Selling my Model 12

[Stephenuk]

I purchased this lovely little mixer just over a year ago to downsize from a behringer x32 producer edition, but I'm now going to replace it for a MOTU 828 2024 edition.



As a standalone mixer I can't fault it but as an audio interface it is the worst and most unstable I have ever used in 30 years. Even a sound blaster 16 back in the day had more stable audio.



Constant drop outs of audio, scratchy audio, clicks, terrible asio drivers.



It's really disappointing as it is like TEAC don't care about its user base. If this was a 10 year old mixer I could understand but the complete lack of updated driver support from tascam is pretty terrible.



The drivers are so instable. Also recently the pc audio is lower in the left channel than the right and no amout of fiddling fixes this unless you send the audio straight to main.



These drivers are for windows 10 and and it's windows 11 now which has had many huge updates.



So I'm sorry Tascam but you have lost a customer, one who had grown up with the tascam brand from porta studios and Teac to reel to reels.

 

[Logrinn]

I don’t really see the benefit of a post like this.
I have a Tascam Model 12 and it works perfectly. Ergo - no problem with the hardware.
I use it with a Mac and the integration between them both - ie the drivers - works perfectly.
Now there’s only a ”handful” of Mac models ever produced and therefore it’s pretty easy for a company to create drivers that work with these as it’s actually possible to get all or most Mac models and search for bugs and iron out problems.
On the PC/Windows side of things - forget about it. There are thousands and thousands (if not millions) of different hardware, software and bios variations that makes it impossible to cater for all quirks a user might encounter with a particular set of hardware using a specific driver.

I’m actually more surprised that when somebody brings up a problem with a piece of hardware, like Tascams, Zooms, Rolands, Yamahas, Korgs and so on, that so little emphasis is placed on the particular computer involved. What make is it? What operating system? How much ram? What make of the memory ram? What type of connectors are used? USB A? USB C? Did the computer manufacturer supply it’s bios? Or somebody else? Does that play well with other hardware on the computer or are certain limitations in effect because of cost cuts? And so on and so on.

I’ m pretty sure that most manufacturers like Tascam, Zoom and others could fix problems if they had access to the computer in question.

Case in point - the company I work for have made an audio book app and it runs on iOS and Android.
When an iOS bug is reported it’s pretty easy to fix, but when it comes to Android bugs … forget it. There’s thousands and thousands of variations of hardware and software versions on Android making it much much more difficult to squash these bugs.
Because of the simple reason that these bugs are not present when the developers try to replicate the problems.

 

[Stephenuk]

Self built system Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 5950X 16core 4.5ghz, 64gb Ram, NVidia Rtx 4070.

I understand what you are saying about limitless configurations but regardless, audio usb manufacturers conform to a set of standards just like graphics cards conform to direct x. However if a company doesn't continue to develop drivers then that's when it will run into problems. This is a mixer that is only around 4 years old and with minimal amount of firmware updates or driver updates. Like I said I have never experience this kind of unstable audio in other devices. Also it is well documented online the problems with this mixer as an audio interface

Regarding USB cables, I have tried every variation know to man. My pc even has dedicated usb c ports and it performs worse through that. Works terrible on usb 2 ports, and just about on usb 3 but still scratchy audio.

I'm not expecting Avid Pro Carbon audio performance but the fact that even playing basic spotify just results in horrendous audio glitches.

Manufacturers always blame the user. Even when using another audio interface on the same set up. (which I have tried) works perfectly.

Hence why driver updates are imperative based on the fact that there are so many different configurations.

 

[Stephenuk]

Update, I also tried this on my windows 11 laptop usb c to usb c and to usb c cable to usb 2 and same crackly audio. Safe to say ti's not my pc config that's causing the issue.

Received my MOTU 828 2024 edition plugged it in,usc c to usb c pristine unglitched audio.

As I said the tascam model 12 is a lovely mixer but is let down by poor aftersales and lack of support updated drivers. I might keep the mixer and route the motu to the mixer instead but have the 828 as the interface.

 

[Max Relic]

Crackling audio is often associated to buffer underrun or insufficient CPU idle time. Not that it should be your case, but I would double-check your DAW/recording software settings.

 

[Stephenuk]

Hi Max the glitching is system wide with asio and standard mme windows audio. If either watching a YouTube video or tracking in Cubase. When on Windows 10 it was not as severe but could only get acceptable audio from the usb 3 port. However after various updates from Windows 11 it has got worse. But like I said if a manufacturer doesn't follow suit and update drivers to reflect changes in OS updates its just going to fail.

 

[Arjan P]

Whether drivers are updated or not for Windows - they should first of all be adhering to standards. I have 15 to 20 year old hardware (designed for Windows XP) that still works flawlessly on Windows 10 (and I would expect 11 too) with the same age driver. If anything, a Mac is more likely to make your older hardware obsolete than a Windows PC. And comparing that to iOs and Android simply does not make sense.

So although I don't know the drivers for the Tascam Model series, I do have Tascam drivers for my DM-3200 (also at least 10 years old, made for Windows 7) which are functioning great. So my guess is that your Model 12 has a snag - cause if it were drivers we would see many more issues of Windows users and this mixer.

Another thing I didn't see @Stephenuk mention: the USB connection. Did you try different USB cables?

 

[-mjk-]

Regarding USB cables, I have tried every variation know to man.

My question would be - have to tried any brand new cables? They do deteriorate and malfunction with age.

 

[mrshowboat]

The M12 was my first tascam product, and honestly the lack of support and updates (for windows audio interface & streaming users) really made the M12 fall short of what it could be. Atm the M12 is just being used for in person recordings. It has also influenced my future purchasing decision ie picking the Rode caster 2 over the Tascam mixcast 4.