Customer Reviews

Tascam FW1884 Firewire Controller

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this one product has become the "center" of my studio , inputs are super clean as an interface for all my audio needs , and i even use the lightpipe IN from a korg168rc mixer - so that i can actually get 16-20 separate items recorded all at the same and keep them separated and pristine sounding - unit has 4in and 4out midi interfaces , i use 2 of them. i use this with the included cubase LE and now cubase 4 , LE was great to work with and mix with - but only allowed for 4in's recorded at a time - i use the transport controls more than i use a mouse now - and the motorized fades are a wow factor , if i make a few level and pan automations - the faders move so smooth and almost too perfect - i reccomend - only wish the FE8 additional fader packs came down in price

Overall, this is a good product with tons of I/O, a great surface and good quality, but I have two issues, one of which has already been fixed in a software upgrade, and one of which needs to be addressed by Steinberg (or possibly issued as a more robust Cubase template by Tascam).

The Drivers that come with this system will not allow you to have more than 3 GB of RAM. However, Tascam has finally released v 1.70 which fixes this problem so you can now put as much RAM on your system as you want. It works with both 32 bit and 64 bit programs with no issues now.

The second issue involves it's interface with Cubase (which is as much Steinberg's issue). The Scrub wheel will not do what you want it to do, and many of the buttons don't do what they appear to do until programmed that way. Also, the encoders are very limited in what they can do compared to similar products (that this was apparently modeled after which is also frustrating). The Flip button doesn't work in Cubase. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of flexibility in how you do program the buttons to work. It would also be nice if Steinberg made a direct map for this controller instead of having to use the Mackie protocol.

With that said, this is still a great product, especially if you need a hardware "brain" for your studio. It has tons of I/O compared to similar products including inserts on every audio channel and great Monitor capabilities (including panning). It has near zero latency. I also like the EQ section controls (although they won't affect direct monitor channels). However, in reality, my experience is that you will more likely use the mouse for EQ tasks in the DAW environment.

I have owned the Tascam 1884 for well over two years. Within that time mixer has died two times, due to a failed firewire issues. You will know when your mixer has died. Every light on the mixer will be on and that means the mixer is dead. The first time it died, I sent the mixer back to Tascam for a repair. That cost me $275.00, so when it died the second time, I was done with the Tascam 1884. I now have a cheaper mixer that does all of what the 1884 did, only with out problems. I would recommend the Alesis Master Control over the 1884. I'm sure some of you out there have no problems with the 1884. But for me, I'm done, so be wise buyers and get the right stuff, to do what you need with out it not working for you.

For 6 months now, Tascam has been refusing to solve a simple bug that cripples this product for Sonar 6 users. Sonar users who paid good money for this product are VERY angry. The original design company, Frontier Design, has graciously implemented a repair at no charge and has supplied this repair to Tascam. Tascam has for several months refused to distribute the fix, and has been completely unresponsive to customer support requests. I was an early purchaser of this product. I was very happy with it, and I now need to replace it simply because Tascam is unresponsive. They don't even need to do any engineering work to deal with this -- merely redistribute the work that Frontier has already done.

Note that since Tascam purports to support use of the device in Sonar, this goes beyond bad support and crosses into the realm of product misrepresentation and false advertising.

In any case, if you buy a product like this, you want it to keep working. Given Tascam's lack of basic support or courtesy to its customers, you should assume that it will not.