Topic: Edirol R-44 - 4 Channel Recorder (Part Tres)

[kirk97132]

Let me be one to retract my knee jerk reaction to you and your post and say WELCOME to the club    Now if I only had the level headedness of Mr Satz

[kirk97132]

kirkd, the manufacturer really ought to specify this.

Here is all I can find for specs:
A-51s SPECIFICATIONS
TYPE: True Condenser Pressure Gradient Microphone
CAPSULE: 1" Diameter, Low Micron, Gold Vapor-Deposited Gradient Design
ELECTRONICS: Low Noise Discrete FET
FREQUENCY RANGE: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
SENSITIVITY: 15 mV/pA 9-36.5 = 1 V/pA
EQUIVALENT NOISE LEVEL: (A-Weighted per IEC 286-4) < 17db Typical
MAXIMUM SPL FOR THD: <0.5% (1 kHz) 140 dB
SWITCHABLE LOW FREQUENCY CUT-OFF: 100 Hz
SWITCHABLE PAD: - 10dB
CONSTRUCTION: Heavy Duty Aircraft Grade Machined Brass with Durable Scratch Resistant Anodized Finish
WEIGHT: 470 grams / 1.03 lbs.
DIMENSIONS: 50 x 190 mm / 2 x 7.5
OPERATING VOLTAGE: 48 V Phantom Power

I did not see any thing that states current draw.  If it was something that would be considered useful here to know I could get in touch with Larry who founded ADK mics.  Also I don't have any idea if the mods Chris(busman Audio) did affect the draw at all?  But from what I'm reading all I need to do is measure pin three current with the MM in the circuit under a load, so it there would be no need to contact anyone, I would have that measurement in real time, right?  Thanks for the step by step instructions.  I've got some loose connectors here so it won't be that hard to fabricate one up, kirk

[Gutbucket]

^^^
Not sure about the A-51 but the similar, unmodified  ADK-TL draws <4mA.  Manufacturer's specs.

[MaxJames]

... and say WELCOME to the club...

Thanks! I look forward to having fun and learning things from this forum, which no doubt will enhance this new hobby of mine. Never thought of measuring the phantom power supply (nor any bench testing in general) until I "discovered" this forum.
 
Just did some quick measurements on the Tascam DR-100 which I pre-ordered a couple of weeks ago and arrived yesterday, and the results are a bit surprising:

- The phantom supply was exactly 48.0v with no load. Then I shorted pins #1,2, & 3 on XLR input #1 (measured current draw = 14.6 mA), and shorted pins #1&2 on the XLR input #2 (measured current draw = 7.3 mA, for a total current draw of 21.9 mA), the voltage was rock solid at exactly 48.0V

- At the "High" sensitivity setting, the DR-100’s EIN was a couple of dB better than the Ediroal R-44 EXCEPT at exactly 12,000 Hz where there was a spike as high as 15 dB above the noise floor everywhere else. This spike may be due to electrically noisy environment near my test bench, which induced the spike in the 150 Ohm resistor that I used to terminate the XLR input. There was also a minor spike at 60 Hz, which I was able to trace back to the compact fluorescent light that I was using – the spike was gone after I turned off the light. Will repeat the test at my work place shortly.

- At both the “Mid” and “Low” sensitivity settings, the spike at 12,000 Hz was much lower, and the Tascam DR-100’s EIN was a couple of dB better than the Edirol R-44, even if the spike was taken into account.

Overall, I am very happy with both the Edirol R-44 and the Tascam DR-100, based on audio tests (mostly recordings of piano music) - I have very good ears, particularly in terms of tones. 

[DSatz]

MaxJames, as you know those are excellent results, completely in tune with the standard for phantom powering at 48 Volts.

I don't know why my R-44 doesn't quite achieve those same results, but it's close enough that it doesn't spoil my pleasure at using this recorder--it just means that I have to be a little bit careful with certain microphone combinations.

Thanks again for your postings.

[Nick's Picks]

has anyone tried to use the M-S mixing feature on this yet?

[kirk97132]

I keep looking at that but haven't wanted to "risk" trying it so far.  I guess I need to record something lees critical figuring the first time out I'll botch it somehow.  I be interested to hear if anyone has used it too, and how it worked out.  kd

[Gutbucket]

You can record the unadulterated Mid & Side signals and use the M/S feature as a playback effect with out risk.

[Nick's Picks]

what a great deck this is.  by far, the best feature set, I/O options and stock sound right out of the box.

[Ozpeter]

I've used the MS dematrixing many times - if you are familiar with MS recording it's very straightforwardly implemented on the R-44.  Indeed you can simply use if for playback but that means you get a weird monitoring balance when recording.  It's a great pity that the R-44 effects cannot simply be used for monitoring during recording and playack, rather than having the recorded permanently if you simply want them for monitoring.

[indianajambash2006]

Is there a step by step process here anywhere of how to make the external battery and what supplies i will need?

Thanks!

[leehookem]

Is there a step by step process here anywhere of how to make the external battery and what supplies i will need?

Thanks!

Go to Radio Shack and pick up three things.  An adapta-plug cable, a B tip, and a M tip.  Done.  Just remember that the R44 is center pin negative.

[danlynch]

I should report that after about 10 recordings with the 150s + 4021 combo, I have had zero problems with phantom or anything else.

On Sunday, I did my first show with the 150s + board feed.  For the first band, I set the digital gain for the 3 and 4 channels (board feed) at 12 o'clock and unfortunately there was a ton of brickwalling.  For the second and third bands, I bought the gain down two notches (10 o'clock) and everything is perfect.  I guess its hard to really tell if you have a really hot feed until the band actually starts playing.  And of course, having the 2 stereo wav files means that a I still have an excellent recording of the first band, just no board feed to mix with it.

[skotdee]

When you say digital gain, are you referring to the inner or outer knob? It is my understanding the inner knob is digital, but you mention bringing it down a couple notches, which sounds like you were using the outer (stepped) gain, which I though was analog 

Was the channel name blinking when it brickwalled?

[danlynch]

Digital Gain = Inner Knob.
"Analog" Gain = Outer Knob

I brought the outer knob down pretty low, but the fact is that if you've set the inner (digital) knob too high, the brickwalling/peak distortion is going to still be there.  The wav flatlines, even though the flatline is at about -20db.  When I brought down the inner (digital) knob, it was after the first set and the last two sets of the night are perfect.

And yes there was a lot of blinking, but it wasn't solid.  I didn't expect to have the flat-top on the wav that ended up, but again it was my first experience with a line feed.  Now I know.