sjoko2
New member
Hey RW - just out of interest .... have you ever looked into the features of the masterlink? I think if you do, you'll know what makes it "special"
R
RWhite
Well-known member
No, as I said I'm not in the market for one. I'm just curious, I've read quite a bit about them on this board. Obviously a lot of people like them (and a few have flamed them) but I just dont see what makes them special. I would think that an ADAT and a small mixer would be a more flexable rig for recording without a computer.
Not important, just wondering.
Hey Sjoke2 - I saw that MP3.COM has a nicer page for your son's band. I passed it on to some Pantara fans that I know! I hope they are doing well - I believe you said they are in England? Is there a bigger audience for metal over there, or did they just want to go there?
Not important, just wondering.
Hey Sjoke2 - I saw that MP3.COM has a nicer page for your son's band. I passed it on to some Pantara fans that I know! I hope they are doing well - I believe you said they are in England? Is there a bigger audience for metal over there, or did they just want to go there?
sjoko2
New member
RW - the masterlink really has some very awesome features which put it pretty much in a league of its own (and that's coming from Mr. hypercritical himself).
I think if you'd look them up at http://www.alesis.com/products/ml9600/index.html you'll understand what makes the ML such a useful piece of gear.
My son's band is in the UK - all 3 of my sons live there, as I used to live there! There is a very healthy hardcore scene in the UK, which is pretty cool. James' band is doing really well, as is his youngest brother Oliver's band
I'm a pretty proud dad *grin*.
Thanks for passing the link on!
I think if you'd look them up at http://www.alesis.com/products/ml9600/index.html you'll understand what makes the ML such a useful piece of gear.
My son's band is in the UK - all 3 of my sons live there, as I used to live there! There is a very healthy hardcore scene in the UK, which is pretty cool. James' band is doing really well, as is his youngest brother Oliver's band
I'm a pretty proud dad *grin*.
Thanks for passing the link on!
skippy
New member
Well, here's a rather extreme example. Recording of a demo for an a capella quartet, as part of a live show. Quartet needs usable results yesterday, for whatever reason: time presses. Hokay, fine. Showtime, quartet does 4 tunes, then many other acts come on. I print the four tunes in real time on the Masterlink's internal hard disk, slam on my headphones, crop heads and tails, fade audience sounds before and after the songs, reorder the songs the way they want them for the demo (with the Big Finale first), normalize, and render to a finished CD-R *by the end of the show*. They come down after curtain calls, I hand them their finished demo CD-R, pack the mics, and I'm loaded out. They listen to the finished product in the car on the way home.
Could you do that with a DAT deck? Not without other hardware: the DAT is just an intermediate storage format. A standalone CD burner? Not without some external intermediate storage, and not without software support to assemble, manipulate, and burn the data. Would anybody in their right bleedin' mind _want_ to work this way? Gawd, no. If anybody ever asks you to do this, run screaming from the room.
But I've actually done this, with my heart in my throat the whole time, and produced a result that the group was extremely pleased with (and figured was a miracle, in fact). And all I had was 2 mics and an X-Y mount on a stand, a board used only for its preamps, a handful of cables, and this box. No mouse, no Windows, no "mastering processors", no intermediate format to Sneakernet back to the studio, transfer to something else, and slave over for hours. Just the handful of buttons on the front panel of the box, and a blank CD-R.
Will this work for everybody, or apply to every musical style? Hell, no. Even I'd prefer to have reviewed it back at the studio with real monitors before committing it to the disk, rather than simply trusting the mics and the room and the talent and my headphones and my ears to Do The Right Thing. I could probably have made it better. Shoot, I could have loaded the whole wad into Wavelab and screwed around with it for days, as is the modern style. If the group had wanted, I'd happily have reworked it back at the studio. I kept the raw performance on the Masterlink's hard disk, and I actually still have the 24-bit-format backup CDROM of their raw data downstairs. But they are still happy with the near-real-time result, and therefore so am I. This was what this particular job required, and the box turned out to be damned near perfect for it.
It can be used to cut a *lot*of hardware complexity out of the CD-production loop, and not just for blitzkrieg-tempo live work...
Could you do that with a DAT deck? Not without other hardware: the DAT is just an intermediate storage format. A standalone CD burner? Not without some external intermediate storage, and not without software support to assemble, manipulate, and burn the data. Would anybody in their right bleedin' mind _want_ to work this way? Gawd, no. If anybody ever asks you to do this, run screaming from the room.
