Is there a BRC alternative?

T

tws

New member
Hey guys. Im planning on an HD24 and a Mackie 32 channel mixer. I will be choosing this over a computer based recording because i just like the feel having eveything in front of you much better.
Ive been usuing that tiny LRC for an old adat for a while now and I really need to figure out what control solutions im going to use for the HD24. I know you can use the BRC with it, but the only ones i can find are on ebay since they dont make them anymore. Is there a control unit packaged with the HD24? Are there any other 3rd party things you can control it with? I really need to just be able to punch in 23'30 or something and have it take me there. Thanks a lot, William
 
Most digital mixers and controllers can do portions/all of the control of a BRC. I use my DM-24 to start/stop/ arm tracks etc. However since you have a Mackie 16 chn board, that might not be the best option. You might just want to get a BRC of of Ebay. They are pretty darn cool.
 
Brc

Hi William
I use the exact system you are looking at and I can only say it works very nicely.I still use the BRC that I had with my blackface adats.There is a few things that it cant do with the hd24,but as it also sits pretty close I can just reach over to change songs/projects etc.As it seems there is little chance in the near future that Alesis will produce an hd24 BRC I'd be very inclined to grab the first one available on ebay.
John
 
Right now the BRC (and the LRC) are your only options available for remote ctl access to the HD. The plans for mfg'ing the MRC was taken off the table by Numark.
 
That figures.

I think sooner or later someone is going to come up with a remote for the HD24 with a scrub wheel option - maybe even Behringer for £10 a pop! Well there'll be no audio running through it, so what can possibly go wrong?!?! :) Bugger. I've turned into an audio snob - sorry :)

But seriously, I really think there's a demand for an MRC and all Numark are doing is losing profits not making one. What do you guys reckon?
 
The BRC, HD24 combo is the bomb. I've been using my BRC with my unit since I replaced my Adat's. It works flawlessly in my opinion. I don't care if they make a dedicated remote or not.
 
OKay fair enough.

I'm using my 01v96 MMC to control it - it's a bit fiddly. So you recommend the BRC then? I'm supposing the BRC see's 3 ADATs when looking at an HD24.

I'm still thinking a scub wheel would come in useful for tricky edits - but may be not.

Stu
 
Maybe a little late - BRC OK - The Director is Coming

Just got an email from Numark/Alesis/Ion Technical Support - In response to my disappointment with the BRC solution - an noisy fan.

"We are close to finishing the Director remote. The hardware has been finished, just the software needs coding. It will be able to control up to 5 HD24's, have a built in meter bridge, a jog/shuttle wheel, and all of the controls of the HD24 faceplate. The unit should be released before Christmas this year. We want to get this completely right before it is released. Another option while waiting for the remote is to update the cooling fan to a whisper quiet one that will help at close distances. This can be found at http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/alarmandaccesories/silencerfan/index.htm. It's the 80 mm fan. "

Also, I haven't used the BRC in the past an purchased one off of e-bay. It does an OK job. In tandem with the LRC which allows you to do locates of 64 points (BRC is 20), it great for arming tracks, track groups, and setting all safe. Syncing with SMTPE is good.

I don't know how Moonlightm "can just reach over to change songs/projects etc." unless he's reaching to the front panel of the HD24. (If there is some work around please let us know).

The song concept is different between BRC and HD24 - the memory is stored in different places and the HD24 supports 64 individual songs and the BRC 20 songs. All songs start at 00:00:00.00 in the HD24 (offsets aside) where the old ADATs we're "continuos" - So, song1 was 00:00:00.00 to 00:03:00.21 and the song2 song started at 00:03:00:22. So the BRC find song, name song, etc. doesn't talk to HD24's name song or the otherway around.

Also the BRC would store it's "info" in the "data area" on the first ADAT tape for a project (in a multi-ADAT environment). This can't be stored to the HD24.

MMC - I've had some minor success using MMC to control the HD24. The easiest test is from a computer sequencer->MIDI in on the HD24. I've managed to PLAY, STOP, Locate 0, REW, FFW, Arm Tracks. Other locate points we're intermittent. Can't select edit, cut, paste, etc. I don't think they had those in MMC. Also scrubbing (shuttle/jog) aren't MMC commands either.

Editing - there are minimal facilities to edit but just enough to do some neat stuff - on the HD24 front panel only (at least for now). Get the FirePort and move your data to a computer to do fine grained editing. Careful, the driver sometimes thinks its an Ethernet card (but this is a FireWire driver problem not a FirePort problem).

The best bi-directional editing solution is to get lightpipe in and out of your computer (or lighpipe in to one of the many converters to FireWire). Lots of great reasonably priced PCI base products out there for both Mac and Windows (and more and more Linux!). I think I prefer the middleware solution that converts to FireWire in order to be platform agnostic. (Although, a number of manufactures are using FireWire like cables with proprietary protocols and that forces you to purchase their PCI card).

Careful with USB solutions, USB eats up micro-processor time, FireWire processing is done on the I/O card.

Rambling - Right now, I remain a fan of Alesis despite their venture into "toy" land. If they deliver the Director and do so at a reasonable price in a reasonable time frame, I won't only really like my HD24 (it'll be plural), I'll love'em.

Peace,

Francis Brock
Owner of several new and old Alesis products
 
Francis, is there anywhere I can find info on the Director? And also I'm still unclear of which model fan is the replacement. They seem quite expensive too. Are there any alternatives?

AFX
 
Unless I am mistaken, the "Director" Francis spoke of was never released. A prototype appeared on ebay recently, but it was not operational. The Yahoo group for the HD24 closed ranks and was pooling our money to backup a bidder, but he lost the bid at the last minuite to a sniper- a shame, because there are some very smart folks on that group, and they were going to see if they could use that as a start to make a working model, which would have become available, in either kit, complete, or schematic/instructions form.

The IDE drives the HD24 uses are now obsolete- no longer being made, so when the NOS stock dries up, we will have to rely on used drives, which may have some serious reliability issues. A yahoo group member reports he is almost ready to release a caddy that includes circuitry that will allow the use of a SATA drive in the HD24. He anticipates having them available shortly, for a price of about $80 each- not bad, really.

Newmark now owns the rights to the HD24, and is doing a poor job of supporting it. The HD24XR has been discontinued (although I think you can still buy the kit to upgrade a HD24 to XR quality,) development for the director was halted long ago, and Newmark does not appear to be doing any development on the HD24 or a next-gen unit. The best source for info on keeping your HD24 working, viable and updated is the yahoo group. Search for "HD24" in yahoo groups, it will pop up.
 
Hey Stevieb, thats a shame I was really getting my hopes up about the director. I have a line on as BRC, its cheap I have to take it. And if something comes up I could always get rid of it.

Question, I will most likely never use 96khz, are the converters the same or superior in the HD24XR with 24 bit 48 kHz?

Damn they stopped making IDE drives? I better buys some up.
Im sure someone could redesign the caddy to host SATA Drives.

Thanks for all this info, great job

AFX
 
Not sure about the answer to your converters question, best to direct it to the yahoo group.

As I mentioned, someone already had designed a caddy that allows SATA drives to be used in the HD24. Sourced, built, and is testing it, too. They shold be available in August, I am told.
 
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