Alesis HD24..opinions?

[invisiblemike]

I'm considering replacing my ADAT's with the new HD24 Hard disk thing.....anybody use this yet?.........pro's and con's?

Mike:confused:

[Ted]

They haven't started shipping yet, so the only people who have used them thus far have been using prototypes. I believe Roger Nichols used one and was fairly impressed with one. As for pros and cons, as far as specs and features are concerned...it's got quite a bit going for it. 24-bit analog and digital I/O built in; inexpensive, hot-swappable drives; ADAT sync built in; and of course, a great price. Where it doesn't quite meet up to other machines of its type is mainly in the way it writes data to the hard drive; it writes it in a linear fashion, similar to tape, so while you can edit on it it's either across all the channels or nothing (kind of similar to the way you'd cut tape with a razor blade). You can't cut, say, the vocals only from the first chorus of a song and paste them into the second chorus. Also, when you're recording on a nonlinear system, if you have a part...say a guitar solo...that's only thirty seconds out of a three-minute song, it only takes up thirty seconds' worth of disk space rather than the full three minutes (about 3 3/5 MB instead of 22 1/2 at 24 bits). On the Alesis it will take the full amount of space, again like tape. Roger Nichols pointed out that this could make it more reliable, although the current crop of recorders seem to be very reliable anyhow.

We'll know more from first-hand experience when they start shipping.

-Ted

[SR1200]

I was waiting too..... I went with the Mackie HDR24/96.... I dont think i will ever look back!!! This is quite possibly the BEST thing i ever purchased for the studio! AMAZING! (check out the MDR if the HDR is out of your proce range!) At least you can actually try them out!!! Who knows when the HD24 will be available in quantity!