The last time I looked at the Mackie, it was still "vaporware" but Tascam's machine is available today and from what I've heard it rocks. I spoke with a very reputable engineer in Nashville that has been tracking on the Tascam and he swears by it. It has a hot-swappable Kingston drive and an integrated DDS back-up drive. There is also a computer port that allows a PC to be connected for visual editing with the included software.

24 tracks at 24bit/96k. Kingston 18G drives can be had for under $400 a piece. This is truly going to be a breakthrough product.

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Richards Outpost Audio
"Ain't Life Grand?"

As of at leat 1/8/2001 (Jan 8th, the week there of), the HDR is shipping in quantity, so it's no longer vaporware!!

DISCLAIMER: I haven't used either the Tascam or the Mackie, what follows is merely speculation.

From what I understand, the major difference between the Tascam and the Mackie is the software interface. The Mackie uses the same OS as their Digital 8 Bus, which is design purely and simply for Audio whereas the Tascam uses a nasty looking Java client (anyone in the software industry should know that Java is the last languange on earth to use for an application that is required to be responsive, I know this first hand 'cos I work for a company that uses Java exclusively).

Just my 2 cents

The Mackie does not use Sound Designer files with timestamps. With my Tascam, I can do a project to an external drive, and then plug the drive into my protools rig. Import all the audio files, spot them to the original timestamp, and voila! My entire project is now in ProTools. The Mackie cannot do that.

Furthermore, the Mackie only has 24 channels of I/O-- 3 sets of 8, EITHER analog or digital. The Tascam can handle 24 analog I/Os and 24 digital I/Os in the same box, which means you don't have to open up the Mackie chassis when you want to suddenly have 16 digital inputs and 8 analog inputs where you had the opposite before. Stupid design.

The Tascam box is robust and powerful. I would highly recommend it if you do any interfacing with the outside world. The Mackie is more like a home studio closet case. (Although I agree the Java software interface is pretty weak compared to the Mackie OS software interface, it hasn't bugged me too much-- hardly worth noting when you consider all the other crap the Mackie will put you through).

Thats great if you want to import into protools but if you don't have or need to use protools it really is no big deal.I had the tascam for 6 months and traded it in for the mackie.Yes having both analog and digital IO is nice but you still have to pay for it.The software was terrible and buying the scsi drives and kingston accesories was very expensive for my taste.I just got 2 30 gig drives and 3 carriers for the cost of one 10000 rpm scsi cheetah.The ide drives have been no problem at all and yes it does record 24 at a time.I thought the whole smartmedia thing was a pain and didn't work half the time.Had to get 2 cards from them before it would even work.The editing features work great on the mackie and it does all the necessary functions that you would need in an editor all on board.Backing up to another drive is much faster than on the tascam.Formatting a drive takes about 20 seconds instead of 25 minutes on the tascam.The eithernet works fine and I can network to my computer in no time at all.I know the tascam supports other file types and timestamping but it is only a matter of time before mackie implements those features into their machine.There are 2 more open slots in the box for what ever they might be thinking of and since they acquired sydek/soundscape I can only imagine what is in store.This is only my opinion since I have owned both of these machines.I am much happier with the mackie.Since I am going into the machine digitally I can not tell you which one sounds better they both sound the same.I have not heard the analog converters for either machine.The mackie is way more intuitive to use as well.I can concentrate on the job instead of the machine.The mackie also passes mmc out of the midi out where the tascam did not so if I sync something up it responds to the transport.The word clock seems to be more stable as well.Like I said I don't hate the tascam I just like the mackie much more.

Im new to professional engineering but I am really enjoying the MaCKIE HDR 24/96.... It's ease of use for a bass player makes my days better. My brother has the tascam,and he is just as happy. I think the mackie is more stable form the os standpoint. THe only thing I've had problems with was importing multiple files to another project.that's why I am here... looking for help on that.

Hi zuess..

Glad to hear you're happy with your HDR. I'm expecting mine shortly :cool:

Look for the Universal Audio card to be implemented here (nothing official yet ..just what I've heard)

Iv got my macki hdr 24/96.the frist yr they came out. still works fine.........Love it.....