Discovered how to best connect my Tascam FW 1884/1082

[Steve Fogal]

Regarding the Soft_LCD display applet;

I've only now just discovered something of great importance with the occasional issues of the Tascam FW units, particularly the issue of it's firewire LED not light up, which means not really being fully connected to the PC.

I've been doing a previous successful power-up order between my PC & Tascam FW interface. Which was power up the Tascam, then boot up the PC. But my usual power-up procedure hasn't been working all the time, and sometimes can't get my TASCAM FW-1884's firewire light to illuminate, until I rebooted a few times.

So what I've just discovered is that if I boot up the PC 1st, THEN open Tascam's Soft_LCD display applet that comes with the downloaded driver from Tascams site, THEN power up the Tascam FW interface, the firewire LED on my Tascam FW lights up every time, and I'm good to go, once connected I never have a problem.

Note, that simply booting up my PC, then the Tascam does NOT allow it's firewire LED to illuminate, I have to open the Soft_LCD Display applet BEFORE powering up the Tascam.

Now, I do not understand exactly WHY this works. I never really understood the Soft_LCD Display or it's purpose. I have opened it and looked around, and didn't see much usefulness until now. I'm wondering how many people have had issues getting their Tascam FW units not working, where the firewire light isn't coming on, and haven't tried this, thinking that their firewire ports have failed, then have abandoned, sold or gave them away.

In my case at least, this indicates that my firewire hardware connections on the Tascam & PC are fine, but the issue seems to be more software related. If anyone has knowledge of how and why opening this Soft_LCD Display allows the firewire light come on when other methods do not, I'm all ears.

Oh and PS, I can't find a screenshot of the Soft_LCD Display applet after searching google, otherwise I would post it here.

 

[Kevin A Goodall]

hi Steve. I found this interesting because I have been going thru the same thing as you having to boot up over and overf again. (for a couple years we are talking here.) I was using it last 2 nights with no problem. Today I could not get it to work with ANY combination of booting this that switching this and that blah blah blah...even with turning on the LCD applet. Go figure. After 1.5 hours of fiddling with everything I could come up with including deleting the TI driver and the FW driver and reinstalling.. it finally just decided to work (I dont even recall the sequence I used they are all a blurrr now. So, I just wanted to say that your solution does work........sometimes....what the real issue Is I have no idea, I wish tascam would figure out whats going on.. But then its old old stuff, why should they bother... but it just so happens when its working its great!!! If you have anything else PELEESE share it.... I am responding cos I see you just posted this a few months ago...most other stuff when i search just turns up old old posts....glad someone else is still trying to get this beast to work... Kevin.

 

[Kevin A Goodall]

OK.. update.....after writing above I scrolled thru other posts. one caught my eye and it reminded me of something i knew years ago and forgot. I did recall there was something about the TI driver that had to be set to a certain one but couldn't recall what. I looked in device manager all thru the listing for the ieee1394 driver but it was straightforward with only one choice. looking at the post in this forum it showed how to make certain you had the driver set for texas ohoc compliant LEGACY! thats what i remember now. so i checked mine and it was not the legacy driver. So I changed it and VOILA... its working. got it to fire up 3 in a row...even will come on after you turn off fw then put comp to sleep, turn on fw then wake comp it worked twice in a row, the only thing i couldn't get it to work was having the fw off then wake comp and then turn on fw, nothing happened then. I diddnt try the lcd thing..should have... but now i think it will work. we shall see. if you have anything on that let me know. cheers.

 

[Steve Fogal]

Hi Kevin, this haphazard booting sequence does seem to be something that many FW 1884/1982 owners go through. Just when you think you've got it licked, you're proven otherwise at some point.
My Soft_LCD Display applet method seemed to do the trick when nothing else would, and I could recreate the success against other non successful methods, some of which was my working method previously.
After this success of the Soft_LCD Display applet method for quite some time (which again, was to boot PC 1st , then open up the Tascam Soft_LCD Display applet, then turn of Tascam FW unit), at some point, I had issues of my firewire light not lighting up, and I found even my successful Soft_LCD Display applet method didn't work.
With my 1st attempts to use my FW-1884 & FW-1082, I personally found either of the 2 TI drivers I selected ("legacy: or not) worked the same for me, just fine. Oddly enough, when I found myself having trouble getting the firewire light to come on, I actually checked this in my PC...even more odd is that I now only had ONE TI driver in my list, and have no idea why or when the other one disappeared. So I have the one selected (I don't recall this one saying legacy >?< ).

