Tascam US-224 manual

1 TASCAM TEAC Professional Division US-224 Universal Serial Bus Digital Audio Workstation Controller OWNER’S MANUAL D000640100 A[...]

2 Important Safety Precautions CAUTION : TO REDUCE THE R ISK OF ELECTRIC SHO CK, DO NOT REM OVE COVER (OR BACK). NO USER-SER VICEABLE PARTS INSID E. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVIC E PERSONNEL. The exclamati on point within an equilat eral triangle i s intended t o alert the us er to the presence of import ant operating and m aintenance (s ervi[...]

3 Read all of these Instructi ons. Save these Instructions for l ater use. Follow all W arnings and Instructions marked on the audio equipment. 1) Read instructions — All the safety and operating instru cti ons should be read before the produ ct is operated. 2) Retain instructions — The safety and operating instru ctions should be retained for [...]

4 This product is des igned to help y ou r ecord and reproduce s ound works to which y ou own the copyright, or where y ou have obtained perm ission from the copyright holder or the rightf ul licensor. Unless you own the copy right, or have obtained the appropriate perm iss ion from the copyright holder or rightf ul licensor , y our unauthor ized r[...]

5 Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................ 5 Introduction ................................................. 6 1.1 Overvie w............................................ 6 1.2 Features ............................................ 6 1.3 W hat’s in the p ack age ....................... 6 1.4 Nom enclature us ed in [...]

6 Introduction 1.1 Overview The US-224 is a USB contr oller designed for Cubasis and other Digital Audio W ork station (DAW ) so ftware applications . Its design incorporates a two-input, two-output 24-bit audio interfac e, a 16-channel MIDI inter face, and a c ontrol sur face f or your most- used mous e functions . Our goal was to cr eate a device[...]

7 2. Controls and Indicators 2.1 Front Pan el 1. Powe r LED 2. USB LED 3. MIDI In & Out LEDs 4. Mi c/Line – Gtr Sw itch es 5. Signal a nd OL LEDs 6. A and B Input Trims 7. Line Out and Phones Output Levels 8. DA T A W heel 9. NULL Switch and LED 10. Input M onitor Switch and LED 11. Bank Swit ches and LEDs 12. T ransport Controls 13. Locate a[...]

8 2.2 Rear Pan el 18. PHONES jack 19. OUTPUT L/R ja cks 20. INPUT A and B 21. MIC INPUT A a nd B 22. Digital In and Out 23. MIDI Out 24. MIDI In 25. USB jack 26. POWER swi tch 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26[...]

9 2.3 Front Pan el Descriptions 1. Power LED Indicates that the unit is powered on when lit. 2. USB LED Indicates a valid USB connection to the host com puter when lit. 3. MIDI In LED indicates pres ence of inc om ing MIDI data at MIDI input. MIDI Out LED indicates trans m ission of MIDI data f rom MIDI output. 4. Mic/Line / Gt r Switches switches [...]

10 14. Channel Fade r s send continuous controller infor mation f or banks of f our faders , as selected by the BANK switch Mast er Fader controls level to the s tereo bus output, and/or s ends MIDI controller inform ation to the host. 15. SELECT Sw itch es selects channel for editing, recording, etc . SELECT L EDs indicates s elected status of cha[...]

11 3. Installation 3.1 System Requirements PC: Minim um requir em ents : Pentium II - 266 MHz (or equivalent) proc essor running W indows 98 ( Second or Millennium Edition), W indows 2000 or W indows X P, 96MB RAM. Recom m ended : Pentium II 300MHz process or with 128MB RAM or better. (Thes e requir ements are for use with Cubasis VST . Other appli[...]

12 MacOS: PowerPC running MacOS 8.6 or better, and a USB port. Any Mac intosh com puter with one or mor e USB ports running Mac O/S 8.6 or later (the US-224 has not been tested with Mac O/S X as of this writing. Pleas e check the website for updates). Very early iMac computers may need one (or more) fir mware updates to use the US- 224. W hich firm[...]

13 In some cases, Add Hardware W iz ard m ay ask for the f ile "US224W DM.SYS". Should this oc cur, c lick Browse and direc t it to the path Windows/System32 /Drivers . In some cases, Add Hardware W iz ard m ay ask for your W in98 CD-ROM if it is unable to find all the needed system files. W e sugges t y ou have it handy. The Setup Com pl[...]

14 3.2.2 Macintosh Insert the CD- ROM into the com puter, double-click on the US-224 ins taller, and follow its inst ructions . Connect the US-224 to the com puter, and connect power to the unit. W hen the US-224 is connec ted and powered up, the Mac will find the drivers itself . 3.3 Setting Up OM S (MacOS Only) Cubasis, ProT ools and s everal oth[...]

15  Certain devices, s uch as network car ds and W inModems , can caus e conflicts with the native handling of USB. Should y ou ex perience suc h conf licts, the off ending device can usually be tempor arily disabled in the Device Manager. Refer to your W indows manual for detailed instr uctions on how to resolve conf licts.  Assum ing your c[...]

