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The rules should oblige the seller to give the purchaser an operating instrucion of Tascam IF-DM, along with an item. The lack of an instruction or false information given to customer shall constitute grounds to apply for a complaint because of nonconformity of goods with the contract. In accordance with the law, a customer can receive an instruction in non-paper form; lately graphic and electronic forms of the manuals, as well as instructional videos have been majorly used. A necessary precondition for this is the unmistakable, legible character of an instruction.
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The term originates from the Latin word „instructio”, which means organizing. Therefore, in an instruction of Tascam IF-DM one could find a process description. An instruction's purpose is to teach, to ease the start-up and an item's use or performance of certain activities. An instruction is a compilation of information about an item/a service, it is a clue.
Unfortunately, only a few customers devote their time to read an instruction of Tascam IF-DM. A good user manual introduces us to a number of additional functionalities of the purchased item, and also helps us to avoid the formation of most of the defects.
What should a perfect user manual contain?
First and foremost, an user manual of Tascam IF-DM should contain:
- informations concerning technical data of Tascam IF-DM
- name of the manufacturer and a year of construction of the Tascam IF-DM item
- rules of operation, control and maintenance of the Tascam IF-DM item
- safety signs and mark certificates which confirm compatibility with appropriate standards
Why don't we read the manuals?
Usually it results from the lack of time and certainty about functionalities of purchased items. Unfortunately, networking and start-up of Tascam IF-DM alone are not enough. An instruction contains a number of clues concerning respective functionalities, safety rules, maintenance methods (what means should be used), eventual defects of Tascam IF-DM, and methods of problem resolution. Eventually, when one still can't find the answer to his problems, he will be directed to the Tascam service. Lately animated manuals and instructional videos are quite popular among customers. These kinds of user manuals are effective; they assure that a customer will familiarize himself with the whole material, and won't skip complicated, technical information of Tascam IF-DM.
Why one should read the manuals?
It is mostly in the manuals where we will find the details concerning construction and possibility of the Tascam IF-DM item, and its use of respective accessory, as well as information concerning all the functions and facilities.
After a successful purchase of an item one should find a moment and get to know with every part of an instruction. Currently the manuals are carefully prearranged and translated, so they could be fully understood by its users. The manuals will serve as an informational aid.
Table of contents for the manual
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1 TEAC Professional Division OWNER’ S MANUAL[...]
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2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ........... .................................................................................. 4 F EATURES .......................................................................................... .............. 4 S YSTEM R EQUI REMENTS ...............................................................................[...]
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3 M IXER O UTPUTS ......................................................... .................... ............... 26 DM-3200 ............. ......................................................................... ............ 26 DM-4800 ............. ......................................................................... ............ 27 M IXER I N[...]
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4 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the T ASCAM IF-FW/DM MK II FireWi re audio card for TASC AM mixers. It is designed to provide audio and MIDI interfaci ng between your TASCAM mixer and your computer based DAW, tu rning your TASCAM mixer into a high performance Fir eWire audio/ MIDI interface. The TASCAM DM-3200 and DM-4 800 digi tal mixers f[...]
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5 • 1 MIDI port In and Out fr om the computer It also has comprehensive status m onitoring in the mixer’s LCD, and a safety boot feature of it s own software that is always available even if pr oblems occur during software updating. Please see the Safety Boot Featur e appendix for details.[...]
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6 System Requirements Macintosh • OS: Mac OS X 10.4.4 or highe r • Computer: Apple Macintosh series with on-board FireWire • PowerPC G4 1GHz or greater, or any Int el Mac. • Memory(RAM): 512MB or m ore • Higher spec required for 32 cha nnel operation at 96 kHz. – see System clocking section in this manual. Windows • OS: Microsoft® Wi[...]
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7 DM-4800 Requir em ents The DM-4800 must be running V1.1 0 software or later to use the IF-FW/DM MK II. A TFI update file fo r use wit h TMCompanion is provided on the IF-FW/D M MK II CD ROM. You will need to have TMCompanio n in st alled; this ca n be found on the CD ROM that came with your DM-4800. Yo u should always ch eck the TASCAM websi te a[...]
