This "quickstart" guide for the RADAR V audio recorder will flatten the learning curve and serve as essential reference for all users. This guide is not designed as a replacement for the official manuals (available from the manufacturer, iZ Technology).

Note that this refers to the 2007 iZ RADAR V Nyquist with system 3.42. Older models in the RADAR family (RADAR I, II, 24 and the Otari version) are slightly different than Silent Way's RADAR V units, but most of this will still apply.

Transferring a RADAR project to another system is easy once you're set up, and there are multiple methods to do so. RADAR records directly to industry-standard Broadcast WAV audio files (v 3.35/Jan 2005 and higher). Here are a few ways to transfer those BWAVs from RADAR's hard drives to Pro Tools or any other Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Methods C and D below refer to a Mac OS X system; For PC networking, see this document.

This first method is still in the final stages of being implemented (as of 1/2008). Once it is official, it will beat all other methods hands-down. A new eSATA port can be installed in the front of your RADAR. You can then record directly onto that drive. And, use RADAR's dual disk mode (only on Adrenaline Plus RADARs) to record simultaneously to an eSATA drive and a RADAR drive for instant backup. Or, record to the RADAR drive and copy over to the eSATA drive. Unplug the eSATA drive and hand it off. You're done!

Contact iZ to get the eSATA port installed in your RADAR. Silent Way's RADARs will have this installed ASAP. In the meantime, read more about the awesome eSATA (External SATA, or External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) here and here.

RADAR's Hard Drive Bays (larger view)

RADAR's "Instant Project Flattening" makes the Broadcast WAV audio and the hard drive readable by any Mac or PC. RADAR uses SATA drives (or SCSI in older units) in removable sleds, which can be mounted in a DAW system equipped with the proper drive receiver bay. File Flattening (FILE MENU / FLATTEN PROJECT) is further described in the manual.

This is a quick method for a one-way handoff, but there are a few important drawbacks to consider.

First, the drive is read-only. Once it's mounted in your DAW, you need to copy the audio to another drive to work with it. Copying this way is faster and much easier than Methods C and D (below).

But it is critical to note that if you make changes to a RADAR drive mounted in a DAW, you will actually LOSE your data!

Also, the project can't be reloaded back into RADAR without extra steps: bouncing, transferring, and importing. This one-way street might not concern you, though, if you are sure it's a one-way handoff. For example, a RADAR live recording that is mixed in Pro Tools.

Another reason you might not want to hand off this drive to a client is cost. RADAR's drives are significantly more expensive than other external drives, and must be purchased directly from iZ or a dealer. Unless you buy a new drive for every project, are working in-house, or can get the RADAR drive back easily, consider instead transferring to another drive with one of the following methods.

These are instructions for backing up a RADAR project to an external hard drive connected to a Mac. For PC networking, see this document. This method uses RADAR's FTP client to connect to Mac OS X's built-in FTP server over Ethernet. As of 1/2008, this is Silent Way's recommended method for most situations.

Instructions may vary slightly if you are not using OS X v 10.4. RADAR's FTP Client is only available in RADAR software versions 3.38 and up (all Silent Way RADARs are 3.42+ as of 1/2008). Recent RADARs have Gigabit Ethernet aka 1000baseT (older models have 100baseT).

Pre-Backup planning:

• You'll need an external hard drive connected to your Mac. This is a better option than using your Mac's internal drive.
• Your Mac needs a ethernet port. The faster Gigabit Ethernet (aka 1000baseT) is preferred over 100baseT. Don't bother with 10baseT.
• You'll need a Cat6 or Cat5e ethernet cable for Gigabit. Cat5 works for 100baseT. If you don't have an autosensing jack (Macs with Gigabit Ethernet do), you'll need the cable to be a crossover cable.
• You'll need your Mac's user account name and password (see below for how to find these).
• Check how much hard drive space is available on your external drive. One hour of 24 tracks needs 11GB @24bit/44.1k, and 23GB @24bit/96k. (For a handy calculator, see www.ultimatetracksheet.com)
• It's a good idea to name your tracks before transferring. Don't worry, it's OK to name or rename tracks during or after recording. See Tip #2 below about file name format.
• Understand the difference between a "server" and a "client" (client requests data from a server).