But I now have found something NEW. Since I've had my Tascam FW units, I've been using it with the Tascam Native mode selected in the unit's software & in Cubase I had selected the old Tascam US-428 mode with it, because with using HUI & Mackie modes caused bleeping noises which was the pressing of Tascam buttons triggered VSTi's I had up in my Cubase song projects.
In addition, I had the Tascam & Cubase selected to run only one way 'as a DAW controller' ...meaning the setting of the midi input & midi output I mean (see below an image I found). Before I only had Midi IN selected because selecting Midi OUT was whacked.

https://www.humatic.de/htools/touchdaw/man/cubase_setup1.gif

Well, last month a gearslutz member showed me that I could make that bleeping from VSTi's getting triggered stop! Now I can use Mackie Modes in the Tascam FW & in Cubase. And, now I have the midi IN 'and' midi OUT selected here as a controller (no beeping). In addition, since I've been only using the native Tascam mode, and only had midi IN selected in that image above, only my play LED would light up on my Tascam, not the foward/stop & other LED's. I had always assumed that the LED functions were broken since I bought it used. Well NOW that I have both Midi IN and Midi OUT selected, ALL my transport LED's work...not a big difference as the unit was working without the corresponding transport LED's just fine.
But also, now my Tascam FW-1884 boots up fine with my 'original' boot up sequence (Turn on Tascam, then turn on PC) and my firewire light lights up every single time since, yes even without bothering with that soft-LCD applet. Though I tunr on the applet initially anyway before I boot up Cubase sometimes anyway.
But I think it's always good to keep literally ALL the methods & tricks in mind. Like I said above, I could recreate the soft_LCD applet method over & over against other methods before, and the soft_LCD method worked where other methods failed.

> HOWEVER, it is my current belief that having both midi input & midi output selected (again see my above image) is the ultimate trick in getting the firewire light to come on, as it seems to be the answer in both the Tascam FW unit, computer & DAW software communication.
Though when I had only the midi IN selected, and had somewhat an occasion hit & miss with my firewire light working or not, the soft-LCD applet did the trick in that case, along with the alternate boot sequence.

If anyone has issues with using Mackie & HUI modes causing VSTi's to be triggered, I'd have to check back on how I was told to make that stop (can't recall right this minute).

For the best success, all things we've all been reading still hold true.
*Use a TI chip in your firewire card (my Lenovo's motherboard has a TI chip in it's firewire.
* use the legacy TI driver selection in your computer if you have that legacy choice anyway.
* use Mackie (or HUI modes) for full functionality (native mode leaved out some functionality).
* >IMPORTANT< select BOTH midi input & midi output for the most FULL DAW control (see my image posted link above).
*keep this Soft_LCD display applet method in my post above in mind (it worked for me time & time again, if all else fails).

I have been going thru the same thing as you having to boot up over and overf again.

I could not get it to work with ANY combination of booting I dont even recall the sequence I used they are all a blurrr now.

... driver set for texas ohoc compliant LEGACY

 

[Steve Fogal]

Ok, I just found the reply I was given in the gearslutz forum for how to get those bleeps to not sound, which are VSTi's being triggered when using Mackie (and HUI) modes....
You have to Uncheck all MIDI in your DAW software set up (in my own case, Cubase). It works! This after 2 years of not knowing how to make the bleep noises from triggering of VSTi's stop.


Here is the reply I was given;
"The bleeps you are hearing are a MIDI feedback. You should use your controller in Mackie Control mode and then go into the MIDI port setup in Cubase and select the FW-1884 port and uncheck "in all MIDI." This will get rid of the bleeps."

 

[Kevin A Goodall]

Hi Steve, just found your replies, by accident, did not get any notification...wow....that was a lot of info I am going to have to carefully read thru a few times. Since I wrote you I have had nothing but major issues. It never worked smoothly again, and something happened during my attempted reboots, all my faders started going nuts, lights flashed and I got a "serious error" message on my computer. I restarted everything and I lost my sound drivers on my pc. Could not get them back I tried everything. So I ended up doing a factory reset of the pc and after ALL that it still was the same?????? Thats never happened to me before. After a lot of searching I found a utility on my pc from HP that I found where i could reinstall original hardware drivers. I did that for the sound drivers and voila, the red x went away from the volume icon in the tray and I got sound back. So I reinstalled the 1884 stuff and still nothing. can not get it to communicate. I am so frustrated. I love it when its working but now its useless and I have tracks I need to record. Is there any way we can connect directly, I believe you might be able to help me get this thing running. I am also in Calif, are you on facebook?? maybe we can connect there. Cheers. Kevin.