16 3.5 Notes on USB interfa cing The USB pr otocol is an extr em ely ver satile one, and muc h has been m ade of the possibility of using m ultiple ( over 100) devices on a single bus. W hile this is certainly a possibility, w e r ecom m end using as f ew other USB devices as possible in a system equipped with the US-224. The demands placed on the [...]

17 4. Hooking up Audio and MIDI to the US-224 4.1 Hooking up audio To m onitor output f rom your computer, connect the analog outputs of the US-224 to y our mix er, am plifier or powered monitors . Output volum e is contr olled by the LINE OUT level pot. If you’ve got a digital mixer, external D/A conver ter, or other devic e with S/PDIF input, y[...]

18 input is pass ed directly to the application without modif ication. To r educe the level of the digital audio signal at inputs A and B, y ou will need to r educe the output level of y our digital source. Note about levels and gain structur e here. The T RIM contr ols directly affe ct the input level at the A/D conver ters on the US-224, so it’[...]

19 4.4 Monitor vs. Master L evel It’s im portant to m ak e a distinction between MONIT OR LEVEL control and level of the stereo bus output, as contr olled by the MASTER FADER. W hen using the US-224’s analog inputs, only the T RIM contr ols actually affec t the input level to the audio s oftware application. W hen using the US- 224’s Digital [...]

20 5. The US-224 Contr ol Panel 5.1 Main Pa ge In the Contr ol Panel’s m ain page, you can specif y a num ber of options of the US-224’s ASIO handling. The Control Surface Pr otocol setting governs the ty pe of MIDI m essages us ed to send fader and button inform ation f rom the US-224 to applications. T he corresponding drop-down box allows yo[...]

21 You can also contr ol the input m onitor settings that will be used when the US-224 first s tarts up. You can choos e either the last settings in ef fect at the previous system shutdown, or any one of the four snapshots . 5.2 Buffer Size Adjus tment The US-224 Contr ol Panel contains a second page, tabbed “System” . On this page the buf fer [...]

22 The num ber s below the tuning lights indicate how far out of tune the note is , in cents (100 cents is one sem itone). W hen the note is in tune, the center ‘0’ light and both the Flat and Sharp arrows are br ight green. Note: T he chrom atic tuner c onsum es som e CPU bandwidth in y our system . Theref ore, when y ou finis h using the tune[...]

23 6. Interfacing with your Audio Software This sec tion is intended to pres ent the basic concepts needed to inter face the US-224 with the bundled Cubasis VST applic ation. This discuss ion, however, is not intended to replace your software’s us ers’ m anual. If y ou’ve got ques tions spec ific to Cubasis , please r efer to the Cubasis Us e[...]

24 To do this in Cubase (full versions ), for exam ple, se lect the VST Rem ote option from the Audio m enu, and choos e the US- 428 option ( See illustr ation 6.03). You will also need to set the Input and Output devices to “U S-224 Control Port” and the “Rem ote” s etting should m atc h the setting chosen in the US-224 Contr ol Panel (see[...]

25 Highlight a track in the arrange window, and that trac k will automatic ally be R ecord- Enabled. (see illust ration 6.07) Verify that the drop-in and drop-out f eatures in Cubasis (on the tr ansport bar) are not enabled (or if so, that they are enabled at the desir ed locate points ). Press the RECORD button on the US-224. Cubasis will issue a [...]

26 6.5 Mute/Solo The MUT E buttons toggle the Mute function in Cubasis’ VST Channel Mixer f or the selected c hannel. W hen a channel is muted, there are two indications: the Mut e button in the Cubasis VST Channel Mixer’s display will be activated, and the MUT E LED on the US-224 c orresponding to the muted tr ack (s) will be illuminated. The [...]

27 To enable Dire ct Monitoring in Cubase VST, open the Audio Control Panel. In the “Monitoring” sec tion of the window, check “ASIO Direct Monitor.” (You also need either “Record Enable T ype” or “Tape Type” monitor ing enabled.)[...]

28 7. A Sample Recording Session in Cubasis Ok ay . You’ve got y our US-224 connected to y our com puter, and you’ve loaded the drivers. Your audio sof tware is loaded, and y ou’r e ready to cut some track s. Let’s walk through a typical recording ses sion with the US-224 and Cubasis. NOTE : This chapter is intended as a quick start guide t[...]

29 Connect your audio sourc es to the US-224. Connect an analog s ource via the XLR or 1/4” inputs , or a digital sourc e via the S/PDIF input. 7.2 Recording Your Tracks In Cubasis , choos e the input(s) you wish to enable on the US-224. In the Audio menu, sele ct Input , and c lick on the input pair on the US-224. The green Input icons will ligh[...]

30 W hen the corresponding LED is illuminated, channel strips 1 and 2 can be used to adjust the level, pan and m ute status of inputs A and B, respec tively . T his will enable the first two faders as Input level monitor s, allowing y ou to hear the inputs at the source, in sync with the previously r ecorded trac ks . 7.4 Mixdown You can control th[...]

