Topic: Edirol R-4 Field Recording - Nature.

[digifish_music]

Can anyone with experience using the Edirol R-4 for field-recording - nature, ambience, that sort of thing have any comments on how it performs stock?

I have a Rode NT-4 & pair of NT-5's I will be using with it depending on the situation.

Regards Scott

[BayTaynt3d]

I'm a proud owner of a stock R4, and I absolutely love it, but I seriously wonder if this is the right tool for your needs. I think it's self-noise might be too loud for what you need. You'd be able to run mic-in (for music many folks have to run line-in), so that will help, but depending on how much gain you'll have to add, this might not be your best choice for ambient/nature recording. Also, this unit isn't the smallest field recorder, so if size is a consideration, you might want to go for something else. Do you really need 4-channels?

[digifish_music]

I'm a proud owner of a stock R4, and I absolutely love it, but I seriously wonder if this is the right tool for your needs.

...self-noise
...this unit isn't the smallest field recorder
...Do you really need 4-channels?

Thanks for the quick reply.

Self noise, is it that bad? I heard the headphone preamp was hissy, but not that the internal mic preamps were noisy?

Size - this isn't really an issue, I will be setting up with tripods and multi-mics so it's a deliberate and planned thing.

Inputs - the ability to capture the same sound with two different stereo mic pairs is appealing. Or a stereo pair and a shotgun mic.

Regards Scott

[qpwoei]

I often do nature recordings and after some trial-error my rig has finally become:

zeppelin > any decent, low-self-noise mic (eg Sennheiser MKH or ME series) > Shure FP24 preamp > whatever digital recorder (from Edirol R09  to iRivers, even a cheap MD will do)

The NT4 it's ok for music, but with 12 mV a bit short of sensitivity for nature. As a result you have to cranck the preamp up and ... --> background hiss. It's also very sensitive to handling noise and wind because of its cardioid capsules. For all these reasons I rarely if ever use my NT4 for stereo nature recording (my preferred choice is to go mid-side stereo using a shotgun and a figure-8).

But you know, maybe the most important piece of equipment is... the wind shield!  (unless of course you use just a good omni) Hope this helps.

saludos

[guysonic]

Can anyone with experience using the Edirol R-4 for field-recording - nature, ambience, that sort of thing have any comments on how it performs stock?

I have a Rode NT-4 & pair of NT-5's I will be using with it depending on the situation.

Regards Scott

Most find an external preamp helps R-4 performance issues especially with lower output mics and natural-acoustic recording interests.

A few customers use the R-4 for nature and natural stereo-surround ambient recording purposes.  One such recordist is covered in EM article at: http://preview.emusician.com/em_spotlight/time_bells_steven_feld/index.html

Samples of his and other nature-ambient recordings at: http://www.sonicstudios.com/mp3.htm