US 16x08 Bit Depth

[ABBloch]

Anyone know how to set the recording bit depth on the US 16x08? The manual states it will record at either 16 or 24 bit, but there's nothing in the UI to set it, or even to indicate the present setting. It displays sample rate and buffer size, but bit depth is curiously absent.

24-bit is required at all times for what I do (movie sound). I need to know this thing is doing it right. Sure, I could verify the recordings afterward, but that's obviously inefficient. I need to know every setting is correct BEFORE I press Record.

Looking forward to your answers. Thanks.

 

[TheMaartian]

In my use, it looks like the audio application sets the bit depth via the driver. Your DAW would need to tell you what bit depth it will record at.

I know, at least with the ASIO driver on Windows, it can't be shared, so there's no chance of one app trying to run at 24-bit and another trying to run at 16-bit.

But you ask a great question, unfortunately, one unlikely to be answered by Tascam themselves.

It's entirely possible that the hardware always captures at 24-bit and then passes on either 16 or 24.

 

[ABBloch]

Thanks for your reply. I'd love to trust that it's being set by the DAW, and just leave it at that. But with no way to verify, it's awfully uncomfortable.

While you're right that it might be capturing at 24 full time, and then downsampling to 16 further down the pipe, it's equally possible the reverse is true. How can we know it's not stuck capturing at 16, and then upsampling to 24 in the DAW?

This seems to be a rather gaping flaw in what is otherwise a good unit. I bought the thing to replace my old FW-1884, which recently gave up the ghost after many, many years of faithful service. I was really hoping to get the same kind of performance and reliability out of the US 16x08. The driver UI for the FW-1884 told me the bit depth at all times. It's ludicrous that this "modern" replacement can't.

 

[TheMaartian]

Found this posted by GJSB in another thread (http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/us-16x08-missing-drivers.2860/page-4):

FYI, if you have questions and need Tascam's help, email your questions to
custser5@teac.com They've been good about responding the same day.

You might try a direct query to that address. If you hear anything back, please update this thread.