The Edirol R4 portable recorder / wav editor
http://www.edirol.com
Wouldn’t it be just like Edirol to come out with a clutch product in the next generation solid state / HDD location recorder market. They’ve given us some fantastic gear over the last few years with a focus on computer based recording. Notably the USB enabled UA-5, a favorite box either stock or heavily modified. Next came the firewire based FA-101, with some improvements over its predecessor. See the progression here? Better I/O. Laptop recording can be tricky! One must also consider that while the taper crowd might put up with non-depenable gear, the broadcast market would not. Nagra has had a hard drive based location recorder available for a while, but that approaches or surpasses the $10k mark. There are a couple other contenders that are also expensive and targeted more towards the professional on-location sound engineer. Sound Devices announced the 722/744 two and four channel hdd recorders over a year ago and it took at least that long for models to start tricking out into the hands of users both pro and hobbyist alike. They are arguably the best solution out there for under $5k. The 2 channel model, the 722 runs close to $2500.
But then Edirol comes up with the R1 CF based hand held recorder. It was very well recieved and there were rumors of something bigger just around the corner. That would be the new R4 4-channel 40gb recorder. Its lean, its light, it has more options than most of the taper crowd will use, but all of the options that the professional may demand. Edirol products, and I don’t mean to make this sound like a jab, but they have not employed the highest caliber electronics in products past. I was hopeful that this new recorder would surpass what I have come to expect from these guys. My hopes are fulfilled.
R-4 at a glance
- Not entirely huge, but not small. Footprint of a Tascam DAP-1 only taller.
- Very light
- Plastic case, but its not wimpy.
- All I/O located on sides
- Great carrying case with Velcro side access.
- 2-3 hour runtime on 8 AA internal cells!
- Impressive runtime on custom packs (RC or LionDVD) I get 8+ hours out of a 6amp 9.6v RC pack and about the same out of the Lithium pack. Both of them together will give me a dependable 15+ hours and they weigh less than a 12v 5amp SLA.
- 4 XLR/1/4″ combo-jack inputs, just like the UA-5. They can be both mic/line level or a combination of the two.
- Phantom power on channes 1&2 or 3&4 XLR only.
- 4 channel mono files (recorded as a single broadcast format file) stereo or 2x stereo files. Excellent for A/B testing other gear.
- 24bit / 96kHz on all 4 channels simultaneously. Digital input is limited to two channels (I believe), and all digital inputs are resampled to the R4s internal clock.
- USB 2.0/1.1 output for unloading hard drive contents
- Microphone preamps are very sensitive yet sound better than anything else Edriol has offered in the past.
- On board limiter
- “hold” feature, to save you from accidentally shutting the unit off while recording.
- Headphone jack….better than previoud Edirol products but I still find it completely useless when you are trying to monitor anything live. Why wont Edirol make a decent headphone jack on their products, the world will never know.
- Seems to be fairly robust in terms of hard drive performance and recording 4 channels at 24/96 resolution.
- DSP effects (EQs and other things)
- Pre-record function makes sure you never miss those first notes!
- Built in stereo mic (non-directional…a pair of little Panasonic omnis in there most likely. Built in stereo speakers as well.
For the broadcast folks
A number of features found on the R4 are tailored more for the professional market. Unfortunatly for those of you reading this that are in that market…I’m afraid that my review will be more for the taper crowd than the professional one. I wouldn’t assume to know what features of the R4 are standouts for this market. There is an L terminal which allows the R4 to synch up with the controls of a digital video recorder. Counting the cameras stereo audio channels, the R4 brings another 4 to total 6 channels to work with. That could make for some pretty nice video / SBD feed recording options. There are also some DSP affects on board. 3 and 6 band EQ, noise gate, an “enhancer” feature to help sharpen vocal inputs and a Comp & DeEsser.
The .wav editing features are probably going to be used more by the pro crowd as well. You can do a lot, but the basics are trimming, dividing, combining and merging. Merging allows you to “mix down” several tracks into one or two. Pretty cool. I could see that being used in the field when doing AUD/SBD matrixes. The R4 also works natively with the Edirol DV-7DL video editor via the USB port. No computer needed with these two devices working together.
