Some light on D2424LV, please

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fede
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Fede

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I see there are people here in the forum who have some experience with the D2424LV.

John Rice, if you're reading this I can tell you that I've read quite a lot of posts from you on Googles group-viewer, here and elsewhere. I've learned quite a few things from reading your posts so thank you! :o)

I'm about ready to order my new main mixer - the new Yamaha DM1000 - gonna do that tomorrow. The thing is I'm going to need a HDRecorder to go with it.

The choice is between the Alesis HD24, Mackie SDR24/96 and Fostex D2424LV. I started out leaning towards the Alesis model, but I canned that idea as soon as I learned that it doesn't use non-destructive recording...no way.

That narrows it down to Mackie and Fostex. I'm borrowing a Mackie for now, and it's working ok. I like its meters very much (big LED-type ones) and it's great for integrating with a PC as it stores everything as WAVE-files on a FAT32-drive. I've experienced it being unstable at a time, but that may have been due to a loose screw rolling around inside it.... Apart from that it has been working well.

I do also like the Fostex, though. I love the remote-concept. I've previously owned 3 Fostex D80 which, as you probably know, used the same idea (same cabinet, different color...). That's a very big plus.

Another thing is, I've heard the Fostex is virtually impossible to crash. It appears to be 100% stable - any comments on this? Any experiences that verifies or disputes this? Another VERY big plus.

Also when it comes to converters, the Fostex should be the best of the three although this is less important to me, as I will mostly be using the converters in the Yamaha DM1000 and maybe other outboard converters.... but from time to time a live-recording job requiring only the recorder will pop up, and then high quality converters would come in handy...


There are a few questions I would very much like if someone could shed some light on:

1. Is it possible to exchange the drivebay (not just the caddies but the bay itself) with another type from a computer store, so that you could have a matching bay in you computer? This is most important with the second drive, that would be used for transferring WAV-files to the computer, but it would also be nice to have the opportunity of using cheaper caddies for main-drives...

2. How well does 2 D2424LV's sync up and/or how well does the D2424LV sync to incoming MTC? And how long is the lock-up time? This is essential to me, as I'm planning on getting two of whatever machine I decide to go with. I've heard someone write about problems with a D2424LV syncing to MTC..... Anyone know anything about this?

I probably have a lot of other questions that I can't remember at the moment, this will do for now.....

Thanks for any info!!!
 
Hi Fede,

I'm afraid I can't answer your questions about the alternative drive bay or sync but I just thought I'd comment on the stability of the Fostex. I've only had the 2424LV for about a week but I've used the D-108 pretty much every day for the last 2 years. I managed to get it to crash once after some extensive cutting and pasting of all 8 tracks. I powered down, turned it back on and nothing had been lost, and I never had the problem again.

I've been testing the 2424LV quite a lot to see how it copes with things like editing multiple tracks and 24 track simultaneous recording. Everything is perfect so far. The hard drive noise is even quieter than the D-108 even with all 24 tracks playing. I'm hoping it'll have the same stability as the D-108.

I got the ethernet card with my 2424LV, to transfer the tracks to the computer, works very well for me.
 
Hi Guys, This is my first post. One feature on the Fostex D2424LV that is truly invaluable to me is the albeit somewhat primitive waveform display you can bring up for any given channel. I am a composer as well as a drummer and this function allows me to move data around and do spot on punch ins and copy and paste functions with great sucess. For example, you can imagine how potentially tricky it could be to punch in a drum part correction. What I do is look at the wave form of the kick drum which usually has a note on beat one (or wherevever I want the punch in to be). I program the auto punch in to begin right at the time code where the kick's initial attack begins. The rest is history. Truly seemless punch ins or copy and paste functions using this approach. My unit's stability and sound have been outstanding for more than a year now. I'm very happy with the purchase. Good luck in your decesion...Kevin
 
I haven't used the 2424 yet, but I have two years of time in on a pair of D1624s- and I have never had a crash, or even a *hiccup*. In my experience, they are absolutely bombproof. I've now upgraded my operating firmware on both to the D1624 MkII firmware, which is extremely similar to (if not a direct derivative of!) the 2424 firmware, and have had no change at all in the stability of the units (it's still 100% uptime!)- and got a lot more functionality for my troubles.

I don't know about the internals of the 2424, but I've been all through my 1624s and have made some upgrades that I've detailed here in the past (mostly for cooling and acoustic noise reduction). In the 1624 the drive bay is just a very simple merchant IDE bay, albeit one that isn't too common here in the US. It would be trivial to swap it for another design, like the Kanguru or any other common bay: the mounting points should line right up. I've been meaning to do this on my units for some time, just so that I can have more carriers available for quick project swaps, but I haven't got around to it yet. I'd be highly surprised if that wasn't also the case with the 2424: Fostex didn't spend one dime more than they had to on the industrial design of the case for the units, and they just grabbed an off-the-shelf carrier that came in at the price they needed.

I use my 1624s as timecode masters in my rig, so I have only just barely scratched the surface of using them to chase external timecode. But I have had no problems at all in the few experiments I tried- lockup time was relatively quick (half a second, perhaps- I wasn't focused on that aspect), and part of that was probably the lockup time of the JL Cooper SMPTE-to-MTC converter I was using to bridge the timecode down to the Fostex.

I don't think you will go wrong if you choose the Fostex.
 
Hi Fede,

Thanks for the compliment!

I am dead tired right now so this will be short.

