Tascam FireOne

[Dave Hardy]

It’s interesting they are now qualifying it for FCP & Logic. Presumably it will also work with STP.
I’m using the Tascam 1082 control surface & now that this unit officially works with FCP I’ll be picking one of these units early in the new year for double system location sound recording.

I expect that the jog button the shift button will be useless on these units as they don’t function on the 1082. Otherwise everything should work.

Dave

[Warren Eig]

I’ve been using the Frontier Designs AlphaTrack with Final Cut. Also works in Logic, Soundtrack Pro, etal.

https://www.frontierdesign.com/

Warren

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

https://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp

[Andy Mees]

hey Warren
if you’ve time to post a personal reviews / your impressions of working with the AlphaTrack, specifically in FCP, I’m sure many here on the FCP COW forum would be interested to read it. how do you find the “unique touch-sensitive jog/shuttle strip”, what works well in this unit and what doesn’t, how has it improved productivity for you?

thanks for any extra info you can provide
cheers
Andy

[Warren Eig]

[Andy Mees] “if you’ve time to post a personal reviews / your impressions of working with the AlphaTrack, specifically in FCP, I’m sure many here on the FCP COW forum would be interested to read it. how do you find the “unique touch-sensitive jog/shuttle strip”, what works well in this unit and what doesn’t, how has it improved productivity for you? “

Okay, here goes. First the disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the company Frontier Designs except use their product the AlphaTrack.

I started looking for a better solution to jogging and shuttling through my timeline while editing due to my frustration with the Contour Shuttle Pro. I could never get it to work and mine’s up for sale if anyone is interested 😉 I started editing on film on a Steenbeck back in Boston and liked the shuttling ability of the flatbed and wanted to mimic that.

What I like about the AlphaTrack is it just works. Bare in mind that it is a midi device so you have to leave the Audio mixer window open for the system to recognize it. And it has a motorized fader which is really cool. It moves up and down relative to your track volume. Because there is only one fader it only reads one track at a time- but you can set it to which track you want to monitor by turning one of the knobs; and in record mode, you can automatically ride the fader and FCP will put the appropriate level nodes in the audio track one the fly in realtime.

The AlphaTrack’s screen displays various information- what audio track is activated, and it gives a constant readout of the timeline’s Time Code. This is a big plus because the numbers are large and illuminated and it is easy to read in subdued or regular lighting. It also changes values if you use the panning knob to pan a track or dB if you increase volume.

The best thing I like about the AlphaTrack is the jog/shuttle strip. It just works. if you drag one finger on the strip it jogs the timeline one frame at a time. If you use two fingers on the strip it shuttles. The further you drag two fingers the faster it shuttles.

You can also program 40 buttons on the AlphaTrack. There are 8 sets in five groups (equaling 40 programable buttons). Plus it has a rewind, fast-forward, Stop, Start button that do what they are marked to do and a record button that does nothing in FCP but works in Soundtrack Pro (this uses the Mackie MCU emulation midi driver after all).

I have my buttons set to mark in (a button is labeled IN), mark out (a button is labeled OUT) clear mark in/ clear mark out, etc.– you can program them virtually any way FCP will let you assign keys in the keyboard layout. This is after all an input device.

I find that I don’t have to mouse or use the keyboard as much. I can do a lot of editing with just the AlphaTrack. Of course your mileage will vary depending how you program it.

Their support is excellent and friendly– reminiscent of AJA. I even asked them to look into getting an SDK for Color because I can see this working as as mini controller for color correction, and because they want to expand their market they are doing just that.

By the way, if you look at the Tascam FireOne, you’ll notice Frontier’s logo on it so I don’t know if they build it for Tascam or vice versa.

But for around $200.00, I got mine from Sweetwater.com another great company to deal with, you can’t go wrong.

One last thing, there is a 1/4″ jack that allows you to add a foot switch that will let you start and stop your timeline with, well, your foot.

Feel free to hit me up with more questions. As a whole I really like the AlphaTrack.

Warren

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

https://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp

[Dave Hardy]

Thanks for posting this Warren. I was considering Tascam’s Fireone whichof cource was designed by Fronteer as was the Tascam 1082. The other candidate I had in mind for for STP2 was Apogee’s Duet unit.

I’m now studying the info on the AlphaTrack unit. In theory it looks like a good candidate for replacing my aging Contour Jog control. I always found only having 15 programable buttons quite limiting even though you could program several banks of functions. I often resorted to using the keyboard as I have hundreds of commands seared in my memory.

Have you been able to program the missing F9 to F12 keys & Shift X & Shift V into the 40 programable functions? F9 to F 12 are one button on the keyboard would be 2 buttons on the AlphaTrack. Probably better to use the keyboard for those.

All the best.
Dave

[Andy Mees]

Warren, thank you.

I love the idea of the multi touch control strip … not your standard transport control for sure, but as someone who’s very used to a laptops trackpad it seems like it would be a quite natural interface. And its interesting in and of itself that shuttle control is working with this device? I worked for some time with a Tascam FW1802 back when control surface support was first introduced to FCP, but it seemed then the transport controls for shuttling was not yet implemented. I assumed it was a universally annoying issue with the Mackie Control Protocol in FCP, and so wouldn’t work for all such devices … I wonder now if that was just a Tascam issue, or if its now properly supported or perhaps Frontier Designs have just worked around it somehow.

Anyway, many thanks again for the excellent post, I really appreciate your taking the time to write that up.
Best Regards
Andy Mees

[Warren Eig]

The Shuttling works as advertised. With the Contour Shuttle you never knew what would happen when you turned the wheel. The AlphaTrack works smoothly and accurately. Having used Sony RM-440 boards and KEMS and Steenbecks it is a little different using just your fingers but you get used to it very quickly.

I think transport controls not working may have been a Tascam thing.

Warren

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

https://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp

[Warren Eig]

[Dave Hardy] “Have you been able to program the missing F9 to F12 keys & Shift X & Shift V into the 40 programable functions? F9 to F 12 are one button on the keyboard would be 2 buttons on the AlphaTrack. Probably better to use the keyboard for those.
“

The AlphaTrack’s control software lets use use a modifier key (option, CMD, Shift and a button as one button, or option + (whatever Button) as one programable button, or your example of Shift + X.

Warren

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

https://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp