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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: dorrcoq on March 14, 2009, 02:14:07 PM
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I'm thinking of upgrading my stealth rig R-09. A local music store has a clearance model R-4 for $799 (and that's Canadian dollars, so no 30% premium!)
Should I do it? ;D
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get the R-44
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get the R-44
Well...it's a lot more money, and not available locally that I can find. :)
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IMO
pros
HDD based so less worrying about media
sounds decent stock really good modded
lots of in - out options
4 channels
price
cons
if power is interupted recording is lost
crappy screen/meters
can only use 2 chan if using digi in
I really liked my Busman R4
if I go back to 4 channels it will be with a Oade R44
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I'm thinking of upgrading my stealth rig R-09. A local music store has a clearance model R-4 for $799 (and that's Canadian dollars, so no 30% premium!)
Should I do it? ;D
If you need to be convinced, you probably should not.
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I'm thinking of upgrading my stealth rig R-09. A local music store has a clearance model R-4 for $799 (and that's Canadian dollars, so no 30% premium!)
Should I do it? ;D
If you need to be convinced, you probably should not.
True. If I wasn't hesitant I would have bought it already. I had the online sales order completely filled out, and then thought I should post here first.
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IMO
pros
HDD based so less worrying about media
sounds decent stock really good modded
lots of in - out options
4 channels
price
cons
if power is interupted recording is lost
crappy screen/meters
can only use 2 chan if using digi in
I really liked my Busman R4
if I go back to 4 channels it will be with a Oade R44
Do it you will be happy ;) I have never got a digital board feed and the meters take time but you do get use to them. ;D
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not to knock but the OP says you are upgrading your stealth rig? The R4 is no little girl. She's got curves~! I just got mine and it is way bigger than I remember it being. I'm not complaining, but you can't crotch one that is for sure.
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Well, I guess I should rephrase that. Not upgrading my stealth rig, but upgrading to a non-stealth rig. How's that? ;D
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in that case I love my R4...
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Looks like internal battery recording time is the biggest drawback.
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Looks like internal battery recording time is the biggest drawback.
I have come up w/ about 1250mah w/ back light on, running 4 channels and using phantom power x 2 ;) Rechargeable AA are 2600mah at most I think so you would get about 2 hours but really easy rig to use external battery set up. All you need to do is DIY power cord to DVD lithium or rc Battery. ;)
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yeah, internal power was never great with the R-4, but with even a small DVD battery, they last forever. Just make sure that if you get one, you keep it from taking too much vibration as the HD WILL screw up. keeping a jacket or folded towel under mine always did the trick.
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I would guess a R-44 would last longer on internal batteries since it doesn't have any moving parts.
I'd rather run a CF rig that a HD rig...but that's just my opinion, man.
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get the R-44
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I'd rather run a CF rig that a HD rig...but that's just my opinion, man.
Why?
Is flash media somehow more reliable than a hard drive? Just because a HD with moving parts means its not as reliable as some media without moving parts?
R4 is a great unit. Extremely versatile. Extremely easy to use. If you can get one for a real nice price i'd say 'yes'
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I too, at one point debated about spending big money on the R-4, that was a 18mo ago, no regrets here, just some damn fine recordings.
....just do it!
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Is flash media somehow more reliable than a hard drive? Just because a HD with moving parts means its not as reliable as some media without moving parts?
yes. removing a point of failure means a CF-based system is inherently more reliable.
granted, i'm still an R4 owner... but i've also experienced an in-field hard drive death. (although to me it wasn't a big deal, i had a SD-based backup, and i simply popped open the r4 and replaced the failed stock HD the next day.)
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get the R-44
or else we are all coming looking for you. is that enough convincing?
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I'm thinking of upgrading my stealth rig R-09. A local music store has a clearance model R-4 for $799 (and that's Canadian dollars, so no 30% premium!)
Should I do it? ;D
I love mine. Works great. I prefer the HD based recorders due to my
terrible expierence with CF based recorders. I've owned a FR2LE and
a MTII (both CF cards) and have had issues at times. Never lost any
data but I feel much better with the HD.
I have no issues with the meters, I think they work fine and are fairly
accurate. I use a DVD battery to run mine, never used the internals.
I don't think you'll regret buynig one. I haven't.
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OK, thanks for all the input guys. I just pulled the trigger! Now I guess I need mics...
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OK, thanks for all the input guys. I just pulled the trigger! Now I guess I need mics...
Congrats. What are you looking at for mics?
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OK, thanks for all the input guys. I just pulled the trigger! Now I guess I need mics...
