searching for an HDR

[kayagum]

Thinking about getting a standalone hard disk recorder. Of course, if I'm willing to take out a 2nd mortgage, an Otari Radar would be cool. But I'm thinking pretty basic.

Choices: Mackie SDR, Alesis HD24, Fostex closeout 24 trk, Tascam MX2424.

I want to use this as a tracking rig, and maybe dump it into Cool Edit Pro for mixdown or editing. So, editing features are not that important to me, and I do care about A/D quality and reliability of software. Cost benefit ratio important too. Storage and exporting data important too.

Also, any word on Mackie closing out the HDR/MDR/SDR series?

Any experience or feedback would be great.

[hurricaneE]

Jim Williams of AUdio Upgrades has an upgrade for the Alesis HD24 (with the fancier, new convereters) that, according to Jim, beats a RADAR in taste tests. The cost for the upgrade is $750. The converters themselves cost, like, $850, and you can find the HD25 for $1500 pretty easily, That means $3100 for something in the RADAR ball park (and better than RADAR if you share Jim's opinion). People seem to like th HD24 stock, too -E

[uqbar]

Whose taste tests? One thing I've always wondered is, if the reason that everyone loves Radar's sound is owed to the fact that they are always being compared to ProTools rigs. Has anyone here done a side by side with Radar and anything else besides PT?

mark

[hurricaneE]

Whose taste tests? One thing I've always wondered is, if the reason that everyone loves Radar's sound is owed to the fact that they are always being compared to ProTools rigs. Has anyone here done a side by side with Radar and anything else besides PT?

mark

Jim's taste tests. Most people do seem to prefer RADAR to other stand-alone HDRs, although by how much varies. -E

[cassembler]

I'll take stock RADAR converters over those in a D8B, an Echo Layla (which are still good converters), and a Mackie HDR.

I use an HDR, used to use a RADAR. Only thing I miss about the RADAR is the converters... the controller had a nice "steel" feel to it as well. The Mackie outperforms RADAR v1.2 (a now obsolete version) 99% of the time, and the drives are cheaper (ATA vs SCSI)

CAUTION: the HDR has a bug that only allows drives up to 32 GB... Else, you have to jumper the drive to under 32 GB. The SDR and MDR (or whatever) don't have that problem.

EDIT: I'd venture to bet that most of the units you listed above will fit your needs nicely, as long as you're not using five or six-digit valued outboard gear...

[tbstudios]

CAUTION: the HDR has a bug that only allows drives up to 32 GB... Else, you have to jumper the drive to under 32 GB. The SDR and MDR (or whatever) don't have that problem.

Minor correction: The SDR is the only unit that is not limited to the 32GB or smaller drive.

I have great results with the MDR from Mackie. They have discontined the MDR but continue to manufacture the HDR and SDR. Mackie is making a heavy push towards the DAW market so at some point they will discontinue the hard disk line but not as of right now.

As for the RADAR, I've never used one but did read up on them when researching for the Mackie. Seems somewhat behind in the technology side of the spectrum. (the board, the drives, the memory, etc...) The Mackie's are pretty much that way now too with possibly a minor acception of the SDR. People do rave about the converters on the RADAR and on that I cannot comment. I recorded once in a studio with the Tascam unit and it seemed to be a very nice setup. (sound, useability, features) Of course it's a little more on the pricey side too.

[Meriphew]

I have a Mackie MDR unit. Pretty cool all around and very simple to use. I'll prolly pick up a RADAR unit when I start my next project though.

[mellowtune]

Hope this isn't considered spam, but if you decide to go the Mackie MDR route, I'm selling mine. See the buy & sell section. Thanks.

[ahmedgarcia]

http://www.planesong.com/forum/viewtopi ... f049126067

Here is an MX2424, with the anologe cards and any digital I/O you want. All for $3K. This is a great deal.

[multitracker]

On a whim I purchased the Alesis HD24. Price was right, sounds great, easy to use. IDE drives are cheap. I think an 80GB drive gives you like 9.7HRS of 24-tracks at 48KHz. Never had any troubles. This unit has been very good to me.

[pscottm]

i think the radar convertors sound good but to me metric halo convertors sound better. i use them both on a regular basis. IMHO, the radar is a PITA unless you're doing straight tracking. it claims to be great for editing but i beg to differ. still, nice machine, just overpriced! i'd be real curious to check out the hill/alesis thing.

[silversound]

The Alesis has the most bang for the buck! But the Tascam has a good rep in the post world. Mackie is great but I would be careful making large Mackie purchases while there in such deep finacial water. However Mackies service has a good track record. Whatever you get make sure you have Broadcast wav (time stamped files) abilities!

[cassembler]

IMHO, the radar is a PITA unless you're doing straight tracking. it claims to be great for editing but i beg to differ.

PITA= pain in the ass? (just curious)

Well, I gotsta defend the Radar for a second. The Radar is a machine that's designed, for all intents and purposes, to function like 2" tape. That includes the editing, which most people will agree is "unsophisicated" if you need to, say, replace every kick drum instance with a chicken sound.

But, for those who actually had to splice 2", the Radar's editing was 100% intuitive and made fantastic sense, down to "rocking" back and forth to find an attack.

Most other HDR's can do about the same thing, but Radar's interface demanded that you knew exactly what you were doing by listening, not by visually looking at the first 3ms of a kick drum.

But you are correct: the Radar's editing, by today's DAW standards, is not as flexible. Sorry for the rant, but I still think the Radar is one truly wonderful piece of gear, even considering there's three or four more powerful pieces of gear at half the price. You get what you pay for.

EDIT: had to learn how to spell.

[rhythm ranch]

A lot of talk about Radar, but our friend Kayagum has already stated that it's out of his budget.

So... I used the Alesis HD24 on a project about a month ago. I thought it was extremely easy to get around on and sounded good. The fact that you can use virtually any drive in it seems like a big plus and a good way to save $$$.

I don't know how true it is, but I've heard a lot of talk about the Mackies being discontinued, which usually means a short trip to no support.

The Tascams do seem to be popular in the post world. Plus, I know it's superficial and it's only my opinion, but I think they're just plain ugly; very low cool factor.

Mark

[cgarges]

The RADAR rocks. Try and buy one.

The HD24 is a pretty cool-sounding unit. I'm curious about the Audio Upgrades converters. That still won't help the fact that it's realy a PITA to do any editing on it. (Sorry about the RADAR comparisons, but to say that an HD24 with upgraded converters is "better" than a RADAR is in my opinion, absurd.) In my experience, the HD24 is a very stable machine and backups are very simple and take almost no time, compared to other digital formats. It is my digital format of choice, next to the RADAR.

I have had tracks just up and disappear from a Tascam MX-2424. So have two other engineers in this area. I don't have time for that. The HD24 sounds better to me, anyway.

All four of the people I know who own Mackie units have had some sort of issue with them. Some people have had to stop sesssions because of these problems and some have not. Editing appears to be fairly simple enough on them, though, and they sound fine.

Hope this helps.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC