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Keith,
I never did see where you posted anything about the Tascam Model 12. I just wanted to check with you to see what you thought about it.
I still can't afford one but I'd still like to have one.
Your thoughts please.
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Hey, Bob. Sorry that I’ve been slow in posting anything about the Model 12. Between some of my own Health Issues and Shepherding my wife through surgery, chemo, and radiation for a return of her breast cancer (now stage 3) I’ve kept putting off things that I meant to do.
I’ve not been real excited about the Model 12 so far, but its not been a total bomb for me either. Having used some of the old TASCAM Portastudios and the USB 428 I feel like they somewhat merged the two functions into a single machine. The Model 12 works pretty well with Cakewalk but it was more than a little cranky to get set up. To be fair, they made some recommendations on the setup that I didn’t take to be absolutes that turned out to be the reason I was having some malfunctions. I’ve never gotten the 12 to act as a sound card and have had to have the 12 and my Focusrite active at the same time to hear anything. I’ve also been bummed about the lack of motorized faders because you have to “catch” the setting in your DAW in order to be sure your fader position and the setting in the DAW match. I’m used to that from the portastudios and the usb-428 but the TASCAM FW spoiled me.
The Model 12 has an SD card that you can record to, so you can pick the whole thing up and record away from the computer. In fact, in my opinion, it performs better as a Portastudio than as a DAW controller, although it does pretty well at the latter.
Keith
2026 Audiophile Windows 11 RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,SONAR,3 Raven Mtis
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Some of what you post reminds me of the Tascam FW-1884 that I abandoned after Tascam abandoned me (by not making the Windows 10 driver available that we know they had). I was never able to make that work as a sound card, either.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Keith,
I wish you and your wife the best during what is no doubt an extremely tough time. I hope I didn't bother you by asking for a run down on the Tascam.
You both will be in my thoughts and wishes for a full recovery.
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Matt,
Since I'm no where near as well versed as most of you others on the forum about home recording, DAW's, sound cards, etc., I'm going to ask a question that will no doubt be a stupid question to most of the folks who are much more experienced than I am.
What exactly does it mean to have the Tascam Model 12 or any other control surface to act as a sound card?
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Matt,
Since I'm no where near as well versed as most of you others on the forum about home recording, DAW's, sound cards, etc., I'm going to ask a question that will no doubt be a stupid question to most of the folks who are much more experienced than I am.
What exactly does it mean to have the Tascam Model 12 or any other control surface to act as a sound card?
I posed that question to Matt but anyone else who wishes to comment on it should feel free. I assume Matt hasn't seen it because he's always very good about responding. So here is a "bump" for the weekend folks.
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'Soundcard' means you select that device as the Driver in BiaB/RB/PT
So your computer plays back to (& records from) it.
So you would record your new tracks into the mixer (soundcard) physical connection and it would be sent via USB to the software as a digital signal from that device. And playback would be able to be routed to it also.
Sounds like Keith may have an issue with the playback still needing to be routed to his Focusrite, but that may be because his speakers are connected the Focusrite, or some other such setup/routing issue. Hard to say with the limited clues. Or maybe the 12 simply doesn't play nice in both directions.
A Control surface is a little different in that the sliders on the mixer are supposed to control the sliders in the DAW, as well as other stuff.
At least that's how I understand the basic definitions, if that helps.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Bob has it. The Tascam FW-1884 was one unit that functioned as a control surface and a soundcard. I didn't ever get the sound card part working because of drivers and firewire, but I had other choices and just the control surface was great. I then moved to a Behringer X-Touch control surface, and now on to a Presonus Faderport 8.
A nice combo unit would be a mixer, both with home your computer and standalone for live concerts, a sound card, both with your home computer and with a laptop in live concerts, and also be a MIDI control surface for your DAW. Transport control, too. I recall the Tascam 12 (but NOT the 16) had all this.
Bob, if that's still confusing, ask away.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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rharv and Matt,
I appreciate the responses. They definitely helped. I'll take some time to digest that info and go from there.
I really regret not taking the time to get comfortable with DAW's years ago. I embraced PC's but was so busy with work and traveling for business and being a dad when I was home a few days a week that I didn't mess with it.
Thanks again guys.
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Bob, if your primary interest is home recording rather than live performance, you should research the Tascam DP-32sd stand alone recorder. I'm sure you will find it does a more efficient job than the Model 12 in the home based recording studio. The DP-32 (and the DP-24) are designed and engineered for small non-commercial home studios and can work as a stand alone recording unit or provide audio tracks for any DAW. The Model 12 is a hybrid that's better suited as a mixer than as a stand alone recorder and it's designed to act as an interface to a DAW. Transferring tracks from either the DP-32 or Model 12 function nearly identically. The Model 12 costs $100 more than the DP-32 and you will be paying more for features you may not need or use if you don't plan to utilize the unit for stage performances and you will also be paying more for less because the Model 12 doesn't have features that are focused toward home recording scenario's that the DP-32 does have.
The DP-32 will have all of the DAW features necessary to complete a project from start to finish without smothering you with so many DAW features, techniques, procedures and decisions. You aren't swamped with thousands of plug-ins to choose from but the included plug-ins are very good and more than sufficient to do the job. The bonus is also, you'll have complete and unfettered access to any DAW or plug-in if you want or need more processing than the unit provides.
What you won't have is any of the multitude of issues that comes with every software DAW. There will be no latency, no asio driver issues, no additional cost for an audio interface, no issues between PC or Mac systems compatibility or soundcard issues.
The biggest shortcoming of a DP-32sd is the lack of MIDI input/output which may not be an issue for you.
These units are very robust, rugged and versatile and have nice preamps, physical controls and are quite easy to learn.
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Charlie,
I do believe you're right. The thing that always frustrated me about dealing with DAW's was that there were so many things on it that I didn't want, would never use and they complicated even the simple process of laying down a guitar track. As you said, there were latency issues, ASIO issues, other driver issues. syncing issues, etc. I couldn't spend any time recording because I was spending all of my time just trying to make things work together.
The only way I'll ever get any songs recorded is to go with this. I used to record a lot with the old Tascam 424 PortaStudio and I don't think I ever took more than a passing glance at the owners manual.
Hopefully I can get one of these by this fall. My next major purchase is going to have to be a septic system for my cabin. After that I've got to build some steps that consist of more than 12 or 16 cinderblocks stacked up. A half dozen falls on those things is more than enough. This old fat body doesn't bounce as well as it used to.
I appreciate you steering me back on to the Tascam PortaStudio.
Thanks Charlie
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Here is a link to a song I wrote years ago and recorded on the old Tascam 424. Eddie Curry is playing lead guitar, I'm playing two rhythm guitars, (one open and one with a capo), I'm also playing bass, singing lead and harmony. Mac did some remastering on it. There was a fair bit of track bouncing since it was only 4 track. https://soundcloud.com/bob-c-831697492
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Here is a link to a song I wrote years ago and recorded on the old Tascam 424. Eddie Curry is playing lead guitar, I'm playing two rhythm guitars, (one open and one with a capo), I'm also playing bass, singing lead and harmony. Mac did some remastering on it. There was a fair bit of track bouncing since it was only 4 track. https://soundcloud.com/bob-c-831697492I just took a listen to your song. Sounds great. Good write, arrangement and performance. Your vocals are really nice. Having some experience with the Portastudio you'll hit the ground running with a DP-24 or 32 and though with that many tracks, if you ever need to bounce, it has that feature as well as 192 virtual tracks.
BIAB 2026:RB 2026, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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