Upgrading IF-FW/DMmkII driver

[Darryn]

ok I got a little further, but still cannot click the update button or open any folders to help with the update...

 

[Darryn]

Ok, I think I got it... Haha, I decided not to delete this ramble.. If its not educational and helpful, its at least a little hilarious. **feeling a little silly **

 

[Peter Batah]

@Darryn I don't believe that TCM can be updated directly from the app. How about version 1.70 located here.

http://tascam.com/product/dm-4800/downloads/

 

[Darryn]

yea its all been updated. thanks for the reply. I was hoping this update would fix the issues I'm having with my dm3200 firewire card not communicating with the Mac. The Firewire driver is also the latest but its still says "driver offline" on the DM. The cables certainly work so I'm at a loss....

 

[Peter Batah]

@Darryn I have an older Macbook pro late 2011. I don't use it with my DM-3200. I am using a Windows PC. I don't know if it would help but I can try hooking up the Mac to see if I run into the same issues.

 

[Darryn]

That would be great! thanks. It does work on my older MacBook. I currently have a brand new MacBook Pro, running High Sierra 10.13.6 and really need it to work on this new one.

 

[Peter Batah]

@Darryn In that case, I suppose that it really wouldn't make much sense for me to go through that exercise then. Wish I could be of more help.

 

[Darryn]

Yea fair enough, no worries. In an attempt to further isolate problems my next move is to downgrade my system to the same operating system my old MacBook was using and see if that works. It was using OS X El Capitan. not sure if its the right way to go, but at least I can isolate one problem set a time until (hopefully) I solve the issue.

 

[Darryn]

My firewire Card is the latest: 1.30f10 my firmware is 1.10 #88685 and my companion thing is 1.70 bl 1. The links in this thread no longer works. Any chance someone could send me the 1.72b everyone seems to be talking about

 

[Darryn]

@Darryn I don't believe that TCM can be updated directly from the app. How about version 1.70 located here.

http://tascam.com/product/dm-4800/downloads/

the tascam site only seems to allow you to download 1.70 and not this newer 1.72b everyone is talking about

 

[Darryn]

I completely understand how confusing it is. To better understand everything, think of it this way.
Firmware is the software stuff that is inside any digital electronic device, like your DM, or your FW card. It is this software that makes your device work within itself, telling it to do something when you push a button or move a knob.
A Driver is the software that is in windows or your mac that tells the computer how to use the device and what to name it.
Unfortunately, it takes a few different drivers and two firmwares to make this all work.

You can find the current beta Firmware and Drivers for everything at this website:
https://dev.tascam-parc.com/parc_beta/ username:iffwdm Password: firefly

Once you get to the website, you will see lists of drivers and firmware.
The current Firmware for your DM is version 1.72b3. You can download it to your mac, then unzip it. Now open Tascam Companion, click on WINDOW and firmware updater. Your DM should be listed with the current Firmware version next to it. To update, click OPEN, find the file you just downloaded and unzipped, and then click on UPDATE. Everything will restart.

The current Firmware for your IF-FW/DM card is version 1.1. To check and see which version you have go to ALT/DIGITAL/SLOT. Look under VERSION. If you have a different version, like 1.0, go to the Tascam product page for the FW card and click on downloads. Download 1.1 and run it's setup.

Now on to drivers...
There really isn't a driver for your DM since Tascam Companion is the software that works over your USB connection to send data to/from your DM, as well as firmware updates. But your computer does need to know how to work with that FW card you crammed into it. So, that needs a driver. Go to the website above to get the latest driver for your FW card and install it. For your mac, it's V1.30f10, near the top of the list.

