, but test all the ins & outs.Pros:This is a very nice unit, with a professional feel and a reasonable price. It has 16 analog inputs, 8 analog outputs, and MIDI in & out.It does not have optical digital ins or outs, which is fine with me. I’ve never used those on other interfaces I’ve had, and they just add to the cost.It’s “audio device class compliant”, which means it works with the standard USB audio drivers in your computer. IT DOES NOT NEED A CUSTOM DRIVER! Sorry for shouting, but I’ve learned (the hard way) how important that is. A few years back I bought a Digidesign (now Avid) Mbox2. It was a good device. But it requires a special driver. Avid stopped supporting it a few years ago, and will not provide a driver for MacOS 10.11. So when I upgraded my Mac, the Mbox2 became a useless brick. And I decided not to buy Avid hardware again.Cons:MIDI output on my unit didn’t work. I returned it, and the replacement worked fine. The moral: be sure to test all of inputs & outputs hile you can still return it.Only the first 8 inputs have mic preamps and level adjust knobs; the other 8 are straight line-level. So it’s difficult to use this with more than 8 mics. Of course, if you have the budget for more than 8 mics, you should have the budget for a bigger mixer. or two of these (I believe you can use more than one at a time).The mic preamp knobs are small and very close to the XLR inputs. I found them very hard to adjust — and I have small hands. Of course, if the knobs were bigger, the device would be larger and more expensive. Just don’t expect to use them like faders on a mixer.Tascam provides a mixer app. That’s not necessary if you have a DAW, but it does let you use the device as a 16-input computer-controlled mixer without buying any additional software. The mixer app provides an optional equalizer and compressor on each input channel. Unfortunately the mixer is 16×2, not 16×8. That is, you can mix the 16 channels down to 2, and you can direct the 2 channels to any pair of outputs, but the Tascam mixer app does not let you (say) mix channels 1-4 to outputs 1 & 2, and channels 5-8 to outputs 3 & 4. If you need that flexibility, you will need to use the mixer in a DAW like ProTools or Logic.
Kyle Brown –
1 issue that makes me regret the purchaseGreat product when working. Have a power issue now. I’ve only used a few times over the past year that I’ve had it and had no issues. Now the power light just blinks slowly and won’t connect to my MacBook. I researched the issue and seems that the device is useless at this point. Whatever you do only use the power cord that is supplied. Will regret using anything else.