REC mag 10-07 final 8/24/07 9:52 AM Page 100

Expanded DAW control adds value to this tabletop FireWire interface

BY PAUL VNUK JR. It is weighty for its size (2.65 pounds) due On the front of the unit is the high- 1 in part to a thick, heavy rubber non-skid impedance /4" instrument input for The FireOne is the latest FireWire base to keep it in place on your desktop. direct connection of a guitar or bass audio/MIDI interface and control sur- The buttons, jacks, knobs, switches and (switchable from rear input B) and a pair face from the continued collaboration of wheel all feel solid and professional, with of headphone output jacks. TASCAM and Frontier Design Group. It the exception of the headphone knobs owes much of its sound, features and which were a tad wobbly. In use function to the FW models preceding it: The left side handles all I/O with four Installation on my Windows laptop the 1884, 1804 and 1082 (reviewed knobs across the top: input level for chan- was smooth. I spent a few months with April 2004 and October 2005). nels A & B, the mix between input signal the FireOne using it in Nuendo, where it The FireOne is equal parts portable and the computer’s audio, and line out excelled as a control device. Everything audio/MIDI interface and DAW control (master volume). Below these are buttons functioned as expected, and since every surface. The audio side features two for each channel’s phantom power and key and the wheel can be shifted channels of up to 24-bit/96 kHz audio pad. Under those is the pair of afore- and/or reassigned, depending on the I/O (TASCAM plans to add 192 kHz mentioned headphone volume controls. flexibility of your DAW there is little the support in a firmware upgrade that The I/O section also contains signal FireOne cannot control. should be available by the time you and clip LEDs as well as lights for MIDI Although it offered no controller read this) and includes phantom power, and FireWire activity. functions I also ran the FireOne as an 20 dB pad and a switchable high- The right side of the FireOne is the control audio interface with iTunes, ACID, impedance instrument jack. surface and is dominated by the large 2- WaveLab and . In each 1 The control surface features eight /2" jog wheel. The wheel features a back- instance the FireOne did its job well assignable function keys with a shift lit, green glowing ring, whose backlight can and sounded great. option, five standard transport buttons, follow your finger movements, sync to MIDI The mic preamps and converters were and a large backlit and weighted shut- clock or metronome, or can simply ebb and clean and uncolored, but not sterile—bet- tle/jog wheel. flow in acts of trippy randomness. ter than I expected for a device in this Ergonomically radiating out along the top price range. I found the unit to have DAW specs of the wheel are the transport and assigna- more than ample gain for condenser The FireOne works in both Mac OSX ble function keys, and this section also con- mics, but using a dynamic mic such as a (10.4) and Windows XP (SP2). Vista and tains a 12-step, LED stereo output meter. Shure SM57 or 58 required higher input XP 64 are not yet supported, but drivers levels (knob at about 3 o’clock). are in development—Vista support is Connections Although this was not a problem, I did expected by November 2007. The Most connections are made on the rear hear a buzz when the gain was cranked FireOne operates in either HUI emulation of the unit. The FireOne is bus-powered, up all the way, a situation you hopefully mode or in a native mode, which is but a DC line-lump power cable is includ- won’t run into unless you’re using a real- based on the Mackie Control protocol. ed for use with non-powered FireWire ly anemic mic. Native support is available for ports (such as 4-pin sockets and laptop The clip and signal lights were bright 6, Steinberg PCMCIA cards). and accurate, and at this price point the Cubase/Nuendo 3.02 and higher, There is a single, 6-pin FireWire jack 12-step stereo output meter (missing in SONAR 5 and up, Apple (which means that this unit must appear at many competing units) is a nice touch. 7, MOTU 5, the end of a FireWire chain if at all, Of course the real star of the FireOne Apple Final Cut Pro, and Digidesign Pro bandwidth permitting). Other connections is its jog wheel, which is smooth, evenly Tools (in HUI Mode). on the back include MIDI in and out, a weighted and accurate. It makes the jog 1 1 /4" footswitch jack, a pair of /4" TRS wheel on my FW-1884 feel like a toy. I Build quality and layout (balanced or unbalanced) line outs, and also liked the backlight features on the About the size of an average hardcov- a pair of Neutrik Combo input jacks jog wheel, especially when acting as a 1 er book, the FireOne is well constructed. ( /4"—XLR). visual metronome.

100 RECORDING OCTOBER 2007