FOHMan, I can't comment on the Tascam unit specifically, but there's an unusually large amount of Samplitude/Sequioa users over on the Acoustic Music forum here on RO that may be able to give you some tips on that as an interface. (or to avoid it, perhaps).

You may want to check out some of the Samplitdue/Seq. threads and chime in there. (There's also a forum online via MAGIX for all registered Samplitude users that may be of some help for you.... (support.magix.net) )

Stop over and check in with the folks there, if you don't get much response here. In general, I'd suggest that you may not need much of an interface/control surface to use Samp/Seq.. (I've never used one, but my situation may be far different than yours).

I'd get the AES cards for the DM24 and an AES 16 interface. You'll have a bullet-proof 16 track setup. The AES16 from Lynx is one of the best sound cards out there of any sort and the AES cards for the DM24 work great (I have 2 in the mixer that I currently have). If you want to go 24 tracks, then get some sort of a format converter (perhaps an IFAE8-HR which you can get off ebay relatively cheap) and you can send another 8 channels out the TDIF to AES and a 2nd card would work well...

Another route would be to get the ADAT cards for the DM-24 and a RME Digiface or HDSP 9652. They each have 24 channels of ADAT. The DM-24 has 8 channels of ADAT on board already and with the cards, you'll have a 24 track recording setup. The RME cards are also superb computer cards.

Samp 6 is good, but the big improvement in version 7 (and of course 8) is ASIO which allows for much better monitoring solutions. Samp 8 has many huge improvements from 6 to the point where you'd hardly recognize them as the same program...

Joe also didn't mention the newsgroup that is dedicated to Samp and Sequoia. it can be found at: news.nv.net/samp-seq There will be tons of posts there that may help.

--Ben

How about the firewire vs the RME option for the DM24. Also, how do you send each track out so you can mix outside the box. Do you assign track one to out one, etc... How does work will tracking other stuff with what your allready recorded?

Say I recorded 15 tracks to my DAW and want to record some more to that song. How would I route all of the signals so I don't have a delay?

You'll have to set the sound card for as low of a latency as you can... Then it is just a matter of routing. The RME cards can go very low with the latency (near zero). I can't go quite as low on my Lynx, but I still can go very low.

In Samplitude, you just assing the tracks out a direct out instead of to the stereo bus. Then you can mix or do whatever you want on the console and route the returns back in to the DAW. It is a pretty simple process, actually.

--Ben

Okey thats easy enough. So with my DM24 I could us tracks 1-16 as sends and return on 17-16 for monitoring. Then when I'm ready to mix down I just mix through my Dm-24 on all channels so I can use its effects. Then route a stereo bus back to my CD mastering program.

So here again which is better the RME or Tascam firewire?

I don't have experience with the DM 24's firewire card, but judging from my other experiences with Tascam's firewire products, I'd go with an RME card and put some ADAT cards in your DM-24.

--Ben

Okey, I'll go with the RME and that work good with my HD24 too.

Whats the deal with the "Total Mix" on the RME. Does that over ride the asigned direct outs on each channel in Samp.. ? I think it would really help if you could feed it to me step-by-step.