Tascam FW1884 as mixer / soundcard replacement etc?

DirtRider · Post by **DirtRider** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:15 am

Hi,

I'm planning on getting Ableton after fiddling with the demo for a while, and also upgrading my soundcard and mixer...
My eyes fell on the Tascam FW1884 but I have some questions, which hopefully some Tascam users can answer. Thanks for your time

- If I see it correctly, the Tascam is an audio interface as well, does it have enough inputs for my 2 synths (in total: 3 stereo signals)
- It has dual MIDI, rite? I need dual midi in/out
- What happens with the suonds of soft synths, can you assign them to different channels on the tascam (e.g. split the signals, so not everything from the computer is ONE stereo channel)
- The EQ only works on the computer, correct? Can you do a final mixdown on the computer?

Last: do I actually need anything else then the Tascam FW1884 to make decent music, in combination with Live and my synths? (Virus C and MS2000B) ?

Sorry for the hassle but it's a bit of a red mist now

Thanks!

Dom

NoelEiffe · Post by **NoelEiffe** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:15 pm

- If I see it correctly, the Tascam is an audio interface as well, does it have enough inputs for my 2 synths (in total: 3 stereo signals)

8 analog IOs - 1/4 or TRS + 2 spdif + 8 ADAT = 18ch

- It has dual MIDI, rite? I need dual midi in/out

It's got 4x4 midi

- What happens with the suonds of soft synths, can you assign them to different channels on the tascam (e.g. split the signals, so not everything from the computer is ONE stereo channel)

You assign them to tracks and then control the tracks. Output and monitoring usually goes to Analog 1/2 ch....in live, that's "Master."

- The EQ only works on the computer, correct? Can you do a final mixdown on the computer?

Yes. The surface has dedicated controls for it...select track, select eq band, turn knob...or do it on the computer.

My opinion: it does do all these things and is nice that way. But it's a pretty demanding device from a config point of view...took me days to get it set up right, and spent a lot of time messing with drivers, had to buy a TI-chipset based Firewire card, etc. When it's working it's cool, but wow, what a tough setup phase.

treysmith · Post by **treysmith** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:07 pm

Totally agree.. now that I have it running well, I love it... but it was a BITCH to set up.

My problem was the firewire card as well.. was getting tons of bluescreens, etc, etc

DirtRider · Post by **DirtRider** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:27 am

Hm ok what do you guys do with hardware signals, e.g. external synth. Do you have to render them as audio tracks first bfore your can control their volumes etc? It seems that the EQ only functions on audio tracks in Live 5, which means imho that all midi tracks need to be rendered to audio first, or am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks for your answers!

treysmith · Post by **treysmith** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:49 pm

DirtRider wrote:Hm ok what do you guys do with hardware signals, e.g. external synth. Do you have to render them as audio tracks first bfore your can control their volumes etc? It seems that the EQ only functions on audio tracks in Live 5, which means imho that all midi tracks need to be rendered to audio first, or am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks for your answers!

If you have an external synth input into channel 8, then you have a "trim" knob above channel 8 that adjust the input volume.

Now if you then assign the INPUT 8 to Channel 8 (remember... before, only the TRIM controlled the input) then you can control the pan, volume, mute, solo, etc functions in real time while your playing the synth.

You could essentially have the synth inputing in to INPUT 1 (where, once again, the trim ABOVE channel 1 would control the input volume) and then rout that input to channel X (what ever channel you want) in ableton...

but it makes it easier to keep it on the one that you've inserted, but your by no means forced to do that.

Ritzi Lee · Post by **Ritzi Lee** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:39 pm

treysmith wrote:
DirtRider wrote:Hm ok what do you guys do with hardware signals, e.g. external synth. Do you have to render them as audio tracks first bfore your can control their volumes etc? It seems that the EQ only functions on audio tracks in Live 5, which means imho that all midi tracks need to be rendered to audio first, or am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks for your answers!
If you have an external synth input into channel 8, then you have a "trim" knob above channel 8 that adjust the input volume.

Now if you then assign the INPUT 8 to Channel 8 (remember... before, only the TRIM controlled the input) then you can control the pan, volume, mute, solo, etc functions in real time while your playing the synth.

You could essentially have the synth inputing in to INPUT 1 (where, once again, the trim ABOVE channel 1 would control the input volume) and then rout that input to channel X (what ever channel you want) in ableton...

but it makes it easier to keep it on the one that you've inserted, but your by no means forced to do that.

To assign the TRS inputs in ableton for mixing purposes,
I assume this is in the COMPUTER mode?
(because the manual told me the EQ knobs don't have a function if the FW1884 is set in the MONITOR mode)

Ritzi Lee · Post by **Ritzi Lee** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:43 pm

And also I still like to have some insight in how the FW1884 processes external and intarnal sounds. Normally I'm used to the thought if you do EQ'ing in Live, the processing is done by my PC. But does the FW1884 also behaves like a sort of DSP module for releaving processor power?
And is this also the case if I for instance use other VST effects like compression, reverbs, chorusses and so on?

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:09 pm

its like any other audio interface...doesn't host vsts, doesn't save cpu, etc. but at the touch of a button it works as a normal mixer, so yes you can control the levels of all of your external gear. comes stock with 8 channels in which equals four stereo sources. i added an alesis at3 for an additional 8 in and out. all this i/o means i never have to plug/unplug anything...synth, 3 drum machines, turntables, sampler, mics, etc all stay plugged in. to listen/record i just unmute the mixer channel and select that track to record in live. midi is 4 in 4 out. 8 audio outs stock so you can have your normal monitors AND a full 5.1 system all plugged in at once, or use the extra outs to send audio from live to any outboard gear you want...
don't know how it performs on a pc, but on mac it runs fine, never really have to worry about it.

Ritzi Lee · Post by **Ritzi Lee** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:42 pm

I see! So combining this with a Focusrite Liquidmix would be awsome.

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:49 pm

Ritzi Lee wrote:I see! So combining this with a Focusrite Liquidmix would be awsome.

maybe. if that thing is an audio interface, then no (unless you're on a mac then you can use the 'aggregate device' feature). if not i'd still be a bit worried about firewire conflicts with so much i/o on the firewire buss. i'd invest in a more powerful computer before any outboard processing power...i've got a first gen macbook and have never run out of processing power in a live project.

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 4:17 am

i def had a lot of problems trying to set the fw 1884 up on my pc. it was a breeze to setup and run on the macbook though. now i have a permanent channel setup for my guitar, bass, turntables, mic, 1 keyboard (midi in), and 1 sampler (midi in). all i have to do is hit record on the 1884 and it goes. it makes my life 10x easier. the whole setup revolves around it.

dave999z · Post by **dave999z** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:28 am

I've been looking into firewire interface / mixers.

How do you FW 1884 users think it would compare to this M-Audio mixer?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/NRV10-main.html

Cheers,
Dave

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:27 pm

hmmm... no midi = big no no 4 me
the tascam has got midi inputs/outputs (so necessary) and motorized faders (which are dope but not so necessary). its not really cheaper if you wait for a good deal on one. it is smaller and more compact than a fw 1884. i don't know dude. u might wanna look through a couple of reviews from people who have one before you settle on anything. again, its easier to setup if you got a mac for some reason. with pc you gotta use asio4all