Recording live events for training

[Solstace]

Hi guys!

 

Here's an interesting one... I'm looking for a suitable unit to record live services and events for training and perhaps further distribution (copyright clearance pending, of course). The unit should:

• Be rack-mountable
  
• Have simple front-panel controls
  
• (Optionally a remote control)
  
• Feature "full" 24 channel I/O, able to record at least 44.1KHz 24-bit - able to record/play 24 channels of analogue.
  
• Use commonly-available media (Parallel-IDE hard drives are surely on their way out of the market by now?)
  
• Either be networkable (at high speed) or have some other easy connectivity to a computer for remote mixing/playback in software - preferrably out of the box
  

So I'm seeing only two products on the market - the Alesis ADAT-HD and the Fostex D2424(LV), both of which seem to rely on Parallel-IDE drives. With the other players in this market (Tascam and Mackie) effectively having walked away from the table, I can't help but feel this market is being discontinued in favour of more modern computer-based workstations using external interfaces.

 

If I'm about to blow £1K on a recorder, I don't want to find I can't easily buy media in years to come. I don't want to commit to a computer-based (Mac/PC) solution as this is likely to be less reliable than a rack-mounted standalone box. The computer side of the operation will be to receive files from the recorder (in some suitable format) and to mix in software, which for both demonstration and controlled self-training purposes should work very well.

 

I like the concept of the Alesis machine, however I don't like having to pay another £150 or thereabouts to buy an adaptor to be able to read the files at a decent lick of speed (as I've previously moaned, the 10mbps Ethernet combined with a slow, flaky FTP server hasn't endeared this machine to me!). I'm not yet convinced that the Fostex machine is either any newer or better (in design, future-proofing or manufacturer support).

 

Is what I'm after too difficult or rare a task? Or am I simply not looking hard enough?

[paulears]

There are a few places that sell the firstore a bit cheaper - here

 

Data transfer is the only problem I have had with the HD24, having had it for a couple of years now. To be honest, it lives in my live rack and I use computer systems back at base. If buying new, then you can get the HD24 and the drive for less than a grand. The fact they come up rarely on eBay is a good indication people hang on to them.

[Shez]

There's also software out there (legitimate & free) that lets you mount an Alesis FST formated drive on a PC and pull the files off it directly. If cost is an issue, you won't do better than a free solution :D

 

I picked up my HD24 on eBay a few years ago; it's been rock solid for me and I can't really say anything bad about it.

 

Link to HD24tools software.

 

Edited to add link

[mervaka]

yeah, I found the ftp server on the mackie to be a nightmare :D I think I ended up slinging the drive straight into my pc and reading off that.

 

EDIT: Whats the Alesis like for ethernet transfer?

[Shez]

EDIT: Whats the Alesis like for ethernet transfer?

 

10Mbps = slooooooooow. Hangs now & again whilst transferring too. In the absence of any other solution it can be managed but it's far from ideal.

[mervaka]

damn.. they really need to bring out an eSATA based multitrack recorder

[Shez]

damn.. they really need to bring out an eSATA based multitrack recorder

I wouldn't hold my breath. I can't see there being a problem getting hold of EIDE drives for a few years yet. They're plenty fast enough for 24 track recorders so there's little advantage from that perspective in using SATA. Plenty of devices use them besides computers and as they have a finite lifespan, I suspect they'll be available for a fair while. Prices might go up though as they become more niche

[mervaka]

I was thinking more for the purposes of being able to simply unplug the drive from the recorder, and plug it back into a pc. I say eSATA because of the 3Gb/s bandwidth available.