Tascam Fw-1884 Options

[ebenoushi]

Has anyone actually seen this unit? It is apparently on sale at Sweetwater and several other online stores but I've only ever been able to find a rendering of the thing. The description on the Tascam site says it has pan controls. Are they knobs? It's hard to tell from the drawing.

This post has been edited by ebenoushi: Sun 11 May 2003, 05:21

[xingu]

I haven't seen the thing myself yet, but I would imagine that the pan control is a knob. That's how it is on my US-428, but I only have a single pan control that works by selecting each channel. Tascam's description of the 1884 says each channel has dedicated pan, mute, solo, and select controls. If you look at the rendering again, each channel looks like it has (from the top down, excluding LEDs): a trim knob (the black circle); the pan control knob (the light grey circle); and then square buttons for the mute, solo, and select functions. Just a guess based on how my 428 is laid out. You might want to confirm this by posting at Tascam's Computer Audio forum.

[ebenoushi]

I thought that grey circle might be a pan knob, though it looks too small from the drawing... in that case, is it also a rotary encoder, like on other control surfaces?

Xingu, how has your experience been overall with Tascam? I've only ever used their four-track recorders back in the day...

[xingu]

Well, I don't even know what exactly a rotary encoder is but according to my 428 manual in the control protocol appendix, yes, the pan and EQ knobs are rotary encoders, so I would assume the protocol is similar for the firewire unit.

My experience with Tascam has been great so far, mostly because I haven't had many problems. As an all-in-one solution for audio, MIDI, and a control surface, the 428 has served me quite well for home recording (i.e. minimal requirements), particularly for the price. The Tascam forum is an awesome resource and full of people willing to help out (for the most part). Unfortunately, as of late, the admins and other actual Tascam people have been quite absent, but much of the support comes from users anyway. Not sure how well this will apply to the FW-1884 with it being a new product and all, but I'm sure after it's been out for awhile, things will be similar.

There were many gripes from folks waiting around for OSX drivers, but all things considered, Tascam wasn't too bad in its timing (beta in early Feb. and final a month later). There are still some Mac users having problems with the new driver (thankfully, I'm not one of them ) , but there's no clear rhyme or reason to it. Hopefully the FW-1884 is truly OSX-ready. It's supposed to feature control surface support quite a few DAWs either now or in the near future.

[bilhep]

I was looking at the 1884 also, when the notice came out the other day. What caught my eye is the absense of a LCD. I guess that all the info is on the monitor and that it is a "control surface," as is the 428 and 224(which I had before changing for the AW16G Yamaha. All your info is determined by the software you're using. I am curious, regarding the 428, whether the Cubasis supplied with that unit(assuming you received that package) only allowed you to use one of the four inputs? That was very frustrating on the 224! This, I believe is a fault due to the over-zealous marketing types' determination to only give the user a taste of the software and never enough to do something real, like use three mics! I almost bought the 428 before I realized that the software looked like it was the same. I wonder what, if any, software will be shipped with the 1884? Seems like they should supply a light version of GigaStudio.

Bill Heppe

[xingu]

I never used the bundled Cubasis, but I know for a fact there is a workaround to use all 4 inputs simultaneously - the info. can be found on one of the 428 support pages. I'm pretty sure you can use the same workaround to enable two simultaneous inputs with the 224...

AFAIK, no bundled software with the 1884.

[ebenoushi]

I'm also curious about the abscence of an LCD on the FW-1884. The only control surface I've played with was a Logic Control briefly at a demo. How would you know, in the abscene of that LCD information, what you were controlling when working with plug-ins? Do you have to go through each plug-in and assign parameters to knobs/faders? Or just wiggle something on the control surface and see what moves on the screen?

Anyone who might know how this works please let me know. I've been inquiring on the Tascam site but recieved somewhat vague information...

OUSHI

[lepetitmartien]

glossary point:

A rotary encoder is a digital "pot". there are 2 types of encoders, the old and the new one
In the principles, encoders are "pots" (they are not but it's easier to think this way) that issue not a value (a voltage for example like a normal pot) but data on which direction the pot is turned.

The old type (no more available) issues ASCII caracters in hex, they wear quickly, can not be replaced. They were used mainly in the 80s (like in the synths Oberheim Matrix).

The new type only issues 0 or 1 depending the direction you turn the knob.

Encoders are expensive

[bilhep]

The recording software you use works with the 1884 and your computer monitor substitutes(however poorly) for the LCD.

[xingu]

For anyone interested, some further details on the 1884 (including much better pictures) can be found here.