Congrats. What are you looking at for mics?
Cheap ones ;D
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I love mine. Works great.
I have no issues with the meters, I think they work fine and are fairly
accurate. I use a DVD battery to run mine, never used the internals.
I don't think you'll regret buynig one. I haven't.
X2
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I love mine. Works great.
I have no issues with the meters, I think they work fine and are fairly
accurate. I use a DVD battery to run mine, never used the internals.
I don't think you'll regret buynig one. I haven't.
X2
How do you like the Busman mics? Any place for me to hear samples?
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Good choice. I was very tempted several months ago to move to the R-44 myself. It's also well worth the money to ship it off to Chris at Busman for some Mods on the pre-amps. If you are comfortable with computers, I highly recommend replacing the stock hard drive with a faster 80gig drive. I did it and don't even worry about how much space I have or what bit/sample rate i need to run. 40gigs is big, but with 80gigs you can run 2 channels at 24/96 for roughly 40+ hours, no worries during festival season ;D. Also, make sure you reformat the drive instead of just deleting the files. This ensures it runs smoother and won't get all fragmented. All great aritsits start with an empty canvas.
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I've run mine a LOT for the last year, and haven't had a bit of problems. I keep the battery cable taped so it can't come loose... that's my only fear. I ran mine stock for a while before I shipped it off to Busman. It sounds fine stock. If I were buying a new one now, I might think about getting the R44, but I have no reason to dump this R4... it's a workhorse.
I just looked up the exchange rate... it looks like $799CA is something like $550US and that is a good price for new. I've seen a few used for $500, but that's a good price.
What have you got for big mics Dennis?
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I just looked up the exchange rate... it looks like $799CA is something like $550US and that is a good price for new. I've seen a few used for $500, but that's a good price.
What have you got for big mics Dennis?
Hey, Joe! Not quite that bad exchange wise, more like $615 or so. :) But yeah, I thought the price was pretty good, I know Nick (momule) was selling his used one for $500 a month ago. Big mics? That's my next outlay. ;D Distant Jay sent me a bunch of his recordings, and he uses the AKG C1000's. Sounded really good to me, and I can get them locally (same place I got the R4) for $269 CDN each, which is around $207 US. I'm certainly open to suggestions, though!
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How do you like the Busman mics? Any place for me to hear samples?
No complaints here. Here are a few samples.
http://www.archive.org/details/HCR2009-02-06.bsc1-k1.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/NMA2009-02-06.bsc1-k1.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/northernroom2008-06-21.busman-bsc1.tmod-r4.flac16
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I just looked up the exchange rate... it looks like $799CA is something like $550US and that is a good price for new. I've seen a few used for $500, but that's a good price.
What have you got for big mics Dennis?
Hey, Joe! Not quite that bad exchange wise, more like $615 or so. :) But yeah, I thought the price was pretty good, I know Nick (momule) was selling his used one for $500 a month ago. Big mics? That's my next outlay. ;D Distant Jay sent me a bunch of his recordings, and he uses the AKG C1000's. Sounded really good to me, and I can get them locally (same place I got the R4) for $269 CDN each, which is around $207 US. I'm certainly open to suggestions, though!
When I got back into taping I used Studio Project C 4's for a while and had good results. Plus you get two caps omni and cards and they are pretty small SD's specially compared to 1000's ;)
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crappy screen/meters
You honestly like the meters on the 660. The R-4 meters are great IMO.
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The R-4 meters are great IMO.
Now that's stretching things a bit. The R4 meters have potential if Edirol would ever update the firmware to include user selectable gain rain. When I owned either my R4 or R4Pro I tried with some help here to email the crap out of the Roland US person about it. He said it would be coming.
If you could select the viewable range to say -30 to 0 they would be great. Right now the range is so broad that you're really just guessing. Thankfully recording 24bit leaves a bunch of room to guess.
Great unit though. I miss my R4 Pro all the time.
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The R-4 meters are great IMO.
Now that's stretching things a bit. The R4 meters have potential if Edirol would ever update the firmware to include user selectable gain rain. When I owned either my R4 or R4Pro I tried with some help here to email the crap out of the Roland US person about it. He said it would be coming.
If you could select the viewable range to say -30 to 0 they would be great. Right now the range is so broad that you're really just guessing. Thankfully recording 24bit leaves a bunch of room to guess.
Great unit though. I miss my R4 Pro all the time.
qft. I love my R4 in general, but the primary complaint that I have is that the meters are hard to decipher sometimes.