Topic: Edirol R-09 hidden menus- Switch off recording light (and turn on cool features)

[Gutbucket]

I recently stumbled across this old post- (96Khz on the old R09?...Yes) and decided to poke around the hidden Test Mode and Debug Menus to see what undocumented options are available for the original R-09.  I've documented all the screens, tests and settings that I've found in the attached PDF.  There’s a lot of stuff in there.  Not all of it is useful, but there are some gems.  The credit for all this goes to xweirdo (Pat) for posting how to access these hiden menus.  Thanks Pat.

Personally, I have no desire to try and run this recorder at sampling rates higher than 48kHz (which may or may not prove to be stable).  I have changed a few settings to better fit my usage and those changes seem to be completely stable.  I'm quite happy about it.


A short list of what I've changed:

1) Completely turned off the blinking red recording LED (I can now remove the square of gaff tape from the clear window of the Body Glove case)

2) Changed the default file naming scheme from ‘R09_0001.WAV’ to 'Scene1_0001.WAV' for one of my R-09s and 'Scene2_0001.WAV' for the other, which immediately differentiates the files from each recorder after transfer.  If I had only one R-09 I would probably change the file naming scheme to the date format used on the R-44 (and probably the R-4/R-4Pro as well- dunno, I've never used those), which is a numeric format indicating year-month-date-hour-minute-second: ‘010625113113.WAV’

3) Increased the peak hold time to 5 seconds

4) Changed the eq, send and depth level settings of the reverb presets to values that are actually useful occasionally for playback (toned them way down so they aren’t so obvious and artificial)



Here’s a few things in there which others may find useful:


Adjustment of the gain balance between channels (untested)

‘One-touch’ recording (immediately enter record mode directly without rec-pause)

88.2 & 96kHz sampling rates (as on the HR)

Half speed playback (as on the HR)

Mute output on FFW/RWD

Change the display font size/bolding

Among others..


Enter at your own risk and enjoy!-

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Cool.  Thanks!

[Dede2002]

Great stuff. Thanks a lot. 

[fmaderjr]

Personally, I have no desire to try and run this recorder at sampling rates higher than 48kHz (which may or may not prove to be stable).  I have changed a few settings to better fit my usage and those changes seem to be completely stable.  I'm quite happy about it.

Great work. I agree as to the 96 Hz. Even if stable it probably wouldn't provide an audible improvement in sound. Not worth the risk of finding out it causes even occasional problems.

It's nice to be able to turn off the record light and make some of the other changes though.

Can't find anything similar in the R-09HR. Anybody find it?

[listener2]

Hey thanks for assembling the info into a .pdf file GutBucket!  I still have my trusty old R-09 and this is welcome news to know we can get into debug mode and set some of these parameters!
Credit and Thanks to the original poster xweirdo (Pat) of the info too!

[dmonkey]

Hey, this is COOL! I was just wishing I didn't have that damned red light on last night. Thanks for the guide!

[ashevillain]

Anyone know how to access this hidden menu on the R-09HR?

[fmaderjr]

If you screw up any settings using the test mode and can't figure out how to set them back, you can use the regular menu to set everything back to factory default. I tested it and it turned my record light back on, so I'm sure it sets everything changed in the test mode back to factory default.   

[Johnny Thunder]

All 5 of my '09's now record with one touch. I couldn't be happier with this!

-JT

[mattmiller]

Anyone know how to access this hidden menu on the R-09HR?

A lot of the settings that are cited in that PDF for the R-09 are available in the regular menu of the R-09HR.

[listener2]

Edirol R-09 owners, I just attempted to investigate these hidden menu functions previously mentioned and found out something very interesting.
With my R-09 loaded with latest firmware version 1.31, I performed the special power up into debug mode as outlined in original post and in GutBuckets .pdf file.
I performed the change to begin Recording by one button press instead of default two button press.  Worked nicely!
Then I tried powering off the unit and powering back on to make sure the setting still held in effect.  It did!  But what I was surprised to find out is this...
For the heck of it while unit was powered up as normal power button pressed, I decided to see what happens if I pressed the "Finder/Menu" button and the "Repeat" buttons together and Lo and Behold~! the setup menu appears with an extra category saying "Special Setup".  If you go into this "Special Setup" which is listed as choice selection #6 on the main menu now, it gives you all the pertinent feautures to turn on/off the Record LED light, and it also allows you to set "Use High Rate" = On or Off (which turns on all the extra 88.2Khz and 96Khz sampling rates!).
There are other settings to for Font size, peak meter timeout, etc.  Check it out!

So bottom line:  There is no need to do that special power up button pressing to set these parameters!  Just power up normally and instead of pressing and holding only the "Menu" button as normally documented, press and hold both "Menu" and "Repeat" buttons together to get access to the special setup parameters! 

Enjoy!
As an aside, I have just ordered a new Roland R-05 from ebay using Bing Cashback and got it for total of about $211.   ... It seems like this R-05 is similar to the Sony M10 in looks and spec wise.  How quiet the preamps are though, is the big question I have yet to find out compared to the outstanding Sony units.

[listener2]

Well, I've made a few test recordings at the 96khz 24 bit mode and it seems it recorded fine.  Two times though I got the error message "SD card too slow, hit any key to continue" message and so I just hit any key to continue the recording and it recorded thereon just fine.  Mind you I only did about 2 minute max test recordings so who knows if it would have choked and messed up a recording session if I were really using it to record a 1 hour show for example.  I am using an A-DATA 16GB SDHC card in there, so maybe a differerent faster speed card is needed for reliable 96khz sample rate recordings.

