Opinions on the Edirol R4 Pro?

S

stringz

Active member
I am thinking of purchasing one of these. I have been impressed with everything I've read so far about it, but not heard any reports from the field.
I would if I could afford it get myself the SD744 for sure, but I can't and this seems like a credible alternative.
I can see from looking at it that the build quality is nowhere near as robust as the SD but how does the sound quality measure up?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
 
That's not a good sign. Has the R4 pro not appealed enough to anyone here from them to purchase or hire it?
 
I recently purchased the R-44. It records to solid state cards. No hard drive to worry about.

Haven't used it in the field yet. But the audio section seems to be very quiet. It works nicely with an Audio-Technica 4051a since it provides full 48v phantom power.

The unit's very compact. Seems nicely made and easy to use. Separate input volume knobs for each of the four channels, as well as an easily reached knob for the headphone output.

It records on inexpensive SDHC cards. A 16-gigabyte card will provide up to 11 hours of record time.

It will run for 3 hours and 20 minutes on four 2100 mAh NiMh AA batteries. I will be running it with an external battery pack consisting of 10 AA batteries. It ran for 7 hours, 20 minutes with that pack and one mic with phantom power.

Alkaline batteries don't tolerate the relatively high amperage draw of this recorder, so I strongly recommend using NiMH batteries. You can find them at Thomas Distributing. Check out the low-self-discharge Immedion batteries by Maha, as well as the eight-cell smart charger MAHA MH-C801D. It's features can help extend the life of your batteries and is well worth the money.
 
Although Roland/Edirol makes some really great product....and I'm sure this is a nice unit (I checked them out at NAB), if you don't really need 4 tracks, save a little longer and get a Sound Devices 702...or 722. They are sure to do the job & last a lifetime...plus they hold their resale value.

...or get a Zoom H4n to hold you over... they were running a show special of $320.00.
 
stringz said:
I am thinking of purchasing one of these. I have been impressed with everything I've read so far about it, but not heard any reports from the field.
I would if I could afford it get myself the SD744 for sure, but I can't and this seems like a credible alternative.
I can see from looking at it that the build quality is nowhere near as robust as the SD but how does the sound quality measure up?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Are you wanting the Edirol R-4 Pro unit because of the Timecode input? I have owned both the R-4 Pro and the R-44. We sell them. I now use the R-44 more just because it does not have a spinning disk. I believe the pre-amps are better in the original R-4 and the R-4 Pro. Oade brothers makes a mod too that you might want to check. We use the R-44 with a SD 302 mixer. Nice sound, compact and rugged.
 
I've used the R4-Pro on several projects in all kinds of weather and temperatures and have had zero problems. The timecode function is definitely nice to have and I also purchased a backup hdd just in case there's a blowout. I got mine used on this site for $1500 and haven't regretted it.

I second the Sound Devices recommendations, but you'll have to drop 3 large on a used 744t.

Hope this helps!

Sean
 
Guy_Cochran said:
Are you wanting the Edirol R-4 Pro unit because of the Timecode input? I have owned both the R-4 Pro and the R-44. We sell them. I now use the R-44 more just because it does not have a spinning disk. I believe the pre-amps are better in the original R-4 and the R-4 Pro. Oade brothers makes a mod too that you might want to check. We use the R-44 with a SD 302 mixer. Nice sound, compact and rugged.
Click to expand...
Hello Guy,
Just curious how do you feed all four tracks with the 302? I'm trying to decide on a recorder and have a 302. Four tracks would be great if I could feed them descretely.
Best,
Bernie
 
I've done a lot of field recording for indie films, corporate videos and commercial stuff using the R4-Pro.

It's been great for me, so far.

My reel contains a number of examples: http://sound.facesproject.org/s_hall_sound_examples.html

I would say that the R4-Pro records very high quality sound. It's been very reliable for me for about 2 years of on-the-go recording.

The weaknesses are that it's not really bag-friendly. Some key controls are on the top of th e unit, which is a bit of a pain when you're on location, working from a bag. Also, the hard-drive is a consideration. I treat mine gingerly -- usually moving the bag only after switching off the unit. This may be overkill. I've done moving shots with the R4-Pro running, but a hard disk is just not as robust as solid-state media.

There's also a discussion here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/all-things-audio/145242-edirol-r-4-pro-internal-drive.html to which I contributed, that has some more nuts-and-bolts details about the R4-Pro.

As far as quality goes, though, the R4-Pro sounds great. I feed it with the direct outs from my Sound Devices SD 442 mixer and it sounds good. No real detectable noise -- at least, with the tools I have.

Cheers,

Stephen H
 
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