RADAR's Ethernet port. Note 10/100/1000 sensing lights. (larger view)

Mac FTP Setup:

1. Open System Preferences and then click on Network.
   (Optional: save current setup via the "Location" menu at the top of the Network pref pane.)
2. At the "Show" menu, select Built in Ethernet and select the TCP/IP Tab.
3. At the "Configure IPv4" menu, select "Using DHCP with Manual Address".
4. At "IP Address" enter this IP Address: 192.168.0.7  (Silent Way's RADAR is preconfigured to look for this IP.)
5. At the bottom of the window, click the Apply Now button.
   (Optional: save this new setup as a "Location." This is accessible in the Apple menu.)
   

Mac FTP Server Setup:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Sharing.
3. Click on the Services Tab.
4. Check the FTP Access checkbox. It should then show "FTP Access ON" to the right, with connection details below.
5. Click on the Firewall tab. If the Firewall is on, click the "Stop" button to turn it off. (I'm investigating if opening ports 9000-9999 is sufficient.) NOTE: It's important to turn the Firewall back on when you're finished the transfer, to protect you later.
6. Connect an Ethernet cable between your RADAR and your Mac. The RADAR Ethernet port is just to the left of the monitor port.
7. Connect your hard drive to the Mac via FireWire or USB 2. Power the drive on and it should mount on your desktop.
   

[ Silent Way's RADAR FTP client and server settings are preconfigured so this next section is only needed for other RADARs. ]

RADAR FTP Client Setup (For connecting to an outside computer from within RADAR):

1. Use RADAR's MENU/PREV keys, arrow keys and ENTER key to go to MAIN/PREFERENCES MENU/NETWORK PREFS/SERVER PREFS and hit ENTER.
2. At the "SERVER PREFS: NETWORK PROTOCOL" prompt, just press ENTER.
3. At the NETWORK PROTOCOL: prompt, move the cursor to FTP and press ENTER.
4. At the SERVER IP ADDR: prompt, use the keyboard and arrow keys to enter the Mac's IP address (ie 192.168.0.7) and hit ENTER.
5. At the SERVER NAME: prompt, enter a name for the FTP Server (ie "Backup"). (Note: For display only.)
6. At the SAVE CHANGES: prompt, choose YES and hit ENTER.
   

Backing up projects via FTP:

1. Press RADAR's BACKUP button (on the Session Controller it's at the top/left, under "Macro 1"; on the KC-24 it's right of "L"). It will take a few seconds scanning.
2. At the "BACKUP TO:" prompt, use the up-and-down arrows to choose N:Backup. Hit "ENTER". (If it doesn't find the Mac/PC, you might need to restart RADAR.)
3. At the "USER NAME:" prompt, use the RADAR keyboard to type your Mac login user name (case sensitive), and hit "ENTER".
4. At the "USER PASSWORD:" prompt, use the keyboard to type your Mac login password (case sensitive), and hit "ENTER".
5. At the "SELECT FOLDER: <root directory>" prompt, press the letter "V". The display will read "Volumes/". Press the "+" key. This directory contains all external drives.
6. Navigate your external drive, using the "+" key to go down into a folder, and the "-" key to go up a level. Use the up-and-down arrows to navigate within a folder (hit any letter to jump to the first name with that letter). When you've reached the folder, hit ENTER.
7. At the "BACKUP PROJ: SELECTED PROJECTS" prompt, choose "CURRENT PROJECT" and then hit ENTER. (You can also backup multiple projects by choosing "SELECTED" or "ALL". If so, also choose "PROJECT GROUPING: PROJECT".)
8. At the "BACKUP TYPE:" prompt, choose "BWAV (NO UNDO)" and hit ENTER.
9. At the "TIME RANGE:" prompt, choose "All" and hit ENTER.
10. At the "FILL SILENCE" prompt, choose "No" and hit ENTER.
11. At the "BACKUP NAME:" prompt, type a name (or leave the current  name), and hit ENTER.
12. RADAR will display "xxGB REQUIRED. PROCEED? NO/YES". If you have enough space on your drive, select "YES" and hit ENTER. RADAR will show a countdown of the time remaining, and report when it is done.

