Double Bass Small Affordable Recorder

[seanm]

Download is here

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Thanks! I will upgrade tomorrow at work!

Although, looking at prices, they seem to be dumping the 1G SD cards. I may just buy more 1G cards and put up with the switch between sets

And, for the record, CD quality is 16bit/44.1 kHz? At that rate the R-09 can get almost 1 1/2 hours on 1G.

 

[MT Spaces]

Thanks! I will upgrade tomorrow at work!

Although, looking at prices, they seem to be dumping the 1G SD cards. I may just buy more 1G cards and put up with the switch between sets

And, for the record, CD quality is 16bit/44.1 kHz? At that rate the R-09 can get almost 1 1/2 hours on 1G.

Yeah Sean, indeed, CD quality is 16bit/44.1 kHz. I think you may be on to something here with the cheapo 1 giggers. It isn't that hard to change the SD card. Man, it would be a bummer to be all loaded up on a 4 gigger and have something go wrong . I don't trust some of this new-fangled stuff anymore after I lost a hard-drive once. The old saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" may apply here.

 

[Uncletoad]

Yeah Sean, indeed, CD quality is 16bit/44.1 kHz. I think you may be on to something here with the cheapo 1 giggers. It isn't that hard to change the SD card. Man, it would be a bummer to be all loaded up on a 4 gigger and have something go wrong . I don't trust some of this new-fangled stuff anymore after I lost a hard-drive once. The old saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" may apply here.

So your thinking a handfull of 1gig drives, changing each set may be smarter than a pig of a 4 gig. Good point. Cheaper too.

 

[MT Spaces]

Do you suppose there is a difference between the SDSDBR-4096 and the 4096-J85 ? I have been looking for a user group or someplace to verify any of these are compatible before I pony up for something I can't use.

That's a good question . You may just wanna call Roland Tech Support if you don't mind hangin' out and listening to muzak for awhile:

"If you need technical assistance, you can contact our Product Support department by phone Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 6pm Pacific Standard Time: Digital Recorders and Mixers: 323-890-3741"

I did it once, the guy was helpful, and it wasn't too painful. Let us know what you find out .

 

[Uncletoad]

What cards are everyone using?

 

[seanm]

Life Brand from Shoppers Drug Mart. It's a rebranded Toshiba.

 

[philip sirois]

I got a 2G card from J&R electronics for 20 bucks. Works fine.

 

[Uncletoad]

So does any ole 1 or 2 gig card work or are some that don't? How do you know?

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Mine is a 2 gig card from a camera store. Dunno the brand, but it was about $60 (okay, I probably paid too much), and has worked flawlessly.

While a 4 gig card would be kinda cool, I think you'll find that even a 2 gig card is almost overkill because when the R-09 gets loaded up with soundfiles, it gets really annoying to try to figure out which track is which while it's still on the machine. Couple of days ago I found that i had something like 59 tracks (about 10 minutes each, give or take) on the damn thing, and it drove me nuts. It's better to listen and dump what you want to keep on a hard drive with a name and a date on the folder, then start clean again...at least for me.

 

[MT Spaces]

While a 4 gig card would be kinda cool, I think you'll find that even a 2 gig card is almost overkill because when the R-09 gets loaded up with soundfiles, it gets really annoying to try to figure out which track is which while it's still on the machine ... It's better to listen and dump what you want to keep on a hard drive with a name and a date on the folder, then start clean again...at least for me.

Excellent points Chris. I haven't used the recorder that much so far but I can't imagine dealing with all those files via the dinky (but nice) LED display on the unit. I see no point at all in trying to do naming, folders, yadda yadda on the Edirol itself. I must be getting too old .... I also see no point in trying to type text messages on a tiny cellphone keyboard .

So far my plan is to get the files off the recorder ASAP and labelled in folders on the Mac where I have a real keyboard and while the music files are fresh in my head. Then I can Audacity them whenever is convenient for me and burn CDs. Since I am so gun-shy about losing stuff, I probably won't purge the recorder until I have working CD back-ups in my hand.

P.S. Chris, can you personally tell a difference in sound between the 16bit/44.1 kHz WAV files and the highest bit-rate MP3s? I'm no audiophile nor do I own top-notch audio gear. At this point I can't tell any difference in sound quality but I can sure record a lot more MP3 than WAV on the Edirol !

 

[seanm]

So far my plan is to get the files off the recorder ASAP and labelled in folders on the Mac where I have a real keyboard and while the music files are fresh in my head. Then I can Audacity them whenever is convenient for me and burn CDs. Since I am so gun-shy about losing stuff, I probably won't purge the recorder until I have working CD back-ups in my hand.

This is what I do. Right after the gig/jam/practice I use the USB interface and copy the files to my computer. Then I wipe them from the R-09. I am slightly less paranoid. I try to keep the R-09 free from any files.

I also don't burn CDs. My mp3 file server is setup in a software RAID configuration. This won't protect against a removal, but it does protect against a bad drive. As long as you *notice* the drive goes bad

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

So far my plan is to get the files off the recorder ASAP and labelled in folders on the Mac where I have a real keyboard and while the music files are fresh in my head. Then I can Audacity them whenever is convenient for me and burn CDs.

That's pretty much the way I do it. These days I go one step further and hook the Edirol up to a small mixer and listen to the cuts before I even start the computer dump...some of them, I know I won't want to keep pretty quickly. iTunes is a great way to organize, store, and burn the R-09 files. You can even set it to import WAV/AIFF files if you want.

