Hi,

I (perhaps naively) made a purchase of a cheap Tascam TM-D4000, w/2 x ADATs and 1 x analogue card hoping that I could use it to control my DAW, but this is proving difficult.

I was looking for a desk with preamps, EQ etc, I didn't have a huge budget and didn't want a control surface. I have a Digi 002R and I have Ableton, Pro Tools LE, and Cubase. Ideally I wanted the desk to control Ableton, but I can only get it to control the transport functions in both Ableton and Pro Tools, Cubase responds to nothing I've tried so far. I have read that the desk can work as a JLC CS-10 in Pro Tools, so I downloaded the legacy controller DLLs, but as I mentioned before, only the transport functions work.

Is there anyone familiar with with using this desk to control any of the above platforms? If it's not possible, should I cut my losses, sell the Tascam and purchase something else? What would you suggest?

Many thanks in advance,

Darren

P.S. I've got my Tascam plugged into the ADAT ports and the MIDI ports on the DIGI 002R. I'd appreciate any advice you could give. Thanks.

I don't have this mixer myself, and I use Cubase. In Cubase there is a Devices menu, and there is an option t add a control surface. Amongst them is the Mackie Universal and mackie HUI, and there is a generic controller - bear in mind I am not looking at Cubase at the moment so this is from memory.

You 'add' the devices by clicking on a small '+' at the top left of the devices window.

You give the mixer a midi number and there may, or may not, be a control option on the mixer amongst the menus.

In cubase you need to set the control channel to the same number as you give the mixer, and that midi channel is best left dedicated to the control option.

There are also the MMC/MTC options where the mixer is either the master or slave, again I only know Cubase but the the options are under transport - and sync, again am doing this from memory so I might not have the menu options named correctly

If you do a web search on say using the DM24 as a control surface, am sure the process will be the same.

This review details the automation available on the desk, but I can't see any reference to it being able to control a DAW.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/articles/tascamtmd4000.htm

It seems the desk automation requires the relevant software and PC card.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

This desk goes back before the days of controlling cubase, logic or pro tools I'm afraid. The tdm desks were generally used with DA88's and pushed out MMC using midi. If you have a midi interface and want transport control then you can probably do that, as for fader control I'm not sure if you will be able to achieve this. There used to be software for the desk but it had to be connected to a PC using a PCI card with either scsi or rs232 can't recall which one, this only worked in windows 98 or 2000.

It was a great desk but time has passed and you can't ask of it what is expected by todays standards.

Regards

Gary

Quote Gary M:

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This desk goes back before the days of controlling cubase, logic or pro tools I'm afraid. The tdm desks were generally used with DA88's and pushed out MMC using midi. If you have a midi interface and want transport control then you can probably do that, as for fader control I'm not sure if you will be able to achieve this. There used to be software for the desk but it had to be connected to a PC using a PCI card with either scsi or rs232 can't recall which one, this only worked in windows 98 or 2000.

It was a great desk but time has passed and you can't ask of it what is expected by todays standards.

Regards

Gary

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You've cleared up some confusion for me there. I often wondered, why have the transport buttons on such a desk, and use MMC/MTC, but of course that's all MMC/MTC can control, the transport. But the later in human history came the control surface! which can control transport and faders etc I do feel a dunce!

Hi all,

Many thanks to you for your responses so far. I've yet to get the time to try out the things suggested by you in Cubase OneWorld, but plan to do so this weekend.

GaryM and Richie Royale, you are both right, a card known as a MOXA card (PCI & RS232) is required to connect to a PC which runs the automation software, but I very much doubt this could be used to control Cubase/Ableton/PT.

GaryM you also cleared up for me what MMC/MTC is and I can get the transport control to work in PT and Ableton, although the odd thing is, at one stage while playing with the settings in Ableton and on the Tascam, I managed to get a fader working, but if I set the fader to 0dB on the desk it might show as +8dB in Ableton, so very inconsistent.

