Alesis HD24XR

jlizard

New member
I am in processing of deciding to buy an Alesis HD24XR with fireport interface.

My sole purpose of this unit is to Multitrack a band from gig to gig mostly from analog boards with front of board room mics with a mic preamp/ and or A/D at either 24/48, or 24/96. I then would import these audio files into my home PC and use Nuendo for editing.

Is there any major issues with unit verses the standard HD24? I would prefer the 24/96 cababilities since my room mics can use an external 24/96 A/D converter.

What are the real advantages of the HD24XR over the HD24? Reviews tend to rate the HD24 better than the HD24XR on the internet.

My other question is while using the ADAT inputs of the unit. If I am only using only a stereo pair at 24/96 (4 channels via ADAT connection), are the other analog channels able to be used for the 10 channels for 24/96 recording?

Since the HD24XR has the analog 24/96 upgrade, are youa ble to record more then 12 channels at 24/96 via analog connections?


Any help would be appreciated.

I was comparing this unit to the fotex HD2424LV but appears the fostex has some file transferring issues because of FAT16 formatting. Is the Alesis ADAT HD24XR superior to the Fostex DVDV24LV?
 
You should eliminate the Fostex HD2424LV due to the FAT16 .wav issues.

The XR has newer generation converters compared to the HD24 and records 12 tracks of 24/96 thru the analog I/O. The HD24 can record 12 tracks at 24/96 thru the lightpipe I/O only. I don't know if the XR can mix digital and analog I/O in at 24/96.

You'll find more reviews for the HD24 because it's been out longer than the XR machine. Some people don't need 24/96, the 24/44.1 or 48 recording is fine for them.

Prices on both units are lower recently. If you can find the XR below $2K it might be a better choice as the technology is newer.
You won't be disappointed with either unit.
 
hard drive

Does anyone have the approved Alesis hard drive list for the ADAT HD24XR unit?

I was wondering if I am able to save different sessions on the back up driveand or main drive?

For instance, I use a 120GB EIDE ATA-4 compatible drive for drive one for the multi-track recording. The recording uses only 18GB. Am I able to save just the 18Gb to the 2nd hot swappable drive that may have 20GB?

Second if I record a second multitrack recording on the same 120 GB drive after the first recording, am I able to save the 2nd recording after the 1st recording on the back up drive if I used a 40Gb drive rather than a 20Gb drive? Am I able to record a second recording on the main drive before having to back up the first recording?

I record shows alot of time on the road in sequence and need to know if I have to back up each recording afterwards, and need to know if I can back up the recordings one after another on the back drive. I would prefer to have 1 120Gb back up drive rather than 6 20GB back up drives if possible and say for example save 5 different session recordings to the back up drive. Also am I able to record multiple sessions on the main drive or do I have to back up the recording each time I perform a recording, or will each recording follow the prvious on on the main drive.

Any help would be appreicated
 
jlizard,

If the 24XR unit is like the 24, you don't actually run a "backup" routine to copy songs from one drive to another... you just use a "copy song" feature and copy the songs over.

Therefore your two drives can be different sizes.

For example... I had two different size drives in my machine when I first got it... I copied some basic tracks from my tape based adats to the #2 drive (the larger one).

I then used the #1 for the daily recording.... at the end of each day I'd copy the "newest" version of the songs from #1 to #2...

So drive #1 looked like this:

song 1
song 2
song 3
song 4 etc.

And drive #2 looked like this:

original tracks of song 1
original tracks of song 2
original tracks of song 3
original tracks of song 4
session 1 of song 1
session 1 of song 2
session 1 of song 3
session 1 of song 4
session 2 of song 1
session 2 of song 2
session 2 of song 3
session 2 of song 4
session 3 of song 1
session 3 of song 2
session 3 of song 3
session 3 of song 4 etc...

You can keep doing this until you run out of space on the drive.

Velvet Elvis
 
jlizard said:

Is there any major issues with unit verses the standard HD24?

- None that I have ever heard of. Essentially, they are the same units other than the AD/DA converters.

What are the real advantages of the HD24XR over the HD24? Reviews tend to rate the HD24 better than the HD24XR on the internet.

- The only advantages of the XR is the ability to record up to 24/96 via analog inputs whereas the HD24 can only record that sample rate through the ADAT inputs.


Since the HD24XR has the analog 24/96 upgrade, are youa ble to record more then 12 channels at 24/96 via analog connections?

- No. The available tracks are reduced to 12 when in 88.2 and 96 sample rates.

I was comparing this unit to the fotex HD2424LV but appears the fostex has some file transferring issues because of FAT16 formatting. Is the Alesis ADAT HD24XR superior to the Fostex DVDV24LV?

- The Alesis is far more superior to the Fostex. If your really want an honest opinion from experienced professionals, give the guys at Sweetwater a call. They'll steer you in the right direction.

 
Xr

Hi,

If you can spend the money go for the XR. I have an Tascam DM24, so I can go from there in 24/96. But the convertors of the XR are awsome.

Years ago I tracked with a Philips DCC with 106 S/N ratio, at that time it blew me away. The XR has 112 db signal to noise ratio wich is way much better. You will have more headroom and you sound will have more depth. You will hear it when using proper mikes.

I recorded loads of shows with the HD24 and it has become one of my most trusted pieces of gear. I would allso buy an fireport with it aswell, it will come in handy.

A tip. Never record longer than 1,5 hours. You'll need to record longer? Make more songs on the drive in advance. Because you can't transferr files longer than two GB to pc using the fireport cause it doesn't support wav64 (wich uses multiple 2gb files and 'stiches' them together.

Regards,


Frans
 
I love my HD24XR. One of the smartest pieces of equipment I've ever owned. It sounds great, is easy to use, reliable and fairly cost effective. The swappable drives work great.

The *only* issue with some people is that you need a serious mixer to get the most out of an HD24. Make sure to research a mixer that will fit your needs with the HD24... generally most 24/8 machines tend to do the trick nicely. I use an Allen & Heath System 8 248 myself; the A&H is new and I haven't used it to record yet so I can't give any hard analysis of the pairing but in theory it looks like it will go off well.
 
alesis 16 track [24 bit]

sorry about the intrusion,im new,...not a great excuse i know,...but i really need to know where to go to find info on alesis multitrack hd recorders,...24hd is too expensive for me, also 24 tracks is too many ,..looking for older models 16 tracks[24 bit],.i dont want the all in one mix/recorder, with built in effects n drum sounds+ processers,..just a 16 stand alone hd recorder to plug my mixer into,..cheers,dobrocop.:):confused:
 
I have the HD24 for recording our church worship services and I like it, I record at 24/44 to save space, but sometimes 24/48 if I want to do something of better quality. The transferring is a pain because of the ethernet connection, so I would look into getting a card for optical transfer if you plan to move all the files to your computer.

I used to transfer by connecting the HD24 to my computer through my router, but unit has problems with DHCP protocol, so it would always freeze up in the transferring process. So I just got a crossover cable to connet the HD24 directly to my computer and that works good, but still too slow for me. I'm so used to firewire now!! Aaargh!

But, it is a convenient machine. I like it!
 
I'm surprised to see this four year old thread pop back to life. :)

First of all, if you need information on the HD24, join the HD24 discussion group on Yahoo: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hd24/ - it is very active and very full of knowledgeable people.

Secondly, for transferring files to/from the HD24, you'll really want to use the Alesis Fireport, or perhaps a generic equivalent. With the right hardware and software, you can easily transfer a lengthy recording to your DAW in just a few minutes.

While it's possible to transfer via a lightpipe board, it is slower and a lot more trouble than the Fireport.
 
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