After the first time, some of the above steps will be skipped, such as login/password.

Looking up your Mac FTP Sever Username and Password:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Accounts.
3. The FTP USER NAME is My Account's Short Name.
4. The FTP USER PASSWORD is My Account's Password.
   

Another method is to use an OS X FTP app. For PC networking, see this document. The audio is transferring in the same direction as Method C (RADAR-->Mac), but is initiated via an OS X application rather than RADAR's FTP interface. This is limited and more difficult than Method C for a few reasons.

First, you can't just pull the audio off of RADAR without performing some prep steps on RADAR first. You'll need to backup to RADAR's internal D:Archive drive before accessing that backup via an OS X FTP client.

Also, OS X does not come with a FTP client app. Great third-party Mac FTP apps are available: the $30 Transmit by Panic, free FileZilla, free Classic FTP or free Fire FTP Firefox plugin.

RADAR FTP Server Setup (for connecting to RADAR's FTP server from a Mac FTP client app):

1. Use the MENU/PREV, arrow keys and ENTER key to go to MAIN/PREFERENCES MENU/NETWORK PREFS/INTERFACE PREFS and hit ENTER.
2. Select HOST NAME. At the HOST NAME: prompt, enter a name for your RADAR and hit ENTER.
3. At the DHCP SERVER: prompt, choose DISABLED and hit ENTER.
4. At the LOCAL IP ADDRESS: prompt, use the keypad and arrow keys to enter an IP address (ie 192.168.0.8) and hit ENTER.
5. At the SUBNET MASK: prompt, use the keypad and arrow keys to enter a subnet mask value of 255.255.255.0 and hit ENTER.
6. At the GATEWAY: prompt, leave blank and hit ENTER.
7. At the PRIMARY DNS: prompt, leave blank and hit ENTER.
8. At the SECONDARY DNS: prompt, leave blank and hit ENTER.
9. At the FTP SERVER: prompt, select ENABLED and hit ENTER.
10. At the FTP LOGIN NAME: prompt, type "radar" and hit ENTER.
11. At the FTP PASSWORD: prompt, enter a password of your choosing.
12. At the SAVE CHANGES: prompt, choose YES and hit ENTER.
13. Reboot RADAR if prompted.
    

Transferring via an OS X FTP client application and RADAR's FTP server:

1. Backup your project to the D:Archive drive, following "Backing up projects via FTP" (above) steps 1-12, except you'll choose the D:Archive drive rather than N:Mac.
2. Connect all cables as in Method C (above).
3. Launch OS X FTP app.
4. Using the OS X FTP app, login to RADAR using username "radar" and the password you chose above.
5. Navigate to the backed up project on the D:Archive drive.
6. Copy project files to your Mac's external drive.
   

1) File Name Format

You have complete control over what info is put into filenames, at this menu: PREFERENCES/FILE PREFS/FILE NAME FORMAT. My favorite is "TRK-REGION-NAME". This creates files such as T01-0001-Kick.WAV, T02-0001-Snare.WAV etc.

2) Renaming files from 25+ track projects when backed up from just one RADAR

When you've got a 48-track (or more) RADAR system, backing up is the same as always, exeept that you need to do so one RADAR (24 tracks) at a time. When two or more RADARs are linked, the backup from the extra machines automatically names the audio files according to their track number.

But what if you only have one RADAR machine to do your backup? Currently RADAR treats each backup as tracks 01-24. There's no way to have RADAR consider the drive with tracks 25-48 as anything other than tracks 01-24. So upon Backup/Export, BWAV files for tracks 25-48 are numbered 01-24. Here's a quick fix (for Mac users, available for PC too but I have not tested that):

First, get the utility "A Better Finder Rename", http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/. There are more methods listed here too.

ABFR can rename batches of files by many criteria. In this case, I used the function "Change numbers," which just adds x to a number in a filename. It works like a charm, and the app is really useful for tons of other renaming tasks. The settings look like this (I've got an older version of ABFR, the current one looks different):

Coming soon, details on:

• Spotting audio into Pro Tools sessions and other DAWs using BWAV timecode stamps. Short version: 1) Drag  2) Drop.
• More tips.
  

For further reference, see izcorp.com.