I think the D2424LV is a great machine. I recently figured out ( I think ) an ongoing problem I was having transfering large numbers of tracks from the D2424LV to my PC/Cubase via lightpipe. I was getting some 'spikes' in the waveforms ( like random one sample width high amplitude spikes ). I was syncing the D2424LV to Cubase's MTC. When I tried syncing Cubase to the D2424LV instead the spikes went away. I'm thinking the Fostex doesn't like trying to spit out 24 tracks at a time while readjusting to incoming time code but I could be totally wrong ( I may just have a slightly flakey hard drive. )

There was someone on here that was trying to get a third party caddy system working in a D2424LV and not having success. I know others have done it with the earlier machines. Fostex has always seemed to get OEM caddies from CRU Inc ( their Dataport series ) but I don't know if there is a stock caddie that will fit the frame in the Fostex. ( I always suspect Fostex of tweaking the frame or caddie a little so you have to buy theirs )

Keep in mind that when saving WAV files in the Fostex you have to have the drive formatted as MSDOS FAT 16 and hence you are limited to a max of 2 gigs per drive ( no matter how big it is, only the first partition is available etc ) You should see if you can get the model with the ethernet connection if that might work better for you.

The Alesis units recently got better converters and they spec out better than the D2424LV. I think the D2424LV sounds great though!

I've never seen one crash that I can remember. I have seen it do something weird once and a couple band mates who do more recording with one than I have seen it twice ( all with that same possibly flakey hard drive ). You hit play when positioned in an area you know has lots of tracks, you see the time counter counting away but there is no audio or level on the meters and the drive access LED is lit solid. I think the drive can get overwhelmed by to many edits with to many tracks and if you don't optimize it everyonce in a while it has trouble playing back. If you hit stop and then play agan it will be fine.

OK, this wasn't all that short!

Nighty Nite and best of luck!

John L Rice
Drummer@ImJohn.com

PS _ Hi Skippy and everyone!
 
The Fostex D2424LV! Rocks!

Awesome machine, affordable price and it sounds great.

My only complaint is that I have been waiting over two months for an extra hard drive caddy. Fostex should have produced these in greater numbers. Any of you have one?

Dom:eek:
 
Thank you all for replying!

Still looks more and more like it's gonna be the Fostex. The Mackie I'm borrowing for now is working ok, but it has its little quirks now and then....nothing serious but still annoying and a bit alarming.

Got my Yamaha DM1000 friday.... :)

<RANT>

....talk about machines that rock! This board just oozes quality and it's clear in all corners of the machine that it's built with tremendous experience in digital consoles. It's really leading the whole pack of digital consoles to a new level of "maturity"....or so it seems to me.

The preamps and converters (both ways) are a chapter of their own. Incredible!

</RANT>

pheww.....sorry - got myself started.

Anyway, that kind of board deserves a good playmate. If anyone has got more comments on the D2424LV - I'm still most interested!!
 
Fede said:
I see there are people here in the forum who have some experience with the D2424LV.

John Rice, if you're reading this I can tell you that I've read quite a lot of posts from you on Googles group-viewer, here and elsewhere. I've learned quite a few things from reading your posts so thank you! :o)

I'm about ready to order my new main mixer - the new Yamaha DM1000 - gonna do that tomorrow. The thing is I'm going to need a HDRecorder to go with it.

The choice is between the Alesis HD24, Mackie SDR24/96 and Fostex D2424LV. I started out leaning towards the Alesis model, but I canned that idea as soon as I learned that it doesn't use non-destructive recording...no way.

That narrows it down to Mackie and Fostex. I'm borrowing a Mackie for now, and it's working ok. I like its meters very much (big LED-type ones) and it's great for integrating with a PC as it stores everything as WAVE-files on a FAT32-drive. I've experienced it being unstable at a time, but that may have been due to a loose screw rolling around inside it.... Apart from that it has been working well.

I do also like the Fostex, though. I love the remote-concept. I've previously owned 3 Fostex D80 which, as you probably know, used the same idea (same cabinet, different color...). That's a very big plus.

Another thing is, I've heard the Fostex is virtually impossible to crash. It appears to be 100% stable - any comments on this? Any experiences that verifies or disputes this? Another VERY big plus.

Also when it comes to converters, the Fostex should be the best of the three although this is less important to me, as I will mostly be using the converters in the Yamaha DM1000 and maybe other outboard converters.... but from time to time a live-recording job requiring only the recorder will pop up, and then high quality converters would come in handy...


There are a few questions I would very much like if someone could shed some light on:

1. Is it possible to exchange the drivebay (not just the caddies but the bay itself) with another type from a computer store, so that you could have a matching bay in you computer? This is most important with the second drive, that would be used for transferring WAV-files to the computer, but it would also be nice to have the opportunity of using cheaper caddies for main-drives...

2. How well does 2 D2424LV's sync up and/or how well does the D2424LV sync to incoming MTC? And how long is the lock-up time? This is essential to me, as I'm planning on getting two of whatever machine I decide to go with. I've heard someone write about problems with a D2424LV syncing to MTC..... Anyone know anything about this?

I probably have a lot of other questions that I can't remember at the moment, this will do for now.....

Thanks for any info!!!
Click to expand...

The Fostex D2424LV is the one I have. I sync it to cakewalk all the time. It has never failed at all. I forget it is there. The Mackie works like a PC and fragments the drive. The HD gets worse with time (like a PC). When you record, the HD is accessed too much adding noise. I don't know if they fixed this. The Fostex does not fragment the drive (through their special operating system) and is very efficient and quiet. I love the thing. It sounds excellent and works flawlessly.
 
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