Tascam FW 1884 with Logic, Computer Hardware Options

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Comments about:

Tascam FW 1884 with Logic

[bigbaby987]

Tried to use the 1884 with Logic yesterday and it wouldn't do anything. anyone having success? this looks like a wonderful piece of equipment.

[marcuspocus]

I guess you tried with Logic 5.5 PC ?

Well, didn't have it working completely, but have been able to activate fader motor and control almost everything using mackie control mode.

There is a bizarre thing happening though. In surface control setup windows of logic, i manually add a Logic Control, then faders worked, but no motor, and no feedback to buttons states.

Then i saw a small button in logic where it is written Write Firmware, i tried, then got an error message from logic after 10-20sec, that a new firmware was available blah blah blah... But anyway, there isn't any new firmware available. But, after you press the cancel button of this logic dialog, the motor started working perfectly, and light feedback for buttons states also!

I said, WOW, i got my FW-1884 to control Logic 5.5PC! hehehe... Well, every thing work but 2 keys, the pages UP and Page down, to access more than the first 8 parameters. That's the only bug i found so far in regard to logic support.

[_eddymoe_]

I'm working on mac osx 10.3 / logic platinum 6.3.3 and am trying to get my fw 1884 going... there is some comunication between computer and fw 1884, but I can't send any devices from fw 1884 to logic... not very usefull - doe's someone know that problem and knows how to solve it?

[lepetitmartien]

Sorry eddymoe, can't help you, but be aware that the drivers in OSX are a work in progress, they don't seem to work for a lot of people in some similar ways…

Mail to tascam and ask them to address the problem, as anyone with it should do, the more mail they have the faster they'll work it out. Watch the thread on the Tascam here also (interface forum) maybe someone can help you already.

[joyboz]

This is off the US Tascam site, FW 1884 section

"FW-1884 Owners,

Due to changes in Mac OS X Panther compared to Jaguar, we cannot guarantee FW-
1884 compatibility with Panther at this time. The FW-1884 software engineering
team is working directly with Apple OS X engineers to ensure compatibility
between the FW-1884 and Mac OS X Panther. This compatibility will require an OS
X driver update for the FW-1884 beyond the current driver (1.03).

As soon as a Panther-compatible driver has passed testing, it will be posted
here. In the mean time, please maintain the Mac you use with your FW-1884 at
Mac OS X 10.2.4 through 10.2.8. Current drivers are tested and approved with
these versions of Mac OS x.

Thanks,
TASCAM FireWire Team"


Please check out your software & equipment sites.. they more often then not can answer a lot of your questions.
I like my FW 1884... Use it with OS 10.2.6 and Logic Plat. 6.3.2.
They play well with each other. My only complaint about the Tascam is the jog wheel is waaaaaay too sensitive..... just about unuseable except for moving to areas quickly.
Have a great one!!

[benst]

Same here. I have 10.3.2 on my Powerbook but have to boot from an external f/w disk with 10.2.6 (and LAP 6.3.2) to use the Tascam FW-1884. I've not had any problems with that combination, but I sure hope they release 10.3 driver soon.

Ben

[moeMusic]

Well - at last the update's here.
--> but the shuttle/data wheel isn't working no more longer and pan in computer-mode can just switch between left and right. no fine control any more... java script:emoticon(';)')

can tascam please correct that! thanx

ps: I'm now running fw 1884 on an external hd with os 10.2.6 - that works really great, except I am using my harddisc for an "old" system instead of beeing able to make backups!!!

[rololux]

Using logic 6, if I create a quick time synth track on say channel 7, then I move the fader on channel 4 on the FW-1884 control surface, the synth sound stops. If I then touch the fader on channel 4 it comes back while I am touching it. If I disable record on channel 7 while I am touching channel 4 fader, the sound returns permanently (or at least until I repeat the process).

I have just installed the new driver for the FW-1884. Anyone got any ideas - it's driving me crazy!

