Alsesis bankrupcy

  • Thread starter Thread starter sjoko2
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naaah Not ugly, I've got no bone to pick, as long as we keep it real, and in my circle - which is pro audio in southern cali, where Alesis is - Alesis services has a very bad rep for service, a claim I can fully surpport by personal experience and known problems collegues have had - not hearsay or bullshit.
I've got nothing at all against Mike at all, and I hope he keeps coming here, because he obviously has sound technical knowledge which would be an assett to the forum.
(and knowing sonus' card problems from previous posts ---- I was waiting for that one to appear!:)

Oh yeah Q: I've always thought 20 bit ADATs sounded good, better than a lot of lower end DAW's achieve at 24 bit. I've used them a lot, and I started using them for mastering to as soon as they became available, in preference to DAT.
I think wit their current price, they are a bargain.
And i also love the masterlink
See Mike? not all bad eh?;)
 
I love my ADATS.... but when they die around 2000 hrs, a year or 2 away yet..., im gonna buy 3 DA-78's.... Im scared of these new hardiscs that are coming out, like the tascam mx2424, or the mackie 24, thing... If the hardrive crashes, your fucked, there goes your session... at least with the DA-78's you still have 2 back-ups if one dies.... and they are 24 bit.... and I like the simplicity of storage as compared to hardrive ... take out the tape, put in case, and put on shelf!!! This is straying a bit from the original discussion, but I thought I would add something.........Joe
(past victim of hardrive crashes, and wrecked sessions...)
 
Devil's Advocate

I would think having the HD24, if the harddrive crashes, swapping in a new hard drive would not be that difficult. In any HD based system, crashes are always a posibility - that is why you back up your work. Using a HD system, you don't have to worry about the recorder eating a tape. Look on the bright side of the HD24, at least their OS is not Microsoft. :D
 
I have recorded on HD for over 2 years now, and have had one HD failure. Considering I am talking daily, commercial use, that is very good indeed. Most problems with HD recording are not hard- but software originated problems resulting in difficulties with data retrieval. This is a problem that can be resolved easily, with sound archiving and system management.
Naturally - whatever system you use - not backing up data is simply foolish. Back-up systems are cheap and getting cheaper all the time. As a result, HD recording is now without question a reliable, extremely cost effective solution.
 
Clarification of my previous post

What I meant about ruining sessions is, when they crash and you can't track anymore, you have to send a band home, which drove 1 hour to your place to record ((been there lived it))...Of course I back up, but all the backing up in the world, wont make a fucked HD work again magically, and save your tracking session (till it's repaired or new HD intalled) unless you have multiple drives, which most people I know don't have extra HD's laying around with software loaded ready to go. ...... Even once over the course of 2 years is too much.... Your studio loses alot of "customer trust" when stuff screws up there session.... They tend to get "scared away", when there is that much driving involved. ((been there, lived it also)) I have never, ever heard of an adat tape being chewed, and for that fact, I've never even had a videotape in the VCR get chewed..... Maybe im lucky. or just maintaining all my equipment properly saves me from this.. Im not sure.....

Im not saying hardrives suck....They can be great, im just saying I don't trust them enough to balance my whole business on one. Thats my opinion, naturally others will vary....


Joe:)
 
voxvendor:
I compared HD's to the media I used previously, mainly 2", some ADAT after the 20 bit version was released, and some 88's.

2" was very reliable ---- but I once had a second engineer accidentally 'bake' the tape what we were mixing a record - and people have never exactly been in the habit of backing those up. That was an expensive joke.
I also had my car stolen in London, in the trunk were five 2" reels containing a whole album I was supposed to start mixing that afternoon. 1 1/2 months of recording gone................... but that wasn't exactly a technical problem.

ADATS, they all come with instructions to back-up every tape, for VERY good reason. The VHS tape mechanics are prone to failure. Nothing to do with Alesis or ADAT transport, simply a cost / quality trade-off. I very soon realised that Alesis' advise was best taken to heart, as I've had plenty of ADAT tapes screwed up by the mechanics breaking, or tape stretching leading to sync problems.

Hard disks, to be honest, with the prices of HD's today - I do not understand why people record on a PC with one drive. I have configured a bunch of DAW's for musician friends, and I always tell them to buy an extra HD - have one for OS and prog's, one for audio. A system configured like that is much more stable and has less latency problems. Also - at the end of a session you copy your files from the audio disk to the operating disk, either as audio files or as data files. The next day you just write over those files.
Just consider this - a good size HD costs the same as one single 15 minute 2" reel.

