Mackie SDR 24/96 - any cons ?

[Geoff]

Have the chance to pick one as will suit specific remote recording project.

Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder only- for late
transfer to DAW for mixing.

And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific brand/size/etc,
or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?

Is th manual well-written ?

geoff

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 2, 4:25 pm, "geoff" > wrote:

> Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder only- for late
> transfer to DAW for mixing.

It's OK as long as it works, but it's been pretty much abandoned. The
A/D converters are so-so but they're good enough for the kind of
things you're likely to be recording live. If you were multi-miking a
symphony orchestra you'd probably want better hardware.

> And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific brand/size/etc,
> or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?

Mackie says it will accommodate drives as large as 2 terabytes (but
they've never tried it). These days 160 GB is about as small as you
can buy easily and they're usually $50 or so when you find a good
price or rebate deal.

> Is th manual well-written ?

So-so. It's kind of an adaptation of the HDR24/96 manual, which I
worked on. But the menus are all different. It isn't very tutorial but
it doesn't have any mistakes.

[Carey Carlan]

"geoff" > wrote in
:

> Have the chance to pick one as will suit specific remote recording
> project.
>
> Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder only- for
> late transfer to DAW for mixing.
>
> And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific
> brand/size/etc, or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?
>
> Is th manual well-written ?
>
> geoff

Mike is the expert. Believe and act on everything he said.

I use an SDR 24/96 often. I use outboard converters and connect to the
recorder via ADAT lightpipe, but have used the builtin converters.

I find it mostly reliable. I had to rebuild the on/off switch. Not
being able to turn it on is a really problem. Also recently I've had
difficulties getting it to recognize the removeable hard drive. Cleaning
and reseating the drive connector has so far fixed this problem, but I'll
eventually have to replace it.

Having said all that, I still use it regularly and it is indeed a
reasonable portable 24 track capture system.

The manual is OK, but just for capture you won't need 90% of it.

[Romeo Rondeau[_4_]]

geoff wrote:
> Have the chance to pick one as will suit specific remote recording project.
>
> Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder only- for late
> transfer to DAW for mixing.
>
> And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific brand/size/etc,
> or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?
>
> Is th manual well-written ?
>
> geoff
>
>

I'm using one now and it's great! I don't care about the converters, I'm
using outboard converters anyway. Many thanks to Mike Rivers for his
advice. I'm using a 400gig HD in a caddy and I have a $30 USB 2.0
thingymabob that plugs into the caddy, so I can mix directly from the
drive on the DAW at home. It was dirt cheap and it's been rock solid.

[Geoff]

Romeo Rondeau wrote:
> geoff wrote:
>> Have the chance to pick one as will suit specific remote recording
>> project. Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder
>> only-
>> for late transfer to DAW for mixing.
>>
>> And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific
>> brand/size/etc, or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?
>>
>> Is th manual well-written ?
>>
>> geoff
>>
>>
>
> I'm using one now and it's great! I don't care about the converters,
> I'm using outboard converters anyway. Many thanks to Mike Rivers for
> his advice. I'm using a 400gig HD in a caddy and I have a $30 USB 2.0
> thingymabob that plugs into the caddy, so I can mix directly from the
> drive on the DAW at home. It was dirt cheap and it's been rock solid.

Can't see it specified anywhere if the normal onboard SDR USB is USB1(1.1)
or 2.0 ?

geoff

[Romeo Rondeau[_4_]]

geoff wrote:
> Romeo Rondeau wrote:
>> geoff wrote:
>>> Have the chance to pick one as will suit specific remote recording
>>> project. Any major cons on this unit - looking as a portable recorder
>>> only-
>>> for late transfer to DAW for mixing.
>>>
>>> And replacement disk drives - do they have to be a specific
>>> brand/size/etc, or can a gneric 20GB IDE drve (or larger) work ?
>>>
>>> Is th manual well-written ?
>>>
>>> geoff
>>>
>>>
>> I'm using one now and it's great! I don't care about the converters,
>> I'm using outboard converters anyway. Many thanks to Mike Rivers for
>> his advice. I'm using a 400gig HD in a caddy and I have a $30 USB 2.0
>> thingymabob that plugs into the caddy, so I can mix directly from the
>> drive on the DAW at home. It was dirt cheap and it's been rock solid.
>
> Can't see it specified anywhere if the normal onboard SDR USB is USB1(1.1)
> or 2.0 ?
>
> geoff
>
>
Don't use the onboard USB! It's slower than molasses running uphill in
January!

