The Song Fight Bulletin Board

In the near future I'm going to be getting a totally new computer, which I haven't picked out yet, but which will most likely be some sort of laptop running Windows 7 64 bit. (I could possibly end up deciding to get a Mac, but probably not)

From various things I've been reading, this is going to cause me to have to give up my FireOne. Tascam has discontinued selling it, and does not make drivers for Windows 7, 64bit or otherwise.

Also the mere presence FireWire seems to make laptops expensive for some reason, I guess because it is a more esoteric option than USB, and I'm not sure I'm willing to pay more for it. So there won't even be anywhere to plug the FireOne into!

So, what interface of comparable number of inputs and price range to the FireOne is likely to be trouble free on the new computer?

Aside, I've only had the FireOne for two years. What if things like guitars and amps became obsolete and no unsupported in such a short time? (Yes I know computer stuff doesn't have the life span of musical instruments, I've been a corporate helpdesk guy before, I know how often they get replaced.. It's just weird for it to impact my musical life)

FWIW, I'm running Windows 7 (albeit 32-bit) and using my Tascam FireOne just fine.

The Tascam FireOne should work just fine on a Mac. :D

Personally I'm extraordinarily happy with my PreSonus FireStudio Project. That supposedly has drivers for Win7 x32 and x64 so you might want to give that one a shot.

Definitely go with FireWire though. It's easy enough to get FW cards for your ExpressCard slot, and I've seen several in the $20 range (I don't know how good those are though). USB audio is laggy and horrible.

While on the subject, if you need a FW400-800 cable (or any other cable for that matter), check out monoprice.com. I don't know why they aren't very well-known online but they are GREAT for pretty much any computer connection cable you can think of.

fluffy wrote:While on the subject, if you need a FW400-800 cable (or any other cable for that matter), check out monoprice.com. I don't know why they aren't very well-known online but they are GREAT for pretty much any computer connection cable you can think of.

Yes! I buy all my cables from them! Best price around for pretty much every cable. HDMI? Why are you paying $40 for a cable?! Go to monoprice.com and pay $6! Woo! It's the same stuff. I've ordered HDMI, VGA, Optical Audio, RCA, Component etc... cables from them and they are all dandy!

I ended up buying a used business laptop off of ebay, because it was cheaper than any suitable computer would have been new, and almost certainly built better than a consumer-grade laptop.

Being a couple of years old, it came with XP Pro installed, which means no Windows versioning issues. No firewire port, but the PC card approach seems to be working.

So no need to replace to FireOne!

Now I just have to get all of the FX that I use onto this new computer, and I'll be ready to fight again.

This just happened to Glennny, and I'm amazed that Tascam just let's it's product die like this. Has anyone found a good way to continue using their Fireone on Win7 64bit?

Ken

It's still working great on my Mac though.

Yeah, I don't understand why Tascam is choosing not to continue to support it's products. It will be fine for a while, but the next big OS update and you might be done with it.

Ken

Is there a class-compliant fw audio driver for Win7? That might work.

OSX has the advantage of supporting 32bit drivers on the 64bit OS. But IIRC when the 64bit kernel becomes standard, 32bit drivers will be just as screwed (OSX defaults to a 32bit kernel and 64bit userspace in some weird configuration that I don't understand how it's possible).