I've owned an HD-24 for several years now. I have made many a transfer
with the ethernet connection and yes, it is relatively slow. I believe
the firewire connector is $200.00 not $300.00 and it works well but is
meant to transfer files to computer and does not talk to the older
ADATs. I have borrowed the firewire hardware from a friend and it does
kick butt for transfers.

I use Cubase and and have sync'd it successfully to my HD-24 regularly.
Here's how it works:

The HD-24 will act only as a master in sending MTC (not MMC) and will
not slave to another component. You will need a midi interface going
into the computer via USB, firewire or PCMCIA. When you copy from ADAT
tapes, the locate numbers must match which involves resetting the
HD-24 to the locate numbers on the tape. It does have some
capabilities using SYMPTE and ADAT sync but I have not used those. Some
of the MOTU interfaces feature ADAT sync as part of their feature set.
My M-Audio FW-410 does not. Tech support at Alesis is fairly easy to
reach by phone and very helpful by today's horrible tech support
standards.

Once I bought my HD-24, I literally stopped using my ADATs and have not
even powered them up for 3 years. The HD-24 is so much easier to use
and has a much better feature set. It has been valuable, however, to be
able to transfer files into the computer and utilize plug-ins and
advanced editing. The HD-24 works in two modes, record and edit. You
can copy, cut, paste, move and do a number of other edits onboard the
HD-24 in edit mode, but when you are in record mode, it does not have
an "undo" function like the Protools, DP, Cubase DAWs do. It operates
more like a tape machine while in record.

I have done several independant CD's and many demo's using the HD-24.
It is dependable and almost completely crash-proof by my experience
which has not been true of my DAW experience. Buying cheap IDE media at
Costco or Office Max (check with tech support or other users of HD-24s
for IDE brand recommendations) has been a Godsend.

I just completed recording a series of rehearsals featuring Jim and Dan
Seals, a new collaboration of brothers who each had major recording
groups of their own at one time. We went from song to song to song and
recorded about 50 songs @ 24-track on a 40gig HD for about $65 then
popped the HD out for a new project. Portability of the HD-24 is also a
great advantage. You are welcome to contact me directly if you have any
other questions.


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