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8 Inst allation Installing the IF-FW/DM MK II • DM-3200: The IF-FW/DM MK II must be installed in to mixer Slot 1. It will not fu nction in Slot 2. • DM-4800: The IF-FW/DM MK II must be installed in to either mixer Slot 1 or Slot 3. It will not function in Slot 2 or Slot 4. • The following installation must be done with the mixer’s power OFF[...]
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9 • Please note that the IF-FW/DM MK II must be connected by itself on a FireWire bus. More than one FireWire connector on a com puter does not mean each connector has its own bus. More often, all c onnectors go to the same bus on the computer. If you re quire additional FireWire devices, it is necessary to add a FireWire card, thus adding a sepa[...]
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10 Follow the instructi ons given. You will n eed to supply your computer’s Administrato r password in order to inst all the drivers. A License file and a ReadMe file are displayed; this may contain important last minut e information. Finishing the i nstallation, you will need to reboot the comp u t er. To hear system audio through th e card, you[...]
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11 1. Launch the installer and caref ully follow the on-screen instructions in the Installation Wizar d. 2. When presented with any Windows L ogo warnings, click Continue Anyway . 3. The driver installer ends with “ple ase restart this computer”. You will ne ed to rest art to finish the insta lla tion process. 4. You can connect the FireWire ca[...]
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12 On the first screen of the New Hardwa re Wizard, sel ect “No, not this time”. 6. Confirm that the Wizard has identified the IF-FW/DM MK II card correctly (as shown be low), then click “Next” 7. When presented with any Windows L ogo warnings, click Continue Anyway .[...]
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13 8. 9. Click “Next” 10. “Your new hardware is instal led and ready to use” will appear in the lower right of the Wind ows desktop. 11. Your IF-FW/DM MK II is installed an d ready to us e. 12. Whenever the IF-FW/DM MK II is connected to your computer, the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon will appear in the Windows Taskbar. If you need to [...]
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14 After using t he “Safely Rem ove Hardware” fu nction of Windows to stop the IF-FW / DM MK II, you will see “139 4: Driver Offline” reported in the mi xer’s DIG ITA L status screen for the IF- FW/DM MK II.[...]
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15 Mixer Control Screen On both the DM-3200 a nd DM-4800, the IF-FW/DM MK II presents a detailed setup and status display screen as shown below. Navigate to the Digital page (LCD access button 2 with blue ALT LED lit), an d then select the SLOT tab (labeled SLOT 1-2 or SLOT 3-4 on the DM-4800) Cursor Navigation: Use the 4 arrow keys to the ri ght o[...]
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16 Detailed Description CARD Status This can displ ay one of the following: “OK”, “OK (Backup)”, “Not Ready” or “Booting …” OK The IF-FW/DM MK II is running. OK (Backup) The IF-FW/DM MK II is running from its safety boot feature. This can oc cur when a firmware u pdate to the IF-FW/DM MK II has failed and you select the safety boo[...]
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17 Illegal FS The Mixer specified an unsupported sampling frequency. Since the I F-FW/DM MK II supports all of the sampling freq uenc ies that the DM-3200 an d DM- 4800 supports, this might in dicate a hardware problem. No Cable There is no physical connection being detected between the IF-FW/DM MK II and the computer, the cable is lik ely to be un[...]
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18 Output This allows restricting the number of channels be ing sent to the computer to 16 for reduced host lo ad, or setting th e full channel count of 32. Especially at hi gh sampling rates, if you don’t need the full 32 channel count from the mixer to the com puter for your project, you w ill get better perf ormance from your computer by setti[...]
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19 Audio The IF-FW/DM MK II only presents some of its channels to the Windows XP built in audio mana ge r. This allows you to route audio from a non-DAW applicat ion such as Windows Media Player to your mixer. The IF-FW/DM MK II Control Pan el (described later) has controls to en able th is function an d also lets you choose which of the 32 ch anne[...]
