LOOK! I installed Lion but the firewire is NOT recognized on my Mac Pro!

The problem is not with Apple its with Tascam. I called Tascam and i was told at this time they do not know if they will make drivers for the FW-1884 (lion). Since Tascam no longer makes the FW-1884 they don't give a care about someone not having a driver. I erased my hard drive and reinstalled Snow Lep. The Tascam FW-1884 is the best audio interface on the planet for the price. No one on the market has all the features this unit has for the same price. How many interfaces have anybody seen that can Cut, Paste, Copy, Delete, Display Markers, Pan, select up to 8 auxes. Phantom Power, EQ your DAW, jog wheel, solo. If you think i giving all that up for Lion you must be crazy.

Hi, I have FW-1884 and installed lion. Would not recognise FW interface. Did some reading in the forums and booted my imac in 32bit mode. So to do this 1, shut down your mac. 2, switch on fw1884, 3, hold down the number 3 and the 2 on your keyboard and now switch on your mac. Should now be in 32 bit mode. Logic and my FW1884 working faster and better than ever. Hope this helps.

Just an additional note regarding the Tascam FW-1884, I have one of these also and have found that the most recent 12 Core 2.93 Mac Pros will not connect to it, even when running OSX 10.6.8.

I run a sound lab and have tried swapping drives from older Mac Pros just prior to the 12 cores and have found that in this case that it's not the software.

Hi all,

just putting my 2 cents in. Tascam FW1884 with an I7 mac running Logic, 9.1.5. If I boot in 32-bit mode, the device is recognized,but a lot of errors.

I've contacted Tascam, and asked them about any plans they might have for updating the drivers, for LION and 64bit. They said the Tascam is discontinued, so they won't, and I replied that's a great way for Tascam to lose customers... I bought this device in 2009, new and in just to years there's no support... what kind of policy is that??? The Tascam FW-1884 is an expensive device for (semi-) professionals that often write of their equipment financially. I'd say it's pretty reasonable to give them at least 3-5 years to write the device off.

Anyway, they didn't respond to that argument, but asked me to call them so they can walk me through. I'll let you know the outcome.

Best, sanne

What kind of errors do you get? With me it's occasional audio dropouts every few minutes or so for a few seconds. Nothing dramatic but very annoying. I totally agree with you on your argument. However, I think the underlying problem is that the FW1884 was originally developed by Frontier Design. I have slight hopes the problem might be resolvable without updating the drivers though.

I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but the chances of TASCAM doing anything here are next to nil. They no longer make the dvice, and any future sales are going to be back inventory of stock they've already moved to external vendors. So they have no financial interest in 64-bit drivers. The existing 32-bit drivers work through Snow Leopard, and if they release new 32-bit drivers for Lion, they'd need to do back-compat work for all of those OS releases. Again, no win for TASCAM.

They provided a device which supported all Mac OS releases through the time of the device being sold (2009) up to two years later. From a vendor point of view, there is no obligation to follow the customers if they choose to upgrade to a new OS. And while Apple may bend over backwards so Lion doesn't look like a new OS to customers, from the kernel point of view it's a new OS. Especially with the shift to a 64-bit default.

So don't expect TASCAM to budge. It not only doesn't gain them anything, it's a net loss for them to issue new 32-bit drivers, posibly breaking existing customers on Snow Leopard, or issuing 64-bit drivers, possibly cutting into sales of new hardware. When we bought into LIon, we made a choice that TASCAM was not bound two two, or five, years ago when we bought our FW1884. And from the busines side of things, it makes absoutley no sense for them to ever touch those drivers again, regardless of how much we want them too.

I've moved on to a new interface (Focusrite Saffire Pro 40), using the FW-1884 as a mixer. No glitches, no problems, 64-bits. I'm much happier now. Although if you're looking, I think I'd maybe have gone with Mackie Onyx for a bit more. Yes, I put a lot of money into the FW-1884. And now I can't give it away on eBay. That's hardware. Buy quality, use it, upgrade only when you need to. Mostly important, make art and have fun.

You brought up some great points. We should move on. The only problem is that people that own the Tascam FW-1884 cant find a replacement for it. I have not found anything on the market that has all the features of this unit. I think Apple should be the one that fixes this problem but they dont care about some unit not working with their new software (Lion). Apple will soon release a new version of Logic this could be the end of the Tascam unit for good.

