TASCAM FireOne on MacOS High Sierra: finally dead

I suppose it had to happen, but today, my TASCAM FireOne Firewire audio interface just ceased to work properly - namely, the audio input has a constant clicking sound making it unusable.

I suppose I should feel fortunate that it has lasted this long; I mean, look at the MacOS compatibility chart:

- yep 10.4 and 10.5 only, yet here I am on High Sierra (10.13) and it's only just turned up its toes.

It's even less whelming on the Windows side:

... XP only (!)

So now I'm on the hunt for a good interface that will last as long as this one did. Firewire seems to have been effectively killed by Apple, and Thunderbolt interfaces are incredibly expensive, so it'll be back to good ol' USB I guess. I'm thinking that with the rise of podcasts etc, Apple will be obligated to ensure USB audio interfaces that use no additional drivers (aka "Class-Compliant devices") work really well for the foreseeable future...

Tascam FireOne hardware buttons and GarageBand

Another blatant Google-troll here but hopefully it'll help someone else out there.

As mentioned elsewhere I use a Tascam FireOne Firewire Audio Interface when I make music with GarageBand, and it works pretty well.

Side note for even more karma: There are times when it doesn't work well (particularly on OSX Mavericks) and I humbly present my fixes which seem to work - mostly variations on the classic "turn it back off and back on again" trick:

• Mac doesn't "see" the FireOne - Check Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor is snug, unplug-replug.
• Mac sees FireOne, FireOne seems dead - Unplug-replug.
• Mac sees FireOne, FireOne lights and meters working, no sound - Mash both PHANTOM buttons at the same time. This seems to (probably not by design!) cause a hardware soft-ish reset and audio should ensue.

But I digress. One of the nice things about the FireOne is the hardware control surface it offers. Now ideally you're running Pro Tools or some other very nice, very expensive DAW where the FireOne's buttons Just Work but if, like me, your needs are actually met quite nicely by GarageBand (not to mention its price), then you'll be wanting to get those buttons going in GB. Because they most certainly don't by default.

Sadly, you won't be able to map all the FireOne's buttons to GB functions, but the most important ones can be done. Firstly, download GarageRemote, a very simple, but nicely done System Preferences extension thingy. Install it, and turn on its "Listener" functionality so it can do its thing. Then, you'll need to customise the MIDI message mapping as follows:

I diagnosed the MIDI messages that the FireOne sends by using the free Snoize MIDI Monitor utility. Here's the full list, in case you want to tune your setup:

FireOne Hardware Control	MIDI Message Bytes
<<	90 5B 7F
>>	90 5C 7F
[]	90 5D 7F
>	90 5E 7F
O	90 5F 7F
F1	90 36 7F
F2	90 37 7F
F3	90 38 7F
F4	90 39 7F
F5	90 3A 7F
F6	90 3B 7F
F7	90 3C 7F
F8	90 3D 7F
Jogwheel CW (Slowest)	90 3C 01
Jogwheel CW (Slow)	90 3C 02
Jogwheel CW (Medium)	90 3C 03
Jogwheel CW (Fast)	90 3C 04
Jogwheel CW (Fastest)	90 3C 05
Jogwheel CCW (Slowest)	90 3C 41
Jogwheel CCW (Slow)	90 3C 42
Jogwheel CCW (Medium)	90 3C 43
Jogwheel CCW (Fast)	90 3C 44
Jogwheel CCW (Fastest)	90 3C 45
SHIFT (on its own)	90 46 7F

Weirdly, using SHIFT + other keys doesn't actually change the MIDI message that is sent, making it pretty useless for our purposes. I'd sure love to get my hands on that GarageRemote source code and support more buttons!

Fixing FireWire audio interface instability under OSX Mavericks

A variation from my usual blog topics today, but hopefully this helps someone. I have been a happy user of the Tascam FireOne FireWire audio/MIDI interface ever since picking one up for a bargain price a couple of years ago. As a recovering music-gearaholic, I embraced its minimal dimensions, and together with GarageBand on the Mac, it has allowed me to eBay vast amounts of outboard equipment while actually improving the quality of the music I create. Thus confirming a suspicion I had at the peak of my gear-hoarding tendencies:

More Music-Making Gear == More Distraction From Making Music

But I digress. Despite being technically unsupported since OSX 10.5 Leopard The FireOne worked perfectly for me right up to (and including) OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, so when 10.9 Mavericks was released I gleefully jumped aboard.

And was horrified when within a few seconds of playback in GarageBand, the entire hardware-software combination locked up, sounded garbled and/or complained about sample-rate problems. This was not good and I thought that either Apple had broken FireWire timing accuracy in Mavericks (perhaps as part of their timer-coalescing improvements) or I was just SoL and would have to shell out for a new audio interface.

As it turns out, neither was true.

If you are experiencing problems working with external devices under audio applications (my particular combination being a FireWire interface and GarageBand) your first action should be:

• Open Finder/Applications
• Find GarageBand (or the app giving trouble)
• Right-click -> Get Info
• Check Prevent App Nap

This is slightly counter to the Apple's own statement on App Nap which states:

if that app isn’t currently doing something for you — playing music, downloading a file or checking email, for example — App Nap conserves valuable battery life by slowing down the app

But I'm not too upset - it's an easy fix and the extra battery life is definitely worth the upgrade.