Dear ALSA developers,
The purpose of this email is to report that I was able to play music with a TASCAM US144 MKII using linux-3.0, specifically linux-3.0.0-2-amd64 from Debian wheezy. Various reports on this mailing list and elsewhere seem to suggest that the US144 works with ALSA but that the US144-MKII does not work. I want to confirm that the US144-MKII does in fact work with snd_usb_us122l, at least in playback mode. Here is what I did.
*Before* inserting the USB cable, execute "rmmod ehci-hcd". It seems like the unit uses a different protocol in USB2 mode, and I guess it must be plugged into a USB1 interface. The unit does not work if booted in USB2 mode and then reset to USB1.
Add these lines to /etc/asound.conf:
pcm.!usb_stream { type usb_stream card "1" } ctl.!usb_stream { type hw card 1 }
Then
aplay --buffer-size=1000 -MDplug:usb_stream foo.wav
works for me, where foo.wav is a {16,24}-bit stereo {44.1,48}-KHz PCM file.
I am not sure whether the --buffer-size=1000 is necessary---I am using a slow Atom netbook and the sound is choppy with the default buffer size. Increasing the buffer size seems to fix the problem.
I don't know if the firmware revision matters, but my US144-MKII unit has the lastest firmware 2.03, which I installed via a Windows machine.
Regards, Matteo Frigo