Live Recording on Tascam X48, IZ Radar 24,new Fostex D2424LV & Alesis HD24

[JOHN]

Live Recording on Tascam X48, IZ Radar 24,the new Fostex D2424LV & Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder

Hi Gear people, the new Fostex D2424LV records on 24 tracks 24bit 96khz and costs £859.99 (inc vat)

The Alesis HD24 does 24-track, 24-bit/96kHz and cost £759.99 (inc vat)

Tascam X48 £3319.38 inc vat
The IZ Radar V, which uses computer parts also cost £13600.63 inc vat


The Question
The Alesis and Fostex are very much cheaper than the IZ Radar and Tascam so if i am doing a live recording do you think they will be great sounding and stable, what do you think?
I have searched the net and everyone is pleased with the Alesis and Fostex HD recorders
if anyone using them for live recordings please can you give feedback here.

Cheers

[JOHN]

Hi Gear People,
Please can someone post some audio samples of the new Tascam X48 and IZ radar
I would like to compare the two as the Tascam X48 is much cheaper.
If one went for the Tascam X48, a saving of £9,000 would be made, However the sound quality is important. Please post mp3 or wav files here.

Cheers

[Saudade]

Hi,

Maybe you should have moved this question to the Remote forum. The people there will be able to help you

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by JOHN

I would like to compare the two as the Tascam X48 is much cheaper.
If one went for the Tascam X48, a saving of £9,000 would be made, However the sound quality is important. Please post mp3 or wav files here.

I don't have the Tascam unit here to print audio samples of both for you... and frankly they would probably be somewhat lost in translation of MP-3 files [and .wav files would be quite a bit too large].

What I can tell you from people I know who once had an X-48 and have since switched to RADAR is that the "recording" part of the RADAR is far more stable and far less prone to crashing [which is never a good thing to happen during a live performance].

On a sonic level you might try to hire both locally and give them a listen... then talk to end users about stability of the formats.

I've been running RADAR for 7-8 or years and have only had it lock up on me once [which was during a mix session where I had a lot of gain moves programmed into the RADAR]. I once had the plug kicked out of the wall during a guitar overdub session and only lost 6 or 7 seconds of the track as RADAR prints to disk every few seconds [a handy feature to say the least].

Best of luck with your search.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Saudade

Hi,

Maybe you should have moved this question to the Remote forum. The people there will be able to help you

So, I just moved this thread to the proper forum.

Let us see how we do here.

I'm sure we have quite a few opinions about these devices.

[JOHN]

Hi Fletcher
what I know is IZ Radar also crashes and many other problems which develop over time
I have also heard major artists and producers are still looking for the original otari radar one as it sounds the best, better than the IZ RADAR 24 some people say who have used them both.
There was major problems with the IDE drive in IZ Radar 24 which damaged many live audio recordings and IZ was not able to fix the damaged audio files and the recorded files where badly corrupt forever.

Fletcher have you used the other tow machines, the Fostex D2424LV & Alesis HD24?

[muziekschuur]

The Alesis HD24 does 12 tracks at 96khz and only digital. The HD24XR can be fed analog on 12 channels when at 96khz. It's very stable and very good at what it does.

It's my understanding that slaving to movie can be difficult.

The X48 is now sold worldwide as a nice 48ch. recorder. It is stable since 1.03. And now at 1.04. I mod at Tascamforums. I have not used a X48 myself. Here on Gearslutz a guy who does audio to Movie used it with like 200 takes of 2 minutes, slaved to movie and it seemed to have difficulties. But that was at 1.02. HughH he's called here If I remember correctly.

The X48 records at 96khz on 48khz wich is great as nobody wishes to record any higher, and the difference between 48khz and 96khz is quite noticeable.

There are not many recorders wich slave easily to blackburst. The X48 can do that and is quite versatile.

Nothing els out there quite like it...

[malice]

Originally Posted by JOHN

Hi Fletcher
what I know is IZ Radar also crashes and many other problems which develop over time

what sources ? I never heard of that or experimented the phenomenon.