P.S. Chris, can you personally tell a difference in sound between the 16bit/44.1 kHz WAV files and the highest bit-rate MP3s? I'm no audiophile nor do I own top-notch audio gear. At this point I can't tell any difference in sound quality but I can sure record a lot more MP3 than WAV on the Edirol !

I can hear a difference, but it's not a huge one. For most gigs, i record in the highest mp3 setting because it takes up so much less space on the hard drive than WAV files do. For the real "heavy hitter" gigs, I might record in WAV if I think I'll want to do something with the cuts later. To me, the difference between mp3 and WAV sounds like the difference between AAC (iTunes compression log) and AIFF. It's there, but it's not really huge.

 

[MT Spaces]

These days I go one step further and hook the Edirol up to a small mixer and listen to the cuts before I even start the computer dump...some of them, I know I won't want to keep pretty quickly. iTunes is a great way to organize, store, and burn the R-09 files.

Chris, Thanks for your take on things . In the short time I've had the Edirol, I've also learned that it is useful to plug my powered computer speaker set directly into the Edirol and "pre-screen" the music files. I ditch some of the files right away and make some notes about dead air, noise issues, musicians, etc. on the keepers so I have a plan before I begin massaging them in Audacity.

Last weekend I recorded about 4 hours of non-stop music at an old time fiddlers association free-for-all with about 20 "bands" playing 3 songs each featuring fiddle players ranging in age from 9 to 82. I have really had to work to get every thing separated, labelled, cleaned up, faded-out, normalized, etc. Man, there were a few real nasty files with scary fiddle playing that I would have liked to use the "delete" button on but I'm staying true to the spirit of the event and documenting what actually took place. When I'm done I'll have a 3 CD set with about 60 songs / tunes that I will distribute for free to the folks that want them. It's been a fun project so far. Added to the sheer fun of playing double bass, the Edirol, Mac i-Book, Audacity, and i-Tunes have given me more good "reasons to live" .

P.S. What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle? It is considered to be bad form to spill your beer on a violin.

 

[Tbeers]

For anyone not jumping on the Edirol wagon! (just kidding, it's cool that there are a lot of great options for portable recording gear these days)

I'm still thrilled with my M-Audio MicroTrack 2496. Here's a recording I made today. Live and outdoors. Electric bass, though, sorry....
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How do you all deal with avoiding clipping in live recordings? When amplification is necessary and there's a crowd, I don't know what is the best solution. Thanks!

 

[Monte]

I've just joined the Edirol R-09 club courtesy of EBay.

Hopefully, I can make some quick demos to get my foot in the door in the Memphis scene.

 

[TroyK]

My MD is on it's last leg. I'll likely comparison shop a bit, but we seem to have a landslide winner in the TBDB court of opinion on this unit.

Can anyone tell me about the batteries? Do they charge when plugged in or are they regular akaline type batteries? How long are they lasting for you guys if the later? I looked the manual on line and it didn't seem to say.

Thanks in advance...for costing me money with your enthusiastic reviews. ;-)

 

[Uncletoad]

My MD is on it's last leg. I'll likely comparison shop a bit, but we seem to have a landslide winner in the TBDB court of opinion on this unit.

Can anyone tell me about the batteries? Do they charge when plugged in or are they regular akaline type batteries? How long are they lasting for you guys if the later? I looked the manual on line and it didn't seem to say.

Thanks in advance...for costing me money with your enthusiastic reviews. ;-)

I've had mine a couple weeks now. Recorded 4 4 hour gigs on it with some playback time between. Most of my playback time is on AC. I don't think it charges. I use alkalines. I have been through 3 sets of aa battery pairs. It's a battery sucking pig and I don't care. I carry around half a dozen AA batteries in my bag of spare stuff that lives in the Van. I just carry the thing in my pocket into the gig.

It's an amazing tool. I can't think of a thing I'd want more on it. It's already changing the way I evaluate my work and how I play.

 

[MT Spaces]

... I don't think it charges. I use alkalines. I have been through 3 sets of aa battery pairs. It's a battery sucking pig and I don't care. I carry around half a dozen AA batteries in my bag of spare stuff that lives in the Van. I just carry the thing in my pocket into the gig.

It's an amazing tool. I can't think of a thing I'd want more on it. It's already changing the way I evaluate my work and how I play.

Uncle T is correct (isn't he always? ) .... the unit does not charge the two AA batteries. I get about 3 to 4 hours of recording time on it. I pushed my luck too much last night and forgot to look at the battery indicator display. The Edirol shut itself down in the middle of a song we were doing . I didn't lose anything on the flash memory card, only messed that particular song. I will learn to keep looking at the display and keep fresh batteries handy. I haven't used the AC power supply cord yet .... only batteries.

I don't use it much for playback ..... usually dump the files onto my i-Book and into Audacity in pretty short order. I had bought a Ray-O-Vac charger and 8 rechargable AA batteries about 6 months ago for my flashlights, TV remotes, wireless computer mouse, etc. and that has more than paid for itself, especially now that I have the Edirol. I'm also loving that little Edirol gizmo!

 

[TroyK]

I can't think of a thing I'd want more on it. It's already changing the way I evaluate my work and how I play.

I hate recording myself, although I know that it is good for me. Ideally, I'd like something that records me, but plays back the beautiful line that was in my head instead of the shaky one that came off of my bass. I don't think that's available until the R-10, though.

I love the enthusiem on this unit. It makes dropping the money easier and I won't bother considering alternatives. In all honestly, I know that recording myself and listenning with a critical ear is one of the best things I can do for myself.

My iBook with Audicity is ready. Thanks for the feedback.

Troy

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Me want.