Hd24 Wow!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dom Franco
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Dom Franco

Dom Franco

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I just checked out the specs and Faqs for the Alesis HD24. Wow is this thing cool or what?

I was thinking of purchasing another ADAT for more tracks, but now It looks like I'd be better off getting an HD24.

The list price is $2,499.00.
Musicians Friend has them for $1,999.00 but I wonder if the price will jump up when people start raving about them? www.musiciansfriend.com

Check it out at www.alesis.com

Dom Franco
 
yeah ... I've been looking at that too. I always said that I'd be buried with these LX20s but that unit is hard to ignore. I'm thinking if I'm gonna wind up with a HD recorder at some point, maybe it would be better to do it when I only have 30 ADAT tapes to transfer/archive than when I had 300?

How do people usually archive their data from a HD recorder? ... I know you can hot-swap the drives on this unit ... but what's another alternative? DAT? Jaz? I'm a little out of touch on that. That aside, this unit corrects a lot of problems that are inherent with me continuing to use the LX20s and has definitely caught my eye ... financial troubles or not.
 
I've been archiving my stuff to CD-R. It's a little time consumming but I'm thinking that it'll hold up over time better than tape. I send the ADATs into the computer thru a MOTU and save 'em as waves .
 
That box is almost a joke!

You edit via the front panel!!! Great......another Masterlink "unseen" editing deal.

They DO provide ethernet ports on it to transfer to a computer hard drive. But you know, why not just go the computer route at that point.

No GUI!!! Damn...you think they would have learned on the Masterlink. Maybe that is why Alesis is in such financial trouble....These new products just don't come with ANY advantage compared to other systems.

Alesis should stay away from hard drives!

Ed
 
I dunno. I think I'd be willing to deal with a small LCD for editing ... I mean I don't do any editing now on the multitracks I have. Of course, I'd love to get the Mackie and be able to plug in a monitor, but that's significant more $$. Yep, here it is again .... the price. I know the buy cheap buy twice rule, but I think this would be a considerable step up from where I'm at now. The convenient functions for editing are light in the pants ... but the rest of the machine (incl price) makes up for it, IMO. Also, the price of this makes me question what I could get for a couple used LX20s in a couple years. :(

It's still too new though ... the "new way to write" to the hard drive both interests me and makes me hesitant and the same time. I wonder what errors occur with this new method. There's not a lot of info on this thing yet ... so time will tell, I suppose.
 
the "new" way of writing is not new at all..I dont know what they think they're talking about.
 
Sonusman...What's a GUI?

Sonusman..What's a GUI? Forgive my ignorance of "TLA'S" (Three letter acronyms)..

I don't use computers for recording, so the stand alone features of the HD24 seem fine to me... what am I missing?

24 tracks for 2 grand when just 2 LX20's would cost the same, give me less tracks and less features?

The ability to record and Punch in on 24 tracks should eliminate the need for a lot of editing, unless the musicians just can't play their parts right.

I respect your oppinions a lot, but I am seriouly considering ordering this thing for 2 "G's".... talk me out of it!...Please ?.. I'm reaching for the phone...
I'm looking at the Musician's Friend lustbook...
oh boy...

Dom Franco
 
Graphical User Interface......Like what you are seeing as your read this.

Ed
 
And actually, after "sleeping on it", if this box actually works as advertised (this IS Alesis!!!) it might be worth it.

I am thinking more on the lines of the 24 bit recordings solution and the fact that the hour per hour cost of hard drive vs. tape that the hard drive would be cheaper, unless you are doing a lot of "demo's" for clients.

Also, I gave the ethernet port a little more thought. Most ethernet cards are "capable" of 100Kbs of transfer these days, so transfers from this unit to the hard drive "could" happen at least in real time, if not a whole lot faster.

So many things they HAVEN'T said about how their unit works at this point.

We will see. I am just disappointed that they didn't take this box to the next level by adding a GUI somehow. Even the Tascam unit has one, and from accounts from it's users, it works very well!

We shall see (if the box ever makes it to market) just how well it works.

Ed
 
re: HD24 WOW

Hi, all,

Just to be upfront, I'm from Alesis (in case you have not seen my email address yet!)