 

[Steve Fogal]

Hey Kevin, what I found is that what works at one point, does not at another, very strange. How are you booting up, as in what order of turning on Tascam & computer?
What currently works best for me, is I 1st turn on my Tascam and let it warm up, simply because many users claim a warm-up period, so I can wait a few minutes 'just in case'. Then I turn on my PC, and when it boots up, I open that Soft_LCD, again 'just in case' since it seemed to make a difference previously. While my soft_LCD is still on screen, I'll then open Cubase, and then open my song project. Once my song is open, I'll close the Soft_LCD.
BUT, I truly feel that what's made the biggest difference of all this haphazard trial & error is (1st I did a factory reset on my Tascam as a starting from scratch point), for the 1st time since I've owned my FW-1884, I set it for 'complete' 2-way communication, which I'm convinced this is the key. What I'm referring to is setting both 'Midi In & Midi Out' within my DAW software (Cubase in my case). See the image in the link below as a reference only.
https://www.humatic.de/htools/touchdaw/man/cubase_setup1.gif
Now I do not have rptMidi listed on the In & Midi Out fields as shown in the image, and where is says Mackie Control, this is just one selection of several modes to choose from as you know (Macke Control, HUI, Native etc). But again, I feel the key is to have both Midi In & Midi Out active. Since I've had this 2-way communication, everything has been running smoother, including my firewire LED on the Tascam lighting up every single time, so far... which has to be lit to get any audio.
If you have done all the above that is making it work for me, it's then a matter of setting/choosing your computers own firewire driver, and many say choose 'legacy'. After this make sure your firewire cable is good, and is plugged into the right connections! (I've accidentally screwed this up myself). Then it's a matter if your firewire card in your computer & the one in your Tascam are still functioning.
Keep in mind, I'm no expert, just someone who's tried this & that and went from not working right, or not at all, to fully functioning. You can PM me if you have any questions that you don't want to post publicly.

 

[Kevin A Goodall]

Hi Steve. Well I spent TWO and Half hours yesterday afternoon playing around. You asked for the boot order.......well I tried EVERY possible combination under the sun. I uninstalled drivers, software and reinstalled every way I could think. (we are in Palm Springs, heating the equipment is NOT necessary..LOL!) None worked. THEN i did the one thing I never tried because it was the ONE thing ALL documentation and tips online said NOT to do..that is Unplug the fire wire jack WHILST everything was turned on. Guess what..when I plugged it back in shtuff started happening. The mouse working logo came on and the 1884 sliders all slid into some position and the lights came on. I fired up cubase set all those parameters you mentioned and it is working fine!!!!! Go figure. So I left it all on, Im not gonna turn it off for a while, untill at least I get the next track Im doing recorded. Dont want to risk having to play around like that again. Is it fixed????? NO idea, probably not, so I still really dont know the order it will work, sounds like its all random anyways. I am thinking about just getting another interface, one thats more stable. Shame because when this is working its great. I looked at your pic of the midi inputs, they are different from mine. My choices are (fw1884 control and fw1884 port 1 -thru 4.) I chose the control one for midi in and out. I also set the Mackie Control for the emulation. So we will see how it goes. Thanks for getting back to me.

 

[Kevin A Goodall]

Oh by the way did you get a request and message from me on facebook? I wasnt sure if I had found the right Steve......check and let me know. Thanks.

 

[Steve Fogal]

Hi Kevin, I saw a facebook message from my cell phone, will log on later when I have more time Regarding Palm Springs, we were there for my sons wedding at some botanical garden in January, when it wasn't the hottest time of year! I was there 20 something years ago to go on the tram, and @ 120 degree's I just about fell over!
I have to think that by you messing with the firewire connection, that you may have either a defective cable or jack, on the Tascam or your computer? Either that, or the surge made something happen, thankfully in your favor THIS time! Next time, I suggest you unplug/replug in your connection with the unit off, as this may have given you the same results, minus the danger of a Tascam fry-fest cookout lol. Are you using the Tascam #1 or #2 firewire jack, or have you tried each?
Yeah, I also think that the turn on order may be what works best as any given time, and with any given computer etc.