Topic: Newbie with questions about the Edirol R-09HR, mics, etc.

[fmaderjr]

Hello, welcome from a fellow "Noob" It's not often I can offer advice on this board full of experts, but I do have experience with the R09. I don't have the new HR version, but with my regular unit I experienced horrible clipping and brickwalling at loud shows BEFORE I started turning the "lo-cut" setting ON. Even though I wasn't getting the "Peak" warning light. Really pisses ya off! After starting to use that lo-cut feature, no more probs. Those were REALLY LOUD shows though, Arcade Fire, Chili Peppers, The Who. Just got crushed 

Lo-cut is not necessary to avoid distortion if you are using external mics and a battery box. You don't want to record with the R-09's internal mics (they truly suck for music recording). Upgrade to a Church Audio external mic and battery box (or preamp) and you will be amazed at how much better your recordings sound.  I tried the R-09's internal mics once and that was enough for me until I sent it to Chris Church for the Micsketeer upgrade. The R-09 Micsketeer sounds great recording earsplitting loud rock concerts with the internals unlike the standard issue R-09.

[SpokenMagicSpells]

This may be a silly question, but if the Edirol has batteries, why is the battery box necessary for external mics?

edirol doesn't put out enough power for most mics

I have a CA-11 that Chris makes to me (he wrote 2.4k on the plug) and it's adequately powered by the R09-HR.

I have an AC/DC's show (2009-11-27) recorded with this setup: CA-11 > R09-HR. Look for it in dimeadozen.

Regards.

[fmaderjr]

edirol doesn't put out enough power for most mics

I have a CA-11 that Chris makes to me (he wrote 2.4k on the plug) and it's adequately powered by the R09-HR.
Regards.

rhinowing is absolutely correct for almost all decent mics we use here. Your mic was specially designed by Chris to run off the HR's plug in power, for people who need the absolute smallest form factor. However, battery boxes are so small today, though, that I would prefer to have a standard CA-11 and use it with a battery box. That way the mic is optimally powered either going mic in or line in. Since your mic was designed to be powered by well under 9 volts, it wouldn't be powered optimally if you wanted to use it line in with a battery box. Anyone considering getting a CA-11 or 14 with the 2.4k mod should keep this in mind if they thought they might want to use it line in as well as mic in.

[sethrich]

3. Basically, for loud rock, you want to run mics>Power>line-in and have everything that can be turned off, turned off.  That means: Mic Power OFF. Mic Sens LOW (not relevant if OFF anyway, but just to be safe).  LIMITER OFF.  LO-CUT OFF.  I also recommend using black electrical tape to cover all of the switches and inputs you won't use (limiter, lo-cut, mic power - everything on the back except HOLD) and maybe even the mic input and volume control if you want to make it super-foolproof. If you can't get decent levels going line in, then use MIC in with sensitivity LOW. 

It's also advisable, especially if you are trying to avoid being noticed for any given reason, to set the R-09 to turn off the bright red "RECORD" light after 5 seconds.

thanks for your advice. a couple questions though:

what's the difference between running the external mics through LINE IN instead of MIC IN? the instructions suggest running an external mic through MIC IN, so that's why i ask.

do i need to set the input levels when using external mics? if so, what should they be? the stuff i was reading about peaking seems complicated 

[rastasean]

Use line in for loud rock with your pre-amp/battery box.

example of what I use:
ca14 cards --> 9100 --> line in on 09hr and the gain on the 09hr around 40-50 and on the 9100 its about 12 or 1.

If I were to do ca14 cards --> 9100 --> mic in on 09hr I'm thinking it would be heavily distorted sounds.

the stuff about peaking is not complicated and quite frankly, just keep the two little bars from going to the extreme right of the monitor and you will be okay. You should expect it to rise when something like the drums are played but it will stay within a range and thats basically what you want to monitor.

try it out and you will learn from your mistakes.