Hi folks,

am looking to get a motorized fader control surface to use with Vegas and also to get a new firewire soundcard. I currently have an Alesis I/O 26 which i'm not really happy with - annoying things like the lack of a mute button on the unit, a hideous Hardware Monitoring application (where you can't control output levels for any channels, even the master volume!) and infinite rotary pots for the main volume on the unit...

i'm looking at the Tascam FW1082 which is extremely good value as it has motorized faders as well as being a firewire 10-input soundcard, it even has a jog wheel but the question is: has anyone used this with Vegas? It would have to be under Mackie Emulation Protocol but i'd be more confident in buying if anyone else has combined these two... The only thing ive found on the net about this combination is a vague unanswered post on a tascam forum: http://tascamforums.com/index.php?showtopic=12028

an alternative would be the behringer bcf2000 control surface (plus a new firewire soundcard like the focusrite saffire) which again would have to work under the mackie emulation. There was a post on this a while back which was positive:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=71710&highlight=bcf2000
if youre still out there Magnus Helander, how is your experience with the the BCF2000 and vegas a year later? Any problems?

many thanks,

baldwin

I used a tascam 1884 for a while before I succumbed to the horrible firewire problems that this unit and its little brother the 1082 suffer from. I did use it with vegas but did not use the control surface (faders) because I do not mix within vegas. Audio quality was average, nothing special. Firewire is very poorly implemented on these units. While your visiting tascamforums look at all the posts with firewire problems.

Now I use a RME fireface 800 and a Frontier Designs Tranzport and this seems to be the best arrangement I have been able to find. Rock soild is an understatement.

Lou

I pull out my BCF2000 every once in a while for a mixdown, it works fine, especially for the money. It doesn't give you a jog/scrub wheel, but I usually use j-k-l editing or a shuttle pro.

Setup is a little under-documented, but I was able to work it out.

I think it would be a good multitrack recording tool, but my recordings are usually field not studio, and I use a dedicated hard disk recorder for them. (I do mix them in Vegas.) It will allow you to arm/disarm individual tracks for recording, and start/stop recording. I think if you were doing this sort of work you could get pretty fast in your multitrack layups with the BCF2000.

It does give you 8 flying faders for mixdown (with alts for 9-16 and more), which work in conjunction with Vegas' built in envelope automation. I do use them! They work just fine, you'll get to know *much* more about Vegas' envelope automation, you've got to become expert at all the automation modes, probably this is true for any controller.

Overall, well worth the $100US I paid for it (used), I use it frequently enough for multitrack mixdowns to justify its presence on the desk. And the flying faders are very impressive in action ;-)

If you end up going this direction post back and I'll dig out the setup procedures.

I happened to be looking at Sony's white papers, and see that they wrote one for using the BCF2000 with Vegas 8.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/step1.asp?catid=16

You didn't mention the version of Vegas you're using. I'd assume, but I don't know for sure, that the automation model hasn't changed much between Vegas 5/6, 7, and 8. Haven't read the whitepaper in detail yet, but no doubt it's worth a read if you're considering the BCF2000.

thank for the responses folks, yes the tascam FW1082 looks a little shaky in terms of firewire which is a shame it seems like it'd be ideal for my needs of an automated desk which incorporates a multitrack soundcard...

that behringer bcf2000 white paper is as detailed as it gets:
http://sony-348.vo.llnwd.net/dspcdn/whitepapers/behringer_bcf2000_with_vegas_pro.pdf
and its good to know the unit does work in real life, thanks seth. i'm using vegas 7 but i guess it'll be just the same as 8 in terms of the mackie emulation protocol.

im also considering taking the protools plunge and maybe getting an old mbox 1 and then upgrading Pro Tools (one seller ive seen said that the upgrade is free from the digidesign site but i havent been able to verify that) but have just discovered that ProTools doesnt support RAID of any kind which is, quite frankly, ridiculous! so i'd have to use a separate hard disk than my RAID array when mixing in protools... a bit inpractical.

Known Issues:
Pro Tools does not support RAID technology. Please do not activate this feature on any Pro Tools recording drives.

decisions, decisions...

baldwin