Tascam releases new drivers for FW-series for Windows 7 (and OS 10.6)

Although Tascam had announced in November they would not be supporting the FW-1884 and other FW-series interfaces, they have reversed that decision.  Today they posted the Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit 1.80 drivers here:    http://www.tascam.com/pro...w-1884;9,14,46,19.html

Note that they also released OS 10.6 1.70 Snow Leopard drivers a few days ago.  Same URL.

Wow - very good news.
 
Seriously  -   think about this.
 
You can buy a FW-1082  *new*  for a street price of  ~$475   [audiomidi.com ]  or a FW-1884  *new*  for a street price of  $999  [ again at audiomidi.com ] 
 
Given these now have  Win 7 X64 Drivers  these are insanely cheap.
 
The FW-1082 is a total no-brainer for use just as a Control Surface.
 
Factor in the recording hardware that is built-in to these units,  the dedicated Midi i/o's, the spdifs, the hardware inserts, and these things are a virtual give-away for the money !!
 
Its' funny how something like a driver update can revive a product from being in the  " unsellable-dead-in-the-water "  bin,   to what is in my humble opinion,  the  [ FW-1082 ] being most ridiculooulsy cheap no-brainer buy  I've seen in a long time  and the   FW-1884 isnt too far behind !!
 
Tim

Yes, I believe Timboe is correct.  There was a problem with the Sonar Control Surface 1.21 driver, the only 32-bit one available on the Tascam sites, and they sort-of let out a beta 1.22 driver that is still circulated under the radar.  However, when they posted a 64-bit Sonar Control Surface driver, I assumed users of 64-bit Vista used that.  Now, with a 64-bit Windows 7 driver, I assume the same driver works for SONAR.

Perhaps someone here can test it?

There certainly have been a lot of frustrated owners of these units selling them after Tascam announced it would not support them.  Things certainly have turned topsy, haven't they?  At least those of us who waited, and made noise, finally made out OK, a year after the release of Windows 7.

I know some who actively wrote Tascam.  I did not. 

Instead, I did my part by continuing to restate just the facts, that Tascam had announced they would not be supporting Windows 7, in as many places as I frequent, including a Frontier Design forum.  The indignation that followed came from others, including many statements that people would no longer buy Tascam equipment.  Perhaps Tascam noticed.  Perhaps they will also think about this experience next time.

I'm not a 64-bit user yet. And maybe I'm still confused. Is your screenshot of that file the equivalent of/replacement for the v1.22 32-bit beta driver?

Good to see Tascam release new drivers. I got rid of one of these just because of what I felt was Tascam's horrible driver support. But I love it when a company steps up and delivers the goods, though, so I'm very happy for any Tascam users that will benefit from this.

Einstein, I agree, we should not count on anything further from Tascam for this unit.  The new OS 10.6 drivers released a few days ago include a message on the European Tascam sites that this is the FINAL driver for that platform.  On those same sites, the FW-1884 is classified as 'legacy', although it is still current on the USA Tascam site.

Once they post the 1.80 Windows 7 drivers on their European sites, I suspect we might see the same message.

One of the problems about the Windows 7 drivers was that Tascam was not forthcoming with a consistent position.  When the Windows 7 beta came out, they gave us a trick about using the 'legacy' firewire driver with the Vista driver but stated they would not issue a Windows 7 driver until Windows 7 was officially released. 

Then a month after the official release, they posted they would NOT release a Windows 7 driver.

Then, six months later, after an outcry, they released the Windows 7 drivers.

Sorry Tom, my wording was wrong.

I was not implying that I would try or want the 64-bt SONAR Installer on my 32-bit system. What I have works.

What my question was, is when I go to 64-bit and want to run SONAR in 64-bit, is the 64-bit SONAR installer the equivalent of the v1.22 driver. 

The V1.22 driver is referred to as a Control Surface driver but the other is called a "64-bit SONAR installer". Are they just different names for the same thing (being 32-bit and 64-bit Control Surface drivers)? And if they are the same thing is the 64-bit Installer at the v1.21 or v1.22 level of functionality.

I realize you may not have the answers, but the question still remains the same for me. Hopefully someone will chime in.