So, to summarize,
Latest Tascam Digital mixer.....
Firmware...V1.72b3 from website Driver....Tascam Companion v1.51 from Tascam product page

Latest IF-FW/DM MKII...
Firmware...V1.1 from Tascam product page Driver...V1.30f10(mac) f9
(WIN)
One more driver to worry about. This is for anyone using a windows machine. (mac users, go about your business...nothing to see here... Windows has it's own driver to make the IEEE 1394a (FW) buss host controller work. It comes with every version of windows and was probably installed automatically when you first plugged in your DM (or any FW device). But the version it installs is a newer version that doesn't seem to work as well as the older "Legacy" version does. So, if you are interested in changing it, go to device manager, find the 1394 buss host controller and right click on it. Select "Update Driver Software", Browse my Computer, Let me pick from a list, 1394 (Legacy). Double click to install. Restart. It might/should help pass audio a little better.

Hey thanks for the detailed explanation. I am looking to upgrade to the 1.72b but cannot find anywhere. The link you supplied no longer works Could you please re-send

 

[Clinter]

My mac with High Sierra is also not recognizing my DM4800/FW with the standard Tascam Drivers. Everything has been working perfectly on Sierra so I updated another boot drive to High Sierra to check it out. Suddenly, I can no longer access the DM for any audio applications. If anyone has a DM working on High Sierra, what drivers are you using, and where can I get them? thanks

Update: I tried to reinstall the FW control panel. The OS gave me an error indicating that the problem was that the FW driver was not 64 bit, which is now required by the OS.....

 

[Marvel]

Since the DM is working fine on High Sierra for me, there must be some difference between your setup and mine. Could you provide some more details regarding your Mac and how the DM is connected? Like direct on FW or with any adapters.

 

[Clinter]

I'm running a mid 2010 Mac Pro 2.8 Quad Core desktop. The only firewire device is the DM, everything else is running on the internal usb2 or a usb3 card in one of the slots. Midi control still works fine, it's just the FW card that's not recognized. Since Sierra works well, I think I'll just try to install another instance of Sierra on one of my other internal drives, just as a back up.

 

[Marvel]

Hey @Clinter, this looks like a setup similar to mine. Small differences probably in processor and memory, so that can hardly make such a difference. I'm curious what a fresh installation does. When I bought my Mac Pro I also started from scratch with a clean disk and installed HS on it. Is working fine so far. I even updated to 10.13.5 along the way.
The only (minor) issue is that my FW card is not recognised after the Mac comes out of sleep. But that is easily solved by disconnecting/connecting theFW cable.

 

[Clinter]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did reinstall everything including the firmware in the DM. Also tried a different FW jack in the Mac. I did a clean install of Sierra on a different boot drive and it too sees the DM/FW just fine. I've tried power cycling the DM after computer boot up, but no change. I'm definitely open to the possibility that there is some simple default setting in High Sierra that is causing the problem, but I haven't found it yet. My system has never worked better then it currently does with Sierra, so i'm not in a panic, just a little nervous about future mac updates.

 

[Marvel]

I could well be that High Sierra is the end of the line for us legacy Mac Pro users. Perhaps Mojave will work, but my guess is that when the new Mac Pro is released somewhere next year, they will cease support for the old iron cases straight away.
Not to mention a technology like firewire.

 

[demon_beats]

Hi everyone,

After years of preserving my 2012 Mac mini on an old OS with Logic Pro 9, Apple’s practice of reducing usability finally convinced me to update to High Sierra and pay for a DAW again (Logic Pro X this time).

Before updating the OS, I completed backups of everything, and downloaded the most recent TMC, firmware, and audio drivers.

I took the time to follow all of Apple’s steps to update to the most recent version of High Sierra. BTW, Apple’s website initially defaulted to Sierra, then to High Sierra. I then completed all of the updates for TMC, mixer, FW, and the audio drivers, before downloading and installing Logic.

I am happy to confirm that Logic Pro X automatically recognized FW connectivity and assigned the 32 I/O. All aspects of FW connectivity are working flawlessly

This forum was an invaluable resource, so thank you to everyone for continuing to share what you’re learning about your systems!

 

[Carl Simmonds]

Hi @demon_beats. Did you use the main Tascam site drivers, or the drivers from the beta site?

 

[demon_beats]

Hi Carl - my apologies for not seeing your question!

After mapping out all of the different drivers, firmware, etc., I grabbed all files from the Tascam website.