Alesis MasterLink CD-R/Hard Drive record

I've heard good things about this product, but I'm wary that it works upon a non-standard format. It's my understanding that the higher sampling rate CDs will not work on other players (CD or DVD).

Where did you hear that from? That is a very important point that needs to be addressed and sorted out if anyone(me incl.) is contemplating buying this piece.

That is true and false at the same time. Yes, it's true that any sampling rate other than 16/44.1 is not going to work in any other "normal" player, but then again, there is no standard for anything else. OTOH, they also use a standard CD-ROM format for those, so if your computer is capable of playing, e.g., 24/96, then it will work in your computer. (P) I am basically for this piece, it looks good, and for under US$1500 street, it's pretty dang good, built-in EQ, compression, pretty sweet. The only problem I have with it is the way it handles the lead-in tracks. There's no way to create one of those "hidden" (pre-first type hidden) tracks, nor one of those transition tracks. So it's not a good first choice. For me. Just a minor issue.

I stand corrected, the high format disk will play on CD-ROM computer drives. Check out the review in 7/00 Mix, or visit alesis.com for more info.