Bapu, Tom, I always assumed that the 64-bit SONAR installer was the same function as the 1.21 / 1.22 beta SONAR Control Surface driver.  The same help file accompanies both.  I agree, it would be helpful if the names matched.

In case anyone is confused, a little history, if I may, as best I can recall: 

Tascam posted the 1.21 driver for SONAR.  Then in late 2006, SONAR 6 came out, and the FW-1884 didn't work with it because SONAR had corrected errors in its code, but the 1.21 driver 'expected' the error.  So, Cakewalk 'broke' the driver.  Frontier Design had the fix within a few weeks.  One copy was leaked to a user, who began to distribute it to the rest of us.  Indeed, my signature on the Tascam forum contains a link to that essential driver.  Tascam, however, has never posted the 1.22 driver.  I had a discussion on the Tascam forum with a Tascam rep, who admitted the driver had basically been overlooked, and promised to revisit it.  That was almost a year ago.  Still nothing from Tascam.

Sometime after SONAR 6, Vista 64-bit began to gain ground and Tascam released the 1.0 SONAR Installer.  This is still the current version.

Hence, we need to find someone who is willing to test Windows 7 64-bit, SONAR driver 1.0, SONAR 6 or above, and FW-1884 driver 1.80.

DeeringAmps


bapu,
I'm right there with you!
Is this so-called "64 bit installer, created 9-12-2006" just a 64 bit update to v1.21?
The date on the v1.22 is Friday May 11, 2007 5:12:56 PM.
Maybe someone at Frontier could enlighten us.

Tom

Since created date of the 64-bit Installer is Sept 12, 2006 I would assume that it is a 64-bit version of v1.21.


Maybe we need to go back to Frontier with some cash to upgrade the 64-bit installer to v1.22?


As I've said, I'm in for 5 or 6 Benjamins.

I'm trying to work up the courage, (really make time) to do a quick x64 install. Lets not panic; yet!
I have a drive that's just sitting, so...
I'll be in touch!

Tom

Hey Gang,
Quick update:
Win7x64 installed
Set the Win7 1394 driver to "legacy"
Installed v1.8 FW-1884 driver
Assigned analog 1-2 to Windows & Media Player worked
Loaded Sonar 8x64PE, Sonar worked; so far no odd crackle, etc.
No BSOD yet!
   I have turned the FW on and off.
   I have booted with and without the FW on.
No joy with the x64 Sonar Plugin. When installing
it says it is the 1082 plugin (WTF)
Faders work, transport works, no mute or solo, when selecting an aux send the pan works the aux pan, not the aux level.
Tried to load the v1.22 plug, that goes into the Cakewalk x86 folders and Sonarx64 will not use it.
I'm going to try loading Sonarx32 (I know its x86 but...) and see if v1.22 works in the Sonarx32 environment.
I'll do some more testing and post more tomorrow.

Tom

ouch, ok we are gettin small steps, but none the less some steps...As for the Control surface in 32 bit win 7 and 32 vista im having great results, yet to hit 64,but i see its not working. right now though im getting to 1.5ms with 1.80 and my Controls  are working fine...geuss we are on stand by...only time will tell

Im running ASIO drivers right now, not a pop or click, smooth as butter....knock on wood...

Wow,
Win7x32, v1.8 driver, 1.22 Sonar Plug and 1.5msec latency; THAT I could learn to love! Mind showing some screen shots of the FW control panel and your Audio settings in Sonar?
Now if we can just get there in x64...

Tom

F@ker,
No trail blazer here, I pulled the x64 drive and am back to good old Win7x32.
I'm just getting all my presets etc reloaded into Sonar and almost ready to go back to work. I was going to hold off on the v1.8 install, but maybe I'll give that a go in the x32 environment and see how it works.

I doubt that the driver, meaning v1.8, was my problem on the x64 install. Unless something has changed just recently Cake is directing VS-700 users to run Sonar8.5x32 on the Winx64 OS, evidently there are issues with the Fantom and isn't Rapture a problem x64?
I think x64 is still hit and miss, I'll drop that drive back in when I have some time to play with it.
The important thing to me was the x64 Sonar Plugin. That IS NOT going to work! Either what is posted is the FW1082 driver OR it is the x64 version of v1.21. Either way IT DON'T WORK!