As someone who makes many 3-4 channel recordings with an R4, I use mirrored hard disks and DVDs for my backups, but my full workflow looks typically like this:
1. Aquire to 2xStereo @ 24/44.1
2. FLAC the 24-Bit originals and immediately back up a 2nd copy to a 2nd hard drive (in case something corrupts during workflow)
3. I complete and SAVE a NON-destructive edit in an NLE as a project file (I use Vegas). This includes trimming ends, fading ends, and possibly EQ, gain/compression, reverb, dither, etc.
4. I then render out a 16/44.1 master wav from Vegas for tracking
5. Using CDWave, I track out the master wav and SAVE the cuesheet file
6. I then burn an audio CD from the tracked masters
7. Write the info.txt file
So, at this point I have the original 24-bit untouched wav, a 16-bit mixed untracked master, then the 16-bit mixed and tracked masters, which combined take up a lot of space. BUT THE BEAUTY OF THIS WORKFLOW is that all I really need is the original untouched wav, the vegas project file, and the CDWav cuesheet file to recreate everything. At any time in the future, I can simply unflac the originals, open the vegas project, render out a mixed/mastered version, open that in CDWave and using the saved cuesheet track it out to final form. Now there is some work involved in re-doing that whole procedure, but you don't have to re-mix (the vegas project has all of your edits saved in it) and you don't have to re-track (the cuesheet takes care of that). It's nice to know you can re-create (not re-do, just re-create using the project files) everything by only keeping the original. That said, for convenience, I usually save the tracked FLAC16s plus the original and the Vegas and cuesheet files, and I throw out the rendered untracked masters. If I'm tight on space with a DVD, I may discard the tracked FLAC16s for the DVD knowing that having the originals plus project files will let me reproduce the mixed master again.
So, at this point, the workflow usually goes:
8. I usually encode MP3s from the tracked masters using VBR4 with the LAME codec
9. FLAC the tracked masters
10. Delete all non-essential files. So, I'm usually left with just the FLAC'd 24-bit originals, the FLAC'd 16-bit tracked masters, MP3s, info.txt file, vegas project file, and CDWave cuesheet file.
11. Back all of that up to DVD and take it offsite, which is at work for me (if short on disk space, I don't include the tracked 16-bit flacs, see above)
12. In addition to the offsite DVD, it also remains on two mirrored drives
The one thing that is key here is using a non-destructive workflow. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but someone who is recording a lot and tends to always do some "production" on their recordings, it works great. In addition to only having to save the originals, it also makes it super easy to re-mix down the road. Say a year later you listen to it, and you decide you really need more bass in the mix, or want to change something for whatever reason. Just open the Vegas project file that works on the original wav, make your new mixing tweaks to the last project, re-render out the 16-bit master, open in CDwave and use the saved cuesheet to track it again, and you're done. So sweet...