Ableton Forum

i have an old studio mixer and was considering the tascam fw 1884, just curious about how well it works with live. if you are using it please let me know your loves and hates with it

thanks

yeah, i´m using that combination... works without any problems... the remote control thing is now cool with live 5...

but you know that it´s not really a mixer?
no routing, no aux sends, no internal fx, eq...

just in case...

That's what I use and it works great. I'm still getting up and running with it but I got it in part because a friend who does laptop-type stuff and music for TV commercials uses the same combination. For what it costs, I don't think you can beat the 1884. He switched from Pro Tools 001. It doesn't synch up like a native system would (you have to program it) but for costing as much as a card and getting flying faders as well--dope.

ok if i had the 1884 and trashed my current studio mixer would i be able to run my dj mixer into the 1884 and still mix records w/o latency issues and with my computer off?

With the 1884's little brother the 1082 you only get a line level mixer - no eq or dynamics or aux outs when you are using it without a computer. I guess the 1884 has the same limitations.

The Yamaha O1X may be worth a look if you want a full mixer which is also an audio interface and control surface. Looking at both in the shop I have to say the 1884 had a much better build quality and feel, as well as more preamps.

Use this as well and really have no complaints.

Well, except the copy/cut/paste/delete buttons don't work with live

My experience is the Tascam works really well. In mackie control mode, however, it suse more juice (while commanding the automated faders via midi out.) For extra power in a realtime session, I find disabling my mackie control saves me a buffer of about 5% cpu on my dual 2g G5.

I am not clear on wheher or not the FW1884 can be used as a midi control surface of softsynth parameters. Does anyone know?

to be honest, I have been using my microkontrol for my synths (would love dedicated ability- ...) for my synths. The tascam has specific dedication, ie: faders apply to track volumes, bank select gives immiediate, "out of the box" contorl over (infinite?) new tracks, be it midi or audio.

I believe that if you wanted to change parameters, you would have to unselect the control surface mode. Then it should work fine. I'm not at my studio right now so I cant vouge for that.

yo quit talking about me on forums eben! ha just kidding. i'm the friend he mentioned...and the 1884 is great.
computer mode will interface with live 5 perfectly...push a button for monitor mode and it works as a regular mixer for everything plugged in (and yes it works with the computer off!)...push the midi control button and you can assign any 1884 controls to control soft synth params or whatever. the different modes all remember their settings, so jumping back and forth is no problem: i.e. moving faders in mixer mode won't move the faders in live. and there are trs effects sends on every channel (which i don't use because i've got everything going through a patch bay first). i wouldn't suggest using the faders for controlling soft synths though if you get at all righteous in your fader flippin. they've got a really long throw, and because of their touch sensitivity they feel a little delicate.
peep this link for info on what does what between live 5 and the 1884:
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ght=fw1884
a few things have changed since then, but it'll give you an idea of what buttons do what. good luck.

scientist wrote:yo quit talking about me on forums eben! ha just kidding. i'm the friend he mentioned...and the 1884 is great.
computer mode will interface with live 5 perfectly...push a button for monitor mode and it works as a regular mixer for everything plugged in (and yes it works with the computer off!)...push the midi control button and you can assign any 1884 controls to control soft synth params or whatever. the different modes all remember their settings, so jumping back and forth is no problem: i.e. moving faders in mixer mode won't move the faders in live. and there are trs effects sends on every channel (which i don't use because i've got everything going through a patch bay first). i wouldn't suggest using the faders for controlling soft synths though if you get at all righteous in your fader flippin. they've got a really long throw, and because of their touch sensitivity they feel a little delicate.
peep this link for info on what does what between live 5 and the 1884:
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ght=fw1884
a few things have changed since then, but it'll give you an idea of what buttons do what. good luck.

Wow.. i never thought about using the midi mode in conjunctino with the computer mode! Great idea

Thanks guys. Curiouser and curiouser!

Hey, I am soconfused between the differences between midi and computer mode. I am not at it right now, so I can't remmeber which one I have set up to remmember to control faders for each trank and succinctly bank vs.: alternate midi controls.

ANother question: Could in fact store several different presets for different softsynths? In the same set?

This is the sort of thing I have been hoping they might implement in microkontrol but I am very much in the dark.