What are the differences between the HD24’s disk format (ADAT/FST) and other formats?
The Alesis ADAT File Streaming Technology, or ADAT/FST, records onto hard drives in a unique way designed from the ground up for multitrack audio. Many other hard disk recorders use the Microsoft-designed FAT32 or Apple’s HFS+ file format. Since these were originally designed for the relatively small data files used in personal computers, not for real-time multitrack recording and playback, they break up audio into many small files scattered across the disk. Alesis ADAT/FST keeps all tracks of a song in large associated clusters on the hard disk, so the disk doesn’t have to “hunt” all over during recording and playback.