All the above has led me to conclude that HD as a recording media is at least as reliable as 2" tape, and most definately more reliable compared to other alternatives. Apart from that, it is the cheapest recording medium we've ever had available.
 
Sjoko....1 1/2 years ago? A lot has changed since then; staff and otherwise. I promise if you have another need for our service, things will be better. Just let us get through the Chap 11 so we can rebuild. And thank you for saying that you hope I re-post...after being with Yamaha, Apogee and now Alesis, I may actually be of some help here technically. :D

Ed, Ed, Ed.....where to begin...."Before the PCR card shipped" You mean.....2+ years ago?? THAT is the hold time you are quoting?? And I HONESTLY cannot remember a 55 minute hold time in years. When was that? Even in this Chap 11, to the best of my knowledge the hold times have maxed out at a still-ugly 34 minutes. If the phone software was capable I would print a call report from a few months ago as evidence.

Regarding my blood pressure, even with my Italian/New York background, no problem. I've been doing support a long time, so not too much gets to me.

Regarding my integrity, you do not know me. My suggestion would be to call some companies in this business who do know me and ask them if I lie. My fights for the customer have caused a certain amount of grief for myself (not mention the grey hairs coming in) in some companies I've worked in. I have been in one form of customer support or another for about 15 years and I didn't get to where I am by lying to customers. Oh, and I could have done what a lot of people do on newsgroups and use an alias and act as if I have no ties to a company. But I chose honesty. I used my real name and said from the outset that I am with Alesis.

Regarding the PCR card, I recently went to a customer's house here in LA who was having nagging troubles with his PCR card...it turned out to be his ADAT. That is where that suggestion came from. If you were local, I'd make a house call to your studio. I really wish I could. This card works without a hitch on our 200 MHz in tech support and works great for a lot of customers. You know as well as I do that you rarely hear from people when their gear is working! Frankly I am at a loss for what could be wrong in your system. Believe me or not, but I do not take your troubles lightly. Have we exchanged the card for you yet? Would you want to send it to me so I can test it here? Am I saying there NO calls from customers having troubles? Of course not; I would be lying and would have to run for the asbestos suit when you replied. :p But there have been very few calls that we have not able to solve.

The SPDIF feature is from 3-4 year old pre-product-release lit for a trade show. Did we LIE about it on the lit? Of course not. The truth: sample accuracy took more processing horsepower from the FPGA chip than we thought. We had to choose between it and SPDIF support. We went with sample accuracy. But why do you think there exists, "specifications subject to change without notice"? Because things change.

Regarding WIN 2K drivers, I do not enjoy my staff gettting phone complaints about the drivers. I have been fighting for WIN2K drivers since before WIN 2K was released, and I am currently fighting for WIN XP drivers (since that is also NT-based and Microsoft is smartly letting the WIN 95/98/Me code die away). Will I get these drivers? I hope so. Is it my decision? No, or they would have out already. More truth: In ANY manufacturer, engineering time is a precious commodity and is allocated based on ROI. How much will be improved? More importanly, how many more will we sell? Just so you know, I am not giving up on getting these drivers.

Regarding Alesis' financial troubles, you want someone to say what "really caused a financial crisis"?? Is that really anyone's business (outside the company)? And would you really expect ANY company to do that? The only time you'll see "dirty laundry" displayed is on a Don Henley CD. :p

Regarding my lack of help on this BBS, I started posting here to answer some questions (and clear up some misinfo) about HD24 features. No one asked me about mic'ing a guitar amp or the best settings for vocal compression, or I would have tried to help there too.

OK, I'll stop here too. Let's try to get this thread back on track. And don't worry, I do not scare off easily.

Looking forward to your reply....no really,

Mike
 
Alesis Helped us all get to the sound we wanted

We can all mock and throw shots at these guys, but I have to say that they were one of the pioneers in the home studio. It was they who helped getting the sound in our studios for a price we could all afford. Others were forced to follow suit. I have owned every type of format since 1975 and we were very happy to see Alesis come along with their stuff when they did. Our creativity had less barriers then thanks to them.
I was shocked and saddend by the news. Depending on how long you have been recording, and what your budget was, you may have mixed opinions, but I remember the Midiverb/Fex and everything that happened after that. If it was all crap, as well as other manufactures crap in this price range, then save up for the rest of your life to get the good stuff and book a studio. Otherwise I think we can stop bitching now.

Without prejudice.....my opinion.
 
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