Capturing high-quality audio in the field has historically meant arming yourself with a very expensive portable audio recorder. That may have changed with the latest recruit to Edirol's audio arsenal, the R-4 Pro 4-channel portable recorder and wave editor. This compact and well-built field recorder/editor features four XLR mic inputs, 80GBs of internal storage, a frequency response of 20Hz-40kHz and several popular sampling frequencies up to 192kHz at bit depths of 16 or 24 bits. With such impressive specs, we had to put this rookie on the test range.
Lock 'N Load
The R-4 Pro is compact and light. With padded soft case and wide shoulder strap, it would make even long field sessions relatively comfortable. The bag has good access to all input and output connectors on both sides of the unit through well-aligned Velcro flaps. Lifting the main bag flap exposes the front panel featuring the menu window and gives fingertip access to level knobs, record and all playback buttons. There's no easy way, however, to see or get to most of the top panel selector switches and controls, including the power button, without sliding the R-4 out of the bag, no small feat if you're fully wired.
The R-4 Pro is outfitted with all of the standard connections you'd expect and then some. XLR mic inputs are intuitively placed on the right panel (if you're right-handed), and we were glad to see locking Neutrik connectors, a must for serious field recorders. There are four discrete RCA analog line outputs for connecting external speakers or other audio equipment. The left panel hosts DC input, XLR type digital AES/EBU I/O, two flavors of USB 2.0 connection, time code I/O and a headphone jack. A Kensington security slot lets you limit portability to, well, just you.
Except for basic controls assigned to buttons, most of the R-4 Pro's features and settings are accessed thru menus. A 1-3/8"x 2-1/2" blue monochrome window gives ample screen area to easily work your way through the menus. The large tensioned shuttle wheel and interior scrub wheel give you fast access to menu choices. The scrub wheel can be a bit touchy when selecting among some options, but this is mostly an issue for the over-caffeinated.
Recording/Playback
You set input levels in two stages similar to a standard mixer, referring to real-time level indicators on the LCD panel. First you set the interior knob halfway for a 0dB level. Next you raise the outer-ring adjustment knob to adjust gain, or what Edirol terms "sensitivity." Even though this adjustment uses a knob, you have only 11 stepped sensitivities ranging from -56dB to +4dB.
For our first recording test, we played a 440Hz tone through a Mackie HR824 reference monitor, using an AKG C-414B ULS studio microphone powered by the R-4's phantom power. We set the R-4 Pro to its highest quality setting of 192kHz/24 bit and adjusted gain and levels by pressing and holding the pause button and pressing record. We recorded about 10 seconds of tone and played it back through the R-4 Pro's small built-in speakers to confirm the capture.
You have two choices for monitoring playback audio in the field: headphones or the built-in speakers; the monitor knob controls volume for both. The built-in speakers are quite small, and they should only be expected to confirm that you have recorded something. To assess quality directly from the R-4 Pro, you must rely on a good pair of circum-aural headphones (the kind that completely cover your ears). We found the playback levels to be satisfactory. We did, however, need to crank the monitor volume up to max (40mW) when we were outside near a road. Impacts on hearing aside, a little more power would be nice for special circumstances.