I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884

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bubblefish
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2005/09/19 12:49:18 (permalink)

I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884

Ok big money question.

i have a little money from my grandmothers will about $2200 cdn, and I,m thinking of getting the control surface my studio is lacking. So any honest feedback would be greatly appriciated.

I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884, as i have heard alot about it and its seems a few of you use it here.

M'y main goal in getting it is to be able to mix down track the way i used to back in the old analogue days. back then i would often set up a collection of different drum loops, pad sounds, etc and then mix them in manually in real time to dat tape.

how will this interface work with that regards?

is it fairly easy to assign various midi controls to it from sonar?

how stable is it with sonar?

can i control other vsti's with this (say the individual instruments within reason) or just sonars interface?

whats the sound quality like?

and is there anything else i should know? like buy the yamaha o1x

anyone ever buy this and then live to regret it?

BTW i mainly make electronica for those that don,t know using alot of vsti stuff, but have an (ever growing)amount of outboard analogue gear to connect as well.

is this going to make my fw-410 obsolite?
post edited by bubblefish - 2005/09/19 12:57:12

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary,
you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion

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    Duojet
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/09/19 18:21:50 (permalink)
    look at

    Behringer BCF-2000 (best value)

    Tascam US-2400 (good value for 24 faders - plus theres a $200 rebate until sept 30th)

    Mackie MCU (expandable, not the best value, but very good and it includes LCD "scribble strips")

    CMLabs Motor Mix - Dont know much about this one
    #2
    bubblefish
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/09/20 07:12:57 (permalink)
    cheers duojet.

    I,m kind of looking more at the mackie control universal as well now with the c4 but i guess time will tell

    If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary,
    you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion

    Some sounds with spaces
    #3
    aboutajay Studios
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/09/20 11:07:27 (permalink)
    The FW-1884 is the best piece of hardware that I've probably ever bought. It works seamlessly with Sonar 3 and 4, as long as you have the appropriate Sonar updates as well as the Tascam driver updates and firmware updates.
    The pre-amps are clean, and the multitude of connection options made it very easy to integrate into my studio. I can't imagine recording without the motorized faders or even just the transport section.
    As you can probably guess, I would highly recommend it.

    aboutajay Studios
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    mojoblues
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/09/20 23:47:06 (permalink)
    I don't have the 1884 I have the 1802 ,I like it and it works well only thing I don't like about it is is the mic pre's ( the are the same as the 1884 ) they suck , and the other thing I don't like about it is it becomes un stable if you are using it with other sound cards in sonar , I just use it for my mixdowns now and not for any recording .

    Mojo Mike...
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    johndale
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/09/21 17:02:16 (permalink)
    Tascam's support leaves much to be desired (to be nice). I had a 428 for a couple of years and they did not stay on top of the driver situation...................JDW
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    kevin m
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    Tascam fw1884 and Sonar 2005/10/06 11:20:33 (permalink)
    Hi,
    Interesting that you recommend the Tascam FW-1884 control surface for use with Sonar.
    I am currently assisting a blind student of mine who has purchased (ill-advisedly in my opinion) the Tascam device you mention. For several weeks, on and off, I and three other music tech staff, have been attempting to make this device control Sonar 4.
    With very little success. The tascam has an extra set of faders (the FE-8) attached. At various times one or other of us has managed to get the FW-1884 controlling tracks 1-8 in Sonar, but none of us have ever managed to get the FE-8 to control anything.
    The FE-8 shows up as recognised by Sonar but we suspect that it may not be recognised by the FW-1884. Tascam in their wisdom having omitted a proper diagnostic check so it's difficult to know immediately.

    No-one from Tascam, Edirol or Carillon (the suppliers) tech support can confirm whether this is a defective device issue or yet another of Sonar's wonderful little myriad issues.

    If your good self, or anyone else out there knows of any particular issues of this nature, could you let me know please.
    #7
    OffAnAirplane
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    RE: I,m thinking of the tascam fw1884 2005/10/06 16:52:59 (permalink)
    Mackie MCU (expandable, not the best value, but very good and it includes LCD "scribble strips")


    That's my biggest gripe with the FW-1884 is it's lack of an LCD track ID. If you have to keep looking up at the screen to see which track is which, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a controller. I know they have the SoftLCD program, but that is not near as useful as an actual hardware LCD track ID display.

    My only other gripe is that there is only one send per input for direct monitor mixing.
    That is why I'm selling my FW-1884 and getting a Motu 896HD. It has a DSP-driven input monitor mixer, which has eight sends per input. So you can have eight different monitor mixes all using the Cuemix software that comes with it. Also with the FW-1884, you are limited to 8 analog inputs and with the 896HD you can daisy-chain them up to 3 for a whopping 24 analog inputs.

    Oh and one other thing. That FW-1884 is freiken huge!! It takes up a ton of desk space.

    If I still wanted a DAW controller (which I don't anymore), I would go with the Mackie Universal.
    post edited by OffAnAirplane - 2005/10/06 17:01:57

    Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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    OffAnAirplane
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    RE: Tascam fw1884 and Sonar 2005/10/06 16:56:56 (permalink)

    ORIGINAL: kevin m

    Hi,
    Interesting that you recommend the Tascam FW-1884 control surface for use with Sonar.
    I am currently assisting a blind student of mine who has purchased (ill-advisedly in my opinion) the Tascam device you mention. For several weeks, on and off, I and three other music tech staff, have been attempting to make this device control Sonar 4.
    With very little success. The tascam has an extra set of faders (the FE-8) attached. At various times one or other of us has managed to get the FW-1884 controlling tracks 1-8 in Sonar, but none of us have ever managed to get the FE-8 to control anything.
    The FE-8 shows up as recognised by Sonar but we suspect that it may not be recognised by the FW-1884. Tascam in their wisdom having omitted a proper diagnostic check so it's difficult to know immediately.

    No-one from Tascam, Edirol or Carillon (the suppliers) tech support can confirm whether this is a defective device issue or yet another of Sonar's wonderful little myriad issues.

    If your good self, or anyone else out there knows of any particular issues of this nature, could you let me know please.

    No-one from Tascam, Edirol or Carillon (the suppliers) tech support can confirm whether this is a defective device issue or yet another of Sonar's wonderful little myriad issues.


    What version of Sonar 4 are you using? I know mine worked flawlessly with 4.0.2 and then it had a few glitches when I upgraded to 4.0.3

    Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
    #9
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