Hd24 Wow!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dom Franco
  • Start date Start date
Well, I think I will get the ball rolling here. :)

Away goes an email. We will see what we see eh?

Ed
 
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. :^)

Are the files time stamped on the alesis? Why not just take the removable drive and move it to a computer for editing? (ooh yeah, your "new" FST writing method, clever)

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.

Is this what they wrote for you? your "new" way of recording is NOT NEW. The Tascam has been doing it since it shipped. And yours has been doing it since.....oh yeah, it's not in stores and probably wont be.

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".

You would put your trust in a harddrive "on the shelf" with your masters? You have more balls then I my friend. and while I'm writing this, I would like to share a quote from the alesis faq:

"A. Backup onto another hard drive in the other drive bay of the HD24. This method is fast, foolproof, inexpensive, and (unlike other HD backup methods) allows you to immediately remount the project in seconds without waiting for an upload. Unlike other recorders, 2 machines are not required to make a backup of your work."

Foolproof....yeah. and "other recorders" already do this. FYI.

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).

I hope it does..this would make a good "extra" recorder if I run out of tracks.

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

According to whom? What converteers are you guys using? Are they the same as the ADAT's? Which ones?


Thanks for your time. I hope you can answer everything here.
 
HD24 WOW

OK, OK, I'm back. And I am now speaking as a private (somewhat flamed) person, not as an Alesis employee, lest the company be blamed for any non-politically correct statements I am about to make.

When I am not working at Alesis, I am home testing product and recording. Frankly, I do have a lot of time to spend on newsgroups. That and only that is the reason I have not answered sooner. My message was neither spam not a rah rah for the HD24...the phones at Alesis are already ringing off the hook for it. Thank you, Ed, for your email. 5:19 AM?? Did you just wake up or not go to sleep yet?? :^)

First of all it is true that Alesis has filed Chap. 11 Protection and Reorganization. It will be a short Chap. 11 as they already have a buyer and the 30 days or so is a legal obligation in case another company wishes to come in and outbid. Alesis is not going anywhere. Because of the Chap 11, HD24 may be delayed by about a month or so (so sometime in June). The upside is that this has given us even more time to check the software and it is working great. The unit HAS DROPPED IN SEAMLESSLY with black ADATs, XTs, XT-20s, LX-20s, M20s, and yes, Ed, even with the PCR card, which I and many other customers use successfully. I have used the card as Master and Slave with HD24 with NO PROBLEMS on an HP Pavilion 400 MHz, 256 Megs RAM. This was with adat/connect, adat/edit, Cubase, Cakewalk and Vegas (Vegas as slave). HD24 after all uses the same ADAT SYNC and OPTICAL protocols as all other ADATs.

Ed, saying "Alesis has little track record" of making units that drop in seamlessly is a bit of an over-statement. Because you are angry about your time with the PCR card, please do not forget all the models of ADATs over the last 10 years that work perfectly together. Feel free to send your PCR card to me at Alesis and I will drop it into our computer and test it. I have done this for a dozen people, and not once have I found a problem with the card; it has always been PC setup related or resource issues or soundcards or MIDI drivers conflicting. You may though have a defective card. I would be happy to test it. I would very much like the chance to help. If you can email a jpeg of your IRQ list to me, that would help too...

ametth, 1) when you FTP a track into the computer, it is taken from "sample zero" in the song, so it aligns perfectly when you send it back to the deck. We are also looking at the possibility of a software Utility for the computer that will allow the computer to read the files, so you CAN put the drive into a computer bay.

2) Regarding Tascam, this from their website: "999 virtual tracks per project". By definition, then, they are not doing what Alesis is. Please make sure of your comments before you flame Alesis or any other manufacturer...yes, I am even concerned about falsehoods about the competition.

3) The Alesis Marketing guy was doing a store demo, and actually threw the Hard Drive, put it back in and it worked great. So yes, I would trust it sitting on a shelf.

4) The converters are from Alesis SemiConductor division. The unit is now being used on a couple of large pro projects as we speak. Giants in the industry are raving about the sound. Alesis will say who and what projects when they get all the release docs signed. Lawyers, you know. :^)

I await your replies, sirs.

Thanks!

Mike Nicoletti
 
Is it warm yet puchy!
I'm just sitting back laughing to be honest. Right now we have a excess of hard drive 24 track systems. Mackie and tascam and alesis. Everyone is buying them prior to any real staying power. In 2 years they will be toast, old news, because smucks from big companies pawn of new and improved shite with out fixing any old problems. Honsetly ADAT will be gone in a few years, so you why would I add to my system? Rebel! By 1/4in 8 track reel to reel cause they are warm and punchy, Buy pro tools cause it has plug ins that make it warm and puchy! WARM AND PUNCHY!!!!! I hope you see the humor behind that.
 
Re: HD24 WOW

Originally posted by mnicoletti


ametth, 1) when you FTP a track into the computer, it is taken from "sample zero" in the song, so it aligns perfectly when you send it back to the deck. We are also looking at the possibility of a software Utility for the computer that will allow the computer to read the files, so you CAN put the drive into a computer bay.


Thats cool, but still an extra step.


Regarding Tascam, this from their website: "999 virtual tracks per project". By definition, then, they are not doing what Alesis is. Please make sure of your comments before you flame Alesis or any other manufacturer...yes, I am even concerned about falsehoods about the competition.

The Tascam does do what your machine does, please read carefully. They have a mode called "Tapemode". So you can record non-destructive or in "tapemode", which does the same thing as the Alesis.

The Alesis Marketing guy was doing a store demo, and actually threw the Hard Drive, put it back in and it worked great. So yes, I would trust it sitting on a shelf.


Like I said, you have more trust in a harddrive than I. Are there, or will there be viable backup options for this machine?

4) The converters are from Alesis SemiConductor division. The unit is now being used on a couple of large pro projects as we speak. Giants in the industry are raving about the sound. Alesis will say who and what projects when they get all the release docs signed. Lawyers, you know. :^)

I cant wait to hear this...

I await your replies, sirs.

Thanks!

Mike Nicoletti

Your welcome.
 
Hi, Ametth,

Thanks for the reply. Tascam's Tape Mode is similar, as it is destructive. One thing about HD24 though, is that you never have to worry about wiping a song on the drive accidentally. If you have three songs on the Tascam and go back and record on Song 2, and extend it, it goes into Song 3.

All songs on HD24 are their own "reels of tape" if you will. They all start at zero and can be extended without damaging any other song on the drive.

Thanks,

Mike
 
mnicoletti said:
Hi, Ametth,

Thanks for the reply. Tascam's Tape Mode is similar, as it is destructive. One thing about HD24 though, is that you never have to worry about wiping a song on the drive accidentally. If you have three songs on the Tascam and go back and record on Song 2, and extend it, it goes into Song 3.

All songs on HD24 are their own "reels of tape" if you will. They all start at zero and can be extended without damaging any other song on the drive.

Thanks,

Mike

Well, no. Thats not true. I know your trying really hard to make the Alesis look new and different. But just like on the Alesis, all songs on the Tascam are their own "reels of tape", if you will. They all can be extended without damaging any other song on the drive. Thanks for replying. I wish you the best.
 
Hi, Ametth,

In Tape Mode, you do have to allocate space ahead of time, though, correct? That is not the case with HD24. So there is a difference in implementations.

Just comparisons...

The best to you too, :)

Mike
 
Back
Top