Now this is pretty cute: TASCAM FireOne

[blue2blue]

[APOLOGIES if this has been discussed to death and I was off in space]

 

 

OKey doke. Not a big TASCAM fan, here -- and highly unlikely I'll buy this. But I think it's good to give credit where credit is due.

 

And this is a very cute product.

 

 

 

 

It reminds me a little of my Mr Coffee, in that it seems to have benefited from multiple generations of predecessor products and embody the design features that have evolved over a series of thoughtful redesigns.

 

I mean, it could be a visually overdesigned, awkward-to-use, shoddy POS, too, I suppose.

 

But it sure is cute...

 

[Anderton]

If you frequented the Theater page, you would have known about this months ago...

 

Go here and scroll down to TASCAM FireOne. You're welcome!

[meccajay]

Nice features, what's MSRP ?

 

2-in / 2-out FireWire Audio Interface

Up to 96kHz/24-bit audio resolution

Two XLR mic inputs with phantom power and pad

1/4" high impedance input for recording guitar direct

Two 1/4" stereo headphone outputs

Weighted, backlit jog wheel

Transport control keys: rewind, fast-forward, stop, play, record

Headphone output with level control

Eight DAW shortcut keys

Stereo LED meter

MIDI in and out

1/4" Footswitch input

Buss powered through the FireWire connection or use the included power supply

192kHz support planned for a future software update

[spokenward]

I think the Frontier logo is a lot more important to me than the Tascam logo.

 

I respect a company that updates their drivers and even has been known to respond to email.

 

I think that they worry about this stuff. I like that.

 

(Here's a tip - check to see if newer drivers are posted at the Tascam European website.)

[blue2blue]

I didn't investigate far enough, even, to see that it had a Frontier plate on it, too. (I think other shiny objects had already otherwise distracted me.)

 

I, too, am a big fan of Frontier. I was an early Wavecenter owner and Frontier was enormously helpful and patient. And their fact sheet on optimizing for multichannel audio provided an excellent foundation for the subsequent decade of computer based recording.

 

I like those guys. I knew 'em when.

[the stranger]

OKey doke. Not a big TASCAM fan, here...

 

And? Why? I'm just dying to know...nobody can break down the essence of some company like you can.

[blue2blue]

You must find your own path to being a bitter old man, Grasshopper.

 

 

Only you can own your own bitterness.

 

 

 

________________

 

 

But... strictly in the interests of beating my head against old, but not quite forgotten grudges...

 

My first 5 multitrack machines (all the analog ones, pretty well) were all (used) TASCAMs.

 

And I loved the first one... a "knife-switch" 3340... but they were hard to keep running [stuff kept breaking, and solenoid relays, espeically (there were a lot of relays in the later machines) kept going bad] and TASCAM seemed like they wanted to do everything they could to prevent that effort.

 

A couple times I was able to get necessary parts from them at their plant. But then they stopped making old parts available. I remember the last time I went in there. The guy at the counter apologized, saying he couldn't sell me any more parts as they were throwing them all away! He then winked and shoved a big box of presumably used parts across the counter and said, Take what you want, because there ain't gonna be no more -- the bosses say so.

 

 

My last TASCAM machine was a used 70-8 1/2" 8 track with a dbx NR rack... and it was just IMPOSSIBLE to get everything on it working all at once -- there was NEVER one time, ever, when every part of it worked. And my "authorized TASCAM dealer" couldn't get parts for it to save his life (he said). It was in the shop about 80% of the time I was trying to use it as my primary machine. (The shop had probs, too, to be sure. It's all part of a seamless web of annoying troubles.) He was bitter about TASCAM and it was pretty much the seal on the deal, for me.

 

The Alesis ADAT had been announced not long before I bought the TASCAM. With repairs the TASCAM had cost me well over $2000 -- I got less than a HALF HOUR of produced music out of that period.

 

I broke down and bought my first ADAT not too long after they hit the shelves and had produced a couple hours of music within the first couple months... Maybe it wasn't love but it was close enough for rock and roll.

 

____________

 

 

But, hey, that was then and this is now... I'd like to think that they've learned some lessons. And if my buddies at Frontier can deal with them, maybe they have...

[the stranger]

I love your old, but not quite forgotten grudges. They rule!

 

Actually, it's just nice to read these long rants you get into. I almost always learn something.

 

P.S. I'm saving my bitterness for data compression schemes.

[blue2blue]

Funny you should mention data compression schemes... I'm going through a bit of a reappraisal, there, of my levels of tolerance for sonic degradation. I don't know if it's that some of the newer content on my subscription service may have been encoded at a lower rate (it used to supposedly be all 160 kbps ABR WMA) or if some of the unpleasantly loud/squashed new and "newly remastered" tracks I've been listening to lately just hit the WMA encoding badly -- but when I switch to the LAME-encoded VBR MP3s I've ripped myself from the last couple CD's I bought... it's like night and friggin' day... There's an unpleasant, hyped, "hollow" sound to some of the newer content on the 'scrip service that's been getting me muttering... and, like some tropical volcano, when I'm making low, rumbling noises, watch out.