your advice/opinion is appreciated

[Cave Dweller]

( i realize that this may seem like the wrong forum to post this in, but i consider this subject to be a very important part of each person's "recording techniques")

right now i am recording on 2 fostex D80 harddrive recorders, giving me 16 tracks. recently i purchased a blackface ADAT recorder in a deal with a bunch of other gear. all the units are 16 bit, but i dont care too much about the bit rate ( i do care about sound quality, but lots of great sounding recordings have been been done on 16 bit).
MY PROBLEM: harddrives for the fostex units are hard to find. they will only use harddrives up to about 8 gig. (larger drives work, but they are a waste as only 8 gig of the drive is used). some people have big issues with the ADAT format, they say there are errors and problems and such. i have tried with limited success to sync the fostex units and the adat together
THE BIG QUESTION: should i ditch the fostex units and go adat? i am looking to the future and i dont want to be stuck with machines that i cant find media for. the positives for the adats are the availability of tapes, and compatiblilty with other studios. however i havent worked with adat at all. can anyone enlighten me with some opinions about either format? thanks!

[Blue Bear Sound]

I use 4 ADAT XT20s -- yes - they require regular maintenance, but far less than say, analog multitrack!


Bruce

[Roel]

Wouldn't it be a better idea to ditch all of them, and get one of those fancy 24 trackrecorders? It'll cost you, but investing in more adats would cost you too...

[Downside Studio]

Roel made a rather interesting point. those new 24 track recorders are cool. Think of the tascam MX2424 or the Mackie HDR2496. They do cost a large amount, but buying three adats (newer ones) or Tascams DA's will cost you more. I do believe their are still a lot of problems with new these machines, but in a couple of months most bugs will probably be cured. I should consider investing in one of these machines.

[Roel]

See?!? I AM smart!!

[Cave Dweller]

i have thought about a 24 track HD machine.....but i had to take out a fairly substantial loan to get a bigger mixer.... ..i would like to save money and buy used
bruce, it helps to know that you are having success.....you wouldnt want to sell one eh? lol

[Cave Dweller]

hmmmmm....thanks downside!

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by Cave Dweller
bruce, it helps to know that you are having success.....you wouldnt want to sell one eh? lol

Sorry dude...!

[Track Rat]

Two ADATs *(20 bit) here. I have NO problems out of my system. I do intend on picking up the Alesis HD24 though for my main machine but I intend on keeping the ADATs for both backward compatability and remote recording.

[Downside Studio]

track Rat, I'd think twice about investing in Alesis these days. They are struggling to keep their head up. If you buy Tascam or mackie you'll have to pay little more, but you are ensured for future backup. Although Tascam is kind of screwing all its costumors lately.

[Cave Dweller]

thanks everyone for all your great posts

[Brian01]

I was thinking of getting an HD24, but what do you do once you use up the space on it? (How much is there?) Do you copy it to a computer hard drive?

The thing about adats is you can just put in a new $20 tape, thast why we got 2 used xt-20s rather than a new HD24, because it seemed we would need to get a lot more compuer hardware and spend another $2000... I think eventually we will move completly to a computer based recording system, but since we have more "old school" equipment already it made more sense to stick with adats.

[Downside Studio]

With the tascam you can backup to DVD-R. Costs as much or less as an ADAT tape.

[Tom Hicks]

ADAT question
How often do you have to get the transport serviced?
Tom

[Blue Bear Sound]

I haven't yet, with about 1500 hours on 'em...


Bruce

[mixsit]

<I haven't yet, with about 1500 hours on 'em...
Bruce>

How many spares do you have?
Wayne