Thanks,
Roland

[Hettoblaster]

I use Logic Plat. 6.3.1 on Panther with the 1.1.0. driver for the FW1884
and have about the same problem.
When i select tracks from the Tascam, some track pannes hard left, or right.
And sometimes a Spectrasonics Trilogy sound just stoppes, and then i can not use any button for that track from the FW1884.

I'm going to e-mail this to Tascam now...

[benst]

I'm going to e-mail this to Tascam now...

I believe the control surface driver was written by Emagic, so it might be better to contact them.

[Hettoblaster]

Good point!
Will do that aswell..

B.t.w. the Panning problem happenes when SOLO'ING tracks, not selecting

[_lsw_]

im getting weird trilogy stuff too.whats happening is that the four/five middle faders of the 1884 are sending controller data to trilogy, so when trying to adjust simply the volume the plugin does all manner of strange things.apart from that and the fact ive had it about 10 hours its great

[rololux]

I'm getting used to these problems now. As long as I remember to disable record on track 4 before touching any controls of the FW1884, then I have no problems, but if I forget, then all Hell breaks loose - lost sounds, tracks panning to extremes etc. Lost the metronome at the weekend which had me going for a while. Close and re-load of song seems to cure it.

Has anyone had a response from Tascam yet? I am hoping that this will be fixed on the next version of the driver, along with proper control of the master fader (something that also drives me nuts as I keep forgetting!). V1.10 was issued at the beginning of Jan. V1.11 or perhaps V1.2 should be along soon.

Roland

[Hettoblaster]

"Has anyone had a response from Tascam yet? "

Yes, they thanked me for adressing the problem and said it is added to the list of bugfixes for the next version.

This post has been edited by lepetitmartien: Thu 12 Feb 2004, 22:57

[tascman]

Hello every body!

Well about the control of Logic with the Fw, thing have been improved last week.
the programmers from emagic sent us the newer version of the logic fw plug in. It corrected the auto touch, wich now is working, the wheel response (wich is now realistic!) , and added the support of Soft lcd!

You can download soft Lcd from the tascam.com website.
it work by popping up exactly like if you had an 8 channel lcd viewer.
and allows de facto to pilote every plug ins and instruments!
just selecting those with function buttons.

you can also download the pdf read me from the website.


feel free to contact me if any question.
regards
Ed

[tascman]

Hello every body!

Well about the control of Logic with the Fw, thing have been improved last week.
the programmers from emagic sent us the newer version of the logic fw plug in. It corrected the auto touch, wich now is working, the wheel response (wich is now realistic!) , and added the support of Soft lcd!

You can download soft Lcd from the tascam.com website.
it work by popping up exactly like if you had an 8 channel lcd viewer.
and allows de facto to pilote every plug ins and instruments!
just selecting those with function buttons.

you can also download the pdf read me from the website.


feel free to contact me if any question.
regards
Ed

[rololux]

The Tascam US site has been unaccessable for the past 24 hours. I tried downloading the Logic plugin from the European site, but had some problems. There seems to be an extra library icon for the FW1884, but Logic gives an error message saying it can't load the plugin. Also, nothing seems to have changed with respect to the FW behaviour problems. I'm not quite there yet. Any ideas?

Roland

[tascman]

hello

the new logic plug is not yet available but will be downlodable probably next week.

sorry for the late.
it wil be fixed.

regards
Ed

[rololux]

So the new Logic plugin seems to be on the Tascam site. I tried downloading it, but when I open it all I get is a new icon labelled simply FW-1884, shaped ike a jigsaw puzzle piece. Nothing has changed in the behaviour of the FW-1884. I even tried de-instaling and re-installing from scratch, but no change.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Roland

[benst]

So the new Logic plugin seems to be on the Tascam site. I tried downloading it, but when I open it all I get is a new icon labelled simply FW-1884, shaped ike a jigsaw puzzle piece. Nothing has changed in the behaviour of the FW-1884. I even tried de-instaling and re-installing from scratch, but no change.

