Derik, there's been a lot of issues with the alesis adats ... search google to find them. there's going to get hard to find parts for them in the future. your best bet is to invest in a high end 2 channel converter and a different computer / software to do your 2 track recordings.

i would track and mix itb or with a summing mixer through outboard SRC to a second computer and i wouldn't compress everything. compression is like spices a little goes a long way and you wouldn't want them on everything. given you work a lot with samples and keyboard generated sounds you don't need to compress that stuff much .... it most likely was done when the sounds were sampled in the first place.

Get audiokid to guide you through this ... he and bishopdante seem to have the best grip on this topic recently.

Well my take is a little different here. I think the HD 24 XR is a fine way to go. Parts? The only part you need are some used IDE hard disk drives. 80-250 GB work out quite well. Clueless individuals keep thinking they need to purchase more drives for which yes, they are disappearing as virtually gone today. But you only need to have a couple. Of course everything blows up in time.

Of course in addition to the HD 24, you'd need a 24 input mixer in order to be able to monitor the machine. And you also need to be able to route your microphone preamps from your 24 input mixer/console to the inputs of the HD 24. So have you missed anything? You bet! Ya forgot to read a book. You sound like Jethro Bodine from the Beverly hillbillies who wants to be a Brain Surgeon and goes naïvely about his belief that he will become one because he wants to be one. And you know it's a little more difficult than that. So yes, you have forgotten most everything you need to know about. Because you ain't ready to wire up a 24 track control room/studio. I mean did you know you could actually unzip your fly to be able to conveniently go to the bathroom unlike girls? Or did you forget something? Right. The underpants. That complicates everything. And what kind of patching will you have to know about in order to access what is in your underwear having finally gotten by your fly? Don't answer that.

Now as a computer based system has been suggested to you, I don't think you're ready for that either? You don't even know the basics of where to plug a microphone in. No plug a microphone directly into a HD 24. Ain't going to happen. No can do. In your wildest dreams.

Your idea, of your system, is fairly straightforward and in the same basic way of working as we did with analog recorders, analog consoles and analog effects that were digitally powered. And folks like myself generally still like working that way.

After you get the tracks recorded, you'll then have to make another decision. And that decision as to whether to take its 24 channels of analog output or simply convert and feed the hard disk drive to a hard disk drive connected to your computer. And then the entire production can be dumped into software like ProTools, Adobe Audition, Sony Vegas, Steinberg CUE Base and plenty others. But then you have to get into the learning curve of not only using a computer but using highly specialized software in place of an entire full control room worth of equipment. And that's not going to be easy to get up to speed with. Suffice it to say, it could take you a couple of years before anybody is going to want to listen to anything you have recorded.

So ya have a number of actual options in a single option you have not exercised yet is learning anything before you decided to become a hit recording engineer. So years of schooling, trial and error, mentoring and just doing it takes time. It's not a drive-through process. You don't just pick up equipment and produce a fine professional production. Because it has nothing to do really, with the equipment. Those are just tools. It depends upon your knowledge, education and engineering expertise which, you ain't got yet.

Of course there is nothing stopping you from trying both suggestions because you're going to need to do both, well. No way around that for sure. So you might have a standalone multi-track digital recorder, console/mixer and outboard mix down machine to record your mix to. But that's only half of it. So this isn't for the faint of heart. You have to wanna be an engineer and train for it. And that doesn't simply come from just buying some equipment that you saw at the music store. You need books. You need tutorials. You need some time.

I love it when people give no thought to starting with simple entry-level stuff to gain some experience? You don't just jump into 24 track recording just because you want to. I wanna be an astronaut so all I need is a rocket ship, right? And I could buy all of these little rocket motors down at the hobby shop. So how would I use them to get to the moon? And that's what you're asking.

So go get some books on home recording. You'll find them at your local music stores and libraries sometimes. So go ahead and waste your money because you're not going to figure things out on your own. Just the fact that you want to go out and purchase a 24 track machine and know nothing about what you're doing, says, ya haven't even bothered to pick up a book or a trade publication.

Are you out of junior high school yet?
Mx. Remy Ann David