Where did you get the case and adapter? I have been looking around, but everybody is waiting to see how well they sell before getting in the accessories
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Double Bass Small Affordable Recorder
- Thread starter Ben Rolston
- Start date
I had my favorite local music retailer order one, and bought it from them when it came in. In my opinion, the results are worth the cost for me.
Wow, that sounds fantastic.
I can't believe it's only $400!
Relatively speaking that's cheap, especially if it can get me sounding anywhere near as good as that!
I can't believe it's only $400!
Relatively speaking that's cheap, especially if it can get me sounding anywhere near as good as that!
Another good bet is the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96, which sells online for $399 (e.g. Invalid Link Removed). It has no internal microphone, but it includes a small external one. It records to 24-bit/96kHz, unlike the Edirol which does 24/48. Also has much more variety of inputs, including digital audio in, and both 1/4" and 1/8" mic/line inputs. Provides phantom power if needed. Has RCA outs and a 1/8" headphone out. Also, of course, a USB out port. Comes with Audacity software CD (I understand it's a free program anyway, but still nice of them to include install media). Overall I think the M-Audio appears to be a higher end product for just a bit more money. I've never tried the Edirol R-09, though. M-Audio is a wonderful company. Edirol is good, too. I've bought products made by both. Make your own decision, but don't overlook the M-Audio. It's a truly professional-grade piece of equipment.
No. I'd read favorable reviews from folks who don't sell them and am familiar with a few ZOOM lovers(other ZOOM toys/tools).
It's a three position switch and if the "auto-pilot"(sets the level for you) doesn't work, there is a manual control via the screen...much like setting the levels on a cassette deck but using a round knob on side of the thing. I recorded our gig on minimum sensitivity, auto-levels, and limiter function ON.
YES. It connects via USB and comes with a multi-track software(functions allow you to bounce tracks so you CAN get real digital multitrack recordings. It also has inputs for XLR mics OR line levels. I'm so impressed with the audo results that I'm working on the local school's band boosters to get one for the bands to use....instructors. My son(16) does use it to record acoustic piano in our home and dump onto his PC. Details of what it comes with: Invalid Link Removed
Here is a screenshot of part of our gig as seen in Goldwave(http://www.goldwave.com/):
You can see the comp/limiting but you cannot hear any "breathing", distortion, or non-realistic functioning of what it was doing. It looks like the "green" mic channel was the one most pointed toward my amp and the red one was aimed across stage towards the guitar player. I'll get a soundclip up sometime.
The thing that concerns me about the Zoom is it does everything! How are they squeezing all that in there at that price? OTOH, I've got a little Samson mixer that's simple and well-built, works reliably. I'd definitely like to hear some Zoom recordings.
The M-Audio unit looks to have a coupla mic pre-amps in addition to the phantom power. If you've got the mics you know you could do some high end recording with that sucker.
All these units make my two-year old rig (Nomad JB3 & Sound Professionals stereo mic) look big and clumsy in comparison. What I value it for most is just to document my playing, on gigs and in practice. For that purpose, and having that experience with the current rig, I'd like the next rig to be one box, not two -- so the mics would be on-board. I'd like to get as close as possible to one-button initiation of recording. Toward that end, I don't know why the designers of these things don't think about macros or stored settings when they design the interfaces. At the start of a set I always have to go through the same 24 or so steps, it seems, to get the thing up and recording, and it's the same steps every time. Grrr. Make that go away with a stored setting or a macro...
If it's just one little box and you only have to flip a button or two and point it in the right direction then it's pretty simple for anyone to use.
The M-Audio unit looks to have a coupla mic pre-amps in addition to the phantom power. If you've got the mics you know you could do some high end recording with that sucker.
All these units make my two-year old rig (Nomad JB3 & Sound Professionals stereo mic) look big and clumsy in comparison. What I value it for most is just to document my playing, on gigs and in practice. For that purpose, and having that experience with the current rig, I'd like the next rig to be one box, not two -- so the mics would be on-board. I'd like to get as close as possible to one-button initiation of recording. Toward that end, I don't know why the designers of these things don't think about macros or stored settings when they design the interfaces. At the start of a set I always have to go through the same 24 or so steps, it seems, to get the thing up and recording, and it's the same steps every time. Grrr. Make that go away with a stored setting or a macro...
If it's just one little box and you only have to flip a button or two and point it in the right direction then it's pretty simple for anyone to use.
I don't know if you've already found something, but I just noticed that the Olympus WS-310M recorder Chrisx recommended earlier is currently on offer at Amazon for $100.56.
(Still over £100 here in the UK, though - yet another field where products are priced as if the exchange rate was $1:£1 rather than nearly $2:£1 - bah!)
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Search on ebay for the Aiwa AM-F70 minidisc recorder. Old technology but makes beautiful recordings.
I can't see any aspect of performance in which the R-09 surpasses the Zoom H-4. Am I missing something?
Can't say since I've never heard or used the Zoom. But the R-09 is about as idiot proof as anything I've ever encountered, and it sounds amazing..better than any other portable I've tried, even those 4-8x the size.
Guys, please pardon a dumb question from a relatively computer-illiterate old fart.
While I assume recording the music onto a unit like the Edirol is relatively intuitive, what, specifically, do you have to do to play the music back? Can you play back directly through the unit, either through headphones or with a line out to an amp or speakers? Or are you required to download the digital file to a computer, and then play it back through the computer's sound system, or transfer it to an MP3 player?
My only MP-3 experience is with iTunes and iPod. If I have to download to my computer (iBook) does it have to go into my iTunes library, or is there another place I can store it and not involve the iTunes program?
Thanks!
