HD24 Ethernet Questions

[The Garage]

For those of you who have the HD24, how does the Ethernet function work? How fast can it transport multiple tracks to your computer? Can you select which tracks or do you have to send all of them? And after you manipulate them in your puter, how do you put them back into the HD24 all synced up? Would it be simpler to just get an audio card with lightpipes and record it into the puter? Thanks.
-teddy

[Creepy]

1 - The Ethernet connection works just fine. If you have a network card in your PC, just follow the instructions in the HD 24 manual for the TCP/IP settings you need to make. You do need a Crossover type Cat. 5 cable for the connection between them.

2 - It will transport a 4 min 24 bit track in about 50 secs. That is fast considering it uses a 10T Base Ethernet connection.

3 - When you view the .wav and/or .aif files on the HD24 in your favorite FTP program, they appear as they would if they were on any hard drive. You can select any tracks you wish to transfer.

4 - As long as you don't cut off any of the time at the beginning of the tracks at all, transferring between your PC and the HD24 will not cause any sync problems at all.

5 - A lightpipe soundcard would be much slower and far more expensive than a network card!

You do need to update the HD24's OS file to make it able to recieve tracks that have been manipulated in certain programs. Some programs add "audio related information" to the header of the .wav and/or .aif files. So make sure you have the lastest OS for the HD24 and all should be well.

I am a Creep!

[The Garage]

i've read that the ethernet is fast for individual tracks, but gets slower the more tracks you try to move over at once. so a lightpipe audio card would be faster than the ethernet connection, according to some (doesn't say this in the hd24 manual?) have you tried moving more than one file at a time and gotten good results? thanks.
-teddy

[Creepy]

I can assure you that it is much faster and cheaper than buying a soundcard with Optical I/O. The changes of bad data being written to the computers hard drive via Ethernet is nil! You might run into bandwidth problems and have sync issues trying it any other way.

No, I have not found that the speed of transfer slows at all by selecting more than one track. I have selected all 24 and still get around 500KBs a sec transfer speeds. I use AceXFTP for the transfers. I have read that using an internet browser will slow the transfers down, but I have never tried that route to verify. You could use I suppose any FTP software and achieve high transfer rate speeds. Again, trust me, using the Ethernet route is the cheapest, most data secure, and almost fastest way of transferring. It is virtually headache free. A first for Alesis!

I am a Creep!

[wilkee]

I can cofirm that a Data rate of about 500kb/s is the norm when you FTP and have found it to work perfectly at all times.

Also thumbs up for Aceftp ( got it free on a CD with pcplus in the UK)

[mastahnke]

So what you are saying is that instead of spending 1000 on a good soundcard for the computer, I could have spent 2000 on an HD24 and then bought a NIC for 10 with a crossover cable for 5$ and had 24 track I/O plus the benefit of 24 tracks standalone if I needed it?

Wouldn't this change the need for soundcards for just about everyone? I know I bought a MOTU 2408MKII not too long ago and it rocks, but if I should have just bought the HD24 and installed an extra NIC I had lying around, I will be disappointed.

There is probably more to the equation, such as syncing ability, format conversions and the like, but man, this is mind-blowing.

MIKE

[wilkee]

Originally posted by mastahnke
So what you are saying is that instead of spending 1000 on a good soundcard for the computer, I could have spent 2000 on an HD24 and then bought a NIC for 10 with a crossover cable for 5$ and had 24 track I/O plus the benefit of 24 tracks standalone if I needed it?

Wouldn't this change the need for soundcards for just about everyone? I know I bought a MOTU 2408MKII not too long ago and it rocks, but if I should have just bought the HD24 and installed an extra NIC I had lying around, I will be disappointed.

There is probably more to the equation, such as syncing ability, format conversions and the like, but man, this is mind-blowing.

MIKE

Yep that sums it up.

I used to have a Delta 1010 ans a STaudio Cport on the same comp. worked well but was a bugger to set up. Got me a HD24 and now all my probs are gone and I just concentrate on hitting "Record" . My sound cards are now back in the box?

[mastahnke]

damn...