Tascam 1884 with pt 11

[lucidlife]

I'm starting a podcast and was wondering if the tascam is compatible with pt 11?

If so what do you guys think of this purchase? Is it a good buy? I will also be using it for my songs and mixes.

[JoelG]

It should work with Pro Tools fine, but looking at the product page, it doesn't seem to be getting any driver updates for the last 4 years. That would concern me..

Joel

[Darryl Ramm]

Poor/non-existent support would make me run away. e.g. read this http://forum.cakewalk.com/Tascam-fw1...-m1312919.aspx

And in 2014 I'd be careful buying Firewire anything, especially with some very impressive Thunderbolt interface appearing.

What are you after? An interface? A control surface? Preamps? To record what sort of music/band/instruments? What budget? What mics, preamps, outboard gear, etc. do you own now? EDIT: Oh not music a podcast... how many simultaneous folks being recorded? You got nice condenser mics for each person, mic shields, etc.? Preamps? A nice place to record, some simple sound proofing etc? Headphones for everybody and headphone outlets/amps to drive a montro mix or mixes? (look out for open back headphones that bleed back). I'd make sure you had good mics and mic booms, soundproofing, and a simple interface (from a good vendor with good support) and not worry about a control surface to start with. Buy a reasonably low-cost interface and once you get some experience you can upgrade (several Focusrite interfaces may be a good starting point, or at a higher end something like the Apogee Quartet (or even Duo?)). Does the interface need to be portable? Will you record part of the podcast on a separate field/digital recorder? You likely want a decent (but not necessarily expensive) condenser mic, and nice comfortably set up to record yourself and others.

This is an old box and as it's trying to do all the above tends not to be great at them all. Still if that is what you are after there are probably worse choices. My advice to new/first time interface purchasers is not to get distracted by the bells and whistles of a control surface and make sure you buy an interface that will deliver what you want, specially in preamps/preamp quality, low latency monitoring, vendors support etc. You can always add a Mackie MCU or Avid Artist series later (although I'm leery of the Artist Series over many issues with it).

[lucidlife]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Poor/non-existent support would make me run away. e.g. read this http://forum.cakewalk.com/Tascam-fw1...-m1312919.aspx

And in 2014 I'd be careful buying Firewire anything, especially with some very impressive Thunderbolt interface appearing.

What are you after? An interface? A control surface? Preamps? To record what sort of music/band/instruments? What budget? What mics, preamps, outboard gear, etc. do you own now? EDIT: Oh not music a podcast... how many simultaneous folks being recorded? You got nice condenser mics for each person, mic shields, etc.? Preamps? A nice place to record, some simple sound proofing etc? Headphones for everybody and headphone outlets/amps to drive a montro mix or mixes? (look out for open back headphones that bleed back). I'd make sure you had good mics and mic booms, soundproofing, and a simple interface (from a good vendor with good support) and not worry about a control surface to start with. Buy a reasonably low-cost interface and once you get some experience you can upgrade (several Focusrite interfaces may be a good starting point, or at a higher end something like the Apogee Quartet (or even Duo?)). Does the interface need to be portable? Will you record part of the podcast on a separate field/digital recorder? You likely want a decent (but not necessarily expensive) condenser mic, and nice comfortably set up to record yourself and others.

This is an old box and as it's trying to do all the above tends not to be great at them all. Still if that is what you are after there are probably worse choices. My advice to new/first time interface purchasers is not to get distracted by the bells and whistles of a control surface and make sure you buy an interface that will deliver what you want, specially in preamps/preamp quality, low latency monitoring, vendors support etc. You can always add a Mackie MCU or Avid Artist series later (although I'm leery of the Artist Series over many issues with it).

Awesome questions! Ok, so I do have an interface. It's a saffire pro 24. I'm running a mac mini with server hd. For the podcast I plan on 4 people at most. The mixer I do want it to have mic preamps. I do do recording at home, and so I would like a hybrid, something that can work well with my daw. I don't record bands, usually just singer, but I want to expand to be able to record a band not too much focus on drums since I am in a apt. I would like to spend around $400 I have 4 mics. 2 are condensers, and the other 2 are dynamics. I don't own much for outboard gear, besides some turntables, and midi equipment. I'm still gathering the headphones, and stands for the podcast.

[Darryl Ramm]

Around that price, I'd look at other Focusrite interfaces... Saffire Pro 40, Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, Focusrite Saffire Pro 26, and look at the MOTU 4pre . You could also get a Focusrite OctoPre and connect it via ADAT to your current interface, you might find used OctoPre at low cost and they get 2+8 mic preamps for later work.

You need to think about headphones, headphone amps and what you are feeding each person in their headphone mix or is everybody getting one mix? You will need some form of external headphone amp(s)/distribution box to drive four headphones.

[lucidlife]

I'd like to start getting away from my mouse. I find I do better work using my hands on faders and knobs then clicking and dragging. Maybe I could do a control surface with the Octopre.