Tascam FW-1082 setup question

Hello,

We're trying to integrate the 1082 into a Final Cut Pro edit system. We have a betasp deck going in to ch1 & ch2, a vhs deck into ch3 & ch4, and a dvd deck into ch5 & ch6. Main mixer outs feed into a Kona LHe board while the stereo headphone outs feed monitors (real funky). I can successfully monitor the computer and analog signals and record from the betasp source into FCP.

The problem is a Sony 1500 DVcam deck thats setup to digitize through firewire. When I enter the log & capture in FCP both the video and audio are there but no audio through the 1082. The deck is connected on the same firewire buss as the 1082 although when I spoke with Tascam customer service he said that shouldn't be an issue. He also had to solution. This has to be easy...right? Any suggestion as to how to monitor in that situation?

thanks,

Ric Shellhammer
Pegasus Productions
Oceanside, California
760-435-9864

I believe you get one FireWire device per capture. FCP needs to keep track of two different bitrstreams and potentially two different timecodes if it were to split. Splitting is begging for sound sync issues down the road.

I believe the Tascam customer service person was wrong.

Anyone else?

Koz

Works fine on my 1082 are you sure that you sure that you have preview checked in Audio section of the clip settings tab.

Dave

That was easy. Dave, your suggestion fixed the problem. Thanks. I find documentation and setup for the 1082 a bit confusing.

Ric

Tascam's documentation that comes with the unit is ridiculous. However they must be selling a fair number of these units to FCP users because if you have been to their web page recently you'll have noticed that they are bending over backwards to make this unit user friendly to FCP users. Lots of useful documentation their (tutorials).

If you find that you can only do panning on tracks 1 & 2, what you need to do is install the Cuebase LE program on your computer & then use the Cuebase LE emulation from the 1082 control panel menu rather than the Mackie emulation that Apple recommends. Choosing Cubase LE in the menu will let you do everything that the Mackie emulation plus it will give you pan control on all the tracks.

All the best
Dave

Since the thread is still alive, can somebody tell me how you get FCP to capture from two different FireWire devices at the same time? I read the top question five times and I can't dig out enough stucture to help.

Koz

I could be reading the posts wrong, but I don't think they're talking about capturing from two FireWire sources, are they? I think they're talking about capturing from a FireWire DV deck while playing back the audio at the same time out to a FireWire mixer.


www.derekmok.com

That is right. I wanted to capture from a DSR-1500 DV deck and also be able to hear audio while logging through the 1082 which is a firewire device. It was a "duh" solution and now works.

ric

<<<It was a "duh" solution and now works.>>>

To the original problem, yes. But it sure sounded like your were trying to capture from two devices at once.

Your current practice--a cousin to playing a CamCorder and capturing it to a FireWire drive--forces another question past my lips. Is there a software package associated with this mixer? I can't believe that even a Mac would magically know that the mixer were out there and that the sound services should play to that and not to internal speakers.

I don't wonder that you were lost. Monitoring during capture is very dark gray magic. It could be said that you are courting another different sort of problem. The reason that audio monitoring service is turned off naturally during capture--and video goes to every fifth or sixth frame--is that you can get dropped frames or other damage if you leave it running. The machine has too much to do.

Do you have sound sync issues or dropped frames on long captures?

Koz

Yes, there's a driver to install and setup (control panel) within FCP. There are many using the device successfully. Will I get dropped frames? As I've just set it up, I don't know yet, but in a search of discussions I found no sync or dropped frames.

ric

> There are many using the device successfully. Will I get dropped frames?

It's something to watch out for. I did one job where we used a FireWire Mackie mixer and a DSR-11 to capture 24p DV footage via FireWire at the same time. No real problems with the captured clips that I could see, but the mixer would sometimes interfere with the deck and I'd lose audio playback, wouldn't come back no matter what I do in FCP, and I'd have to do a restart to fix it.

I still don't think it's a good idea to run a FireWire mixer with a FireWire video capture device. To me, a mixer should just sit there and do its job. I still prefer analog hookups for those.


www.derekmok.com

<<<It's something to watch out for.>>>

What he said. You have not guaranteed failure. You have made the system slightly more likely to fail.

You might go forever without any damage at all, but for people complaining of dropped frames, the first thing we recommend is to strip the system down to minimum, turn off any extra jobs and tasks, and disconnect everything but **one** FireWire device.

That would eliminate your sound system right there.

All is not lost however. It's perfectly valid to add an outside manufacture FireWire card to your tower and put the Sound Board on that. That represents a second clear, fast pathway into the Mac divorced from the built-in one. By the way, if you have two connections on your Mac, that's really only one connection with two spigots on it. Sorry, doesn't count.

However, I still wouldn't listen to the sound while capturing. Final Cut still has to send sound data to the sound board wherever it's connected and that alone represents a risk.

Koz

Ok. Here's the setup now. Thought I'd post it for reference to others with a similar setup.

FW-1082 analog in: ch1&2=DV deck, ch3&4=Beta, ch5&6=vhs, ch7&8=dvd (channels panned L&R) FW-1082 main outs to Kona LHe analog in, headphone out to speakers. The audio now isn't monitored through a firewire connection but direct out of the mixer while logging.

As for video, decided it was an easier workflow to take component out of the DV deck into the Kona via patch panel. Makes it easy to switch from Beta, DV, or any analog source. Today digitized alot of 8bit uncompressed. It looks & sounds great. Thanks for all the input everyone.

Ric