however, the m-audio recorder appeals to me a lot more. 1 - its supposedly $2k cheaper, thats $2k i can be spending on something else and 2 - its a helluva lot smaller. Not saying the 722 isn't stealthable, but smaller is better, even when you're trying to fit everything in your gear bag in a non stealth situation.
i dunno, so far the m-audio recorder appeals to me more than the 722 and its blinky lights.
I'm not a stealth guy. In fact, if a band tells me I can't record them, I consider it their loss, not mine. But then I've had really good luck recording bands that typically don't allow recording. But, the stealth factor never plays into my decision. I can see how it might for some I suppose.
The M-Audio Recorder is getting a lot of buzz. If they can deliver, this will definitely be one hot box. The 744T & 722 have their place and for some it's the holy grail they have been searching for. My demands were even greater than these two boxes could deliver, thus I went with the Zaxcom Deva IV. However, not everybody can afford 10K for a recording device (even I had a really hard time justifying it to myself... I love the box and I'll never have to buy another box again, but 10K is a lot of change to be tossing down), and it's definitely not something that lends itself to stealth situations.
As the R1, R4, and M-audio recorders start hitting the street in full force, I think we're going to start seeing some great things from the taping community. As it is, shows are now suddenly appearing within hours of the show instead of weeks or months. There will be other benefits too, and most of them will be positives.
But you're right about one thing, one size doesn't fit all when it comes to recording.
Wayne
The Zaxcom and Nagra V are all pieces of equipment that we'd love to have in our bag of tricks! For those that have them RIGHT ON!
I'm curiuos to hear the 722 more extensively. I like the format, the design, the look etc... One firmware glitch is acceptable. I am worried as an all in one solution simply because the Sound Devices portable preamps in my OPINION left a lot to be desired. They didn't do anything nasty to the signal but did seem to sound a bit flat and hard at the end of the day. I hope that improvements went into that part of the box as well as just breaking new ground in the recorder territory.
The thing about the new M-Audio Box is that we're simply dealing with an encoder here... everyone is still able to mate it up with the front end of thier choice which gives the concept a lot of flexibility. I wouldn't want to lay out serious cash on the recorder only to feel like I wanted to still run an external pre or converter in front of it. Anyone know offhand some recordings made with the 722 either X/Y or ORTF?
The R-4 is a great design but I would hold out till a mod is developed for it before I would be willing to give up my Pre. The Modified FR-2's sound fantastic! The space inside those boxes allowed for a good bit of tweaking but by the time I add up the cost for the recorder plus enough CF space to make it worth while it's back over my meager earnings (C'mon Gradutation!!).
I think that it's great that we're seeing such a wide variety of options begin to develop, gone are the days of D8, DA-P1, or HHb being the choices from which to choose.
