Don't do it. If you use this as a converter, you will be disappointed compared to the sound of the apollo's converters. The Tascam is a much older design and the converters are not in the same league.

I had the tascam and went to an apollo, then to the SSL alphalink, then to the antelope orion. I used the apollo, SSL, and Antelope with my latest console, which is a toft ATB32, and a ton of external and 500 mic pres.

The tascam is a really nice control surface, and has some "decent" converters, but the Apollo, SSL, and Antelope which can all be had for about the same price as the tascam DM3200/DM4800, I would say get the apollo and a used mackie controller, something similar. The one drawback with the control surface on the Tascam DM boards, is that you need to buy something like a novation to control plugins in pro tools, logic, etc... I was never able to get the DM4800s I had to do that on the board itself. The Tascam will also need the I/O cards and the firewire card, to turn it into an interface as well, so make sure you include that in your costs.

Jim

Hi Jim
Thanks for the response! I am overall real happy with the Apollo and was only considering due to the possible controller, it makes sense to look in another direction for those needs.

That Toft board looks great, I will have to save up a bit.
Onward and Upward!
Todd

+1

Jim knows.

Hey, I have an off topic question for you.

Which MADI card are you using with your orion? Did you keep your MADIXtreme card, or did you grab the RME hdspe?

I am using my MADIXtreme right now without issue. But I am still looking for a midi solution I like, and I saw some of the "extras" the hdspe has and thought about it... I also thought about a midi timepiece or the motu 2 in 2 out one with the MADIXtreme. It is just that the hdspe has it all and can be clocked from the orion.

Jim

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747

I'm using the MadiXtreme and would only change to an RME if I found a screamin' deal on one. I believe both cards can be clocked from the Orion, but RME does have some cool extras. I just can't justify getting something that cost twice as much just to do the same job.

lately I've become interested in the DM3200. So I've done some research through the forums here and read reviews on some of the musical instrument outlets websites. This was an interesting thread.

I don't have a boatload of outboard gear- I haven't really needed it. I've specialized in producing songs for songwriters and I do the arrangements and (for the most part) play all the instruments. So I've invested in a few high-end mic pre's. I have an A-Designs Pacifica and a UA LA610 as my main preamps. I also have a Presonus RC500 (new- and actually very nice) channel strip that, in my mind, is very close to the others. For a few years in the beginning I used a Presonus MP20 (dual mic pre from the late '90's that's VERY underrated). I still use it on occasion.

I've also invested in an RME MultiFaceII which has great convertors and a Mytek A/D two channel convertor which has some premium convertors. I'm using a Roland VS700 as my main interface but do the A/D conversion from the Pacifica and LA610 through the RME and the Mytek. The Mytek is connected via AES and the MultiFace via ADAT to the Roland. So in the case of the DM3200 I'd still be doing the A/D conversion with those pre's that way. I have three rack mounted synths that could be patched into the line inputs on the DM3200.

Frankly, I'm interested in it for these reasons:

* Eye candy for clients
* Extra mic pre's when needed
* A control surface (and I'm aware the faders, pan, and transport features are pretty much what the Tascam can handle with a DAW (I'm using Sonar). And frankly, I don't care if it can access and deal with adjusting plugins.
* Talkback
* The ability to send the Tascam's effects to a headphone mix pre-fader (I'm guessing it's possible).

My other option would be an RME UFX. The Tascam board- minus options- and UFX are about the same price. I'd expect the convertors and mic pre's to be a step up on the RME. But as I've said, I'd be using the Mytek and RME MultifaceII as my main convertors.

...and the "eye candy" is #1 on the list because while it may be a bit vain, it's appealing to folks when they first walk into a studio.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have had a DM-3200 since about 2006 or 2007. I bought it as a returned item from M123 for $1000, which at that time was an insanely good deal.

To give a little background on myself, I used a Tascam TMD-1000 when they first came out and upgraded that to a Ramsa DA-7.

Using a digital mixer forces you to be a little more aware of your signal flow, which isn't really a bad thing. They're a little harder to get set up, but you can save templates for different things, so it's not really an issue.

I really like the Tascam, but these days mine is more of a control surface/monitor controller then an audio interface. Up until a couple weeks ago I had it running 16 TDIF into a 192, but I now am only running 8 into there.

I have two racks of outboard. One runs 8 analog in/out into a 192 and the other runs 8 AES in/out into a 192 Digital. The TDIF runs out of the 192 Digital and into the DM-3200. My gear sounds a lot better this way (IMHO).

The pres in the 3200 are fine and certainly are usable. I mainly use my outboard pres (UA 610 and ADL-600) for what I do. The effects are nice, but I honestly never used them much.

The control surface is great. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned not being able to get this 100% working. Mine has been working since I first got it and I've used it with DP, Nuendo and PTHD.

The DM-3200 is a great piece of gear. I have the firewire card in it, which I don't really use, and the analog expansion card, which I bought for $100 on ebay. Nothing is hooked up to it right now, but it's a good option to have.

The 3200 has tons of features and a lot of routing. I sat down and drew out what I wanted to do and then programmed it.

The big things I wish it had were:

1- More analog sends/returns. It has 4 but if you use a stereo pair to go to a headphone amp you're left with two. Kind of limited here.

2- Ability to switch between two different sets of monitors. This seems like a no brainer, but I had my Auratones on an effects send (which along with my headphone amp used them all). Kind of a pain to switch. You have to turn one down and turn the other up.

3- Control channel - you can swap the 'pans' to be eq, effect sends, etc... but it would be nice if there were one set of 'channel controls' that would do the eq depending on the selected channel.

4- Direct outs on the 16 mic/line channels - would make hooking a tape machine up a lot easier.

Yep..

Why I got the 4800.

Incredibly flexible and transparent mixer.

I have been using a DM3200 for around 5 years. I use outboard pre's via channel inserts and then firewire 400 out to my mac/logic.

I pretty much set it and forgot it. Works great day to day. The problem than many are alluding to is that the menus/and sub menus are virtually impossible to make sense of. It still takes me 10 minutes to figure out how to apply an onboard reverb to a headphone mix or to adjust aux sends.

Great board, but extremely frustrating at times.

Also, I don't believe tascam has supplied a firmware for mac osx in several years. I had to install a non advertised tascam developer firmware to get firewire to work in el capitan.

Also the lcd's tend to go bad after 5 years or so. I bought a replacement, but haven't had time to disassemble the board to install it.

I would love to get a board that used thunderbolt and had a cleaner ui, but the dm is the best option for me for the near future. Hopefully tascam will clean up the dm line and improve on it.