Failing me getting this working, what might you all suggest I do? Sell the Tascam and get something else? I really would like to be able to control my DAW, but would like something that has more substance to it than just a control surface. If I was to sell the Tascam (which cost me €400) I could stretch my budget to €800.

Many thanks for your advice,

Darren

Quote Red Book:

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Hi all,

Many thanks to you for your responses so far. I've yet to get the time to try out the things suggested by you in Cubase OneWorld, but plan to do so this weekend.

GaryM and Richie Royale, you are both right, a card known as a MOXA card (PCI & RS232) is required to connect to a PC which runs the automation software, but I very much doubt this could be used to control Cubase/Ableton/PT.

GaryM you also cleared up for me what MMC/MTC is and I can get the transport control to work in PT and Ableton, although the odd thing is, at one stage while playing with the settings in Ableton and on the Tascam, I managed to get a fader working, but if I set the fader to 0dB on the desk it might show as +8dB in Ableton, so very inconsistent.

Failing me getting this working, what might you all suggest I do? Sell the Tascam and get something else? I really would like to be able to control my DAW, but would like something that has more substance to it than just a control surface. If I was to sell the Tascam (which cost me €400) I could stretch my budget to €800.

Many thanks for your advice,

Darren

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I'd like somethign similar, I have the DM24, but true to form with TASCAM, they bring something out and not long after abandon it. The DM does work as a control surface as well as mixer, with control over faders, mutes, solos etc. There used to be a very useful TASCAM forum, but that's vanished. There is the DM3200 but that pans out at about £1600 at least (used) and I believe even that, suffers from the LCD developing the dreaded lines.

I have been considering the Zoom R24 which functions as mixer/recorder/control surface. But it looks a bit 'toyish' that being said it got a good review on here.

There are the Yammy mixers too, with the 01V96 sometimes appearing in Reader's Ads for less than £1000, and as far as I know, functions as a control surface too. In fact I think in Cubase it is listed as one of the devices available, an inbuilt template I suppose.

I cannot understand why Yamaha ditched the 01X, I bought one of these very cheap just experimenting with, I only paid £125 for it, and everything works - with dedicated buttons that bring up the mixer, transport, faders work straight away. Once the MLAN is setup (and I got it working in Win7/32 quite easily) switch on start Cubase and off it goes - working very well. I suppose the N12 does a similar job?

Hi all, just an update.

So I tried again in Cubase using your advice and had no joy with the Tascam, so I bit the bullet and bought a Yamaha 01V96V2 in beautiful condition for €825 and it does everything I need.

Many thanks for all your help,

Darren

Quote Bricoleur:

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Hi all, just an update.

So I tried again in Cubase using your advice and had no joy with the Tascam, so I bit the bullet and bought a Yamaha 01V96V2 in beautiful condition for €825 and it does everything I need.

Many thanks for all your help,

Darren

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the 01V96 was a bargain at that price, well done, what goes around comes around, after all your tribulations with the Tascam you now get a result!

Quote Red Book:

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I'd like somethign similar, I have the DM24, but true to form with TASCAM, they bring something out and not long after abandon it. The DM does work as a control surface as well as mixer, with control over faders, mutes, solos etc. There used to be a very useful TASCAM forum, but that's vanished. There is the DM3200 but that pans out at about £1600 at least (used) and I believe even that, suffers from the LCD developing the dreaded

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That's not true, tascam generally give five years of support after the product goes end of line. When vista came out that caught a lot of people out as it was not recommended for audio. Microsoft also decided to change stuff last minute as the os was a disaster.

As for dm3200 or 4800 suffering from lines on LCD, I could count on my fingers how many replacements of lcd's happened on these mixers in the six years I worked there.

Unfortunately the Internet makes small problems look that much bigger. If 1000 of the desks were sold world wide and you see 5 reports from users suffering with the same problem then this does not even equate to 1% of issues, this is also the reason a warranty is in place.

Moxa card

Even if ou could get one (tascam uk might have be in their stores) you are unlikely to get it working on any modern PC. You may however get faders controlling your daw as hey all send midi fro Mehta I remember.

