What's next?

[Tuviel]

@waterstrum said the DM "beats the pants off the new digital generation". My guess is he was referring to the new digital generation of mixers, to which I would wholeheartedly agree unless you are talking in the $20k and up range.

Still, the DM has so many uses, from digital patchbey, to converter, to front end, to cuemix, to DAW controller and the expandibility is unmatched by anything out there. Not only that but they sound good. I'd rather focus on developing my production and mixing skills then "keeping up with the Jones'es".

Thing is, even if I want to keep up with new tech there is nothing stopping me. As a matter of fact I'm about to purchase a bunch of tube pres and hand them off my DM for drum tracking. How cool is that? I guess you can tell I'm a fanboy. ;0)

 

[Gerk]

Don't forget ... I do own one and just had a custom desk built for it ... it's not that I'm saying they are not great, especially for the money. I'm just saying that over all consoles just don't sell like they used to. More people are using different A/D and mixing ITB.

 

[Layer-Status]

The DM is no more listed on Tascam Germany's website. www.tascam.de . Looks like the Tascam US 20 X 20 is what they think is a digital mixer

Best regards

 

[ampsarus]

Curious if anyone here scored a well priced DM on eBay recently?
Had my eye the $400 'boot error' 3200, figuring best case it was fine and had no CF card inserted, or worst case as a parts bin. Anyone?

 

[cmaffia]

They pop up on eBay from time to time.. sometimes as low as $800 for a working unit. There is one on eBay now at that price but its a local pickup in NY.

 

[Tuviel]

Frankly I'm not bothered if they stop selling them. I'm actually looking forward to getting a used 4800 to replace my 3200 in the foreseeable future. Only problem is I was just about to get a custom desk built for the 3200 and if I ever step up to a 4800, the desk will be practically useless depending on whether its "fitted" or not. :0/

 

[Gravity Jim]

Sold my 3200 (w/meter bridge and FW card) for 1,400USD + shipping, and felt good about it (packing & shipping to the Atlanta area was about $250). Sold my Raven for what I paid (it was a bust with DP), tried a cheap Korg unit but no motorized faders = a much bigger PITA than expected so I returned it for a really nice new stompbox compressor. Best control surface solution so far? A $4.99 iPad app called DAW Control.

 

[cmaffia]

Jim did I read correctly? You ditched the Raven? If so why?

 

[Gravity Jim]

The software for DP was not as expected... Buggy and incomplete. 3 months of waiting for a fix was enough, and even if they fixed every problem it wasn't going to be a complete solution. DAW Control for iPad is really nice... If Raven worked this well, I might have kept it. I'm going to wait until MOTU implements multitouch in DP and just buy a $500 Acer (which is what a Raven MTi is, just with specialized software). So in running two displays and a control surface. Love the clean, spacious workstation.

 

[Gerk]

Don't forget if you go that route (with the Acer) then you also need additional commercial drivers (UPDD for $150) and even at that point you don't get any of the Batch Commander stuff (which I am now using a ton) nor will you have a mixer with faders in a usable size. I know someone who just did that exact same thing with their PT rig and it ended up costing them more $$ and a lot more aggravation to get to the point where they would have been with the Raven (they also purchased D-touch for PT).

I've tried the iPad stuff and it didn't work out well for me -- a 9" screen with an 8 fader controller that you have to bank all the time doesn't get the job done for me. If it works for you then I would stick with it. But you're right that the Raven software is still quite buggy, especially for DP. It does however work very well with Pro Tools and it's kind of in the middle with Logic. Welcome to the bleeding edge

 

[Gravity Jim]

Nothing could cause more aggravation than Raven with DP. Batch Commander is a fussy toy if you know your key commands. And I won't consider another touchscreen display until MOTU makes multitouch a feature of DP.

I don't need an array of 24 faders because of the way I work. My iPad Mini does the job just fine.

The truth is, the Raven helped me learn that I'm not a mixing engineer: I am a musician and composer who records his own work. I am not trying to increase speed because I spend most of my time thinking... I'm trying to make my rig as small, as transparent, and as trouble-free as possible. Selling the Tascam and the Raven got me there.

 

[Gerk]

Yep that makes sense for you then Jim. I'm more of a mixing guy -- I get handed large projects and have to chew through them so it's helpful for me. I do spend some time doing what you're talking about as well, but the Raven doesn't get in the way for me there.

 

[Muziekschuur]

The Mackie Controll still is a very good solution.

 

[Desperate Dan]

That's a shame I just Google searched what the successor to the dm 3200 would be and found out we're going touchscreen when they start making touch screens as big as desks commercially then it might be workable but I love the faders I only use my dm as a firewire interface for routing sound modules, synthssizer and samplers not recording, but I use the daw control constantly which is why I bought it and use it to do sometimes complex in and out and in the box routings to take advantage of its processing and bussing.

I owned a fw1884 before that for touch control which lost support on Mac, I hope I can get a good few years out my dm yet!

 

[cmaffia]

Where did you see that Tascam is going touch screen as the DM successor? There are several big name manufactures coming out with what could have been DM successors if you look and affordable as well.