Tascam FW-1884 would like to talk to Vista 64

[rayinstirling]

I've emailed Tascam outlining my hardware. they assure me their Vista 64 bit driver works on the systems they checked it on. I'm scratching my head. Could it be a firewire issue? Could it be that although my PC under 64 bit OS recognises my printer, my realtek onboard card even Cubase 4 64 bit loads and runs but of course no asio drivers found or any control what so ever off my FW-1884. Have I missed something. i don't have any other firewire device to check that interface. I'm able to dual boot so I can go back into XP 32 bit and everything runs fine. Could dual booting be an issue? Can anyone help?

Ray

 

[dmex]

Have you checked the website for any updated drivers for your motherboard? It might cause any connected devices to fail without it...

 

[rayinstirling]

I have and everything seems up to date

 

[Dwarf]

Since the device operates when you use XP, that eliminates hardware problems. It sounds as though your machine originally had XP on it, and you installed Vista on to it without disconnecting your peripherals. Problems like this are typically caused by incorrectly installing software, both the operating system and application software. When installing Vista, or any other operating system, DISCONNECT ALL peripherals apart from your mouse, keyboard, and monitor from your system. Once the operating system has installed, you need to follow the instructions from the peripheral manufacturer as to how to install their device. Some require the drivers to be installed prior to the device being connected to the PC, others have this requirement the other way round. Make sure that you have the latest drivers available for your device for your OS. These can be obtained from the device manufacturer, although sometimes a basic driver is built-in to the OS.
Dwarf

 

[rayinstirling]

Thanks for the tip.
I certainly disconnected this firewire device on loading Vista but i probably did not disconnect all external devices usb etc when installing this OS. That would also explain the absolute age it takes to boot up compared to XP. I think I may go ahead and do what you say onto a clean sata drive Having disconnected my other drives when doing this.

Cheers

 

[rayinstirling]

Clean install of Vista 64 bit. Updated all drivers. Took hours and hours to do this.
Installed Tascam FW-1884 drivers. Connected the device. The GUI comes up on screen allows me to change buffer size etc. Sound? NOTHING Controllers? NOTHING. no Asio drivers only WDM. I give up Back to XP 32 bit for the foreseeable future. Vista may look nice but it is like taking a step back in time. At least five minutes from power on to desktop. It may be my hardware is at the lower limit of what is needed to run Vista 64 bit comfortably but I'm not impressed at all.

 

[Dwarf]

I have checked the ASUS website for details on your motherboard. Certainly, it should be capable of running Vista 64-bit. Unfortunately, there is a snag. Going to the drivers download page and selecting Vista 64-bit as the operating system I have found that many of the drivers are Beta versions. These drivers are still in development, and may not work as expected. Certainly, this could explain your experience with Vista 64-bit. If motherboard drivers don't work as expected, there is little or no chance of any other devices working with your setup. Unfortunately, Vista 32-bit doesn't fare any better. As it stands, I cannot recommend that you use Vista on this machine, sorry. Keep checking the website, though. The following link is to the ASUS website page for your motherboard.
Dwarf

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

 

[rayinstirling]

Thank you for checking that for me. I did ask the local supplier of the motherboard etc when purchasing Vista 64 bit to check compatibility for me, which he did while I waited. He probably didn't notice the beta driver issue anymore than I did. I will keep an eye on the ASUSTek site for any update. Perhaps I'll upgrade the motherboard and add a quad-core CPU soon using existing components to run as another sample library slave as I do with this PC I'm using on the net. I run fxpansion BFD2 drums on this which is a whacking great 132 GB. One thing for sure... I'm not buying a MAC.

 

[rayinstirling]

OK I bought a new motherboard ASUS P5K Pro now got 6 GB ram
loaded Vista 64 running like a dream except... although my Tascam FW-1884 with vista drivers now produces sound and control over FireWire... there is a terrible buzz along with the audio... any thoughts anyone?

 

[Dwarf]

Tascam FW-1884 would like to talk to Vista 64

Hi Ray,

Glad to see you have got Vista 64 working on your new motherboard. From the ASUS website, I see that the audio solution is provided by Realtek. You could try the latest driver from them (link given below) to see if that solves your problem. This is version R1.91, and was released on 2008/4/22. Also, I notice that you have 2 firewire ports available. Try using the other port. How about changing the cable? Please let me know if any of this helps.
Dwarf

Realtek

 

[rayinstirling]

Dwarf

I've re-installed E-Mu Patchmix, the 0404 PCI card I had with the latest asio drivers. A rep of Tascam tells me in an email, they may not do any more development of Vista drivers for the FW range. So the lack of Vista x64 asio drivers may be the end of the line.
After many years of using Tascam products I doubt I'll buy any more. So to summarize...
I can now run Cubase 4.1 64 bit on Vista x64 giving me access to the East West play engine 64 bit libraries e.g. MOR, Gypsy and Goliath. The Steinberg vst bridge allows access to most 32 bit Virtual instruments I have including Kontakt 3, Yellowtools Independent 2, Virtual Guitarist 2, etc. Wallander instruments (set to use software rendering).
Exceptions at the moment are Hypersonic 2, Plugsound Pro.
Most VST FX's are OK. Any problems seem to be with the GUI of these plugins.

