Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Tascam US-144 Audio Interface not working in Snow Leopard

Just installed Snow Leopard, and lost my digital audio box. Doesn't show up in the audio devices list, and won't make a sound. 😟 Tried reinstalling the latest Tascam driver, no luck. Guess I'm stuck until Tascam posts updated drivers, or until Apple releases an update that fixes the problem.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7), 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/4GB 557 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Posted on Aug 28, 2009 4:21 PM

Reply
54 replies

Aug 30, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Chuck Usher

I found this on the createdigitalmusic.com Snow Leopard forum:

Tascam: Testing in progress; driver updates coming
Jeff Laity from Tascam writes with an update on Tascam’s hardware tools. Before you complain that they’re not ready, consider the amount of testing they have to do with different hardware, different hosts, and different sampling rates – and that’s just to find a problem, not to fix it.

I’m particularly concerned that USB audio appears to be a problem. I’ll be looking for similar situations from other vendors. Jeff writes:

Right now, TASCAM hasn’t done the kind of extensive testing to determine whether an interface “works” in 10.6. We’ve installed them all and ran some audio through them, but we haven’t opened them all up in different hosts, sampling rates, etc.

That said, here is the current status for TASCAM interfaces:

Current Products:
US-122L, US-144, US-1641 – No audio output, device not recognized. Drivers in development, coming soon.
M-164UF – No audio output, device not recognized. Drivers in development, coming soon.
FW-1082, FW-1884, FW-1804 – Expected to be functional
IF-FW/DMmkII – Appears to be functional, uninstaller did not work, new drivers in development

Discontinued Products:
US-122, US-224, US-428 – Appears to be functional
FireOne – Native driver, audio out functional

Sep 1, 2009 5:36 AM in response to billjv

on tascam's website http://www.tascam.de/en/ :

28.08.2009 - Though some Tascam products might function fully or partly under "Snow Leopard", Tascam is currently not supporting the new Mac OS X 10.6 operating system. As new drivers become available, they will be posted to our Product and Support pages for Tascam products on the internet. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sep 1, 2009 7:51 PM in response to Knute5

Ditto-- I am down for some time , waiting for M-audio to update so I can use my Profire 2626, which I have to purchase yet another version of firewire cable to plug into my new Mac.

I also lost the use of Toontracks' EZdrummer, where all my drums come from.
I love it when people say its up to the 3rd party folks to keep up. Mac knows we all use them, which is why they trick us to jump on the new OS, WE are their test lab, and the third party folks are made to look dumb.

So do I wait for all the 3rd party software to update, eventually....
No, I am archiving my data and wiping 10.6 off, and re-installing 10.5.8

Let the snow melt off that cat before I go back.

Sep 4, 2009 3:20 AM in response to billjv

I've got a US-1641 interface, which does not now work with snow leopard for system sounds, itunes, spotify etc. (having just updated from leopard)

But it works fine with Logic as that application seems to select its audio device independently of what the 'system' uses.

The new audio-midi window that snow leopard has doesn't recognise the US-1641 (probs because the OS is now 64 bit and tascam haven't brought out a driver)

But logic is still 32-bit and recognises the hardware when I turn it on. Maybe this is the same for some of you guys, lucky for me I can still use my recording software having updated.

Sep 4, 2009 3:47 AM in response to edervjo

"I love it when people say its up to the 3rd party folks to keep up. Mac knows we all use them, which is why they trick us to jump on the new OS, WE are their test lab, and the third party folks are made to look dumb."

That statement is just plain incorrect.

Third party companies have know for a long time that changes in SL could cause their software to be incompatible. It's not Apple's fault if they haven't updated them in time. Many companies were ready so that's no excuse. Perhaps the changes they need to make are just too complicated and are going to take more time.

Sep 4, 2009 6:41 AM in response to msuper69

A couple of thoughts:

I have, in twenty years, never seen a major upgrade NOT break at least a small handful of products temporarily.

Anybody who relies on tools for their work is going to make **** sure that their tools will continue to work or can be adequately replaced whenever they change any part of their setup.

Apple was going to ship their OS "in September". Historically, that has meant sometime around the 25th. It was released a month earlier than ANY developer could reasonably have expected.

It makes absolutely no sense to RUSH a buggy and incomplete driver to the market just to shut up a small number of people who are prone to jumping the gun and then complaining about it out of a sense of entitlement to public internet forums, rather than sitting tight and consider the folly of their ways. 😉

On a related note: M-Audio took over three months after the release of 10.5 to make available a compatible driver for their MIDIsport interfaces. Turned out the interface worked fine, but it required loading up the device firmware on each power-on, which in itself is a questionable, if not brain-dead concept.

In other words, M-Audio took three months past due date to release a USB firmware loader that shouldn't be necessary at all.

I've since thrown the interface out and replaced it with one that requires no driver installation at all (and thus worked just fine on 10.6 from the first second).


There are plenty of audio interfaces that require no driver installation to work.


Apple is absolutely not responsible for making sure that the others do. If you're that unhappy with the driver situation despite the musings above, by all means buy a better interface from a company that has their **** together.

My own interface's manufacturer (MHLabs) had drivers ready for downoad (64-bit drivers, no less!) the day before Snow Leopard's release.

Smooth sailing.

Tascam US-144 Audio Interface not working in Snow Leopard

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.