Also even though I made the recording clips successfully, upon playback on the Edirol R-09 unit itself, each file would playback fine until the end of the file.  Where upon it would freeze and lock up the R-09.  To undo the lockup, you have to remove the power (open the battery lid to lose power) and repower back on.  So that is a quirk to remember.  Someone else mentioned the playback lockups too in the other related thread. 

One thing I would say that I think I perceive is that the recording of my voice sounded smoother and more natural with less edginess to it when I recorded at 96khz versus 44.1khz 24 bit mode.  So it does work.  Just does not playback on the R-09 well.

[fmaderjr]

Great find!

Good luck with your R-05.

A previous thread says that the R-05 will not accept as hot a line in signal as the HR (or M10), which may be a problem for those using an external pre.
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=133624.0

If you are going to use a pre, test it thoroughly while you still have return privileges (and let us know what you find out!)

[listener2]

A previous thread says that the R-05 will not accept as hot a line in signal as the HR (or M10), which may be a problem for those using an external pre.
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=133624.0

If you are going to use a pre, test it thoroughly while you still have return privileges (and let us know what you find out!)

Thanks fmaderjr, I just posted to that other thread.  I am hoping that the mic preamp on this new R-05 is going to be quieter than previous R-09HR and I don't have to use the line-in with a preamp.  Although I do have an external mic preamp I bought from Sound Professionals a long time ago for when I was using my Archos Gmini 400 (I forget the exact model number) and Iriver H120 and H320 hard disk recorders, I have not needed to use a mic preamp with these new wave of flash recorders.  So hope I still don't have to.  I am not sure if I can return the R-05 to eBay seller though (I have to check on the return policy now).  But I don't plan on returning it unless it is grossly defective out of the box per chance.  It seems like it is going to be another excellent unit to me... but time will tell.

[Gutbucket]

..Lo and Behold~! the setup menu appears with an extra category saying "Special Setup"..

Nice find! Kind of strange it only includes that sub-set of options.

[listener2]

Yeah, it is just a subset of all available options using that secret button press.

Hey, guess what?  I just got my new Roland R-05 this afternoon and it too has a secret menu secret buttons pressed to access just like the R-09 to get at a similar extra menu choice #6 that says "Special Setup".  It offers a lot more things to tweak though than the R-09 has.  On the R-05, you can turn the record button light on/off when in record mode from this easy access menu.
I have not found a way to get into any "Debug/Test Diagnostics" mode when powering on though (like you can with the older R-09).  My R-05 says firmware version 1.02 out of the box new.
It is smaller than my Sony PCM-M10 and lighter.  It is a tad smaller and more compact than my original R-09 plastic cased unit.  Even though they say the R-05 case is metal, it is hard to tell if it is all metal all around or if it is also plastic pieces in places.  But it dos feel more solid and compact and sturdy in your hand than the original R-09.

As for preamp noise, I am not sure about how it compares to the Sony M10 yet.  I only did very first initial test recordings with it so far and listened with my headphones.  I am inclined to say that the R-05 noise level is about the same or maybe if I am lucky a tad less than the Sony M10's mic input. However I have not done any real intensive study nor scientifically measurement tests of the units to compare them.  I just used my ears and fiddled with the input level gain controls whilst listening for the hiss levels in my Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

The Sony M10 preamp seems to have more gain than the R-05.  Seems I have to turn the R-05 mic gain control up quite high to get decent levels out of my mics (Countryman B3 low sensitivity model, Church Audio CA-11).  Internal mics are much more sensitive than my external mics I tried so far.
The Sony M10 also seems to have a more powerful headphone amp as it can play louder than the R-05 does turned to max up.  Overall so far, the R-05 seems like it is another excellent stealth portable unit!

[fmaderjr]

Overall so far, the R-05 seems like it is another excellent stealth portable unit!

Let us know when you've fully tested it.

So far I haven't heard any real advantages over the M10 and the price is similar. The M10 can take a hotter line in signal and you've said the M10's headphone amp is better and that you really have to crank the gain to get a good signal mic in with mics that aren't too sensitive. For fairly quiet stuff you may find your R-05 recordings too noisy unless you use an external pre-let us know what you find.  I'm thinking there's a good possibility that even the discontinued R-09HR may prove better for many tapers than the R-05 if you don't need more than 7 hours of battery life.

Personally, I will never again buy a piece of new recording gear until it tested by a number of taperssection members.  Learned my lesson when I was an early Zoom H4 adopter (before I heard of taperssection).

[listener2]

fmaderjr, yeah, no sweat, the Sony M10 is still the better and best buy of them all out there so far and especially now that its price has dropped lower!  The Sony is also better built but a bit larger and bulkier than the Roland R-05.  As for the preamp noise levels and sound quality characteristics, I cannot really say right now as I've not had any experience with them yet to say conclusively.  Only time will tell yes.  From what I know now owning all these units, the Sony PCM-M10 is the best designed and offers more features.  Unless later other folks measure the R-05 noise levels and dynamic range capabilities and it turns out better than the Sony M10, right now I think they are about equal in that category.  But like I said, considering features, build quality, price and all, the Sony PCM-M10 is IT ! The R-05 is very close.  I have no idea about the R-09HR as I skipped that generation.  I have the R-09 of course, but we all know that one has a noisey mic preamp and is only good for recording loud concerts where preamp noise is buried and a non-issue.

[fmaderjr]

Thanks for your input listener2.

I love it when knowledgeable tapers try out recorders because their reports give us a better idea whether something new might be worth trying.

I'm just not going to risk it myself. I hated that Zoom H4 I got stuck with so much I didn't even have the heart to try to sell it. I figured any potential buyers would be sorry they bought it too.

[tbirdbuzz]

I just received an R-09 with 1.20 firmware.  I updated it to 1.30 and followed the instructions to turn off that pesky record beacon.  Thanks.