TASCAM FW 1804 - Should I get it?!

[tojo]

Hey guys, I found a tascam fw 1804 on craigslist. It has 4 mic pres. then 4 line ins. THEN ADAT. Lots of inputs. I'm not sure whether or not I should buy it. I got the price down to about $260. Here are some factors

-I have a mac
-I am running logic
-the thing is rackmountable, but I don't have a rack
-it's 12 FRIGGIN POUNDs (but I can deal with that) haha

Does anybody have any experience with these units? Especially with macs/logic? I would really appreciate some inputs!

by the way, the 4 mic pre's have a 1/4" input next to the mic input called an "insert" what exactly is that for? efx?
oh ! and another thing. There are two outs... I think. A headphone out on the front, and a stereo out on the back. If I wanted to record some drums so that the drummer could hear himself (with a click and what not) and I could hear him too, would he plug into the one of the stereo outs on the back... or would I have to use a splitter on headphone jack at the front?

 

[KineticSound]

Great buy...

tojo,
I have the Control-surface version of the 1804, the FW-1082, and like it very well. Only thing I wish it had was WC I/O, which the 1804 does have. BTW, I'm also running Logic 8 on a Intel-based Mac. Logic is preconfigured to accept the TASCAM units without much fuss, and the Firewire connection has been flawless for me.

You may find the TASCAM preamps to leave a little to be desired (but I'm picky to begin with), but they're quiet and fairly clean, and the units themselves are built like tanks... nice metal housings with plenty of weight that make you feel confident in its longevity. I would say that $260 is a steal for that unit.

The insert points on Ins 1/2 are for outboard processors... e.g. if you wanted to patch a compressor into the input during recording. Unlike an effect send, the insert point completely interrupts the incoming signal, sends it to whatever unit you have patched, and then receives the return (output) from that unit using a TRS send/receive patch cable. If you don't connect anything to the insert jack, then the signal just passes directly through the preamp as you would expect.

And yes, to run multiple headphone runs, you'd use a splitter on the phones out... or pick up a cheap headphone distributor and connect it to the control room / stereo outputs.

 

[tojo]

tojo,
I have the Control-surface version of the 1804, the FW-1082, and like it very well. Only thing I wish it had was WC I/O, which the 1804 does have.

~

And yes, to run multiple headphone runs, you'd use a splitter on the phones out... or pick up a cheap headphone distributor and connect it to the control room / stereo outputs.

Thanks for the fast respons Kinetic Sound! what is WC I/O though? Also, I can't just connect headphones to one of the jacks on the back? Is it because the signal isn't loud enough?

Finally, I was looking at the instruction booklet and it didn't seem to like the idea of daisy chaining the device with a harddrive, which I would definitely do:

We strongly suggest that although a "daisy-chain" con-
nection is provided, that the FW-1804 is the only unit
connected to the FireWire port.

So can I not daisy chain it with my external firewire drive? I have a macbook and only one firewire port. Do you daisy chain with your unit?

Thanks.

 

[KineticSound]

Sorry, WC probably wouldn't apply in your case unless you connected the ADAT or S/PDIF with other devices. WC/Word Clock keeps your digital stuff in sync... say if you had an external mic pre attached that had an ADAT out, you would also connect Word Clock between the two devices so that the digital signals stay in sync. It's one of my pet peeves about the 1082, since I have digital signals running though it from other sources and have to rely on WC info imbedded in S/PDIF (see my thread "Word Clock Hell" for a good chuckle on my misfortune).

No matter, though. Suffice to say the 1804 has better digital options than what I'm using...

Headphone outputs actually run a little bit of power... not enough to damage anything if you use them as an extra audio output, but enough to power some 'phones. Stereo output on the back of the 1804 is passive - can't drive headphones with 'em. Two options: phone splitter from the front, or something like a Behringer AMP800. I'm not a fan of Behri gear, but I have one of these little units for tracking live, and it's pretty cool for under $40 and can drive 8 sets of cans. Of course, a splitter at Radio Shack will run you only about $5.

Interesting question about chaining a Firewire hard drive off the 1804... I bounced some questions back & forth with someone on the board (shoot, might've been you; I can't recall) about recording directly to an external drive. I ended up going with an Iomega e-GO drive based on USB2.0, so it's not chained off of the TASCAM. My impression with the TASCAM manual was that they were discouraging people from chaining together multiple interfaces via the FW2 port, but they don't say anything about external drives. I might call TASCAM and ask them if they think you could pull it off...