It seems they have mixed up the OS9 and OSX versions. If you download the OS9 version of the new Logic driver (fw1884_logic_os9%20_1_10.sit) then you get the correct FW-1884.bundle file.

I do not have my Logic key with me now, so I have not actually tried this yet!

Ben

[rololux]

Hey - thanks Ben - it worked! My master fader now comes up when I open a song - Heaven! And Soft LCD works, although it may take a while to work out the logic on shortening track names. Let's see if the other problems are fixed - or do we have to wait for a new driver for that?

Cheers

Roland.

[benst]

Hey - thanks Ben - it worked!

Great! On my way to try it out myself.

Let's see if the other problems are fixed - or do we have to wait for a new driver for that?

Yeah, they've posted a pdf with some info. There are still some things not finished:

CODE

Release Note for Emagic’s FW-1884 Logic control  surface plug-in V 1.10  
New Features
 •  FE-8 Supported
 •  SoftLCD Supported
Maintenance Items
 •  Jog/Shuttle wheel behavior improved
 •  Master Fader behavior corrected
 •  Fader Touch now fully functional
Known Issues  
The following two issues will be corrected in a future revision of Logic:
 •  Incorrectly illuminated Shortcut keys
 •  Bank LEDs not working

Too bad about those last two items, but I'm very happy with the other things.

Ben

[smoo]

It seems that the FW 1884 supports Logic at the moment better than DP4. True? Will that be improved?

[JingleDave]

The Logic plug-in 1.11 is now on the Tascam Site. I think the OS9 and OSX drivers are reversed on the download. You know it's the right one for OSX if it unstuffes to FW-1884.bundle. Put it in your Library/Applications/Emagic/MIDI Device Plug-ins folder.


JingleDave

[moeMusic]

JingleDave - I still can't find the logic bundle 1.11! Is this a mistake or what?


my tascam fw-1884 ist still not running well on os10.3.3! the data-wheel istn't functional, same with the pan-buttons, with switch from max. to max., no finetuning from the fw-1884!

doe's someone know if this ist incorrect ajustment of software/hardware or a bug in the driver of tascam or even a logic problem?

Equipment: fw-1884 with 1.2.0 driver / 1.10 bundle - logic pro 6.4.1

thanks for responds - edi

[JingleDave]

My Bad,

I confused it with the DP 1.11 Plug-in. Sorry for getting your hopes up.

[moeMusic]

that's ok - the tascam site hasn't realy got a good overview doe's it...

do you know anything about the problems with the pan-buttons and the data-wheel?

edi

[Hettoblaster]

do you know anything about the problems with the pan-buttons and the data-wheel?

My data-wheel behaves fine and the panning issue works almost perfect, although not 100% yet.. It used to happen half the time when i solo'ed tracks and i accually saw and heared the pan go, now this doesn't happen anymore (and i'm sooo happy with that!:D ) but very occasionly i get some track panned hard left, out of the blue it seems.
Soft LCD workes well too.

[rololux]

I'm running Panther 10.3.3, Logic Pro 6.4.1, FW-1884 1.20 driver, Logic 1.10 bundle. Data wheel works fine, and I no longer having the panning issue. In fact, pretty much everything works, but I still have a few niggles:

Mute / Solo when pressed on the FW1884 are not echoed on Logic arrange page (mutes and solo do work though)

I get glitches every time I touch a fader. If the track has a cymbal part on it, I might get a cymbal hit.

Occasionally, button pushes do not register. I've noticed this especially with stop and play.

Otherwise all is fine, and I'm very happy with it.
Roland

[melta]

After your various probelms.
Do you guys recomend investing in the Tascam 1884 compared to a Mackie Control?
I currently run Logic 6 on a G4 laptop (400mhz) with a MOTU 828 sound card (Which i need for multi-channel + surround use). But I now really need some control surface.
So I'm trying to decide whether to invest in either
-a Mackie Control (universal or baby Hui) and keep the motu or.
- buy the Tascam 1884 and sell the Motu 828.

Any one got some good advice?

muchos thanks
melta