Comments The Edirol R-09 is one of those devices that I wish I had seen in person at NAMM. (warning: the link plays music) It looks like the built-in microphone makes it just about perfect for interviews in the field for radio or podcasting, and with full 48V phantom power on its microphone inputs it might be usable for some high-quality stereo recording as well. Plus, like some other recent recorders, it’s all solid-state so hopefully it’s a lot more durable than a portable DAT. If anyone has one of these, let me know. I’d be curious to hear how it works in the field.
[edit: I just saw that these are available coming soon, so it's unlikely anyone has one yet!]
(Found via createdigitalmusic.com)
I have an Edirol R-4 and use it with Audition. The R-4 is wonderful, not cheap but wonderful. I record my son’s band using a Rode NT-4 stereo condenser mic on two tracks, PA feed on #3 and crowd/back of the house on #4. Record at 96hz/24bit. Then re-mix in Audition. R-4 is great for this type of job. Still have DAT for backup. R-4 downloads right into Audition via firewire.
I have recently spent quite a while looking at these sort of recorders and in the end decided the Marantz PMD660 was the best out there. M-Audio do one too which looks quite nice.Generally the on-board mics aren’t good enough even for radio clips or podcasting, so if you need reasonable quality an external mic is a must.Solid state is the way to go though, before we used to have to record MDs back in real time through an analogue desk, whereas now USB is so much better and quicker!
I picked up a R-09 last week and so far I’m more than happy with it. If you need a cheap and convenient way to do on-location recording without needing to futz with A/D conversions, this is about as easy as it gets. I will say that you won’t be getting 48V phantom on this thing, it has 3-5v plug in power which might be serviceable for certain mics–you are better off using a battery powered condenser. Internal mic works okay, a bit noisy in my experience, but works great for loud sounds. I haven’t tried any externals other than my rather cheap Sony ECM, which is slightly more directional but not necessarily better than the internal (that I’ve found at least). I’m curious about using this with one of the battery powered Rode shotgun mics, as I am after picking up very quiet sounds. Anyone have any experience with those?
Using a well-placed external stereo mic, I can get very decent guitar/vocal demos from the R-09. I load them into Audition, do overdubs and sweeten with synth parts and fx. I have the CS-15 Edirol mic and a Rode NT-4 to choose from. Both need full gain from the R-09 to give a good level. I haven’t gone higher than 48khz.