These days, the Digital Audio Workstations are becoming more and more complex as the music producers simply demand more from them, so their manufacturers simply have to comply. Now, using Cool Edit Pro some 5 or 6 years ago was one thing; using Ableton Live 6 or the latest Cubase version today is a completely different thing.

Since today's music producer/arranger has to work with almost infinitely more options and other gear, more plugins and instrument (be them physical or binary), greater needs had to be met as far as ease of use and precise speed were concerned. Thus the control interfaces found a very empty niche and so they became an important part of the gear-racks used in daily sound-manipulation.

Tascam have long time represented a well-known name in the audio hardware industry and this spring their engineers have one more reason to be proud of themselves: the FireOne. In the first instance, FireOne is theoretically simple piece of gear: it allows you to interact with the functions of your DAW.

At a second glance, if you look closer, you'll notice that the small piece of gear has been loaded with a heap of controls and functions which will come in handy very soon. I won't go and make a user's manual here but I will rather highlight some very cool things I have seen in the Tascam FireOne.

First of all, unlike other control interfaces, the FireOne is fully customizable and its buttons can be assigned to a lot of functions. First of all and most noticeable is the large backlit jog weighted wheel which will not only allow musicians/producers to easily scroll through either audio tracks and sample banks but also provide with a very useful visual metronome.

Two ins and two outs, MIDI in and out, along with a hi-resolution 24-bit, 96kHz FireWire port (192kHz planned for near future) will let you connect your desired instruments on a PC. FireOne sports instrument gain and output level and a very handy Mix Level for live situations. 2 headphone outs and a direct instrument input complete the connections' array on the FireOne. Phantom Power on a control pad? Yes, Tascam did this!

Maybe the coolest thing when it comes to the Tascam FireOne is that its 8 F keys are completely user-assignable so they'll work with any major DAW on the market, both PC and Mac. A built-in LED VU-meter will bring your visual levels closer to your attention while a fully-featured set of playback transport controls is available.

The Tascam FireOne can be yours for $399 and this is what you get for this money, as specced by Tascam:

-2-in / 2-out FireWire Audio Interface
-Up to 96kHz/24-bit audio resolution
-Two XLR mic inputs with phantom power and pad
-1/4" high impedance input for recording guitar direct
-Two 1/4" stereo headphone outputs
-Weighted, backlit jog wheel
-Transport control keys: rewind, fast-forward, stop, play, record Headphone output with level control
-Eight DAW shortcut keys
-Stereo LED meter
-MIDI in and out
-1/4" Footswitch input
-Buss powered through the FireWire connection or use the included power supply
-192kHz support planned for a future software update