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 3, 4:26 pm, "geoff" > wrote:

> Can't see it specified anywhere if the normal onboard SDR USB is
> USB1(1.1) or 2.0 ?

It's 1.1. OK for doing firmware updates or moving a track over to a
DAW for editing, but for short term project backup, use an external
hard drive. If you want to move your backup to CD or DVD, Here's a
cool plug-on USB 2 interface for it: http://tinyurl.com/3x3kha

[Geoff]

Mike Rivers wrote:
> On Dec 3, 4:26 pm, "geoff" > wrote:
>
>> Can't see it specified anywhere if the normal onboard SDR USB is
>> USB1(1.1) or 2.0 ?
>
> It's 1.1. OK for doing firmware updates or moving a track over to a
> DAW for editing, but for short term project backup, use an external
> hard drive. If you want to move your backup to CD or DVD, Here's a
> cool plug-on USB 2 interface for it: http://tinyurl.com/3x3kha

OK. Now how best to tee off from a live console (no direct outs). Will the
balanced TRS jack input leads 'half-inserted' into an unbal console insert
give me a input signal, or will I need to make up 'bridged tip-sleeve to
"unbal-to-quasi-bal jack socket" adaptors ?

Presumably the half inserted jack would keep trhe insert point in 'thru'
mode, and give me a signal and ground to the SDR input, though no longer
balanced...


geoff

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 4, 4:29 pm, "geoff" > wrote:

> OK. Now how best to tee off from a live console (no direct outs). Will the
> balanced TRS jack input leads 'half-inserted' into an unbal console insert
> give me a input signal, or will I need to make up 'bridged tip-sleeve to
> "unbal-to-quasi-bal jack socket" adaptors ?

I don't know. On the HDR24/96 (which is totally different from the SDR
but the SDR was built to the same top level - not detailed - specs)
you can leave the low side of the input floating and drive it
satisfactorily from an unbalanced source. I've never made any noise
measurements with that setup, however, so I don't have an answer to
the ubiquitous "Will this affect my sound quality?" question.

For live work, I would buy or make input cables with TRS plugs on the
"console insert" end, with the tip and ring tied together, that
junction connected to the "high" signal lead and the shield and "low"
signal leads tied to the sleeve. Then you can push the plug all the
way in, not interrupt the signal flow in the console, and not worry
about the plug falling out or making noises because it's loose.

Nothing is universal, however. Those plugs will work with unbalanced
TS output jacks as well as Insert jacks, but they'll short out
balanced TRS outputs.

Adapters are OK if you only need a couple of them, but not if you need
24 of them. And of course if whoever is operating the console is using
inserts for signal processing, he gets first dibs on the jacks. When
working a remote recording, you either need to own all the gear and
operate it yourself, or be ready for anything reasonable and a little
unreasonable.

[Geoff]

Mike Rivers wrote:
> On Dec 4, 4:29 pm, "geoff" > wrote:
>
>> OK. Now how best to tee off from a live console (no direct outs).
>> Will the balanced TRS jack input leads 'half-inserted' into an unbal
>> console insert give me a input signal, or will I need to make up
>> 'bridged tip-sleeve to "unbal-to-quasi-bal jack socket" adaptors ?
>
> I don't know. On the HDR24/96 (which is totally different from the SDR
> but the SDR was built to the same top level - not detailed - specs)
> you can leave the low side of the input floating and drive it
> satisfactorily from an unbalanced source. I've never made any noise
> measurements with that setup, however, so I don't have an answer to
> the ubiquitous "Will this affect my sound quality?" question.

Will test and report back when my SDR comes in a day or two.

> For live work, I would buy or make input cables with TRS plugs on the
> "console insert" end, with the tip and ring tied together, that
> junction connected to the "high" signal lead and the shield and "low"
> signal leads tied to the sleeve. Then you can push the plug all the
> way in, not interrupt the signal flow in the console, and not worry
> about the plug falling out or making noises because it's loose.

That's what I've already done with an 8 channel desk. I'm getting lazy in
my old age...

> Adapters are OK if you only need a couple of them, but not if you need
> 24 of them. And of course if whoever is operating the console is using
> inserts for signal processing, he gets first dibs on the jacks. When
> working a remote recording, you either need to own all the gear and
> operate it yourself, or be ready for anything reasonable and a little
> unreasonable.

Yep, not my desk, but I will have access to it to test before the gig (which
involves a 3 hour flight to a remote island SW of New Zealand !).

geoff