HD24 alternative?

[unc417]

I'm researching multi track recorders, and found a lot of positive reviews on the HD24. It's still listed on the Alesis site, but looking at the retailers it appears to be discontinued. I haven't found anything equivalent. I will keep an eye out for a good deal on a used HD24, but is there anything else out there similar to the HD24?

I'm looking for simple recording and playback, mostly to be used for training purposes. ADAT and analog I/O is needed as I will be using it with analog and digital foh systems. I'm not likely to use it to copy to a computer for post production mixing.
Thanks

[cmchamp]

Would any of these do the trick?
http://www.joeco.co.uk/main/index.html

[petereit]

We really like our Tascam X-48.

[tedanderson]

If you don't mind the extra space, you can go with the Alesis Adat XT-20 which is an 8 track digital recorder. You can link 3 or 4 of them together and each unit uses up 3 rack spaces.

It records on VHS tape and even though Alesis has their "special" tapes that they would prefer in their machine, you can use any decent blank VHS tape. The only downside is that the cheaper brands are thinner and may break or get tangled up inside of the machine. But if that happens, it's no big deal. Just remove the cover and untangle the tape the same way that we used to do with audio cassettes.

[tdangelo]

I second Petereit on the Tascam X48

[wogster]

Originally Posted by tedanderson

If you don't mind the extra space, you can go with the Alesis Adat XT-20 which is an 8 track digital recorder. You can link 3 or 4 of them together and each unit uses up 3 rack spaces.

It records on VHS tape and even though Alesis has their "special" tapes that they would prefer in their machine, you can use any decent blank VHS tape. The only downside is that the cheaper brands are thinner and may break or get tangled up inside of the machine. But if that happens, it's no big deal. Just remove the cover and untangle the tape the same way that we used to do with audio cassettes.

You can still buy VHS tapes?

[Tim Padrick]

Tapes are much less reliable than hard drives, and much more time consuming to back up. No way I'd go tape.

[pdc]

Originally Posted by unc417

I'm researching multi track recorders, and found a lot of positive reviews on the HD24. It's still listed on the Alesis site, but looking at the retailers it appears to be discontinued. I haven't found anything equivalent. I will keep an eye out for a good deal on a used HD24, but is there anything else out there similar to the HD24?

I'm looking for simple recording and playback, mostly to be used for training purposes. ADAT and analog I/O is needed as I will be using it with analog and digital foh systems. I'm not likely to use it to copy to a computer for post production mixing.
Thanks

The HD24 has been discontinued for a while. It is no longer supported by the company. There are several issues. It is getting next to impossible to find carriers and drives. There are a couple of guys making modified carriers, for use with current drives. The unit did sound alright. With some mods it comes close to an iZ Radar. Transferring files can be slow.

Look at the Roland unit, the JoeCo (the coolest IMO) or a used Otari Radar, iZ Radar, etc. You could always buy a computer, I/O cards and run a DAW, that way the files are already there for editing.

[pdc]

Originally Posted by tedanderson

If you don't mind the extra space, you can go with the Alesis Adat XT-20 which is an 8 track digital recorder. You can link 3 or 4 of them together and each unit uses up 3 rack spaces.

It records on VHS tape and even though Alesis has their "special" tapes that they would prefer in their machine, you can use any decent blank VHS tape. The only downside is that the cheaper brands are thinner and may break or get tangled up inside of the machine. But if that happens, it's no big deal. Just remove the cover and untangle the tape the same way that we used to do with audio cassettes.

No way. NO WAY. ADAT is totally unreliable in every way shape and form. It was a consumer SVHS transport. It did not use VHS tape. ADATs had issues when they were new, and they would most certainly have issues now. Good luck finding good tape too. PASS!!!!

[Tim Padrick]

I know someone who has a number of Mackie HDR2496 for sale if you don't want to go PC. (The HDR is a PC that does only recording and mixing.)

[tedanderson]

No way. NO WAY. ADAT is totally unreliable in every way shape and form.

Well keep in mind that the OP wanted to use the multi-track for training purposes more so than post production mixing.

Tapes are much less reliable than hard drives, and much more time consuming to back up.

I beg to differ. They are indeed more time consuming to use due to the linear transport, but for training this is perfect. As for reliability, every type of medium will fail eventually. If you lose a hard drive, you've pretty much lost everything. If a tape breaks, just simply open it up and tape it back together. Granted, you'll have an error at the repaired section but you can still salvage most of what you got.

[pdc]

Originally Posted by tedanderson

Well keep in mind that the OP wanted to use the multi-track for training purposes more so than post production mixing.



I beg to differ. They are indeed more time consuming to use due to the linear transport, but for training this is perfect. As for reliability, every type of medium will fail eventually. If you lose a hard drive, you've pretty much lost everything. If a tape breaks, just simply open it up and tape it back together. Granted, you'll have an error at the repaired section but you can still salvage most of what you got.

Why train someone with archaic technology that is hard to keep going, and hard to find media for? It is just silly and a waste of resources. Nobody uses tape much anymore, unless they are in a studio using CLASP and recycled tape as the front end for a DAW. Tape of any kind now days is a crap shoot at best.

Tape is made like root beer. The tape manufactures have consistency issues now, because the number of batches made are smaller, and fewer, because there is little demand. Most everything is going to hard drives, virtual drives, etc. now in audio and video.