control surface questions

[TrueVendetta]

I'm in the process of shopping for DAW control surfaces and wanted to know if any of you can help me out, I was looking at the Tascam FW1082 which is an audio/MIDI interface control surface, and a Mackie Control Universal which is a mixing control surface. I'm gonna be running a Dell P4 3.0GHz 8400(Win XP)DAW Digital Audio Recording Workstation Synthesizer with Steinberg Cubase SX 2.2.039, Nuendo 2.2.039, Wavelab 5.0, Hypersonic and Xphraze 1.2, Emagic Logic 5.5, Sony Sound Forge 7.0, Propellerhead Reason 2.5 (full version 3 disks, not Adapted + Extra ReFills), Recycle 2.1, ReBirth RB-338, Korg Legacy Collection (VST without controller), Native Instruments Guitar Rig 1.2, Absynth 3.0, B4 Organ , FM7 ( DX7 DX 7 ), Pro-53 , Battery 2.1, Tractor DJ Studio 2.5.1 , Kontakt 1.5, Vokator, Ableton Live 4.1 (with Operator), Arturia Moog Modular, Arturia CS-80V, Minimoog V, IK Multimedia AmpliTube and Sampletank 2.0, Void v1.52, LinPlug Albino v.2.11 and SaxLab, MusicLab RealGuitar 1.5, Cakewalk Sonar 4.02 Producer Edition, VirSyn Tera 2.0(“Big Brother” to Steinberg D’cota) And Cube 1.51. Also for office use Microsoft Office 2000, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional and Photoshop 7.0, Nero CD-DVD burning suite. My question is, what would be the difference in the two controller units, cause at first I was loving the Tascam but then I saw the Mackie and I'm kinda leaning a little bit towards the Mackie, but I want to know, if I get the Mackie would I need a seperate audio interface unit or soundcard since it doesn't have any I/O from what I read, this is my first DAW setup and I don't want to be lost before I even begin, so please, any, and I mean ANY advice would truly be useful in helping me make a decision on choosing one or the other, thanks again fellas.

[TheO]

Yamaha 01x!!!!!

It is the most capable control surface /interface/mixer ... for my money!

Steinberg (the maker of your main software engines cubase and nuendo) is owned by Yamaha...
The 01x can do more than both the tascam and the mackie together!!

AND you get mLan THE connectivity of the future I think, and yes there are many that disagree, BUT - even without mLan the 01x can do all you would want the mackie or tascam to do!!

check out 01xray.com

(just my opinion though)

[TrueVendetta]

I looked into the Yamaha 01x TheO, and it "sounds" like an efficient product, but I've read a few bad reviews on it, like problems with the mLAN technology(not optimized) and the generic looking faders on it (too short) aren't Penny & Giles precision and quality like that of the Mackie and Tascam units. Alot of the people that reviewed it said they had problems getting it to work properly out of the box and eventually ended up changing it out for a Tascam FW1884 which they said worked perfectly right out of the box, the FW1884 is a little more than I planned on spending initially, but it's getting nothing but rave reviews everywhere I go. I do appreciate the feedback though TheO, thanks alot.

[scottdemarko]

The Picture Comparison.... All very good choices, though I do like the ability to add on the Mackie Control C4 and the extenders to the mackie control surface.

http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/FW1884.jpg http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/01X.jpg http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/MackieCont.jpg

[TheO]

you are right vendetta - the 01x is maybe not your "safe bet" choice mLan is still a growing technology - but the ABILITIES THAT THAT BOX (01x) HAS!!
there is people at the 01xray forum that run 24 channel live shows with dual monitor mixes, FOH mix while recording dry signals to Mac/PC...!!!

you can't do that with the other choices...
again - just my thoughts.

it really depends on what you want to be able to do with your set up - if all you really want is the control surface there is no disssing the mackie! (and please note - i am not at all dissing wither the tascam or the mackie - they are both fine machines - you just get so much more (for my money) on the 01x...)