Suggestions for upgrade? Why not just get yourself a few behringer bcf's with a decent audio interface.

Regards

Gary

Quote Gary M:

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Quote Red Book:

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I'd like somethign similar, I have the DM24, but true to form with TASCAM, they bring something out and not long after abandon it. The DM does work as a control surface as well as mixer, with control over faders, mutes, solos etc. There used to be a very useful TASCAM forum, but that's vanished. There is the DM3200 but that pans out at about £1600 at least (used) and I believe even that, suffers from the LCD developing the dreaded

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That's not true, tascam generally give five years of support after the product goes end of line. When vista came out that caught a lot of people out as it was not recommended for audio. Microsoft also decided to change stuff last minute as the os was a disaster.

As for dm3200 or 4800 suffering from lines on LCD, I could count on my fingers how many replacements of lcd's happened on these mixers in the six years I worked there.

Regards

Gary

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Just my luck then, out of that 'handful' one of them is the TASCAM mixer I bought that after 3 years developed the problem.

5 years post product end support? that didn't count with Gigastudio then? Wanted a re-activation after building a new PC and the activation server had been tuend off, within 6 months I think it was

Quote Gary M:

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Moxa card

Even if ou could get one (tascam uk might have be in their stores) you are unlikely to get it working on any modern PC. You may however get faders controlling your daw as hey all send midi fro Mehta I remember.

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Those cards are still a current product on the Moxa website and probably available from Amplicon in Brighton (amongst others). Industrial computer cards have a much longer product lifespan than you might expect.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Quote OneWorld:

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Quote Gary M:

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Quote Red Book:

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I'd like somethign similar, I have the DM24, but true to form with TASCAM, they bring something out and not long after abandon it. The DM does work as a control surface as well as mixer, with control over faders, mutes, solos etc. There used to be a very useful TASCAM forum, but that's vanished. There is the DM3200 but that pans out at about £1600 at least (used) and I believe even that, suffers from the LCD developing the dreaded

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That's not true, tascam generally give five years of support after the product goes end of line. When vista came out that caught a lot of people out as it was not recommended for audio. Microsoft also decided to change stuff last minute as the os was a disaster.

As for dm3200 or 4800 suffering from lines on LCD, I could count on my fingers how many replacements of lcd's happened on these mixers in the six years I worked there.

Regards

Gary

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Just my luck then, out of that 'handful' one of them is the TASCAM mixer I bought that after 3 years developed the problem.

5 years post product end support? that didn't count with Gigastudio then? Wanted a re-activation after building a new PC and the activation server had been tuend off, within 6 months I think it was

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With gigastudio and possibly software it's a bit different. They sold the whole thing on. In my opinion the gigastudio thing was a car crash from day on of tascam taking it on.

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just letting you know my experience when I worked for tascam for 6 years. There were many mis conceptions and this was one of them. People have to realise the scale of products purchased before saying that a product goes wrong all the time. I.e. if you have 500 units sold and 50 returns that's a high return rate, you sell 50,000 units sold and get 50 returns and it's a non existent problem. Percentages come it to it when you are looking at large scale unit sales. I recall pallets of behringer returns in a past job I had but in fairness we sold bucket loads of the stuff.

Cheers

Gary

I used to own a TM-D4000 around 2001.

The MOXA cards are ISA cards. You'll need to get digging around car boot sales for a windows 95-98 computer to get the automation software working.

The software is quite poor anyway. It's basic fader movement and nothing like the automation you get now days within a DAW. I didn't bother using it in 2001 and certainly wouldn't bother in 2012.

I had mine set up to control cubase VST 5 with automated midi faders, scrub wheel and the mixers LEDs matching cubase song position. Not 100% sure if I can remember how to set it all up again but PM me if you want me to try. You need to use more than one controller driver at a time. The Tascam gives you the option to tick multiple boxes. That's your key to controlling the whole caboodle from within cubase

I

Edited by MarcB (24/06/12 07:02 PM)