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I just noticed that Tascam will be rolling out their new controller, ( the US2400 ) and I'd like to get a few responses from some of you who may own the FW1884 controller. I know the 1884 is a audio/midi/controller interface & the 2400 is just a controller. But as far as a controller, how well does it do with your favorate S/W? Also just how dependable is Firewire? Apparently a lot of manufactuers seem to be going that route. I guess I'll need to invest in a F/W card or something of that nature, hey? 8)

Comments

Doublehelix Sat, 03/20/2004 - 19:06

Just to nit pick a bit here...but the US2400 is USB based, hence the designation US. The FW1884 is Firewire based, hence the designation FW.

FWIW, the US2400 looks really smoking however, and at US$1599, it looks like a steal. I am anxiously awaiting a review somewhere. Also, has anyone else noticed that there is not any *real* pictures of this thing around anywhere? They are all artists renditions...kinda scary, eh? A real picture would inspire a little confidence!

anonymous Sun, 03/21/2004 - 21:13

Not sure if there are photos out there, though I can't imagine there wouldn't be....they've showed it at NAMM, and again at NSCA. I know they're not shipping yet (they're saying April or May), but they do exist. It's not FireWire because it doesn't need to be...it carries no audio. I'm pretty sure it's USB 2.0, though. (Disclaimer....I wrote the original spec, but that was over two years ago, so I don't know what's changed since then.)

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 07:33

CircuitRider wrote: (Assuming you're talking about the US2400) Have you tried playing the six tracks back without the control surface hooked up?

Sorry! I am talking about the FW-1884. and I have not tried that, there is no other sound card in the pc right now to monitor with. I suppose that I could put another one in to test, but was hoping for someone having the same issue so that I can be lazy!:)

paul

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 07:47

CircuitRider wrote: I wouldn't try a new soundcard just yet. What are the specs on the system (CPU/RAM)? Anything that may be slowing the system down (radio stations website + finaces + everyone's email/web access all running on same machine)?

It's a sweet pc, gig of ram, 2.4 P4.........nothing to harsh running on this machine. ACtually Audition runs fine on another slower pc just fine. I am thinking it may be the firewire card drivers? Any thoughts?

Pauly

CircuitRider Mon, 03/22/2004 - 07:58

Could be the firewire drivers, because otherwise, the system sounds more than capable. Is it onboard firewire or a PCI firewire adaptor? I run mine over a PCI with no problem. Just to clarify, you are only having problems playing back around six audio tracks at a time. You are having no problem recording. Are you recording multiple tracks at a time?

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 08:36

CircuitRider wrote: Could be the firewire drivers, because otherwise, the system sounds more than capable. Is it onboard firewire or a PCI firewire adaptor? I run mine over a PCI with no problem. Just to clarify, you are only having problems playing back around six audio tracks at a time. You are having no problem recording. Are you recording multiple tracks at a time?

It's a pci card for firewire, drivers are current. I did notice that when it stutters the processor usage is at 100%? Could it be something in the BIOS? It's a Dell dude.

pauly

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 09:27

CircuitRider wrote: You can try changing the latency settings in the FW1884 control panel. I don't know of anything you can change in the BIOS.

I would suggest optomizing the PC for audio. You can use Opus's doc as a guideline. Here's the link to the one for XP:

http://opusaudioprojects.net/WinXp.htm

Latency settings don't change much, besides at 2048 it's pretty unusable as an interface for 'realtime' fades and such. With this being our imaging set up for radio stations, latency is important to avoid.

I'll check the doc that you linked and see if that helps at all. I was thinking the bios in the Dell because we have had some issues with NexGen from Prophet systems and a bios adjustment fixed that......obviously different situation but it was an issue:)

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 11:23

dabmeister music wrote: Hey pauly, did you mean to say, "US 2400" and not:

besides at 2048

Nope. It's a FW-1884. Setting the latency in the control panel to 2048 is unaccptable.........1024 seems to work well enough, latency wise. BUT, this doesn't change the stuttering. This is killing me!:) All drivers are current.......firewire pci card and Tascam drivers. Firmware is updated. Settings appear correct. Video is decelarated. Agghhhhh!:)

Paul

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 21:01

Are you running a dedicated audio drive? Is it 7200 RPM or better? Are you running DSP plugins? There are a whole lotta things that can cause stuttering. I ran >20 tracks of audio in Sonar 2 with beta drivers and didn't have any issues....it's not impossible, but I think it's unlikely it's the FW drivers per se....more likely something else conflicting.

anonymous Sun, 04/04/2004 - 20:05

I have a Tascam 1884

I have an 1884 and may I say that it is everything I had hoped for and more. I have used it with Nuendo as well as Sonar Producer and it works excellent. The more I use it the more I like it. I was considering a Motu interface but for a very few more bucks, the motorized faders and 8 mic pre's and the functionality of the 1884 made the decision easy. It works. Cheers,
Stoph

anonymous Mon, 04/05/2004 - 10:39

Tascam DM-24

dabmeister music wrote: I noticed Tascam has a new firewire interface card for the DM24 digital mixer. They say it allows for 24 channels of audio to and from your PC, eliminating the need for an audio interface. That just changed the playing field for me as far as myself making a decision on getting a control surface.

For Sure! I have a DM 24 as well. I am anticipating the arrival of the card any day now. Do you have a DM-24? It's a very functional board that sounds great. Good enough to win Grammy's with!
Let me know when you get the card OK? I'd like to hear your thoughts.
regards,
Stoph

FifthCircle Wed, 04/07/2004 - 13:03

I'll offer a differing viewpoint from many here on the FW-1884. I think it is a complete POS and I'd never wish it on anybody I hated...

As a controller, it was decent, but not as functional as the Mackie control (I used it with the Samplitude DAW). This was the case in it's "Mackie control emulation" mode... As a front end for the DAW, it was horrible... As you reach a 12 foot FW cable or so, you must use a repeater (WTF, firewire only working 12 feet?!) for it to communicate. Even with a short cable, we had numerous communications issues with that interface that would cause it to fall off line and/or cause recording dropouts. In many cases, the Firewire light on the interface was still lit showing good communication (but no buttons on it worked).

When the latency was moved to anything below 1024 samples, we would sometimes get hundreds of write errors on our sound files. In one case, at the 32 sample latency, we got 5000 write errors in 45 seconds of audio.

The analog front end is garbage, too... We blew out 3 of the suckers plugging in microphones into the preamps with the phantom on. No patch bay, just plugging in a mic (you should see what the patch bay did). In all cases, the entire analog front end was destroyed and no signal would pass-even from the line level input.

In all, at this facility, we had 3 up and running (plus the 3 that were blown out), and all of them exhibited these problems...

--Ben

anonymous Thu, 04/15/2004 - 06:44

pauly610 wrote:
Nope. It's a FW-1884. Setting the latency in the control panel to 2048 is unaccptable.........1024 seems to work well enough, latency wise. BUT, this doesn't change the stuttering. This is killing me!:) All drivers are current.......firewire pci card and Tascam drivers. Firmware is updated. Settings appear correct. Video is decelarated. Agghhhhh!:)

Paul

maybe it's your firewire card. if you got 20 dollar ebay special you may be in for trouble.

just a thought.

will

(hey, you got my virgin post.)

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