I know many facilities, including live recording companies that use IZ without a single problem.

I have also heard major artists and producers are still looking for the original otari radar one as it sounds the best, better than the IZ RADAR 24 some people say who have used them both.

Some people are very wrong, imho.

There was major problems with the IDE drive in IZ Radar 24 which damaged many live audio recordings and IZ was not able to fix the damaged audio files and the recorded files where badly corrupt forever.

Did you experiment this yourself ?

malice

[JOHN]

Originally Posted by malice

what sources ?


Did you experiment this yourself ?

malice

A person I meet once ago did. Do you want the run down in details?

[malice]

Originally Posted by JOHN

A person I meet once ago did.

So out of "one person you met" experience you state:

There was major problems with the IDE drive in IZ Radar 24 which damaged many live audio recordings and IZ was not able to fix the damaged audio files and the recorded files where badly corrupt forever.

Do you want the run down in details?

as a matter of facts, I do.


malice

[The Byre]

I still fear that this version of the thread is possibly a joke.

But just in case the OP is serious, he should take a look at this thread -

Tascam X48 results so far....

[Jam]

Originally Posted by The Byre

I still fear that this version of the thread is possibly a joke.

If you read some of JOHN's other threads I can see why you'd come to that conclusion.

FWIW the Radar is one of the most reliable recording systems it's been my good fortune to use.

James

[justpushplay]

Originally Posted by Jam

If you read some of JOHN's other threads I can see why you'd come to that conclusion.

FWIW the Radar is one of the most reliable recording systems it's been my good fortune to use.

James

That's been my experience so far with both of mine. I've beat mine to death trying to get them to do something stupid, but to no avail. The Energizer Bunny of hard drive recorders. And, as an added bonus, I've had Fletcher call me at home when I inquired about the 3.40 software upgrade!

Michael

[Jam]

We did a series of gigs last year in Ibiza, this was at the height of summer.

So in addition to the unbelievable heat the Radar was also exposed to the sand blowing in from the beach that was about 20 metres away.

Each gig was a set up and breakdown and after some gigs we dragged the Radar back to our tiny hotel room to mix.

The only time it missed a beat was after flights and this was mostly just the internal ethernet board shaking loose.

James

[JOHN]

Tascam say this
TASCAM

TASCAM's new X-48 is the world's first standalone 48-track Hybrid Hard Disk Workstation. Co-Developed with SaneWave, it integrates the best of both worlds: the stability and ease-of-use of a purpose-built hard disk recorder, with the GUI, editing features and plug-in compatibility of a computer-based digital audio workstation.

It boasts up to 96kHz/24-bit recording across all 48 tracks. Its file compatibility and synchronization surpass even the TEC Award-winning MX-2424, with native Broadcast WAVE audio file support and AAF export for compatibility with workstations like Pro Tools®, Nuendo and Logic. Support for FireWire hard drives and Gigabit Ethernet allows simple transfer between systems, making it the ultimate multitrack solution for high-quality music, post and live recording applications.

Yet the X-48 goes beyond mere standalone recorders -- its built-in, automated 48-channel digital mixer, VGA display output, powerful editing functions and DVD+RW backup drive transform it into a complete integrated workstation.

"The price, the size and the dependability were all factors that made me think I should have all X-48s. I just finished recording James Blunt and did a 96-track recording of Barry Manilow with a huge orchestra. I used two X-48s as the main 96-track recording system and two more as a backup. I'm very pleased with the sound quality, the support has been great and I'm happy I went with the TASCAMs."
- Kooster McAlister, Record Plant Remote
(192 tracks of X-48)

"The X-48s are used to record live band rehearsals. This allows the mix engineers to perfect their mix and store them as console scene presets, so that when the bands perform live on the show those mix settings are instantly recallable. We also record all the live performances on the show for archival purposes using the X-48s, and they have performed perfectly and sound great as well."
- Paul Sandweiss, Sound Design
(96 tracks of X-48 live with Amercian Music Awards on ABC, Movies Rock on CBS and Celebration of Gospel on BET)