31 8. Other Applications and US-428 Emulation Mod e As we’ve mentioned thr oughout this manual, the US-224 is an extr em ely ver satile device. Its c apabilities as a c ontroller go well beyond those we’ve desc ribed thus f ar with the bundled Cubasis progr am. Since the US-224 is bas ed on TASCAM’s very popular US-428, it is capable of provi[...]

32 8.1 Setting up Sound Manager Support (for use with ProTools Free and Other MacOS Applications) The Macintosh Sound Manager is a standard 2-c hannel software inter face f or play ing and rec ording sound on a Mac . The audio inputs and outputs (speak ers) that are built into any Mac intosh use the Sound Manager interf ace, and essentially every M[...]

33 under “ Volume” in this c ontrol panel is only used to enable or m ute the US-224 output. Under “Sound In” you can select the “US- 224” ins tead of the Mac’s Built-in sour ces. You can also do this under the “US-224” control panel’s “System” tab. Ther e y ou will find a f ield labeled “Sound Manager Input”. You can ch[...]

34 9. Technical Support 9.1 Troubleshooting W hen installing the US-224 f or the firs t time, if you experience any unusual behavior, here are som e things to c heck : Audio Drivers In Control Panel / System / Device Manager (W in98SE/ME) or Control Panel / System / Har dware / Device Manager (W in2000/XP), find the Audio control panel. It's c[...]

35 Also, since m any of the situations you’re likely to enc ounter will be related to the software you’re using, it’s a good idea to check not only our website, but the websites and res ources of the sof tware program ’s manuf acturer as well. You can als o email us at US428team@tas cam .com , or contact our telephone support. Outs ide the [...]

36 Appendix A - MIDI Implementation Chart Function Transmitted Recognized Remarks Basic Channel Default Changed X X X X Through Mode Default Messages Altered X X …… X X Through Note Number Tr ue Voice X …… X T hrough Velocity Note ON Note OFF X X X X Through After T ouch Key s Channels X X X X Through Pitch Bender X X T hrough Control Chang[...]

37 Appendix B – Control Protocol Purpose Provide sim ple, eff ective integration between the US-224 and hos t soft ware applications. Introduction The US-224 pr ovides digital audio I/O , MIDI, and control sur face f unctions in a s ingle aff ordable USB-based produc t. W hile the audio and MIDI I/O follow established which are easily interfaced [...]

38 Transport/Locate command s et The US-224 contains a s et of s tandar d trans port s witches : REW , FF W D, ST O P, PLAY, and REC. In addition, dedicated status LED's are used to c omm unicate the c urrent trans port state to the user. T he LED's indicate REW , FF W D, PLAY, and REC. (Note that there is no LED to indicate STO P.) Addit[...]

39 Per-channel Control command set The US-224 includes a set of 4 channel- strip controls and LED's. Each channel- strip includes the following controls : a. linear fader for gain c ontrol b. Mute/Solo switch and LED c. Record- enable LED d. Select switch and LED Three m odif ier switches af fec t the channel str ip indicators: a. A momentar y[...]

40 Host to US-224 Mess ages: Note: In these m essages , <STRIP #>is a number in the range [0..3], corr esponding to the channel-str ip #, and <ST ATE>is either 0x00 (LED OF F) or 0x 7F (LED ON) . Trans m it<UNIT> as 0 for now. 1. UPDATE_MUT E_LED: F0 4E<UNIT >12 02<STRIP #> <ST ATE> F 7 2. UPDATE_SEL_LED: F0 4E&l[...]

41 US-224 to Host Com m ands: DATA_W HEEL (identical to J L Cooper CS-10) a. BF 60 vv, vv = 2's com plem ent us ing 7 data bits Host to US-224 Mess ages: UPDATE_ASN_LED: F0 4E<UNIT > 12 0F<ST ATE> F7 where <UNIT> T ransm it as 0 f or now. <STAT E> is either 0x 00 (LED OFF) or 0x7F ( LED ON) .[...]

42 Appendix C - US-224 Techn ical Specifications General Frequency Response 20 Hz - 20KHz 1.0 dB / -3.0 dB LINE INPUT A/B to LINE OUT PUT TRIM min., +4 dBu input LINE OUTPUT level m ax. Noise Level Better than 92 dB A W eight MIC INPUT A/B to LINE OUTPUT TRIM min., 150 ohm terminated LINE OUTPUT level m ax. Signal Processing Delay Less than 2 ms MI[...]

43 DIGITAL IN Connector : RCA pin jack Format : IEC60958 Type2 Input impedance: 75 ohm Input Level : 0.5Vp-p DIGITAL OUT Connector : RCA pin jack Format : IEC60958 Type 2 Output Impedance: 75 ohm Output Level: 0.5Vp-p MIDI IN Connector : 5 P DIN Format : Standard MIDI Format MIDI Out Connector : 5 P DIN Format : Standard MIDI Format USB Connector :[...]

44 Printed In Taiwan MA-0631 Ž US-224[...]