MX2424/Mac compatibility

The new Tascam MX2424 is a very promising 24 track hard disk recording system. These units are just starting to become available, and we expect quantities to be shipping within the month. One of the big attractions to this machine is its HFS file compatibility with the Macintosh (it actually reads and writes Sound Designer II files). You can literally move physical hard drives between the two platforms, which produces easily the most elegant way to track on one machine and then move the files (tracks) to a Pro Tools or other similar system for editing. No AES transfers that require thousands of dollars of hardware. Very cool. There is one catch, however, that you should know early in the game (hence this early Tech Tip on a new product). We’ve learned in our early testing that in order for this hard drive swapping to work you must format the drives on a Mac. If you format them on the MX2424, Mac drivers will not be installed and the drive will never be recognized by a Mac. If you’ve already done this you will have to reformat it on a Mac. Tascam may eventually resolve this little problem in their software, but since anyone who needs this feature probably has access to a Mac it’s not a high priority. You simply need to know about it before you fill up your drive with critical recordings.