FW -1082 help with initial setup

Travis Lee

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Gear owned
FW-1082
Just grabbed a FW-1082, however it was second hand so i am unsure what Firewire cable i need for it, i looked and their are so many, and i have zero experience with firewire.

And i dont know what firewire card to get for my desktop,

I used CPUID to get my specs, which bit do you need to be able to help me?

again apologies if i'm being daft, but i've always used USB.
 
Hi, 1st make sure you download the 1.80 driver version 'specifically' for the FW-1082, I made the mistake of assuming I could use the 1.8 driver that I was using with my FW-1082, on my FW-1884, thinking the 1.80 driver is universal for all the FW line, NOT!

2nd, best bet is to use a firewire card with a Texas Instruments chip, although I've heard that some of the new motherboards have issues with the Texas instruments chip (hearsay on the Gearslutz forum). My Win 7 64 bit Pro Levovo ThinkStation D-20 PC has a built-in firewire ports, front & rear, which has a Texas Instruments chip, works fantastic with both my FW-1082 & FW-1884.

I'd think most any firewire cable should work, but most of my cables of all types, are Hosa brand. They cost a little more than the generic one's but I trust Hosa more than unbranded cables.
The maximum recommended firewire cable length is 15 feet, so if you only need 6 or 10 feet, I'd personally get the shortest one that I need.

Under Windows Devices, select your firewire device, and click update drivers, selecting "legacy" has been recommended, and that's what I do as well.

Tascam recommends a 6-wire to 6-wire firewire connection, although I have hooked up my Tascam FW-1082 & FW-1884 to my Del XPS laptop with Win Vista 32 bit with a 6-wire (on Tascam) to 4-wire (on my laptop) and it works ...BUT, it will take over 20 minutes to start working and slowly by slowly get running stable. Once it gets stable, it stays stable. But the minute I shut it down, and turn it right back on, I have to go through the long wait time all over. So 6-wire to 6-wire is what I would recommend unless you absolutely have no other choice.

You'll want to download the FW-1082 manual asap, and it may be a good idea to do a factory default reset procedure for the Tascam. That's what I did on both my units. Firewire is supposed to be hot-swap, but I woukd recommend NOT taking the chance, and turn off your Tascam & computer before plugging or unplugging your firewire cable.

You should use firewire port #1 on your Tascam. When you set it up with your DAW PC, you should choose which controller option on both the Tascam and in your DAW software, otherwise it will not function as a controller. For example, In Cubase I'm using the Tascam US428 (I think it's called) and in my Tascam software control panel, I'm choosing the FW-1082 Native option. Just recently I had them both set to Mackie control, but this caused too many bleep sounds, and also took control of things that I didn't intend to...such as when I moved the Tascam master fader, it would alter my midi tracks, changing the key on me on some of the instrument tracks! So I went back to what I have now. You can play around with what works best for you on your DAW. I've heard of many using Mackie control fine though. The Mackie control does allow you to control more things it seems, but for me, it's not working out. Oh, and be sure to enable this controller option, just setting it there won't activate it. In Cubase, there's a drop down bar with an arrow at the right, where you select the controller. If you can't seem to get to it (in Cubase) you'll see a '+" & '-', select '+' to add the controller option (there are several, Mackie, Tascam and others).

The power on order that works best for me, is ...
I turn on my Tascam 1st
Then turn on my PC, and as it boots Tascam FW light LED comes on,
Then I open my Cubase DAW software.
When powering down
I shut Cubase down 1st
Then turn off my Tascam
Then shut down my PC

Others do it differently, but just be careful to not pop your headphones or speaker monitors! I mostly use headphones and my way doesn't pop, but when I use my nearfields, I'll power them up last, and power them down 1st.

That's all I can think of at the top of my head, good luck!
 
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