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Alesis HD24 + Mac(snow lep) or Windows xp + Crossover cable


Alex222

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Hi,

 

Basically this is my first time using the Alesis HD24, all went fine recording all the tracks and that sort of thing, was straight forward.

 

BUT: then I started to try the FTP transfer to get the tracks off. I have spent about 2 hours with both my MacBook Pro (snow leopard) and my Windows (xp).

 

I am connecting them directly to each other using the crossover cable.

 

Now, the manual is of no help as it doesn't cover new mac's and does not cover above windows 98! and has been of little help.

 

 

Could anybody give a simple step by step guide on how to use the FTP please on either the mac or xp!

 

alex.

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I haven't personally used the recorder but I just looked on their website and in the specifications it states that the ethernet port is only "10 Base-T Ethernet (RJ-45)" which means it can only reach up to a maximum of 10 megabits per secound. This is quite slow (the original ethernet used I think). Again I don't use any recorder like this but I assume that as it mentions that the hard drives are just standard IDE or simular drives then you should be able to, just dock them as a normal hard drive using a usb or firewire cable to IDE or whatever is being used. These can cost just a few quid normally off the usal websites. The only one problem that I could see is that they are formatted in a strange format, both windows and Mac OS X should be able to at least read the data but might not be able to write/delete the files nativly.

 

Hope this helps at all.

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The ethernet transfer isn't the most reliable system on the planet. And also very slow.

I'm not sure why you'd have problems though - it's just standard networking, no different to getting any other networked devices to talk to each other. Set the IP etc on the HD24 and point your browser / ftp client at that address. I've managed it on XP and linux without a problem; the choice of computer / OS really shouldn't matter.

 

You can't plug the drive straight in to a computer as it uses a proprietary file system that isn't readable directly. However, the excellent HD24tools will let you plug it in and transfer the files. This is the route I'd recommend as it's far faster and more reliable.

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The ethernet transfer isn't the most reliable system on the planet. And also very slow.

I'm not sure why you'd have problems though - it's just standard networking, no different to getting any other networked devices to talk to each other. Set the IP etc on the HD24 and point your browser / ftp client at that address. I've managed it on XP and linux without a problem; the choice of computer / OS really shouldn't matter.

 

You can't plug the drive straight in to a computer as it uses a proprietary file system that isn't readable directly. However, the excellent HD24tools will let you plug it in and transfer the files. This is the route I'd recommend as it's far faster and more reliable.

Hi, I managed to get the ftp route to work, however I see what you mean about the speed.. far to slow and cut's out occasionally ;)

 

Im, downloading the HD24tools, as I type.. so I will let you know how it goes! :oops:

 

thanks

alex.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Im, downloading the HD24tools, as I type.. so I will let you know how it goes! :rolleyes
:

Fantastic that worked! what a handy bit of software!

 

Thanks,

alex.

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I've never had luck with that HD24 transfer, it really does take a long long time...I've let it transfer for 5 days before to get a weekends festival recordings off it.

 

Most of the time, if possible, I've ended up playing the recordings through the outputs and back into a motu interface connected to the mac.

 

After years of trying, if anyone has an answer to the transfer over ethernet, I'll be very grateful aswell.

 

Simon

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I've never had luck with that HD24 transfer, it really does take a long long time...I've let it transfer for 5 days before to get a weekends festival recordings off it.

 

Most of the time, if possible, I've ended up playing the recordings through the outputs and back into a motu interface connected to the mac.

 

After years of trying, if anyone has an answer to the transfer over ethernet, I'll be very grateful aswell.

 

Simon

Ditto really, very very slow, if nothing else.

I think we ended up using a Firewire interface of some description... can't remember what it was called though.

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Alesis make the Fireport, which is a FW400 interface for the HD24. It's not about dumping dozens of GBs of .wavs onto a computer at 10mbps! Failing that a generic hard drive with HD24Tools is supposed to be good, but not something I've personally tried.
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HD24Tools is the sensible way - I did a transfer via the network, just once! Never again. The only annoying thing with the HD24 is that it records in blocks of 8 tracks, so as I found a day or two ago, you find 8 tracks, with a sensible at the time label, but means nothing now - and you want to have a listen - then loading a 1G plus file in parts is a long winded way of discovering on playback the track is 1Gb of emptyness! I backup old data on a network drive, so pulling the 8 tracks onto a local drive took overnight, only to discover they contained not a lot! So with the HD24 you do need to be accurate with labels and make notes of what tracks really were active and what they were to save time later.
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Another HD24Tools fan here. I've used it with several generic USB and Firewire caddies, and it has always performed very nicely. The caveat was that I needed to move the bare drives around from their Alesis-branded caddy (spares are apparently available from other manufacturers if you know what you're looking for) to the enclosures I had to hand. Even so, the process was fast enough to get the recordings onto our internal network at the end of the gig (about 3 hours' worth of 24-track recording), and then get the HD24 out the door with the rest of the hired kit later that same night.

 

Seems to me that Alesis themselves have shown little concern about the stability of the FTP server in their box - their answer being to spend the money on their Fireport solution - which from my last research a year ago wasn't working on Mac OS 10.5.x or above. I believe XP is supported, but no idea for Vista or above.

 

Looks like the "free" answer is also the most supported!

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It's probably worth noting here that the Fireport isn't "plug and play" - you also need to install the software on the computer you are transferring to. Without that, the computer won't be able to read the disc, and will ask to format it. Don't do what one of our customers did and click "OK"!
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Alesis make the Fireport, which is a FW400 interface for the HD24. It's not about dumping dozens of GBs of .wavs onto a computer at 10mbps! Failing that a generic hard drive with HD24Tools is supposed to be good, but not something I've personally tried.

Well for my first time using the alesis, I was disappointed with the ethernet crossover transfer method.

 

But the HD24tools, was amazing! 24 tracks (each track 3 hours) sent over in less than 20mins!

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