Product: Edirol R-1
Price Paid: US $429
Submitted
02/13/2006
at
10:20am
by
Jerry
Email: jerryturner at btopenworld<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
7
I am from the UK. I bought the Edirol on a trip to New York. Whilst there I recorded in 24 bit WAV in a jazz club (with permission). I used an external sony condenser mic. The sound quality was great. I have since recorded a big band (again with permission) in 16 bit WAV. Again great sound quality. The leader of the band is very impressed. You need specialist software to capture, play and edit the 24 bit WAV. Cannot be played on standard computer players such as windows media. Have discovered that Edirol do not operate a world wide guarantee so if anything goes wrong will not be able to get it put right. I agree with the other review concerning the controls, but not about the recording. Havent tried it with the inernal mics but with the small external mic it copes very well with the explosive sound of the big band. I guess the Sony recorder is a much better macine but that sells for about $2000.
My unit had the latest firmware. The manual is ok but not totally user friendly.
Sound Quality
:
8
Please see remarks on ease of use
Reliability
:
8
No problems so far
Customer Support
:
2
See remarks above concerning the lack of world wide guarantee. I have had a couple of queries answered by Edirol UK although not dealt with in a particularly friendly way. Low rating because of lack of world wide guarantee.
Overall Rating
:
7
My main musical interests are jazz and classical music. I haven't used it for classical yet, but jazz recordings have been fine. If I had the money I would go for the Sony. I bought this solely on value for money within my budget.
Product: Edirol R-1
Price Paid: US $439
Submitted
03/02/2005
at
09:10am
by
Matt A
Ease of Use
:
6
Easy to use. Good manual. But ...
It's stupid the way Edirol has set up the recording level function. You put the machine in Record Standby, then hit Display about three times to bring up the meter (which is a horrible single LCD meter that displays in blocks and does not show enough detail).
Then when you hit Record again to start recording, the meter disappears from the display, and you have to hit Display button three times again to bring up the meter to monitor it while you record. Dumb.
Sound Quality
:
5
Records quiet and medium volume sources fine, but SUCKS for recording live bands. Mics are way too sensitive and overload the input with loud sounds, no matter what the recording level is set at, or what bit depth. An external stereo 1/8 inch mini plug mic is necessary for loud sources, and I tried recording with my stereo Sony mic. It was much better, but it still clipped the input. What's the point of having on board mics if you can only record quiet sources with them?
Naturally, the 24 bit mode is the best, but it eats up a lot of memory. A 2 gig card is recommended, if you can afford one ($180 or so). The lower MP3 settings are useless, as the sound swishes and bobbles.
On battery power recording at 16 or 24 bit, it chews up batteries quickly. Edirol has various times listed for the battery life while recording -- from one hour to 2.5. I don't know why the discrepancy. My guess would be that the longer time applies to the useless low bit MP3 recordings. My experience was closer to an hour of battery life.
Reliability
:
6
This unit is plastic and parts of it seem fragile. I would not trust it if it were dropped. The jog dial is sticky feeling, but the buttons fee fine. The power input looks like it would be a weak point.
The level dial is located on the side and protrudes slightly. Better think about taping it off if you don't want to accidentally move it while you're recording.
It booted up pretty quickly and I never had a problem with the software.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to deal ...
Overall Rating
:
6
I returned this unit after trying various ways of recording my band. Everything I tried clipped and made crappy sounding recordings.
This would not make a good bootlegging device, either, unless you had external mics that could handle high sound pressure levels (SPLs). Even then, the level meter is a joke. Loud sounds just max it out and it stays there -- all the way to the right or halfway in between or wherever you have the levels set. The mono meter doesn't bounce with the sound like most recording meters.
For this kind of money ($439 plus $180 for a 2 gig card) the thing better be able to handle anything you throw at it. This recorder fell way short of that mark.
