If you mean the muting, cut and pasting, and volume envelope features, absolutely. Punch-ins are a joy.
It's a pretty easy machine to get around on, and we've just added Tracktion 3 software so we can easily import the hard drive's contents into our mastering computer.
If you mean the muting, cut and pasting, and volume envelope features, absolutely. Punch-ins are a joy.
It's a pretty easy machine to get around on, and we've just added Tracktion 3 software so we can easily import the hard drive's contents into our mastering computer.
Of all the people in the universe, why have you not a good 2" analog tape machine?
Just a question, I would think you would miss that analog sound!
You are a breath of fresh air to this digital vs. analog endless battle of witless people. You use what you got and make great recordings with no flimsy excuses. Keep up the good work.
Of all the people in the universe, why have you not a good 2" analog tape machine?
Just a question, I would think you would miss that analog sound!
You are a breath of fresh air to this digital vs. analog endless battle of witless people. You use what you got and make great recordings with no flimsy excuses. Keep up the good work.
Of all the people in the universe, why have you not a good 2" analog tape machine?
Just a question, I would think you would miss that analog sound!
You are a breath of fresh air to this digital vs. analog endless battle of witless people. You use what you got and make great recordings with no flimsy excuses. Keep up the good work.
Yes, I do miss analog; it simply sounds better, but digital is easier, cheaper, and quicker. Groups don't like to spend the money for tape, easier storage, no wow, flutter, or hiss, and easy conversion to DAWs.
I do have 5 Otari MX5050's that I plan to use for some two track mix downs, but I haven't got them up and running yet.
Speaking of the 2" tape... There is a studio here in Oklahoma City called Studio 7. It is the first studio I ever recorded in. The guy that runs it, Dave, likes to go old school... so he used the 2" tape reel to rell, but also used the Mackie units mentioned here. He's been in the game many years, and this is just what he does. He likes the sound of the tape, but wants something reliable over time, so he has both.
The mackie does not come stock with all of the I/O you may need (if I remember right). The Alesis does. The Mackie does however allow you to plug a mouse, keyboard and monitor direcly to it for basic tracking operations, the Alesis does not, but does offer someof the features if you can handle working with little to no visual aid. The Alesis will never run out of room on a given song due to it's hard drive structure (which is proprietary) but as a result, often wastes a lot of drive space unnecessarily. The Mackie utilizes all of its drive space which could put you in a bind if you inadvertantly run out of space. The Mackie also uses standard file formats and the Mackie drives can be pt directly into your DAW computer by using an external drive bay. Alesis makes you buy the fireport and uses proprietary software if you want to do this type of transfering.
In the end however, both units are very capable, and sound pretty good.
Thanks to everyone for their input. I think the route I will go is the Mackie. There just seems to be to many features I can get with it for the same or less price than an Alesis unit.
I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Just to get you up and running as quickly and painlessly as possible, go here: http://forums.mackie.com/scripts/forum/ultimatebb.cgi - There's a wealth of info and some very helpful people on the Hard Disk Recorder forum.