Hey all! I've been using an Aardvark Q10 and Aark24 to record stuff for the past couple years, and while I've been very happy with the operation of the soundcards themselves, I've been unable to keep the computer system itself running smoothly. That, combined with the opportunity of doing live music recording, is making me consider selling my soundcards on Ebay and getting a one-piece recorder to take their place.
I've been looking at Yamaha's AW4416, Roland's VS2400, and Mackie's HDR24/96. What else is out there? What's your experience with any/all of these? I need to be able to record 16 channels of 24bit simultaneously, but I'll be manipulating them all on my DAW so once I acquire the tracks all I'll need is to export them to DAW, which is the easy part. Most of these will either burn the files to a CD or, in the case of the Mackie, have a removeable HD that I can just drop into the computer.
Let me know what you think of this. I'd have to come up with around $2k, so I've got some time to think...
Thanks!
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Why not keep the Q10 and the other one, and fix your computer?
Why not keep the Q10 and the other one, and fix your computer? Pop in an ABit or Asus nForce powered board, 512mb of DDR, and a modest XP-2500 processor, and you are good to go.
Flat screen LCD monitors are easy to move around and don't take up much space.
I have one Q10 and want to add another for my live performance rig, so I can have 16 tracks.
The only units in $2K range are the Alesis HD24 and the SDR Mack
The only units in $2K range are the Alesis HD24 and the SDR Mackie...the best as sheet mentioned would be the Radar...I'm assuming you know that you will need a board of some sort with the harddisk's(hd24 radar etc)the standalones come with a surface built in and most have moving faders and heavy duty editing available.You will sacrifice some sonic quality for these added toys.For $2k, I would get a new computer and another Q10 card.
First lets break these into two distinct catagories: Portable
First lets break these into two distinct catagories:
Portable Desktop Studios (Yamaha, Roland, Boss, Akai, Zoom, Tascams etc.,)
These units have a smaller amount of analog I/O vs. tracks, and are an "all in one" box. You get what you pay for. That's all that I am going to say. The only two that I have personal experience with are the Yamaha's and the Rolands. Sonically, I would take the Yamaha's. But, back-ups are a long tedious process.
Modular Digital Multitrack Recorders (Tascam MX2424, Mackie SDR and HDR-24, iZ Radar Project D, Alesis Adat HD24 and Adat HD24/96, etc.
The Mackie SDR is a buggie embedded OS recorder. It is not expandable. It is cheap. I would take the Alesis over the Mackies. Alesis has had virtually no probs, and there are more drive options for you. The Mackie HDR is a Celeron 433 computer with 128MB of Ram, running a buggie OS, which currently limits your hard drive size to 30GB. Mackie is working on it. You could build a better system than this. This is where I would take a Tascam MX2424, for sonics and reliability. To edit, you will need a computer though. That leaves the iZ Radar, the professionals choice. I say that because there are more of these in pro facilities. Go to Nashville, and you will find them everywhere. They use BeOSm which was developed for music, which is a stable OS. The converters sound great, and the buffer is so large, that you can use slower, cheaper IDE drives.
It all depends on your tastes and how you work. Try them for yourself. I prefer the Radar. If I can't rent one, then I go for the Tascam MX2424. If that is not an option, then an Alesis. I never use the Mackies anymore, as I have always had to work more with getting the machine to work, than recording/mixing.
If I had to have an all-in-on box, I would have to go to GC and play for a while.