For the taper folks
There are more cool features for the taper crowd than I would have expected. In my opinion, the best feature is that the box sounds good! I don’t think I really need to put a high-end preamp in front of the R4. Though, I will admit that is how I ran it at first. Then after some time I started to trust the on board mic preamps. At first it seemed like things would not work out very well. The preamp section was so sensitive that there was just no way it would work out in a live rock concert environment. The logic here is that the R4 was probably not designed to work in a 100+db environment. Again, more of a broadcast point of use where you would be recording quieter events or capturing sound effects. Luckily, there is the option to run the XLR inputs (controlled by a switch that affects stereo pairs of channels) at a line level. This works out great. I’m sure its nothing more than a -20db pad on the front end of the analog section before hitting the gain stage. The good news is that nothing is lost here. My outings w/the R4 have produced very detailed recordings that sound true to what I remember. There is not much noise at high gain unlike the UA-5 / FA-101. Again, the sensitivity of the preamp will guarantee that you are never having to crank the gain pots up past the twelve o’clock position. Even running mic in. I have not heard the Sound Devices 722 enough to say how the R4 compares, but from what I’ve heard it is the typical sounding, very clean and transparent SD sound that we are familiar with from their older products (though I’m sure its not the same). The R4 sounds that way to me also. Clean, transparent…or my best word to describe it “true”. Is it forgiving? I don’t really know. But its sound has been impressive to me. I can say that it downright SMOKES any of the other stock preamps in the Edirol family. Its good enough for me to not feel it necessary to add any other preamp in front of it. I’m certain that you can improve upon the the R4s sound by adding a V2 or some other HQ analog gain stage…but do you need to? That will be up to you, the owner and listener. I don’t find it anything that I keep coming back to when I listen to my recordings with it.
One of the cool features is the ability to do gear comparisons with the R4. Its 4 channel input can be divided into two separate stereo tracks. You can plug two different pairs of microphones into it and record simultaneously. Playback later on will provide you with all the evidence you need to justify one pair of mics over another, or outboard preamps…etc. Very slick indeed. An onboard limiter will quell those nasty applause sections when you are recording quite acoustic music. That is a great feature, and nice not to have to worry about these things in post.
The built-in stereo mics, while nothing fancy, are perfect for recording those jam sessions or band practices with enough clarity and fidelity to actually listen to.
Playback from the R4 sounds equally as good as recording with it. Honestly, the analog output is pretty decent, and the digital output is what it is. The transport mechanisms of the R4 are easy to work with, and the scrub dial allows you to zero in on a particular spot in a track with ease. Coming home from a recording event and popping a coax cable into the digital output jack of the R4 is a great way to get at those recordings quickly. Everything I seem to do with the R4 comes as a surprise to me. I’m surprised that it sounds so good, and surprised that it is unbelievably simple to operate.
General use
This thing is easy like Sunday morning!
Seriously, the box is so well laid out, and the menu system so well designed that I don’t think I have had occasion to crack the manual open. Its that simple. Navigation is conducted with up/down left/right arrow buttons, “enter” and “exit”, and a dial that allows you to choose various selections. The power button is a little bit exposed, and reacts quickly when pressed even though there is supposed to be a 2 second hold time before it will power off. It seems more like 1 second, or less. Luckily, there is a hold feature which will shut down all of the buttons and leave just the gain pots and headphone volume active. That’s how I run mine, and the hold feature has come in handy more than once.
While I was a little disenchanted by the monitoring level meters at first, I eventuality came to trust them. I now find them very adequate, though not as nice as some other decks out there ( I prefer the segmented meters vs. the R4s “bar” ). I came from a Fostex FR-2 to the R4, and after being in love w/the FR2s functions and sound I’m surprised to find myself happier with the Edirol.
As I mentioned, battery life on the R4 is outstanding. You can make an external DC battery pack (9v) from RC batteries or one of the Lithium Ion packs sold for use with those little portable DVD players and be sure that you are supplying a safe source of power that will not dry up in minutes. In fact, my 9v 5500mAh Lithium battery will power the R4 for nearly 8 hours straight. For doing single performances, any 9v 3-4amp source will cover you sufficiently without having to worry about keeping the backlit screen on, or shutting down between sets. Even internal batteries can get you though a show with ease. As far as power options go, this is the best product (power friendly best) in the field.
