Jeremy:
Reading through pages of comments in the team R-44 forum can take alot of time. Here are some quick answers to your questions...
- YES, the R-44 writes to an SD card, but there's no hard disk drive inside of the R-44.
- YES, the R-44 can write to four separate tracks if that's how you want to do it. Most people write to two sets of two tracks though. I think that if you write to four separate tracks in a four by one manner, you might need a real high quality and fast SD card. Seems like I've read that there can be write issues in the four by one mode (or perhaps that's the R-4 that I'm thinking of). Best check the forum for this detail if you want to know more.
When people are using all 4 tracks they're usually running two pairs of mics...four mics total...to the tracks. The most popular use of the 4 tracks though is having two mics to capture the ambient sound at a show and two mics capturing the SBD feed.
The R-44 isn't a mixer, so you have to use a software program, such as Audition, Audacity, or Soundforge, to mixdown each of the track pairs to combine them however you decide you want the two-track master to sound.
In my case, I'd like to have an R-44 so I can run two sets of mics and perhaps different mic pickup patterns to decide after the show which sounds better so that I can use the one that sounds best. I'd also love to have an R-44 for situations where I want to mic up the vocal monitor separate from the music because if I run a pair of mics stage lip, you often don't get much vocal at that location because vocals are usually routed through the PA speakers, which aren't heard very well at stage lip.
- YES, the R-44 can be powered from a battery that supplies DC power to the jack. Most people use 9V li-ion DVD battery's connected to the R-44 with a cable that's equipped with the proper tips. These batteries are fondly referred around here as Wally World's because there was a time when these batteries were available at Wal-Mart. Nowadays, you can't find them at Wal-Mart, but they're available on the web at reasonable prices ($20 or so each excluding shipping). Your run time needs to be calculated based on the MaH rating of the battery and the current draw of the R-44, but I wouldn't be suprised if you'd get 5 to 8 hours out of one of these batteries.
Another popular powering option that costs alot more, but had much longer run-times are Tekkeon batteries. Do a websearch on 'tekkeon' and you'll find the product.
Hope this helps.
Thinking to upgrade from an edirol ua5>jb3 rig to a Edirol R44 Hard Disc Recorder...
Does anyone use this, if so I have a few questions.
This records to SD cards right, can the separate tracks be saved to different files, for example if i used my dad's mics and mine to record a concert could i record my mics and my dad's to separate tracks and a mix to its own. Or would i have to mix while editing, or does it only record a single mixed track?
Next can it be powered by something other than the 4 AA batteries?
Thanks
Jeremy