Looking back

[TascMan]

Hi all..Just moved to Las Vegas (As of June 2nd, 2025) to live with my sister and our aging father. I remember spending so much time on this forum and always loved writing and helping others. Sad to see it wither away. I realize I am a bit late on that notion, it seems nobody has really written anything here for some time. This forum is a ghost town compared to its golden days of DM routing and driver forum fury. There were so many good guys here, all focused on our DMs. I've been involved with a great album in a studio in Lancaster PA for the last couple of years, all tracked and mixed by yours truly in the box on Reaper, (working with excellent musicians) working there every weekend. Countless other side work at the same studio, keeping my mixing chops up. There are a lot of digital boards out there, many with great new features and nice looking screens. Most are more live sound oriented, which makes sense, as 16 to 32 busses are just not needed in the studio. But I always felt that the DM series was a solid precursor, almost a grandfather, to what is out there today. It was a diamond ahead of its time, but has succumbed to the end of the transitional period from analog mixing workflows to the point and click era. I miss owning, talking about and even just looking at my glorious DM3200 (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder), last seen in 2015. My old studio computer used windows 7, had a core 2 duo (2Cores!!) CPU with a stunning 4 GB of PC133 ram, and a 1GB 7200RPM Hard drive that I was sure i could never fill up! I just built a new computer based on an ASRock Pro-A WIFI z890 MB, Core Ultra 7 265K (20 cores) CPU, 32GB of DDR5 ram running at 6400Mhz (3200DDR), a 2TB NvME main drive, a 1TB secondary drive on windows 11. Damn its fast! But enough about that. I guess i am just being and old fart reminiscing about a bygone era. It really was a shame that Tascam never filled the void of the aging DMs with something else. We talked about it here all the time. Just think of the customer base they lost. We all could be discussing the newest drivers or routing techniques on our new DM6200 Ultra uber XL plus MKIII super mega chromed out mixing boards with 5 Bazillion contrast/color touch screens. Oh well. Think I'll go find an old rotary phone and try to call someone. If anyone actually is around to read this, feel free to reply or comment or whatever they call it these days. I'd love to reach out. I haven't really met anyone yet in the Las Vegas community, so if you exist, let me know. My avatar is my old dog Charlie, who was just a pup when I took that picture of him on our boat many moons ago. My ex-wife took him, so i assume he's probably dead now. Oh well. Farewell Charlie.

 

[shredd]

I remember spending so much time on this forum and always loved writing and helping others. Sad to see it wither away. l I realize I am a bit late on that notion, it seems nobody has really written anything here for some time. This forum is a ghost town compared to its golden days of DM routing and driver forum fury.

I’ve been hanging around a few years - having returned after a long absence - but yeah, I kinda do remember much more activity/participation. I dunno if that has to do with Tascam’s changing product spectrum; peoples’ interest in it; or simply that the home-recording demographic is inundated with so much online ‘content’ that they spend as little time there as possible!

It really was a shame that Tascam never filled the void of the aging DMs with something else. We talked about it here all the time. Just think of the customer base they lost.

I’mma gonna haveta agree with this - to a point…fact is, there’s been TOOOONS of great Tascam gear (ranging from the home hobbyist to the hard-cores, like all you DM guys!). I myself made the transition from entry-level Fostex’s to the 2488’s, where I was for manymany years, until I went DP-32. But I think it’s safe to say that an enormous amount of the Tascam demographic has “gone DAW”…may gawd have mercy on their souls!!!

Oh well. Think I'll go find an old rotary phone and try to call someone.

That’s actually pretty funny, considering that a rotary phone (google it, you young ‘uns!) is pretty analogous to some of this really old Tascam tech.
But really - I can empathize, I think. I’m a relative geezer myself…and my studio habits, workflow, equipment, etc are pretty old-school, compared to “what people do” nowadays. I’ve never used A.I., AutoTune, or had MIDI play my instruments for me…I’ve never “snapped to grid”, quantisized a track, and can count the number of trax I've ever done whose outcome depended on plug-ins on ONE HAND.

If anyone actually is around to read this, feel free to reply or comment or whatever they call it these days. I'd love to reach out. I haven't really met anyone yet in the Las Vegas community, so if you exist, let me know. My avatar is my old dog Charlie, who was just a pup when I took that picture of him on our boat many moons ago. My ex-wife took him, so i assume he's probably dead now. Oh well. Farewell Charlie.

An ol’ pal ‘o mine (actually, my oldest friend in the world!) is retiring to Vegas…but he’s a dentist and a grampa, which pretty much encompasses his interests (other than traveling to exotic places, which he can do ‘cuz he’s a RICH retired dentist!).
I'm still marveling that a fellow that rich (could go anywhere) is living in Vegas. ON PURPOSE!!! (though I'mma pretty sure it has to do with those grandkids...).

And - as a devout dog-adorer (note MY avatar) - you have my condolences on losing Charlie - first to your ex, then presumably/eventually to the circle of life. My beloved pupp is also gone - nearly 10 years - and I still miss him every hour of every day of my life. He was worth more to me than any ten people I’ve ever known.

 

[TascMan]

Thank you for your reply. Enjoyed every word. Maybe your dentist friend will be the same one I'm going to next month. Wouldn't that be small worldish. Love your signature line as well. Big RUSH fan here.. I still love listening to 2112. Thanks again.

 

[shredd]

Like I always say: “there’s RUSH. Then there’s everybody else.” I’m an admittedly drooling fanboi (even at my age!). They’re in a class by themselves!

2112 is a great album…& if I had a nickel for every time I’ve listened to the title track, the MuskRat would be scrubbing my toilets.