rob.williams Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Does anyone know where I can hire a Alesis HD24XR 24 Ch Multitrack Recorder from. I'm based in Cambridgeshire and need it for a weeks hire. Budget is not great either for it. Need to record a 16 piece band live but having indiviual instruments recorded Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slammin Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I know that this doesn't answer your question exactly but you can buy the model below the one you spec'ed for about £700 less http://www.dv247.com/search/0/0/ProductQua...ng/Alesis+HD/1/ I've not used the unit but I have heard good things, one thing everyone has said though is that the fireport add on is a must otherwise its really slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Riley Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 SFL group have some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I recall our very own Rob Beech use to hire them out - a PM to him may sort you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveh Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 We run HD24 but I don't think hire would be viable logistically with yourself in Cambridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killyp Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 A heads up with the HD24: the official software for Mac is useless, and I've struggled to get the FTP server to work properly. HD24connect worked beautifully for me if you're Mac based. I believe the PC tool works fine though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 dont they have removable drive caddies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevefez Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 dont they have removable drive caddies? Yes, but we found Firewire was the easiest way to get data off of them. Depends on your situation, but often FTP is too much hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim b Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 dont they have removable drive caddies? Yes, but we found Firewire was the easiest way to get data off of them. Depends on your situation, but often FTP is too much hassle. The reason the Fireport is a must is that the data is in a proprietary format so, whilst removing disk caddies is good for transport/only taking home the files, you need to decode the data before it's any use outside the HD24. With the fireport it is a rock solid system both for live recording and multitrack playback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I see, okay. I just assumed alesis used an off the shelf partition type, recording wavs. is FTP honestly useless, or just a pain to set up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter F Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I see, okay. I just assumed alesis used an off the shelf partition type, recording wavs. is FTP honestly useless, or just a pain to set up? It's sssssssllllllllllloooooooowwwwwww. The ethernet port is 10 base.The ftp is not very reliable. I've also heard good things about HD24Tools on the PC (link up there somewhere). Great machine apart from that. Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Hi, Thanks for the mention Shez. PM Sent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick7076 Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I can recomend the HD24 connect software for PC. The ftp setup on the machine is simple but as mentioned is slow and unreliable. I failed to get any of 24 tracks off. You cannot simply connect an HD24 formatted disk to your PC or MAC as the file system is Alesis's own. A PC will simply see the disk as unformatted.The HD Connect software can read a PC mounted Alesis disk though.File transfer is simple drag n drop.You are not restricted to the file stucture as saved to disk, you can edit locate points etc once the disk is mounted in your PC.The software is donateware as well! I am not affiliated in any way just very impressed with the program that I found following links from this forum! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solstace Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Going OT in response to others who have pointed out potential "gotcha's" with this particular recorder... Biggest tip really is to allow time, and make sure you take and (ideally work from) a backup - whatever the computing platform you'll use to get to the data. Last time I used one of these units in May, I recorded to one drive and used the HD24 to back up to another. Effectively the backup I think ran at 1-2x realtime for 24 tracks at 48KHz. Having verified the integrity of the backup I sent the original drive back with the machine to its owner (both for resilience and so they had the data for their own use) and then used HD24Connect on my Mac the next day to extract AIFF's to my DAW. Using this method I was able to forgo the usual answer of "use the Fireport" as the third-party software was able to mount the drive from one of my IcyBox 3.5" drive enclosures, both over USB or Firewire. Total transfer time for the 90 minutes of recording time I think worked out to around four hours. Prior to this more recent experience I found that FTP can be persuaded to work, provided you have LOTS of time (10-20 hours to transfer a full gig-length recording was not uncommon) and can set it up with a static IP on your network. It will still fall over when you're not looking though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolley1466 Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 A heads up with the HD24: the official software for Mac is useless, and I've struggled to get the FTP server to work properly. HD24connect worked beautifully for me if you're Mac based. I believe the PC tool works fine though... I've personally for the transfer quite easy but the software can be a bit hard to get around! Edit - Mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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