Sierra

[Selwyn Arnold]

It's not supported and does not work in either the later and currrent Windows or Mac OS's

sigh... ok thank you

 

[Rockum]

I wouldn't say it doesn't work. I know a user on the board using it. It was working and seemed to require no driver for use in logic.

 

[cmaffia]

@Rockum He has the DM-24 firewire card working in Sierra?? I stand corrected then!

 

[Rockum]

I doubt it is in Sierra, but you said later and current. I helped him set it up and he had it working on his iMac. I can check on the OS version. I was surprised that it was working at all without drivers.

 

[AudioWave]

FYI: Updated a working macOS El Capitan partition to High Sierra Beta seed 1 (10.13.0) and playback of iTunes and Cubase 9 all working on my DM-4800 (along with UAD) as well as meters in the TMC app. Of course it could break at any anytime as this macOS matures.

 

[Gravity Jim]

I think it's a dying console. I'm concerned that soon I'll have to move on as I can't trust that it will work when I update computers etc. looking into UA and going exclusively in the box.... but need $$$$ lots of $$$$$

Agreed, but you don't have to empty your wallet and go all Apollo all over everything. AU's high-flown rep is more hype and echo chamber than actual superiority.

You can go with a MOTU interface and an Icon Platform-M for about what you can sell your DM for (I ended up with a MOTU 896mk3 that used to belong to Roger Nichols!). All the sound, all the functionality, none of the big bucks. And as much as I liked the apparent elegance of the single-FireWire-cable DM, the MOTU sounds better than the Tascam.

Do some shopping. The best way to spend too much is to get your mind fixed on a given solution based on Internet browsing.

 

[GaryJackson]

Well, I finally have gone the UA way. The DM I loved, but now its time for me to move on. I will still use it as a glorified logic controller. I know its a bit of a waste but in the end I have gone UA Apollo 8's. Cost a small fortune but I don't have to upgrade again for a while so thats good.

I may sell of the firewire card so if anyone is keen just hit me up, PM.

 

[Peter Batah]

This gentleman may be interested in your Firewire card @Mastermine
http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/tascam-if-fw-dmmkii-32-channel-firewire-card-for-sale.4829/

 

[GaryJackson]

Thanks I'll flick them a message.

 

[Jeff]

Anyone using High Sierra actual version not beta, if so how's it going so far?

 

[Dizzi45Z]

I'm also wondering how the DM-3200 fairs on MacOS Sierra and HighSierra. I'm still back on Mountain Lion 10.8.5 for Pro Tools HD Compatability, but it is looking like I finally need to upgrade my system. It sounds like most have had success with MacOS Sierra.

 

[Russ Nixon]

I have been running the beta driver for the IF-FW/DMmkII card in my DM4800 console with a MacPro 4,1 running MacOS Sierra (10.12) for several months, and never had any issues. I have been working on upgrading my MacPro 4,1 to High Sierra (10.13) today. I wanted to report that I had a strange experience when performing this upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra - BUT, it appears to be working now.

I must first disclaim that the MacPro 4,1 is not even officially supported by Apple to run these latest versions of MacOS, but thankfully there are patches online to make that work. That may or may not have played a part in the snag I had in the process of upgrading to High Sierra. The High Sierra update itself went well, but I lost the driver for my IF-FW/DMmkII. I guess I need to upgrade some hardware in the studio, but I like the tools I have and I plan to exploit them until they just don't work anymore!

Anyway, after the High Sierra upgrade was complete, my IF-FW/DMmkII driver did not load. Being that this left me in the situation of having to downgrade anyway, I tried a fresh install of High Sierra, then I loaded the beta driver (iffwdmmkii_installer_188754_release.dmg, which installs driver IFFWDMmkII-1.30f10). After the Mac rebooted, I had a warning message that said a System Extension from TEAC was blocked, and it directed me to the Security & Privacy Control Panel to allow the driver to load. Once I did that, the driver loaded and the IF-FW/DMmkII driver is loading just fine.

I'm using the DM4800 & IF-FW/DMmkII with MOTU DP8 on this older MacPro 4,1 running High Sierra 10.13, and so far things appear to be working just fine. Maybe I'll be ok for a couple more years!

