Alesis HD24 to Mac Pro via Ethernet?

[ThomasWho]

Is the HD24 compatible with the Mac Pro and OS X 10.4 , I`m talking about transfers via ethernet?

Thanks!

Thomas

[The dman]

Don't know if you know about this HD24tools

The Ethernet transfer is very very slow.

[Steffmo]

I think if you use the Fireport and the accompanying software you will accomplish your goal.

Try the ethernet once....you won't do it again.

[artbeat77]

True.

[ThomasWho]

Thanks guys , good to know.

I don`t have the HD24 , but I`m looking into it. A deciding factor is how well it integrates with my existing rig (Mac Pro/Logic).

Thomas

[David R.]

HD24 works well with a mac, if you use the fireport. Don't mess with the ethernet, it is too slow.

[ThomasWho]

Originally Posted by David R.

HD24 works well with a mac, if you use the fireport. Don't mess with the ethernet, it is too slow.

The Fireport is that hardware "plug" that goes between the HD24 disk and my mac?

Thanks for the help guys!

oh , I was wondering - how many of you have and use the 88/96kHz samplerates? Doesn`t that limit you to 12 tracks?

Thomas

[travisbrown]

The 10BaseT ethernet on the HD24 is the most ******** thing Alesis has ever done for a company that I think does some pretty innovative stuff. Even at the time 10BaseT was a deprecated protocol - 100BaseT was the standard. They must have got a deal on some surplus controller cards or something. Seriously, 16 hours to transfer 24 tracks of a 5 minute program? If you could upgrade or mod to gigabit ethernet, it would be a useful implementation. I bet it wouldn't be too hard to mod for someone who knew what they were doing. Might be as simple as swapping out the NIC if Alesis uses a generic driver.

They hadn't developed the Fireport when the first HD24 came out (which is just a firewire card - you can use any external firewire enclosure with the same chipset as long as you have their FST software), so I guess they needed some transfer method.

The second most ******** thing was not putting a firewire port right in the HD24.

The third most ******** thing is charging so much for the Fireport, which should be about $30. They gave them away free with a HD24 purchase for a while, but not when I bought mine.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by ThomasWho

how many of you have and use the 88/96kHz samplerates? Doesn`t that limit you to 12 tracks?

Thomas

Yes it does. I think it's more to do with a limitation of the lightpipe protocol than the machine itself. Lightpipe needs twice the bandwidth to transfer HD audio, so you get half the channels (smuxed audio). That's pretty standard on any devices that offer 96k and lightpipe. Now you see 8 channel devices with two lightpipe ports, just for this reason - so you can get 8 channels i/o at 96k. New MOTU 828MK3 is a good example.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by The dman

Don't know if you know about this HD24tools

Excellent. I was wondering how long it would take someone to do this.

The HD24 caddies are made by DataBridge, a (used to be) common drive caddy manufacturer. If you can find a DataBridge chassis (Ebay, Computer surplus store?) and mount it in a 5.25 external enclosure, the HD24 caddies fit perfectly. I have two of these chassis.

[David R.]

Originally Posted by ThomasWho

The Fireport is that hardware "plug" that goes between the HD24 disk and my mac?

Thomas

Yup. The most important part is the software which lets your computer read the disk, although I have heard of a third party who has figured this part out and is distributing his own software.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by David R.

...although I have heard of a third party who has figured this part out and is distributing his own software.

Yup. See post #2.

[zakco]

I went through hell trying to use fireport on a macpro. Worked instantly on WinXP. go figure...

-Z-

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by zakco

I went through hell trying to use fireport on a macpro. Worked instantly on WinXP. go figure...

-Z-

It might be because of Leopard. It is not friendly to some softwares, to put it mildly. FSTConnect and Fireport work flawlessly on my G4s with Tiger!

I love staying a few years behind the current experimental Mac OS. Others get the bleeding edge...

L

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by loujudson

It might be because of Leopard. It is not friendly to some softwares, to put it mildly. FSTConnect and Fireport work flawlessly on my G4s with Tiger!

I love staying a few years behind the current experimental Mac OS. Others get the bleeding edge...

L

I had no problem with FSTConnect/Fireport on Leopard. Try HD24tools (post #2) and see if that works for you.