Is Alesis hd24xr discontinued?

[mappee]

I see Sweetwater has this as discontinued? Is this just a dealership problem or is the XR going south?

[Bluzzi]

Rumor has it that it is. Also the EC-2 upgrade that turns the HD24 into a HD24XR seems to be off price lists. However Alesis still has the products on their web store.

Its hard to understand why they would do stop producing. Its not like they need to upgrade the product and therefore pour more money into development. The cost of research and development and marketing for the HD24 line has long been past and I imagine its all profit.

But sales are probably not huge and the profit margin probably doesn't come near the other Alesis products, so some corporate bozo will once again kill a great product. The HD24 line has survived Tascam's and Mackie's standalone HD recorders. Only Fostex and RADAR will remain if HD24s go away. Hopefully I'm totally wrong.

Its the poor man's RADAR.

Jim

[loujudson]

It's gone. Either the new owners of Alesis think that their future is in DJ mixers, or there will be something new and better coming up soon. I have huge doubts they have any sweet product coming up. I shall care for mine like a precious baby, as it does a fabulous job.

Meanwhile, if you don't have one grab the first one you find! XR (or the EC2 upgrade) really serioously rocks!

Lou

[Bluzzi]

A friend just bought an HD24XR and he is waiting for $$$ to get another one. You can still find them but probably by this time next year they will be gone except for used ones.

The weird thing is that stores are still taking orders for the HD24. Why keep that version? I would not be surprised that they will no longer produce even that model.

I also doubt that they would let a product line phase out before announcing a new "improved" replacement. The usual way is to have an overlapping period where the old product is sold until stock runs out but new model is available (for more $$$ than old product).

I didn't want to believe it but you know when you get that "feelin' " its seldom wrong.

Hope I am wrong, because if Alesis came out with an improved HD24XR they'd have THE hd recorder for the common man's pocket.

Jim

[loujudson]

HD24 non-XR is fine if you use external convertors and clock. I think they still have them left because we have been so good networking oline about how excellent the XR and EC-2 convertors are.

L

[HoustonTexan]

I hope Alesis isn't doing this again. We now have several tape based adats gone south not including the BRC. I can understand Alesis to discontinue tape based adats when vhs and svhs makers stop making supplies for those units. But I think it's a safe bet hard drives are here to stay. Bottom line is money doesn't come easy. So if Alesis is pulling the plug on HD 24's our studio will have no choice but to pull the plug on Alesis for good. We need a company who can be trusted and will stick around. So if this should be the case that Alesis is pulling the plug on a popular format once again, does anyone know of any good computer based equipment out there that supports 24 tracks at once in and out built for professional studios?
Any ideas?

[loujudson]

Alesis won't miss you a bit - check out their site to see the toys they sell now.

There is the JoeCo bugt it won't overdub or punch in. Great for live though!

If I were in studio instead of live I'd use a DAW, though.

L

[synthoid]

Originally Posted by HoustonTexan

does anyone know of any good computer based equipment out there that supports 24 tracks at once in and out built for professional studios?
Any ideas?

I think the best thing going these days is the new M-32 A/D and D/A from RME, together with a RayDAT (or even better, one of their MADI interfaces), used in conjunction with Logic, running on a new Mac Pro. It's really expensive compared to the HD24XR, however. I have a couple HD24XRs feeding a RayDAT, and I'm really happy with the performance I get from this setup.

I recently picked up a second HD24 and an EC-2. There were, as of a few months ago, a few places on the web still stocking EC-2s. It's really amazing to me also that Alesis would drop such a popular product. I can't figure them out. They quit supporting those units in software (drivers for the Fireport) a long time ago too, sigh.

-synthoid

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by synthoid

...
I recently picked up a second HD24 and an EC-2. There were, as of a few months ago, a few places on the web still stocking EC-2s. It's really amazing to me also that Alesis would drop such a popular product. I can't figure them out. They quit supporting those units in software (drivers for the Fireport) a long time ago too, sigh.

-synthoid

Do you know about the bankruptcy and repurchase? The new alesis is not the old alesis. It's a totally different company. They'd already stopped developing the HD24 when they went bust, and the new owners have little to no interest in even supporting it. HD24 is state of the art for 1998 or so, obsolete five or six years ago.

Use it as long as you can and then move on. Mine still works fine!

<L>

[synthoid]

Originally Posted by loujudson

Do you know about the bankruptcy and repurchase? The new alesis is not the old alesis. It's a totally different company. They'd already stopped developing the HD24 when they went bust, and the new owners have little to no interest in even supporting it. HD24 is state of the art for 1998 or so, obsolete five or six years ago.

Use it as long as you can and then move on. Mine still works fine!

<L>

Well, I quit following their travails at some point, haha. I also owned an MPC4000, which I also loved and which they also dropped like a cold fish after they acquired Akai, sigh.

I will eventually move on, but it's gonna be an expensive movement.

-synthoid

[Bluzzi]

I think what some of us are trying to express here is that we don't understand why Alesis is dropping a product that was selling well. Of course its not their best seller but its not like it was costing them anything more. All the R&D was done by original Alesis engineers and they never advertise it. All they have to do is just re-order from their Chinese suppliers. Hell if they no longer want to sell it then let another firm buy the rights to it.

Of course we will get over it when its out of stock but for us that like to work this way a RADAR is too expensive so the HD24XR filled that gap.

Jim

[msquared]

I would guess that it has mostly to do with support of old hardware.