Hard disks for D1624

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rockinjc

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I am considering picking up another hard disk for my 1624. I saw somewhere that Quantum was picked up by Maxtor. Can any of you recommend a hard disk replacement. Here are my considerations. Fast, Quite, Cheap. No really I would like to get as large of a hard disk that has a decent price performance ratio. How large can you go?

The Fostex site http://www.fostex.co.jp/int/hdlist/medial.html has recommendations for the D1624 (not really up to date though) and other units such as a D2424. Is it safe to use a D2424 recommended drive in the 1624 or what? Please let me know what you think or better yet have tried!

Thanks in Advance,
John
 
If you update your 1624 to the 1.08 firmware (available on that site), you can use up to 60Gbyte disks. I have a bunch of 30s that I use. They are refurbished Quantums I got from the Disk Drive Depot in Sunnyvale CA ( http://www.corpsys.com/store/products.asp?dept=11 ), and I got them for about $75 each. Call and ask- their web site lists only a fraction of what they have in stock...

I'd rather thave more, smaller disks and dedicate one per project. I kind of think of them as virtual reels of tape.... (;-)

I don't know that the 1.08 firmware will allow anything bigger than 60Gbyte drives for the 1624- the 2424 uses some significantly different, newer-generation hardware. I don't think that you can really regard it as simply a bigger 1624: my checking into the MkII 824 and 1624 indicates that a lot of things have changed. You could try it and see, of course- but for me, 30Gbytes is about right for a project anyway, so I haven't tried to go bigger.
 
Skippy,

Can you tell me what happens when you start to fill up?
j
 
I have very seldom run into this- I keep close tabs on the amount of space remaining, and typically do not smack into it. However, the couple of times I have done that, the unit has just dropped out of record, and complained about disk space until I freed some up by deleting programs and reoptimizing the disk.

Doing extensive editing or punching with multiple undo on can swallow disk pretty quickly. If you try to do an edit that would run you out of disk, it will complain and refuse to do it- so its behavior when running low on disk is pretty benign.

I've never yet lost any data (other than the inevitable loss after the dropout point, of course) by running out of disk. All the track data up to that point is properly preserved. Just keep track of the "REMAIN" function as you work- it's no different than glancing at the tape machine to see if there's enough left on the feed reel for the next take...
 
More D-1624 questions

Hey, Skippy, If I get a scsi device like a jazz or orb drive for backups; do I still have to save data 2-tracks at a time like with DAT or can I dump it at one time? How long does it take? Also, I'm using 24-bit/48 right now. Is the extra quality of 24/96 good enough for me to have another drive formatted to that for things I'll only need 8 channels for?
 
When you are backing up to external SCSI, the machine automatically saves all tracks at once, not just two at a time. It's moderately fast; maybe 4x real-time as I recall. I actually do all my backups in real-time via lightpipe to my DAW, so I don't use the SCSI port for anything other than the occasional firmware update...

And as far as the 96kHz thing does- I haven't bought into the hype, and I do all my recording at 24/44.1. I prefer to avoid SRC, and I just can't hear the difference with 96kHz sampling, and don't care to pay double for storage. But don't let that stop you: let your own ears be the guide, and do what you believe sounds best. After all, everybody knows I've gotta be stone-deaf: I can't hear Monster Cable, I can't hear 96kHz sampling... I'm clearly a dinosaur.

Try it and see.
 
A fellow dino asks:

Since I do my mixing to cd-r in the analog realm, I wouldn't run into sample rate conversion would I? OR-- do you have SRC in the process of backing up data to SCSI devices? Can you save in the format it's recorded in or do all SCSI devices use 44.1?
 
Nope to both. The whole SRC thing is really only an issue if you are going to keep your signals in the digital domain from tracking through finished product. If you are going to mix in analog, then going through the D/A converters renders the source sample rate moot- it's an analog signal after that point, until you redigitize it to print the final CD-R.

Digital purists will point out that every D/A-A/D pair induces artifacts and reduces the overall quality, and they are right. All I can say is "So what?". I don't mix with a mouse: the results of that in my hands would simply be a bad mix... (;-). I'll happily accept the losses from going out through the D/As to mix, just so that I can mix in the analog domain like I always have. The losses are relatively trivial in any case, if good converters are used.

Similarly, the SCSI backup device has no idea what you are backing up- it is just digital data, completely independent of track count, sampling rate, or anything else. For the backup drive, "bits is bits": it could just as easily be 10 years' worth of email, rather than your audio data. So you save it in its native format, with full bit depth and any sample rate you like.
 
Hard disc caddies

Do you by any chance know where you can get the caddies to put hard drives in for the D-1624? I think Fostex wants 60 bucks for them. Seems a little high for a plastic box. With that site you had for $75 refurbed drives; if I could get the caddies cheaper I could treat drives about like tape.
 
I think it possible to fit most "after-market" caddy assemblies in place of the Fostex unit.

:cool:
 
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