It's Now Official - DM3200 Discontinued

[skier]

@cmaffia, thank you! This last post gives me the details I needed, namely, what you went through and where Sweetwater wouldn't/couldn't go further. That being the case, I'll be surprised if their response differs from yours. It's also good to know that they replaced your motherboard 3 years later, even if it came from new, old stock. To get that from Dell or HP, I've had to purchase extended service contracts. This mitigates the premium cost of a CS.

 

[cmaffia]

Unless their policy has changed regarding FW cards in the last 3 years, that was my experience. They didn't just replace the motherboard but the entire computer. The only components from the original computer were my 2 hard drives so I didn't loose anything.

 

[skier]

I understand, and I'll let you know what they say. I don't so much think they have a policy as they have to make a determination of how much time they're going to spend trying to resolve a problem working with discontinued gear — it's just not in their business interest for one sale and I realize that this is precisely the situation in which I find myself.

 

[cmaffia]

In 2012 when I had the firewire issue, the DM3200 was not discontinued and it was in 2013 that they started selling the current CS models without firewire. Believe me I was plenty pissed when within the first week of owning a Creation Station, their support team couldn't troubleshoot the firewire issue I was having and even more embarassing (for them) was that a competitor helped me troubleshoot it over the phone free of charge. Lesson learned is I'm not sure if I'd go with Sweetwater or ADK next time around. Hopefully I won't have to make that decision for a while.

 

[skier]

Just got off the phone with my Sweetwater rep. He said they'd do what they could, but echoed your feedback that they can't test their systems with other gear, even if they sold it. They'll just assure that the workstation they sell works with the current DAWs without making any guarantees about other hardware or software.

 

[Gravity Jim]

Howdy, Kids! Long time, no see.

This is sad news. I was never without at least one piece of Tascam gear in my studio, until I finally sold my DM-3200. Gibson is run by a knucklehead.

The Midas would be my choice for a replacement, but I didn't need the crazy routing options in the DM. The Raven looked like a great solution, but after owning mine for 6 months, I realized the software sucked and wasn't going to get any better, at least not for us MOTU DP users, so (lucky me) I sold it for a bit more than I paid (manufacturing hiccup drove the used market up a bit). I am stripped down to a Mac, two displays, keyboard, Magi Trackpad and an Icon Platform-M control surface: the least expensive CS to feature 100mm motorized faders.

There's a guy down in Mill Valley (just across the bridge from SF) selling a very clean DM-3200, asking $1,200. No cards, no meter bridge... sounds a little pricey to me.

Hope you all are enjoying life and music!

 

[skier]

I, too, like the Midas (presume you mean the M-32). It doesn't have as many inputs (40 rather than 64 on the DM4800), but I could consolidate some. I need the extra inputs more because I use the DM as my central signal router — I don't usually record full bands at once any more. I've always felt Midas mixers are almost works of art — great to look at with quiet, good-sounding electronics. That also appears to be what I'd purchase if my DM died at this time.

 

[Arjan P]

Hi Jim, nice to hear from you! The Midas looks interesting indeed, but fortunately I'm in no rush for a replacement - and the DM is still the perfect fit for my studio.

Keep on rockin'!

 

[GaryJackson]

Well I'm finally moving on from the DM4800 that has been such a good studio mixer for my studio and business. I decided I'd rather move on now rather than waiting for it to die, or the screen to die etc. I'm moving to in the box and a bigger Apollo setup. I'm keep the tascam as a control surface as I build my desk to fit it. So it's now my backup and control surface. For as long as it will last.

Oh and gravity Jim is right, Gibson as a company are complete dicks. They buy company's and just let them die. I don't know why, but they did it with Trace Elliot and a number of others. I love my original Trace bass amp. So good.

Oh well....

 

[Rockum]

I am pretty sure they did the same thing with Studio Vision which was my favorite DAW many years ago.

 

[cmaffia]

They now own Cakewalk Sonar so they have the opportunity to destroy that as well.

 

[ManoucheTunes]

Those Companies are buying only the brand and technology....After they got a company then the product is reworked or re-designed with cheaper components - lower quality - higher margins (for them)..

 

[Gravity Jim]

Yes, Gibson does screw up their acquisitions on the regular. But they should be given a pass on the Studio Vision thing: I know that the entire Internet will, when searched, turn up a thousand references to "Gibson killed Vision," but that's not entirely true.

In those days, the evil Henry J. was already running Gibson (he bought the company from Norlin in 1986). Henry's most notable aspect is his resume: he worked for Delco before becoming, essentially, a member of a corporate raider firm. So Henry J.'s personal foundation is not as a guy who builds guitars (although he does play one), but as a guy who buys companies to do one of two things: rescue them, or grab a specific piece of IP and leave the rest to die.

There were really only Opcode and Mark of the Unicorn in those days, and MOTU's product development and engineering chops were superior. Opcode was on the ropes when Gibson came along, with the intention of saving the small company with a big infusion of cash. They gave Opcode operating capital and some marketing expertise, but it was too little and way too late. Opcode died not because of Gibson, but in spite of their efforts. (And I ended up choosing Performer, and later Digital Performer, because I'd heard Opcode's fat lady was warming up in the wings.)

An aside on Trace Elliot: those were awesome amps, but they didn't have the brand power to compete with the Bigs. And when Gibson bought them, they did the unexpected... they didn't change a thing about them except the badge and the Tolex color, and renamed them as Gibson Goldtones. The Goldtone that was previous known as a Velocette was a killer amp, and with Gibson's backing would have sold huge if they had left one more thing alone: the price. Henry apparently felt that Gibson's name was worth a few hundred bucks more. Buyers disagreed. Another great product out to pasture.

Now, with Tascam, I suspect that Henry simply decided that buying TEAC to get the digital recording expertise they wanted was both cheaper and easier than developing their own. He was wrong on both counts: buying TEAC was way more expensive than a team of rock solid DSP engineers would have been, and the acquisition only seemed easier to Henry because that's what he knows best. Anyway, I fear that he doesn't give a rat's behind about making a profit from TEAC. He just wanted to make some guitar cables that would record everything you played through them.

So, to wrap it: Gibson didn't kill Vision, even though everybody thinks they did. But when Tascam is in its grave, everyone will say Gibson killed them, and I think this time they'll be right.

 

[Peter Batah]

@Gravity Jim Thank you. Very insightful.