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20 Panel Æ Sounds and Audio Devices Æ Sounds Tab Alternatively, divide WD M and AS IO use, e.g. using channel 31 and 32 for WDM still leaves you wi th 30 channels of ASIO audio, and a pair of fader s on the mixe r can be dedi cated to WDM audio for those times you want to use Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes to audition compressed audio files[...]
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21 2. Select VST Multitrack 3. Select IFFWDMmkII under th e ASIO Driver pull down menu 4. If it was not already select ed, a dialog will popup asking whether it is O K to switch to the new ASIO driver. Click Switch 5. Click OK at the bottom. Sonar The foll owing inst ructions a re for So nar 4 or lat er. 1. Select Audio under the Op tions menu 2. C[...]
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22 ( Note ) Sonar 6 allows you to rename eac h channel’s identification string that is otherwise provided by the IF- FW/DM MK II driver. (Note) If the sample rate of the mixer does not match Sonar’ s setting for “Default Settings fo r New Projects” when Sonar is launched, Sonar will put up a wa rning dialog, and change its own default setti[...]
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23 Digital Performer The foll owing i nstruc tions a re for Digi tal Perfo rmer 5.1 1. Under the Setup menu, sele ct Configure Audio System Æ Configure Hardware Driver 2. Highlight “ IF - FW /D M m k I I ” in the list to make it the sele cted Core Audio de vi ce fo r DP. 3. If the IF-FW/DM MK II is not in the li st, it is n ot being detected b[...]
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24 System Clocking Master Clock When configured with an IF-FW/DM MK II, the mixe r must be t he master clock relative to the com puter DAW. The mixer itself may be clocked to an external source other than the DAW. Clock Settings When switc hing the clo ck rate of the mixer, o r of any extern al device that is the clock master in your system , th e [...]
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25 Please note tha t when running a t these tr ack count and sampling rates, some DAW software will hit a lim i t in term s o f hard disk throughput before the driver or FireWire limits are reached. Please experiment with hard disk cachi ng and read-ahead settings if you are experiencing drop-outs or unexp ected s tops in playback. This is especial[...]
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26 IF-FW/DM MK II & DM-Mixer Routing The IF-FW/DM MK II appe ars to the Mixer just like any ot her optional I/O card except th at it has 32 channels of I/O instead of 8. (Note): Even if the card is cu rrently set to 16 inputs or 16 outputs, the routing matrix wil l still present the full 32 channels for configuration. Mixer Outputs DM-320 0 By [...]
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27 DM-480 0 By default, the DM-480 0 pu ts busses 1-24 on IF-FW/DM MK II outputs 1-24 and duplicates bu sses 1 – 8 on outputs 25-32. These routing settings can be changed in the OUTPUT SLOT tab of the DM-4800’s ROUTING screen. Routing co ntrol is identical to the DM-3200 described above. Mixer Inputs DM-320 0 The IF-FW/DM MK II’s mixer inputs[...]
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28 DM-480 0 The IF-FW/DM MK II’s mixer inputs are conf igured from the INPUT ta b of the mixer’s ROUTIN G screen . (Note) By de fault, there are no option card sign als routed into t he mixer. Routing Contro l is the same as that described for the DM-3200 above.[...]
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29 The IF-FW/DM MK II Co ntrol Panel Windows The IF-FW/DM MK II Control Panel is fo und here: Start Menu Æ All Programs Æ TASCAM Æ IFFWDMmkII Æ IFFWDMmkII Control Panel, and it may also be d isplayed by calling up the ASIO control panel from within a DAW applic ati on. ( Note ) The I F-FW/DM MK II installer does not put an icon for the Control [...]
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30 • Channel count – How many ch annels are currently being streamed to and from the m ixer. This can be changed only from the mixer’s LCD scr een. ( Note ): The numbers here are relative to the computer. If the driver is Unlocked, additional information is disp lay ed here about the state of the individual str eams of FireWire data. All stre[...]
