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+What is the HD24tools suite?
+============================
+
+The HD24tools suite is a simple software suite that allows 
+Linux users to read disks of their Alesis HD24 ADAT recorders. 
+Developed in a cross-platform manner, it currently also compiles 
+for Windows and Mac, providing users with a free alternative to 
+Alesis' offering.
+
+Open source policy
+==================
+
+The software was written as an independent effort. It contains
+no code by Alesis, and is not supported by Alesis.
+
+In the development of this software, no Alesis-confidential
+information was used. Instead, the necessary parts were 
+reverse-engineered, which is legal in the Netherlands.
+
+However, as a result, the correctness nor completeness of the 
+file system specifications can not be guaranteed. 
+Therefore, you are reminded that you use this software at your
+own risk.
+
+AnalogFilter Class
+==================
+The author of ZynAddSubFX has granted me permission to use his
+AnalogFilter class in HD24tools in closed-source form:
+
+"You may use the AnalogFilter class, but please acknowledge the 
+copyright of the AnalogFilter class (and tell that I give you a 
+specific permission to do so, to avoid confusion about GPL 2 
+license)"
+
+This permission is no longer relevant because
+1. I never ended up using this class; and
+2. HD24tools is now open-source.
+
+General operation
+=================
+Most of the programs automatically detect and access the presence 
+of HD24 disks.
+
+If multiple HD24 disks are present, the first HD24 disk found will
+be used by default. The tools search for HD24 disks in the following 
+order:
+
+/dev/hda,/dev/hdb,/dev/hdc,/dev/hdd
+/dev/sda,/dev/sdb,/dev/sdc,/dev/sdd
+
+This should find most HD24 disks, regardless of the way that they
+are connected to your PC (be it using a VIPowER drive bay, USB
+connection or firewire interface). Should you be using another
+device as disk, you can use the --dev=x option to point to
+HD24 device with device path x. 
+
+To be able to use the tools, the user running the programs must
+have direct read access to the disk device. It is possible to
+re-assign access rights of the disk device each time, but it
+is probably more practical to update your group permissions and/or
+add an entry to your /etc/fstab, for instance:
+
+/dev/hdc        none            auto    devmode=0664    0       0
+
+(I have not extensively tested this for optimal security).
+You can ignore any boot time complaints about linux not being able
+to mount the drive; it will try all the file system types it 
+knows but of course doesn't know how to work with HD24 drives.
+
+When using an internal drivebay, keep in mind that it may not
+support hot-swapping. You probably need to switch off power to
+exchange drives. In other words, if you fry your motherboard, 
+don't complain to me.
+
+The HD24 only accepts drives configured as master. As such, if
+you use an internal drive bay, you probably end up with the HD24
+disk as /dev/hdc. 
+
+The programs
+============
+hd24hexview     A debug-style hex viewer for (binary files and) hd24 disks.
+                
+                Without command line arguments, accesses the first
+                found hd24 disk in hex mode. 
+
+                Type ? in the program for help.
+
+                Call the program with --dev=/dev/hdc to use
+                /dev/hdc as hd24 disk. If this disk is not
+                recognized as hd24 disk, use the --force option
+                to view the disk contents anyway. Use --expert
+                to enable write mode.
+
+                All other programs that directly access the disk
+                support the --dev=x option but not the --force 
+                option.
+
+hd24connect     A program to download files from HD24 disks.
+
+hd24info        A program that displays some info about the
+                hd24 disk. Mostly useful to detect the presence
+                or absence of hd24 disks.
+                (obsolete)
+
+hd24wavefix     A program that attempts to fix corrupted audio that
+                sometimes occurs in long live recordings, usually when
+                recording to very high capacity drives.
+
+genbackupscript.pl
+                
+                A perl script to generate a script for hd24hexview
+                which will create a backup of the file system information
+                to the end of the drive. Now obsolete; this functionality
+                is now built-in into the HD24 library.
+
+syx2bin         A program that attempts to decode the 7 bit HD24 .syx file
+                to a 8 bit binary file.
+
+hd24towav.cpp   A program that converts raw hd24 data to wav files.
+                (obsolete)
+
+