But I've actually done this, with my heart in my throat the whole time, and produced a result that the group was extremely pleased with (and figured was a miracle, in fact). And all I had was 2 mics and an X-Y mount on a stand, a board used only for its preamps, a handful of cables, and this box. No mouse, no Windows, no "mastering processors", no intermediate format to Sneakernet back to the studio, transfer to something else, and slave over for hours. Just the handful of buttons on the front panel of the box, and a blank CD-R.
Will this work for everybody, or apply to every musical style? Hell, no. Even I'd prefer to have reviewed it back at the studio with real monitors before committing it to the disk, rather than simply trusting the mics and the room and the talent and my headphones and my ears to Do The Right Thing. I could probably have made it better. Shoot, I could have loaded the whole wad into Wavelab and screwed around with it for days, as is the modern style. If the group had wanted, I'd happily have reworked it back at the studio. I kept the raw performance on the Masterlink's hard disk, and I actually still have the 24-bit-format backup CDROM of their raw data downstairs. But they are still happy with the near-real-time result, and therefore so am I. This was what this particular job required, and the box turned out to be damned near perfect for it.
It can be used to cut a *lot*of hardware complexity out of the CD-production loop, and not just for blitzkrieg-tempo live work...
E
engineear
New member
Yep Skippy, have used the link in a very similar fashion, and I too am contemplating a 2nd "Road unit". Just worried about pack'n that bad boy up..... SUMO can be my middle name. Yep this unit can serve a wide variety of ulitarian musical purposes....... it functions and it can make musical life "funner" and easier.
By the By... I saw Lx 20's @ MARS 2day 4 $700 NEW!!!! Yikes, anyone wanting a new ADAT.... $700!!!!!
By the By... I saw Lx 20's @ MARS 2day 4 $700 NEW!!!! Yikes, anyone wanting a new ADAT.... $700!!!!!
R
RWhite
Well-known member
Thanks Skippy, after reading your post I now understand the attraction.
And thanks for the link sjoko2, although the Masterlink brochure doesn't do as good a job telling me why I might want one as Skippy did. I was amused to read about the "massive 4.3 gig hard drive" - has anyone out there replaced their drive with an 80 gig yet?
As always thanks to everyone for all the great info!
And thanks for the link sjoko2, although the Masterlink brochure doesn't do as good a job telling me why I might want one as Skippy did. I was amused to read about the "massive 4.3 gig hard drive" - has anyone out there replaced their drive with an 80 gig yet?
As always thanks to everyone for all the great info!
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T
TGA
New member
Well thanks to all of you "Alesis marketing reps" out there, I bought a Masterlink. Just finished a CD. It sounded great.
I was wanting to have an easy way to work with the time inbetween tracks. It was way easy.
Thanks for changing my mind.
TGA
PS - Is it true that Alesis has closed it's doors?
I was wanting to have an easy way to work with the time inbetween tracks. It was way easy.
Thanks for changing my mind.
TGA
PS - Is it true that Alesis has closed it's doors?
skippy
New member
Alesis is very definitely "in extremis" at the moment:
http://www.harmony-central.com/News/2001/Alesis-Chapter-11.html
We'll see what becomes of them. Whoever buys whatever is left of Alesis when the dust settles should definitely pick up on that product, as it does have a place. However, I suspect that the company will not emerge intact, despite all the happy-words in that press release. I don't think Numark is going to complete any deal with Alesis right now, not when they can pick up the pieces they want at the auction at fire-sale prices, and let the rest drop.
Anyway, just to complete the story, I did order a second Masterlink for the location rack last week (and as a hedge bet against any failure of my main unit). Oughta be here today.
http://www.harmony-central.com/News/2001/Alesis-Chapter-11.html
We'll see what becomes of them. Whoever buys whatever is left of Alesis when the dust settles should definitely pick up on that product, as it does have a place. However, I suspect that the company will not emerge intact, despite all the happy-words in that press release. I don't think Numark is going to complete any deal with Alesis right now, not when they can pick up the pieces they want at the auction at fire-sale prices, and let the rest drop.
Anyway, just to complete the story, I did order a second Masterlink for the location rack last week (and as a hedge bet against any failure of my main unit). Oughta be here today.