While I assume recording the music onto a unit like the Edirol is relatively intuitive, what, specifically, do you have to do to play the music back? Can you play back directly through the unit, either through headphones or with a line out to an amp or speakers? Or are you required to download the digital file to a computer, and then play it back through the computer's sound system, or transfer it to an MP3 player?
My only MP-3 experience is with iTunes and iPod. If I have to download to my computer (iBook) does it have to go into my iTunes library, or is there another place I can store it and not involve the iTunes program?
Thanks!
Pete - you can listen back directly through the headphone out on the R-09. You can then choose which tracks to delete and which to keep. You can then upload and track(s) you wish to your computer through a simple USB cable. You can save them as WAV or mp3 formats, either in iTunes, or simply in a folder on your hard drive. Trust me that when i say this thing is idiot proof, I know exactly of what I speak (that's my picture in my first post on this page).
Pete, all of these units have headphone outs. As we've been saying, some of us are recording with the levels set quite low -- in my experience, this makes it hard to hear the darn file in the phones immediately after recording. The experience of others may vary.
All of these units will let you plug into some kind of sound system. You do not have to go through a PC.
To any computer I'm familiar with (admittedly, not Macs or Linux), when you plug one of these puppies into the system it just looks like another mass storage device. So, you open up My Computer and you see the thing sitting there with its own drive letter. You can open it up and explore the files on it, copy and paste from location to location, etc.
You do not have to drink the iTunes Kool-Aid.
All of these units will let you plug into some kind of sound system. You do not have to go through a PC.
To any computer I'm familiar with (admittedly, not Macs or Linux), when you plug one of these puppies into the system it just looks like another mass storage device. So, you open up My Computer and you see the thing sitting there with its own drive letter. You can open it up and explore the files on it, copy and paste from location to location, etc.
You do not have to drink the iTunes Kool-Aid.
I work at a radio station and I recently got one of those for the news deap. Pretty impressive for the price and size. The built in mics are actually really good, especially if you use the AGC. I haven't used it for much music, but for voice it's great. The only thing I don't like is that it's plastic, but if you're careful I'm sure it'll last quite a while.
Damon is correct - the r-09 shows up as an external drive and you copy the files to your computer. Very simple.
Thanks, Chris and Damon.
One other dumb question: How much recording time is available on the Edirol (or comparable units)? For example, could I just turn it on at the start of a three hour rehearsal and get the whole rehearsal recorded, or are we talking about a smaller memory than that?
One other dumb question: How much recording time is available on the Edirol (or comparable units)? For example, could I just turn it on at the start of a three hour rehearsal and get the whole rehearsal recorded, or are we talking about a smaller memory than that?
Pete, recording time is determined by the amount of storage you've got. The Edirol and the M-Audio and the Zoom all store their data on memory cards (there are some other options available, but card are the common denominator.) These are the same cards you see on modern digital cameras.
In addition to amount of storage, the resolution at which you're recording matters. WAV (uncompressed) or MP3 (compressed), and within each of those options you can get higher or lower resolution.
I record WAV at the same resolution as CD. My unit has a 20GB laptop harddrive in it, which is crazy big for live recording purposes. I can record a one-hour set of music in under 1GB, though.
In strict answer to your question, though, yes you could record a 3-hour rehearsal and get the whole thing. You might have to go to MP3 to do it, though. I suppose a 2GB smart card would likely do the job in a WAV file, though.
Once you get these big WAV files, you may run into some issues with your computer if you want to post-process the file. A three-hour WAV is a HUGE file. Not all software is designed to properly manage such a huge file. Some of the freebie WAV editors choke on something that big...
In addition to amount of storage, the resolution at which you're recording matters. WAV (uncompressed) or MP3 (compressed), and within each of those options you can get higher or lower resolution.
I record WAV at the same resolution as CD. My unit has a 20GB laptop harddrive in it, which is crazy big for live recording purposes. I can record a one-hour set of music in under 1GB, though.
In strict answer to your question, though, yes you could record a 3-hour rehearsal and get the whole thing. You might have to go to MP3 to do it, though. I suppose a 2GB smart card would likely do the job in a WAV file, though.
Once you get these big WAV files, you may run into some issues with your computer if you want to post-process the file. A three-hour WAV is a HUGE file. Not all software is designed to properly manage such a huge file. Some of the freebie WAV editors choke on something that big...
Depends on the memory card you use and the resolution setting. With a 2gig card (about $60), I can get over 3 hours of WAV files (CD quality), or something ridiculous like 18 hours of high quality mp3 recording. So yes, you could just turn it on and leave it. You could also turn it on and touch it only to place track markers in it during the rehearsal, which would make navigating around the results a lot easier.
Well, take a look at the constraint to which I responded. The budget was under $100! In that case, I still believe that the best bang for the buck is a used MD recorder but, yes, it depends on the premium one places on being able to instantly upload to a computer. I record my lessons with an Aiwa MD recorder. When I get home, I connect it to my computer and use Adobe Audition (okay, yes, that software costs more than the recorder), to digitize the analog output. While I'm listening to the recording, I note the times of different sections that I want to break into tracks. It works quite well. For me, the small inconvenience of not being to directly upload a file (to which I would have to listen in real-time anyway to make my edits) is far outweighed by the vastly superior sound quality of the MD recorder over a "cheap" digital recorder.
Now, if the budget is, say, in the hundreds, I'd probably go for the Zoom H-4. One aspect of that device that I did not see highlighted here is the X-Y configuration of the built-in stereo pair. A very nice touch for those of us who care about such things.
A used MD recorder is under $100? I'm surprised. What angered me so much about the technology was how expensive it was, in addition to the whole analog issue. My MD recorder cost over $300 a few years back, and it didn't even have a clean headphone output. I was secretly glad when it got stolen.