Just wanted to respond to some of these posts:

1. While the competition makes fine products, we did not want to make another "recording computer"; think of HD24 as a "tape recorder without the tape". While there is CUT COPY and PASTE with UNDO, if you need waveform editing, you can FTP tracks into a computer or send them in optically (into a card with ADAT Optical), and use whatever editing program you like to use. On HD24's front panel (and on the remote to come later) you can scrub edit points like analog tape, "nudge" the points, preview 5 seconds of the "start" or "end" edit point (or the entire edit region), preview the edit before you commit, and undo if you still mess up. :^)

2. Our "new way of recording" IS new; never before done in a hard disk recorder: we are always writing linearly, no fragmenting. When you record and punch in on a track, it is on that track; again, a "tape recorder without the tape". That is why we can get away with inexpensive 5400 RPM IDE drives: there is no need for the drive to "run around", find your punch-in fragments, put them together and play them like one file (with hopefully no glitching)...our tracks are one file per track. If you were able to look at the drive after a lot of recording and punching, you would see the arm move like the arm on a turntable: smooth across the hard disk; no jumping around finding all the pieces of data. Very stable, and very cool! You can put your trust in this method: the writing and reading has been solid since the FIRST version of test software. The Alesis engineers nailed it.

3. re archiving: Since you are recording onto a hard drive, you are basically archiving as you are recording. Fill a drive, put it on a shelf and put another one in. You can also copy an entire drive or individual songs to a drive in the second bay (we ship with two bays and one 10 gig hard drive (about 40 minutes 24 tracks/48K/24 bits). Pardon the double negative, but with our writing method, there is NO drive that will NOT work with HD24, so no worries about "approved drives".

4. This unit WILL ship. As one of the testers, I can tell you that we are now testing a version of software that is close to being release software. This unit drops seamlessly into an ADAT system (that's why we kept it three rack spaces) and I have also used it sync'd as both Master and Slave with adat/connect, adat/edit, Cubase, Cakewalk, and Vegas (Vegas was only a slave, since there is no MMC).

5. Oh, lest I forget the reason we are all in this biz to begin with: HD24 sounds amazing...

thanks for your time,

Mike Nicoletti
 
Hey Mike, what is the present street price on this unit?
 
Q - I've seen $1999 consistently all over the net ... one place was giving a Blue Tube mic pre away w purchase, can't remember where though .. If I remember, I'll post it.

re: archiving ... the real question is ... how much are these hard drives? and how do they stack up space/price wise to regular SVHS tapes? I'd assume they'd be much more, but HD recording hasn't been my focus at all. Plus, I couldn't see having 30 hard drives laying around, but if it's cost effective and easier to deal with than backing up to CDR/DAT/Jaz or whatever, then I'd do it.
Thanks for the info, Mike ... my main hesitation is still the state of the Alesis corporation lately (are you guys gonna pull through?) ... and actually getting some feedback from consumers of this deck. I'd probably run out and preorder now (I have little patience) ... except for those 2 things.
 
Yes. but when will it ship?

I can't wait, when will it ship......
I gotta have it.... NOW!

Dom Franco
 
Re: re: HD24 WOW

mnicoletti said:
Hi, all,

Just to be upfront, I'm from Alesis (in case you have not seen my email address yet!)

Just wanted to respond to some of these posts:


4. This unit WILL ship. As one of the testers, I can tell you that we are now testing a version of software that is close to being release software. This unit drops seamlessly into an ADAT system (that's why we kept it three rack spaces) and I have also used it sync'd as both Master and Slave with adat/connect, adat/edit, Cubase, Cakewalk, and Vegas (Vegas was only a slave, since there is no MMC).

5. Oh, lest I forget the reason we are all in this biz to begin with: HD24 sounds amazing...

thanks for your time,

Mike Nicoletti
Click to expand...

Ummmmm, Mike, the PCR card was SUPPOSED to integrate "seemlessly" into an ADAT system. I have yet to meet a person who could make that happen! In fact, out of the many DOZENS of people only I have talked to about that card, all but two got a refund because it was shite! Please feel free to respond to my many posts concerning the PCR card that are in this forum. I have had the card nearly two years now, have upgraded to just below state-of-the-art SCSI (Ultra2, 10,000 rpm Cheetahs with the Adaptec controller!) and STILL the card doesn't work without "glitches".

In light of all that Mike, why should anyone hear trust a respresentative of Alesis when they claim that their new product will integrate into an ADAT system "seemlessly". Alesis has little track record of making that happen!

I await your reply.

A very, Very, VERY disgruntled PCR card owner who finds claims by Alesis reps dubious (and for good reason)!

Ed
 
Ed gets more disgruntled with every post! :D

Seriously, I'd love to hear an Alesis reponse to Ed's situation ... hurry before he goes postal!
 
I think I have asked some very fair questions in light of Alesis handling of the PCR card, and their current, er, financial situation.

I don't expect to be replied too unless someone sends the guy a email asking him to. This was purely a sort of "spam" to generate interest in the product. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ed
 
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