I advise all Tascam users keep it going as long as you can we are all sitting on Death Row with the 1884.

Now on to the future HAS ANYONE CHECKED OUT A PROGRAM CALLED MIX BUSS BY HARRISON COUNCEL. This is the best sounding audio engine i have ever heard. The top guys in the industry are mixing down on this software. It cost under $200. It makes Logic sound like a cheap 1 inch speaker with a crack in it. Download the demo, convert your midi tracks to audio then export the track into a folder then import them into Mix Buss. Once you hear how it sounds you will never mix again in Logic. If they add a Sequencer to this program i'm done with Logic.

WHEN TOU BOOT UP UR MAC PRO. HOLD DOWN THE 2 and the 3... THIS WILL MAKE UR SYSTEM BOOT UP IN 32bit. AND YOUR TASCAM 1884 WILL BE RECOGNIZED. I'VE TRIED IT. IT WORKS!!!!!!!

im doing very large projects. If i go to 32 bit mode i run out of memory. This is another problem Apple needs to adress. I have 10 gig of ram Logic has a limit of possible 4 gig. My plugins consist of Spectronics whole line up and native instuments exstream. These are all memory burners 32 bit cannot handle it. Apple needs to stop putting there head in the sand on the next Logic update. The audio pops and other crap going on in Logic has been going on too long. There are other programs that are up and coming that do not have these issues. The bigger the company the less they care about the people who made them. Without Steve Jobs lets see where Apple will be in 5 years from now.

it's all sorts of strange stuff. Sometimes, if I use the sliders, it doesn't respond, sometimes it does, but only if I touch another fader! Also, in Logic 8 faders are selected simultanuously, (with this white stripe on the channel), but with the fader, I can only operate the next fader (say 1-8 are selected), but fader one is interacting with track 9, and I can't operate track 1-8.

I AM a newbie with Logic, but some of the errors are so strange and irregular, I'm sure it's not a setting or something that I'm screwing up myself.

@brianfrom kirkland: you bring some valid points to the table. Of course the decision to update drivers is a business decision for TASCAM. But I think you overestimate the benefit for Tascam, and you underestimate the cost. Both cost and benefit depend on the customer. Simply put: Tascam won't budge if you do. I'm not talking about customers swarming the streets in a huge protest against corporate greed, wasting their precious time complaining instead of creating something (if that's what you're referring to). I'm merely talking about unsatisfied customers who take the effort to speak up about their loss of trust in a the company's updating policy, or something else they're displeased with.

About the costs...How expensive do you think that is for Tascam? If say 10 dissatisfied TASCAM FW-1884 customers post their frustration on say 5 different sites (with valid arguments that is, not the average whining about evil corporations) . That's 50 negative messages, with possible 'likes' and referrals on facebook. It's the internet age man!

Now the benefits: what will they gain, not updating the driver? I ain't no expert, but I'd say they'll save on 2-3 employees, adjusting the driver in 3-4 days including the release with a small manual. Say 70 hours? At say, 30 dollars an hour? Wild guess: about 3000 dollars? Tops. Will it match the bad press they get? I question the other benefit you mention. Will these dissatisfied customers really move over to a new Tascam product? I won't. Did you? As a matter of fact, I was considering Focusrite... but not until I started googling TASCAM, and read about Focusrite in a thread, like this one. I'm pretty glad the guy who started this conversation didn't budge.

@dis1recording: Of course I tried booting in 32 bit. The Tascam is recognized, but in Logic, a lot of stuff doesn't work.

Brianfromkirkland.. How did hook up the sapphire and the 1884 to the mac?

Tascam first told me to call them, so they could walk me through. Then I did, but I got this guy from India, telling me it's not supported for Lion, so bad luck. I knew that already!

Luckily somebody else gave me a workaround: HUI emulation. It's far from perfect, but it works better than the tascam protocol. Still I'd have to ditch this device, after 2 years when I bought it (new).....

So Anyway, don't buy Tascam products. Their support and ethics suck. Hey Googlebot... did you register that? tags: TASCAM HORRIBLE, ETHICS SUCK, ****,DEVILS, EVIL, TASCAM BAD,

:-) that didn't help much, I know. but ******, that felt good! :-)