Considering buying an HDR2496. Can anyone help please?

[TheSoundGuy]

Hi folks.

My name's Ed, I'm new to this list. I'm totally blind and work for myself as a music producer and studio engineer / touring sound engineer. I've over 14 years in the business with a masters degree in Pro Audio here in the UK and a BMUS in classical music. enough of all that lol.

As a blind studio engineer, studio life can be hell with accessibility issues. I've become so disenchanted with the whole computer scene with ProTools, Logic, etc and with this, my own studio which is being rebuilt after crooks in june last year conned me out of a blind friendly analogue studio that used to be driven by a protools tdm mix plus environment. They cleaned me out of £40,000 hardware and stock in the promise of a protools hd11 rig adapted to my requirements. it didn't happen and I lost everything. I've been battling on since then and at the moment, after trying to rebuild a protools tdm setup to find it won't work the way I used to rely on it any further, I'm now in the process of buying either a mackie hdr2496 or otari radar II or IZ Radar 24. this is with some help from folks who know my workmanship and have supported me where they can.

so, here's where I'm asking for some support.

Is it still worth buying an HDR24/96? I've been offered a system consisting of 2 machines same spec (differs in I/O 1 unit AIO boards, other using OPT8 boards) and the control48 rig. these are near new with very low hours usage. for the price I'm offered as a deal, is it worth doing?

I've worked with HDR24/96 machines and the earlier MDR series so know they're comfortable for my needs.
I'm aware of the last version of the mackie OS being 1.4 and firmware requirements of 1.3 for larger drives. so I'm on the ball with that.

here's the snag that's getting me. I'm worried about acquiring the 1.3 firmware chips as I can't source them through normal resources to hand and as the HDR's I'm about to invest in are for both studio and on road use, it's important I be up and running in the best way possible.

the other factor in this equation is the 2nd machine having OPT8 boards installed. now what I'd like to do is change them to analogue AIO boards. my question is, If I go ahead with this, would there be anyone here who can help me with any AIO boards or consider a trade for the 3 OPT8 boards? I personally wouldn't need them because I'm relying on an analogue production console.

as much as I'd love to own a D8B, having used one and knowing them then, they were good rigs, now, coming across them, all I find are machines with faults, dodgy fader boards, etc, a D8B would be a risky purchase at any point, so my idea is to have one HDR2496 in the studio wired up and the other in a mobile case with looms. then come back to bring the sessions to the main HDR to edit and master through outboard.

can anyone here help out please? you'd be true heros on this post. Cheers.

ed

[TheSoundGuy]

OK an update on things seeing as the board's either quiet or not sure how to help. I've gone ahead with taking on the 2 HDR2496 machines with the remote 48. this will give me the best possible flexibility for analogue and digital recording requirements on location and in the studio. at least moving projects between machines won't be an issue.

my question regarding firmware still stands. is there anyone who can help me with the firmware chips for both HDR's

also searching for the analogue boards for the HDR so that the 2nd machine can be a more flexible machine. any help would be much appreciated.

as stated, I am blind, relying on a mac with a screen reader called voiceover to give me spoken feedback.

ed

[Bruce Graham]

Hi Ed;
Glad you got one things straighten out to a point.

To get a new chip for your HDR to allow for larger drives go to Ebay. Type "Mackie HDR". There you will find the Chip for Larger Drives (version 1.4) and Analog cards.

On a personal note, I was an audio instructor for a TV broadcaster in Canada and once had a blind student. He was not an employee but an intern. His drive and spunk was amazing! He was a pleasure to work with but it was a challenge for me to figure out how to teach him. Not sure where he is now, or what he is doing but it was a life experience for me. So... keep going. Glad to hear you chase your dreams!

Post back if you have problems sourcing those items.

Kindest regards and with the greatest respect.
Bruce

[TheSoundGuy]

cheers for that.

a question for you. how do I determine the firmware installed on each machine with regards support for larger hard drives? also what OS version has been installed? it's been a while since I've worked with one of these beauties let alone service one in 7 years lol.

I have the OS disks ready, etc and thinking about, depending on if the firmware's already loaded, about having the drives upgraded.

cheers.

ed

[Crash]

I would be highly surprised if you didn't have version 1.4 of the OS installed. The only other OS I remember was version 1.2 which I don't recall being around for very long other than during early builds of these units. The OS version is displayed during bootup on the little VFD screen on the unit and also on the GUI screen if you have a computer screen hooked up to it I am sure. Since you can't see, you may need help with that info as I am not smart enough on your screen readers and the compatiblity in this situation.

To get the larger drives you need to source the BIOS chip that allows for that. I updated two machines 5-6 years back and I think I got my chips from Mackie, though they are long out of them by now. You can source them on Ebay from time to time. It appears that there are three available on Ebay at the moment.

[Bruce Graham]

Hi Ed and Crash;

I had a quick look through Mike River's ""The Last Mackie Hard Disk Recorder Manual" (page 17), and it states that upon boot up, if the word "loading" (with a lower case "l") is displayed in the LCD screen on the HDR, it is the older version of the firmware. If "Loading" is displayed with a Capital "L" it is the most recent firmware. This is the the "chip" on the brain board. This fixes frequent occurrences of Error 43. It is not known why! This is not the BIOS Chip.

In order to change the "BIOS" chip to accept larger drives the operating system must be version 1.2 or higher. As Crash states, 1.4 was the last version released.

My HDR is firmware 1.2 and Operating System software 1.2. I have been trying to upgrade to the 1.4 OS, but am having difficulty doing that. Don't know why it will not load? More trouble shooting is needed.

Ebay is your source for both the firm ware chip and BIOS chip. I do not know of any other sources for these.

Cheers.

Bruce

[Crash]

Thanks for clarifying the firmware issue Bruce. I was not aware of an issue with that chip...and I even own River's book.

[TheSoundGuy]

nice one. cheers for the info, that helps a heck of a lot.

now then. as for the OPT8 cards in the 2nd machine. does anyone fancy having these 3 cards in exchange for 3 AIO boards?

ed

[Bruce Graham]

Hi Ed;

It may be difficult to make that swap. The AIO cards sell for anything from $250.00 to $450.00 US each. The OPT8 sell for around $85.00 US each.

Glad to be of some assistance.

Cheers
Bruce

[Mike Rivers]

Hi Ed;

It may be difficult to make that swap. The AIO cards sell for anything from $250.00 to $450.00 US each. The

Great googly moogly! It wasn't too long ago when you could get a whole HDR for about that price, though it's possible that at that price it didn't include any I/O cards because the seller found that it was easier to sell the cards than the whole recorder.