Topic: Roland r26

[George2]

http://www.rolandsystemsgroup.com/products/100093

[Ozpeter]

A curious beast. 

The idea of combining closely spaced omnis with 90 degree cardioids to obtain any kind of worthwhile stereo image is a bit silly - it would have made more sense, but not much more, had the cadioids been set at a wider angle to compensate for the omnis which will always have the effect of narrowing the effective image width.  Or they could have gone for an MS arrangement with a omni mid mic (and saved the expense of one capsule).

Having XLR and PiP inputs could be handy for some, and there are various other interesting features, but the most notable development at the price point is the provision of a touch screen display.  It's implied that this can be used for waveform editing as well as menu selection.  But then again, most users would have access to a DAW of some sort for that purpose so unless you are reporting for radio from the jungle, I'm not sure how really handy such a feature would be.

What is the price point?  I'm guessing a street price about the same as a D50.

[flintstone]

Interesting!  Up to three mic pairs can be recorded simultaneously.  Or a WAV and an MP3 version of a stereo recording can be simultaneously recorded.

The r26 has four stereo mic inputs:  built-in omni, built-in XY, 3.5mm stereo jack with plug-in power, and a pair of XLR-TRS combo inputs with 48V phantom power.  According to the web site, you can listen to the four mic pairs (one pair at a time), and then choose which three to record.  Recording medium is the full-size SDHC card (rather than those tiny micro-SD cards that are so hard to find when you drop them in the dark).

Dimensions of 7.125 x 3.250 x 1.625 inches and weight of 14 ounces (probably without battery) means the r26 is a little smaller than the Marantz PMD661, a little larger than the Zoom H4n, and the same size as the Tascam DR-100.  The r26 is about half the size of the Edirol R-44 (also a Roland product). 

The battery is four AA cells.  Maximum draw, according to Roland, is 500 mA.  That would translate to a realistic recording time of 3-4 hours, depending on the type of AA cell used. 

Flintstone

update: Roland says "The preamps for all mic channels are derived from the hi-res preamps found in Roland’s R-44 4-Channel Portable Recorder." 
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=145356

It will be interesting to hear if "are derived from" translates into "sounds as good as."

[Fried Chicken Boy]

Interesting deck.  Having the full-size XLR's is good but including digi in/out would have been better.

[hoserama]

So looks like it's similar to the Zoom H4n (at least in functionality), but could also record with the internal mics?

Pity they didn't add another input, would love to have the XLR + 2 sets of 1/8" inputs for a total of 6 external tracks for something that small.

[George2]

They should have dropped the omni mics and added another set of input jacks.

[JD]

They should have dropped all the omni mics and added two more another sets of input jacks.

[hoserama]

Anybody know if it would be possible to wire in a 1/8" input that would go before the mic pre-amp?

[H₂O]

Yeah, it looked promising until they only allow 1 additional line in.  Their is only one line in the other input is a 1/8" mic in so I would assume this is going through the preamp.

Too bad they didn't allow you to bypass all the mics.

I guess they didn't want to impact R-44 sales.

[TimeBandit]

looks nice,  love it got really good handy gain wheels. and a nice contender running good mics without extra pre´s in the chain

but on this unit this silly 2 cent power / hold switch with risk turning it off if you wanna "hold" it just bollocks. even my cheapo 100 Euro backup device has single switches for power and hold ...

so my suggest for the mk2: drop half the 150 internal mics and add proper power / hold switch :p

[sunjan]

Dimensions of 7.125 x 3.250 x 1.625 inches and weight of 14 ounces (probably without battery) means the r26 is a little smaller than the Marantz PMD661, a little larger than the Zoom H4n, and the same size as the Tascam DR-100.  The r26 is about half the size of the Edirol R-44 (also a Roland product). 

The R-26 is actually quite a bit bigger (cubic footprint) than both the DR-100 and the 661 (although the 661is a tad heavier):

R-26 dimensions:    3-1/4 x 7-1/8 x 1-10/16 inches (82 x  180 x  41 mm)
R-26 Weight  14 oz. (370 g)

DR-100 Dimensions (WxHxD)    3.1 x 6 x 1.4" (80 x 153 x 35mm)
DR-100 Weight    10.2 oz (290g) (Without Batteries)

PMD661 dimensions: Width 93mm (3.7”) x Height 165mm (6.5”) x Depth 36mm (1.4”)
PMD661  Weight 410g (14 oz.)

Found out about pricing:
"Scheduled for release in mid-October with an MSRP of $599"
From http://www.sonicscoop.com/2011/09/12/roland-announces-r-26-six-channel-portable-field-recorder/

My verdict: if you need a small recorder with four external mics (one pair PIP, one pair P48), you might as well spend the money on a DR-2d and a Littlebox! Maybe the added convenience of an all-in-one makes it's worth paying for the R-26?!

[F.O.Bean]

Hmmmm, anyone have one yet? Or are they still not released?

[rastasean]

Scheduled for release in mid-October with an MSRP of $599.

[H₂O]

So street ~ $399 ?

[mandoman]

Looks interesting. I might have preferred this to my recently acquired dr-2d just for the xlr ins.
This is really reminiscent of the h4n.

Another vote to ditch the omnis for a regular line in and/or digi-in. But keep the on-board cards, those are always useful on a small handheld like this.

Success of the unit will depend on build quality, battery life, street price, and quality of internal mics and pres. If those all score well, than count me in. Can't wait for reviews!