The ALESIS HD24 Multitrack recorder is well known for having hard drive problems. You can fix it with just a few washers Follow me on FB : www.facebook.c...
Great idea. I have had the Alesis HD24-XR model for many years and although I use a DAW these days, I did love this unit and it worked great with the Alesis BRC for most of the BRC commands. I am actually, trying to find out if the Lightpipe connections on the back of the Alesis HD24 remain active even if not recording as I thought it would be great to use this Alesis unit as an interface (so I can continue to mix on my analog board w/outboard gear). If the Lightpipe connecters are always on (both for input and output), in theory one could use the RME Digiface USB 66 to use the the Alesis unit as a 24 in/out interface to a DAW. (The RME converts Optical to USB) I prefer to mix analog as I have a lot of vintage outboard gear and this scenario would be great. Otherwise to get all those analog inputs and outputs I would have to invest in something like an Antelope Orion 32 Gen 4 or a Ferrofish unit to get all the analog in and outs. Nice video and a great idea you came up with. I will remember your fix should I put my Alesis unit back in service. They are great units...Thanks. Phil NYC / Jersey Shore area
yeah this unit is very flexible and I wanted to use a similar setup, DAC from my digital mixing consol to the stage monitor. kinda like a modern stage box for monitor (and foh) but using adat. And it work realy good. Only issue is that adat is not great on farther distance as the cable eat's quite a bit of light.
Good Idea, I will try that. Good luck with your SATA ambitions for the HD24. There are several interfaces SATA-IDE available, and no one works with the Alesis. The only working one I know is from StarTech. Maybe the Renkforce from Conrad works too, it looks the same, but it is slightly more expensive. You can record with the StarTech to a SSD (I use a Crucial 500 GB), but my machine freezes when playing. Another guy here has a PNY SSD, maybe that works better. Sadly, said guy doesn't say anything about playback. Be aware of some level of frustration with this old one. FTP transfer is insanely slow, and it can break up for no reason, also freezing the Alesis. Direct File transfer from HDD/SSD is only possible with the free software hd24tools (PC, Mac,Linux). If you finally have a SSD working in your caddy, you don't always want to take it out from there (connectors and SSDs are fragile). So you may need an old Vipower SuperRack that has an IDE output. Additionally you need an IDE-to-USB adapter. This setup then translates SATA(SSD) to IDE (caddy+rack) to USB, but it works. Or, you need an Alesis Fireport (and of/c a PC with IEEE1394). But it is rare, and not cheap. I think, I spent a Presonus Studio Live24's worth of researching, buying tech, testing it and wishing the Alesis to Hell. And I still haven't a decent 24-track mixer. But I replace successfully the internal fan with an ultra-silent one and a grill for it ;-) It looks definitely cool... Ah, and this is 20+ years old computer tech. So don't take it to a gig, unless you have a flightcase and a second one as replacement...
Yea... Indeed, I tried some random Amazon adapter but no good results. It is detected, I can create a project but it's not writing data while recording and it ends up crashing. I was using a Samsung Evo pro SSD (because it uses SLC or MLC chip). I'm kinda désappointed by the transfer speed but at least it seams to be reliable. I just need to be extra careful to edit stereo tracks into 2 mono track. I used it multiple times for training purpose and for sound check with every good quality DACs. I will probably use it as a stage box for monitors and foh as it can be used as a adat to analog convertor. I just need to find a good quality long optical cable (witch isn't a piece of cake)