-Russ

--EDIT
After fretting for a couple of hours that the control surface setup wasn't going to work, I discovered that High Sierra's new AudioMidi Setup app simplifies things a bit. For whatever reason, the DM4800 appears with only one connection point, rather than 5 or 6 like it used to. You then had to create external devices, name them Mackie Control, etc... Apparently, you skip all that and just configure things in your DAW like you normally would. But instead of pointing your Mackie control surface ports to those external devices you created and connected to the control ports on the DM4800/DM3200, you simply point them directly to the control ports themselves. I was astonished when I experimented a bit in Digital Performer and voila, control surface came right to life!

So - at the moment, I have an unsupported Mac running High Sierra 10.13 with an unsupported IF-FW/DMmkII in an unsupported mixer, and it's 100% functional. I'm living on the edge. Don't try to stop me. I'll take you down with me.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks for the update.

 

[earlevel]

I have a similar situation—early 2009 Mac Pro, firmware updated to 5,1, running Sierra, DM3200, IF-FW/DMMKII, installer_188754 (latest posted fw). It works, but if the Mac sleeps, I have to unplug the firewire cable from the Mac and plug it back in to get audio flowing again.

 

[cmaffia]

I do NOT recommend the unplugging and plugging of the FireWire cable when mixer and computer is on, It has been documented that this is a shit sure way to fry your IF-FW/MKii card.

 

[earlevel]

The spec is hot-pluggable, and I've done it hundreds of times, so while it's not desirable (and I'm not too keen on the connector life), "shit sure" is an overstatement. I'm not going to restart or power cycle the mixer several times a day, though—when I find myself with the audio locked up, or my DAW not starting up fully because the hardware isn't responding, I want it to be fixed in a few seconds. So, if and when it fails, I'll get a new mixer. Not going to stay in an old OS either, and be a slave to the unsupported hardware. I'm used to the mixer, and I'm not eager to shell out money for a new one.

I could probably keep the computer from sleeping, but I'm a developer and I keep it powered on 24/7 too, so it's not ideal to not let it go into low-power mode. Maybe there's another solution to keep the port alive. For a while, a new driver for Sierra was int he matrix as "D", under development, which I was skeptical of, but now no.

But the passing will have the perk of ridding me of the display—I'm on my fourth LCD (over $1000 total), and thankfully it's been a good one because the previous one lasted about three months. I probably won't buy TASCAM again, because when I'd talk to people there about the display life, and tell them I keep the mixer powered on, they'd say, "oh no, you can't do that!" like I was crazy to think a solution billed as "professional" could be online for extended periods. A shame, because I otherwise liked it—the mixer, with meter bridge, original bought the old FW card, then the mkii.

 

[earlevel]

Actually, it's not simply due to sleeping...here it is working this morning. But it's something like that—I don't lose the audio while I'm using it. I didn't have this problem till upgrading to Sierra.

 

[cmaffia]

This is where being a Windows user has its advantages with the DM mixer. Thankfully the hardware and it’s drivers have little to no issues with the most current version of Windows. Buy the 2SeeMy option card for just a little over the cost of a LCD replacement screen, hook up any VGA monitor to your DM and no longer be riddled with LCD issues.

 

[cmaffia]

When you don’t get the audio passing to your DAW, does the mixer still pass audio? When in that condition, if you were to plug an instrument in any input of the mixer can you hear it? Is there a message on the screen when this happens? FS lights flashing? If there’s no error message on the DM screen and if you can still pass audio through the board then it seems to be an OS issue with the driver and not hardware. It appears there’s evidence in the forum of others using the same OS and not having problems so it’s fair to say that the drivers do work however not in your environment for some reason. Also you’re using the latest OS on an unsupported Mac. I don’t think it’s accurate to place all the blame on Tascam with all the unsupported variables in your scenario. Hope after some troubleshooting you sort it out.

 

[Peter Batah]

This is where being a Windows user has its advantages with the DM mixer. Thankfully the hardware and it’s drivers have little to no issues with the most current version of Windows. Buy the 2SeeMy option card for just a little over the cost of a LCD replacement screen, hook up any VGA monitor to your DM and no longer be riddled with LCD issues.

Amen !! Brother !!