So long Alesis!!

Automaton

Well, provided the HD24 ever comes out, I think it can still compete. The media is far less expensive. Mackie media is like at least $250 a pop, whereas the alesis writes to standard IDE drives. Also, the mackie is still using the FAT32 format, and alesis is supposed to have a new way of writing to disk to lessen the chance of fragmentation. Not to mention if you want adat ports and adat sync to drop the unit into your existing adat system, you won't have to shell out another $400.
 
But the thing has got an ethernet card... Which means: VERY cheap backup on whatever you put in your pc!! No need for IDE drives... Just get yourself a CD, or soon DVD writer and you're in!

As for fragmentation... This is a choice you make. The virtual track and undo-possibilities come with fragmentation. And it will also save ALOT of discspace if you don't use a few tracks... Both have pro's and con's. You can work around fragmentation. Make backups now and then, and restart from a clean drive...
 
I'll root for alesis to come back, my adats have always done well by me... and I want to keep using 'em. This may very well be the nail in their coffin, but ya never know (secretly, I'm looking pretty hard at this mackie unit)

By the way, I just read on Mackie's site, that the $1999 price is only good until Oct. 31.
 
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HD24 is set to ship in October....does Mackie say what YEAR they are shipping??? And $1999 only until Oct. 31?? What, then it turns into a pumpkin??? Is this like a credit card intro rate?? What is THAT all about?? Sounds like a desperation move. Greg Mackie looked pretty concerned in the Alesis booth at 1/01 NAMM......

Roel, the Alesis deck has Ethernet too, but it is a 10BaseT while the Mackie is 100BaseT.

Mike
 
Cool...

But it doesn't have virtual tracks and undo-capabilities, right? (I could live with that... After all, I hardly use more than 2 virtual tracks with my VS1880. With 24 tracks, I'd have enough spare tracks. After all, for now I have only 3 mics. :D )

But I like these things... By the time I have enough money to afford a major upgrade, these 24-tracks might even be in my range. :eek:
 
"The MDR24/96 will be shipping in early September, 2001" per the press release. $3499 is the "retail" after the intro but I assume that the hype and such will keep it close to 2 grand. I dig adat, but this could be a major blow!
 
I wonder how much the lightpipe cards are for this...
maybe they're the same as what the HDR24 uses?

I also wonder about the "sale" price too? I'm sure it's completely designed to steal potential Alesis customers. Then again, if the potential Alesis customers have *nothing* to buy from Alesis ... then it's not really necessary to steal us.
Sigh ... Alesis just better be able to meet the October ship date and not push it back again. Looks like Mackie is going to be relentless ... and this new machine looks pretty nice. Still I wonder how much the cards are? $2000 is only nice until you add another $1500 for lightpipe capability. :(
 
I read somewhere, a while back (don't ask me where, I'll have to look) that the standard lightpipe cards were $99, then they also had another lightpipe card with TDIF as well for like $450
 
btw, Roel ... according to the features listed at Harmony Central, this thing has the undo and virtual track capabilities that you want.

* 24 Tracks - 192 Virtual Tracks - for up to 100 minutes of continuous recording
* Built-in 20Gb internal disk plus pullout bay for extra Mackie Media removable hard drives
* 100 BaseT Ethernet port built-in
* 3.5 inch drive bay for importing tempo maps and software upgrades
* 24 channel of Analog I/O standard
* Optional Digital I/O cards
* Full Meter Bridge
* Non-destructive cut, copy and paste editing (with free upgrade)
* 999 Un-Do's
* Sync to SMPTE, MIDI, and Word Clock & Video blackburst
* Optional remotes available
 
Automaton
I paid $250/ea for them back about 3 years ago when I bought my console. I think it depends on the gear you plug them into ... and what price structure they have for they're accessories. I'd assume that Mackie is on the expensive side. But I don't really know. Thinking out loud again.
 
Found it

This was in the march issue of Mix concerning the cards for the HDR24, though I'm pretty sure the MD uses the same.

"The $450 DIO-8 card includes eight channels of digital I/O in both Tascam TDIF and ADAT Lightpipe formats, as well as a TDIF wordclock sync output on a BNC connector for older DTRS decks. The $399 PDI-8 carries four stereo pairs (eight channels) of digital I/O in the form of AES/EBU signals on a single DB25 connector. The OPT-8 is the bargain of the lot: This $99 card has input and output ports (eight channels each) in ADAT Lightpipe format. "
 
what the hell am I missing here?

This looks like a clone of the HDR24/96 to a T except

a. analog inputs
b. nothing in the press about a visual gui

From what I've seen, this thing could probably be upgraded to be an HDR...all that the HDR has in it extra is a video card for visual editing...

which for my money, is probably worth it...but I dunno...Maybe they needed ANYTHING to compete with the $2000 models, and this was the easiest way...just strip the guts out of a working model.
 
I got curious today and drove straight to GC after work... I took the HDR24 for a test drive... (though the GC people seem to be complete retards, and I ended up giving my own demo) It sounded pretty nice, and was extremely easy to use.... makes me look at that MD a bit harder...
 
Re: Automaton

actually mackie uses standard ide drives too. its a celeron pc with an audio only interface. that point is a sixty five dollar increase, once you have the kingston media bay any ide will work, sans anything under ata33..
 
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