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31 • Enable WDM Audio – check box. Allows the WDM part of the driver to be disabled and only leave ASIO running. This may improve responsiveness of your computer. • WDM Input Configuration – This pull down men u specifies how many channels of a udio are avail able to the WDM driver. • Assign WDM Channels – Thes e two buttons brin g up a[...]
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32 These last 5 settings dif fer also in the nam es that the application sees for each channel, no additional pr ocessing is implied. These match the Window s recommended configuratio ns for su rround audio pl ayback. Assign WD M C hannels Di alog This is the d ialog box used to set the WDM input or output mappings. To make a change, follow the ste[...]
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33 Mac The IF-FW/DM MK II Control Panel is found under the Applications folder. Double click to launch it. It can also be reached thr ough the Audio MIDI Setup utility by pressing the “Configure Devi ce” button when the IF-FW/DM MK II is selected in the “Properties For:” pull-down. On the Left hand side is the S tatus panel, and on the Righ[...]
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34 the individual str eams of FireWire data. All strea ms must be locked for audio to be sent. • Audio Dropouts – di splays how many buffers ha ve been lost so far since locking. This should be a small n umber, as it is no rmal for the driver t o lose a few buffers when it initially connects and ne gotiat es the correct speed. Check this before[...]
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35 Cycle the Power Sometim es, turning of f the com put er and mixer at the ir power source and turning them back on again can solve some issues by allowing system memory to comp letely discharge and the OS to start afresh. If the Mixer’ s Digital Æ SLOT screen 1394 statu s shows “Driver not Locked” cont inually, please r estart your compute[...]
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36 2. Right click on My Computer, se lect “Propert ies” and le ft click this. 3. Select the Hardware Tab 4. Click the Device Man ager 5. In the list under “S ound, vide o and game controllers”, there should be an entry for “TASCAM I F-FW/DM mkII”. 6. If this entr y is not there, or if there is a yellow “!” mar k against it, u n inst[...]
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37 Remove unrelated soft ware and drivers The presence of drivers for other FireWire devices and other audio devices, even though they are no t actively connected, may be a cause of system trouble. Consider str ipping down your computer to be solely music-oriented. A Computer that has seen many generations of audio interface may need to have its OS[...]
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38 Appendix Safety Boot Feature Software updates may be made avail able f or the IF-FW/DM MK II through TASCAM’s web site ( www.tascam.com ) . When you use these updates, removing the Fire Wir e cable, or experiencing a power glitch during the update procedure can leave the card in an unusable state. Don’t worry . The IF-FW/DM MK II contains a [...]
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39 To use it, pull it up an d off of the pins and r e pla ce it onto the pair of pins nearby that are marked “J 15 BACKUP”. Push it al l the way down onto the pins. Do not put th e header on any other pins on the card. Next, re-insert the card into the mixer, reconnect your cables and turn the power back on. The CA RD STATUS display will now sh[...]
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40 any power or indicator LEDs on th e Hub are on if you experience problems. FireWire Active Extension cable s ar e also hubs, just with the cable already attached. A FireWire Repeat er is also another name for a hub. Each connection between h ubs can be a maximum of 4.5 meters (14.5 feet), but only the best quality cables will work reliably at th[...]
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41 CEntrance “Universal” a nd “Ideal” Drivers for Windows XP. Although CEntrance ( www.centrance.com ) supplies 3 rd party drivers that may support the DIC E -2 chip used on the IF-FW/DM MK II, TASC AM does not support this configuration. For supp ort of those drivers, pl ease co ntact CEntrance directly. Microsoft Windows XP Media Center E[...]
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42 Technical Specifications [Size] 164(W) x 40(H) x 221(D ) mm (Card) [Wei ght ] 0.3Kg (Card) [Supported Sample Rates] 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz [Bit De pth] 24 bits [Power Consumption] Provided by host mixer. [Operating Temperatur e] +5°C to +35°C [Package Contents] • IF-FW/DM MK II card . • 1 CD-ROM (Wind ows/Mac Dr ivers & Own[...]