Questions on HD24XR with Digital Console

[TomF]

Hello,

I’m new to the forum and also new to digital recording. I’m an analog guy going back to the 70’s with my first recorder a Teac A3340.With that said. I want to take the plunge into the digital world, but need some guidance. Being from the analog world, I’d like to get a good pro console. I’m looking at either the Yamaha 02R96v2 or DM1000 digital boards with the ADAT cards to hook up to the HD24XR. I figured these consoles would give me a lot of processing right in the board without spending a lot on out board gear, then I could also add a couple of good out board pre’s.

1)I’d like to know if anyone is using either of these consoles with the HD24 or XR and if so how is this set up?

2)Is going into the ADAT connections on the HD24XR directly from the console okay?

3)I though I could also get the firewire1394 to experiment with computer editing, mixing, etc. Would a Pro tools 002 Rack be a good choice for this or can someone suggest a better route?

I figured Pro tools would be the best software to learn, as it seems to be the industry standard and if I eventually bring in clients ,probably be the must requested.

Any information would be a great help.

Thanks
Tom

 

[TomF]

Hi ,from the new guy again!

From what I've been reading the HD's sound great going in on the analog connections.Can anyone comment about the sound quality on the HD24 or HD24X going in Digital? With ,The Yamaha consoles I'm considering ,Yamaha is recommending their ADAT cards to go into the alesis Digitally.
I really want to get the alesis, so any Info would be greatly appreciated!

Thank again
TomF

 

[xstatic]

The Alesis converters are pretty nice actually. A yamaha console would be a great way to go. Personally, I would go digital out of the yamaha into the Alesis. That would be one less conversion. The yamaha will convert your signal to digital already once it enters the Yamaha. To go analog into the Alesis that means the yamaha would do an A/D, then a D/A, then the Alesis would turn around and do another A/D.

As far as software goes. Pro Tools is still the industry standard. I personally have my own software preferences and run a pro studio. No matter what anyone else tells you, pro Tools is the standard though and is showing no signs of being dethroned as of yet. Ther are certainly limitations however to Pro Tools LE that you should be aware of. First, it only does 32 tracks I believe. This is however enough for most people. The biggy that I see is that it uses proprietary hardware and the Digi002 seems to be the most advanced hardware interface for PT LE. The problem is that the Digi only offers 16 simulataneous inputs so you could not do a real time transfer of more than 16, and I am not sure if it can do 16 simultaneous channels of ADAT optical. I think only 8. This would mean that the other 8 tracks would have to go through another D/A and A/D conversion and the digi 002's converters are most certainly less than stellar. In fact I personally (as well as most people I have ever talked to) think the Alesis HD converters are much nicer than the Digi 002's. I guess you could add a fireport to the Alesis though and do a direct to disk transfer and then the Digi 002's limitations would be a non issue if you mix in the box. I think your software decision should maybe start with what platform you will be using. i.e. mac or PC I personally use Cubase SX on a PC.

As far as the two Yamaha consoles. The DM1000 in my opinion is a much nicer console than the O2R. The O2R may offer a few more features, but the DM1000 has a much nicer preamp. According to yamaha it has the same preamp in it that went into the new PM5000 live console. This preamp was a reverse engineering attempt at a Midas preamp from what I was told by a large Yamaha console dealer who supposedly sold Yamaha several XL4 channels when they were first designing the Pm5k. Also, I think the DM1000 is actually cheaper than the O2R96 so you could probably use the difference to add some more preamps to it

I would reccomend an RME HDSP96/52 as an interface for the Alesis if you choose to not go with PT LE. This would allow you to do 24 channel real time transfers form the Alesis to whatever DAW application you decide on, or you could use the Fireport for the Alesis if you prefer. What the RME will do for you though is allow you to output 24 channels of audio on the ADAT optical ports, and 2 channels of s/pdif straight to your Yamaha for mixing. You can also setup your yamaha as a control surface in most software applications, but it seems liek mixing through it would be even more integrated. The only downside to mixing through the yamaha that I can see is that you have to mix each song in real time instead of just bouncing to 2 track internally.

Hope some of that helped. Sound like a really tight and portable little setup you are building The Yamaha DM series is probably the only small format digital console I would consider mixing a live show on as well