Ray

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad that things seem to be working out OK despite the setback with Tascam. Don't rule them out altogether though. What they are doing is similar to what many other hardware manufacturers, especially printer and scanner manufacturers, are doing. They would rather you buy new hardware that is compatible with your system (provides them with more revenue) rather than provide upgrades for your existing equipment (provides them with greater reputation, but little or no extra revenue). This is a fine balance, leaning too heavily in one direction or the other could prover disastrous. Too much support on older equipment means less time developing new with the result that people say that they "are not moving with the times", and with the balance the other way people tend to say "have you forgotten about us?" Sometimes, Vista has a built-in driver which works with the device, but generally only on a basic level. As for the other problems you mention, check the relevant websites for updates regularly.
Dwarf

 

[AlexHiHiHi]

Hi, really sorry you went to the toruble of changing motherboards etc

I too, have had a complete nightmare with the fw-1884, I've re-installed windows etc; different OS's no less than 6 times and wasted literally weeks trying to get everything working. Tried 3 different motherboards.

I am now running XP 32 bit and all my devices are working fine, and I'm not changing ever, if I ever upgrade to 64bit i'll get a new pc and new sound card.

ANYWAY - FW-1884 does infact work in 64bit OS, vista or XP. BUT - and a big BUT, it only works if you have 2gb of RAM installed. Any more and it goes crazy. So the 8gb of RAM I bought is going on ebay and my 64bit Vista is going in a cupboard never to come out again, as I am certainly not buying a new audio interface JUST so I can use 64bit Vista.

XP 32bit ftw.. sadly still after all these years. Think i will entirely skip windows Vista.

 

[rayinstirling]

Hi, really sorry you went to the toruble of changing motherboards etc

I too, have had a complete nightmare with the fw-1884, I've re-installed windows etc; different OS's no less than 6 times and wasted literally weeks trying to get everything working. Tried 3 different motherboards.

ANYWAY - FW-1884 does in fact work in 64bit OS, vista or XP. BUT - and a big BUT, it only works if you have 2gb of RAM installed. Any more and it goes crazy. So the 8gb of RAM I bought is going on ebay and my 64bit Vista is going in a cupboard never to come out again, as I am certainly not buying a new audio interface JUST so I can use 64bit Vista.

XP 32bit ftw.. sadly still after all these years. Think i will entirely skip windows Vista.

Alex

Things have moved on here. I am the happy owner of a MOTU 2408mk3 audio unit which is connected to PC and vistax64 through a pci card which will address four MOTU audio units. I'm running the 8 audio inputs from the FW-1884 to 8 of the 24 inputs on the 2408 via optical link. So I still use midi control and mic audio inputs on the 1884 but line input direct to the 2408. The 2408 has superior audio and latency. I'm hearing detail that didn't exist before from my monitor system. Also I can use word sync, video sync etc between units. The MOTU isn't cheap but is professional.
Vista x64 for me now is pretty stable.

 

[AlexHiHiHi]

Great news you have a working system in 64bit!

Ironically after my Tascam bashing earlier today, the unit has ceased working and now I have the "all lights on syndrome", which reseting doesn't fix so basically it's broken ><

I might try 64bit again, this motu route looks interesting... is the PCI card expensive?

I've also been looking at the Yamaha N12...

Hmm, decisions!

 

[rayinstirling]

Although I have Cubase 4.1 x64 beta and it does allow running EW play engine stuff in 64bit mode, I'm continuing to use Cubase 32bit for the moment. I hope the tascam thing isn't terminal. MOTU have very good x64 drivers which include asio unlike Tascam.
I bought the 2408mk3 including the pci-x card from DV247 It was B stock due to a repair but seems to work perfectly. This saved me about £200.00 on the new price which has a pci-e card. I registered with MOTU before buying it to check out the available drivers. I also spoke to a composer I know in California who uses 6 no. 2408mk3's in his system for TV and film work.

Ray

 

[dmex]

XP 32bit ftw.. sadly still after all these years. Think i will entirely skip windows Vista.

Windows 7 or later wont have better support for the device than Vista does

 

[rayinstirling]

Let me add here.
I've just downloaded the latest Line 6 Vista x64 drivers along with the latest version of GearBox and my old Guitar Port is working great.
Still no Variax Workbench x64 drivers but I can run that off my slave PC running Vista 32
Things are moving on just fine.

 

[thewater47]

I just emailed them too as I also was scratching my head. They told me that version driver 1.60 for Vista 64bit has issues if you use 4gig ram and up. So, if you remove a ram chip, it will work. They said they are in close development for a fix for this problem. I am using Vista 32bit on another drive for now until they fix it. Tone