 

[WhiteStrat]

Sorry, WC probably wouldn't apply in your case unless you connected the ADAT or S/PDIF with other devices. WC/Word Clock keeps your digital stuff in sync... say if you had an external mic pre attached that had an ADAT out, you would also connect Word Clock between the two devices so that the digital signals stay in sync. It's one of my pet peeves about the 1082, since I have digital signals running though it from other sources and have to rely on WC info imbedded in S/PDIF (see my thread "Word Clock Hell" for a good chuckle on my misfortune).

No matter, though. Suffice to say the 1804 has better digital options than what I'm using...

Headphone outputs actually run a little bit of power... not enough to damage anything if you use them as an extra audio output, but enough to power some 'phones. Stereo output on the back of the 1804 is passive - can't drive headphones with 'em. Two options: phone splitter from the front, or something like a Behringer AMP800. I'm not a fan of Behri gear, but I have one of these little units for tracking live, and it's pretty cool for under $40 and can drive 8 sets of cans. Of course, a splitter at Radio Shack will run you only about $5.

Interesting question about chaining a Firewire hard drive off the 1804... I bounced some questions back & forth with someone on the board (shoot, might've been you; I can't recall) about recording directly to an external drive. I ended up going with an Iomega e-GO drive based on USB2.0, so it's not chained off of the TASCAM. My impression with the TASCAM manual was that they were discouraging people from chaining together multiple interfaces via the FW2 port, but they don't say anything about external drives. I might call TASCAM and ask them if they think you could pull it off...

Right on here. Tojo, I just PM'd you with my favorable review of the 1804, but if there's one drawback (and it really isn't) it's what KineticSound is talking about here--you can't daisy chain anything off the 1804's firewire ports. I was looking into getting a second one to get to 16 channels, but like I said in my PM I use an 8 channel pre (with clean inserts) through the SPDIF of the 1804. It's even better than daisy chaining two 1804's because it gives me more options with a straight digital in--bypassing the 1804 pres completely on the additional 8 channels.

 

[tojo]

oh no! so I can't daisy chain my new owc mercury firewire hard drive?! CRAP! haha, well the thing is, it's also usb 2.0. but I'd MUCH RATHER use firewire... unfortunately my mac only has one firewire port. I'll email TASCAM and hopefully they'll get back to me with an answer. I would really perfer not to track multiple tracks at once to a hard drive via usb. TOO MANY HORROR STORIES haha.

Thanks so much for the replies guys!

p.s. why do they have 2 fw ports on the back then?

pps i'll reply your pm white strat later, I have to go to school

 

[dementedchord]

oh no! so I can't daisy chain my new owc mercury firewire hard drive?! CRAP! haha, well the thing is, it's also usb 2.0. but I'd MUCH RATHER use firewire... unfortunately my mac only has one firewire port. I'll email TASCAM and hopefully they'll get back to me with an answer. I would really perfer not to track multiple tracks at once to a hard drive via usb. TOO MANY HORROR STORIES haha.

Thanks so much for the replies guys!

p.s. why do they have 2 fw ports on the back then?

pps i'll reply your pm white strat later, I have to go to school

hey dude...i'd atleast try to daisy them... my understanding is that the problem is with pc's not macs... worth a shot...

 

[tojo]

yeah I'll def. give it a shot.

 

[pandamonk]

Hey guys, I found a tascam fw 1804 on craigslist. It has 4 mic pres. then 4 line ins. THEN ADAT. Lots of inputs. I'm not sure whether or not I should buy it. I got the price down to about $260. Here are some factors

-I have a mac
-I am running logic
-the thing is rackmountable, but I don't have a rack
-it's 12 FRIGGIN POUNDs (but I can deal with that) haha

Does anybody have any experience with these units? Especially with macs/logic? I would really appreciate some inputs!

by the way, the 4 mic pre's have a 1/4" input next to the mic input called an "insert" what exactly is that for? efx?
oh ! and another thing. There are two outs... I think. A headphone out on the front, and a stereo out on the back. If I wanted to record some drums so that the drummer could hear himself (with a click and what not) and I could hear him too, would he plug into the one of the stereo outs on the back... or would I have to use a splitter on headphone jack at the front?

I've got FW-1804 and love it. I'd say yeah!

 

[tojo]

testin' it out this sunday hopefully.