Mark Foley
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Apr 22, 2008, 5:07 AM
Post #1 of 15
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Edirol R44 Users Information
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I will be adding to this thread (as other are welcome/encouraged to do the same)
Pulled my new R44 out of the box...wow this baby is small (as compared to my R4). My initial aesthetic assessment: Like the new black look/feel over the R4. The OLED display, now becoming the standard on new designs, is another big step-up...although pretty small in size, you can see it at a much greater distance than the older display on the R4.
Big change for me is the new gain control now by a combo level knob. The sensitivity dial (outside of the knob) is set in 11 incremental steps; +4, -2, -8, -14, -20, -26, -32, -38, -44, -50 and -56 dbu. The level dial (inside of the knob) goes from negative infinity to +8dB with the central position at 0dB. You set each channels individual sensitivity, and then fine tune it with the channel's level dial. For those who have big/fat fingers (lucky not me), you may have to practice this. Although I haven't got a chance to test all of this out, I suspect if one chooses to mic a PA stack, you may be able to use microphones without the need of any attenuation (at the mic or inline), but rather simply dial in the amount of sensitivity.
The new peak hold feature is a big plus up over the R4 as it is much easier to tell where your peaks are running at. On the R4 it was a bit difficult to visually see the levels when they got close to 6dB/3dB.
The big gain though for me is the ability to record from the internal mics and have the use of the analog inputs for two additional mics. This allows me a bit more flexibility in recording setups.
Some AA battery testing (48kHz/24bit, 4channels with phantom) I got about two hours of recording time. Without phantom power, the record times move out to 3.5 hours....
edit 30 April...Not all SDHC cards will work with the R44 (as manufacture's architecture varies). I have found (and blessed by Edirol), the San Disk 8gb card works great in the machine and I found them at amazon for approx. $30 a piece
http://www.amazon.com/...B000UZL0YUB0018BOLIC
edit 8 nov 08: Although this one sweet piece of equipment, the onboard mics are junk. If you want a recorder to simply drop in place with minimal fuss (and no external mics)...use the Zoom H2  .
Edit 28 Sep 09....been awhile since I've updated this...but wanted to add this: If you happen to be recording on AA batteries (alone) and they die, you will need to use the program VLC to recover that last segment.
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Mark
(This post was edited by Mark Foley on Sep 28, 2009, 1:14 AM)
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