Files are handled with conventional naming schemes by name, date..etc. Once the 2gb file size limitation is met, a new file is started and the recording continues on. The files are seamless, of course. The 40gb 2.5″ hard drive will record for 17 hours straight at 24/96 and over 50 hours at CD quality. The hard drive is a 2.5″ drive, as I mentioned. I believe it is a 5400 RPM model. If there is an easy way to replace it (I have not really checked myself) then I would look into 7200 RPM drives to improve reliability. Transfering files is done with the USB 2.0/1.1 jack. No software needed, just plug it in and your computer will see a new drive show up.
“Media too slow”….an error message nobody likes to see. I hear its common on the SD 744, and I know first hand the limitations of the 5gb PCMCIA hard drives used by the Fostex FR2. I have heard reports from other people that their Edirol R4 gives them this message from time to time. Personally, I have not had it happen. I just make sure I keep the drive clean, formatted and de-fragged between uses and things seem to work out OK. Of course, the more channels you use and the higher the resolution you record at all take their toll on drive performance. Less is more in this case. Still, I have had no problems recording 24/96 with the R4. The laptop based 2.5″ 40gb HDD inside seems to be very well isolated and ready for bumpy use in the field. Overheating has not been an issue at all when the R4 is in a gear bag. LF rumble and vibration has also not been a problem. I’ve recorded just several feet away from large PA systems and the R4 didn’t complain at all. I think that this will be a problem for some people and not for others. Making room for a normal desktop sized 3.5″ HDD would have helped things in that regard. These little high-performance hard drives just do not have the tolerance that the larger 3.5″ drives do. Is it rock solid ? Since there have been comments by other users that they are facing problems, and still some have absolutely no trouble at all, I guess you could say no in a general sense? The same goes for every other HDD recorder out there as there can always be drive issues. Personaly, my review unit has been a tank in every regard. So its reliable for me at the least.
So many features…so little time
As I said, there are more features on this box than most tapers will ever get to. But there are some very useful ones as well. Maybe sometime I’ll try to use the 6-band EQ on one of my recordings. Being a purist, I doubt that I will do it very often. I’d rather do all of that in post than try to swing it in the field. And with the headphone amp being a limp noodle, I just don’t see it being all to useful in a live environment.
What’s not to like?
Nothing is perfect. And there are some aspects of the R4 that some people will complain about.
* resampling digital inputs. Yes, it resamples. No, its not “bit perfect”. But really, who cares? Can you hear the resample in the resulting file? I can’t. And I’ve got a reference system that I listen to my recordings on…and it will show me any ugliness that comes through. Many people are hung up on the whole resample issue more on the principle of it than anything that is actually detectable. I’m not one of those types myself.
* Headphone amp is useless. Nothing new here. All of Edirols headphone amps suffer from this.
* Doesn’t seem able to record from mixed digital and analog sources.
* Not a true 4-track recorder in that you can’t record some tracks while listening to others. It is a 4 “channel” recorder only.
* No good specs available from Edirol. They are a very tightlipped company when it comes to numbers.
Me, I’m not complaining about any of it. It all seems to work out very well for me..warts and all. I find this to be the tapers dream box. It does everything you could ask of a portable recorder. It doesn’t cost a whole lot (in the $1300 – 1800 range, depending on where you buy it), and its performance/cost ratio is outrageously good. Is it a “value” product? Yes, it is. If you measure what you get in terms of what you pay. One simply cant come away with anything other than a a favorable opinion. That is not to say that it is a cheap product that is cheaply built, sounds cheap or was “cheaped out” by Edirol in any way. Sure, it doesn’t’ have the highest end components inside, but it sounds so good for so little money that you will not be running out for a new analog front end. The fact of the matter will boil down to dollars and cents for many people, and at WELL over a thousand dollars cheaper than any of its 2-channel, let alone 4-channel (then you can say several thousand) peers…how can Edirol not have hit a homer with this one? I think the ball is still flying actually. I started off by saying that it would be just like Edirol to zing the market with a new product. The R4 might not be as good as the competition, but the value within the product and a pricetag that is thousands less than anything else in its league will put it on the top of many peoples lists. As far as one box solutions go, I dont think we are going to see anything top the Edirol. What will be really cool, is when the Oade Brothers start to offer their MODs for it. A warm mod on one stereo pair, transparent on the other. Mmmmmmm!!! Honestly, if those come to pass and sound as good as the UA-5 modifications, then the R4 wont only be the least expensive, but it will be the best sounding box out there too.
Bravo Edirol. You have earned a hearty “double thumbs up” from this reviewer.
