In recent years the interest in high quality audio recording, digitized music, and the miniaturization of electronics has been the perfect storm for creating super high quality pocket recorders.
You might expect them to be made by Olympus or Sony, the companies that invented the pocket recorder category years ago. But while those companies chose to focus mostly on cutting prices and compromising quality, Roland and a handful of other companies focused on building no-compromise devices that were several times more expensive.
With its latest product, the R-05 at $299/$250 street, Roland has a product that's ahead of its competition. Think of it as a recording studio in your pocket, doing for audio what a quality digital camera does for images, and it's no bigger than an ultra-compact camera.
The R-05 is capable of high-quality stereo recordings at 96kHz/24-bit. Those numbers refer to how many times per second it samples the sound and the precision of what it samples. This is higher quality than the CD standard, 44.1kHz/16-bit.
The R-05 exudes quality even before turning it on. It's constructed of magnesium with rubber side panels that keep it firmly in your grip. The front has a backlit monochrome digital display and a control panel with an illuminated record button.
At the top of the unit are two microphones that record in stereo. An external microphone can also be used. There's a threaded hole on the rear for attaching it to a tripod or a mic stand and using it like a microphone to record a performer.
The R-05 records onto an SD card and is powered by two AA batteries that last for 16 hours of recording, or longer for playback. A 2GB SD card will hold two hours or more in its high accuracy mode and more than 15 hours in a lower accuracy MP3 format.
So what can you do with the R-05? You can record live vocals, bands and musical instruments (if copyright laws permit you to do so) as well as recording outside sounds such as birds, animals, streams and the ocean. There's a retrospective feature that you can turn on that records the prior two seconds when you press the record button.
The R-05 does a superb job recording meetings and conferences as a result of its sensitive microphones and ability to automatically adjust the sound level, picking up both soft and loud speaking voices with equal clarity. I've tried it in interviews, business meetings, a lecture, and at an outside local concert, and it replicated each with accuracy similar to the live events.
The R-05 has so many features that it can be intimidating at first to learn. But its basic menu system, graphical display and excellent user manual makes learning go pretty fast. But I'd advise carrying the manual with you for the first week's use to learn all that it can do.
The R-05 has no built-in speaker to listen to playback; for that you'll need earphones. Roland also makes binaural microphones/earphones (model CS-10EM) that look like conventional in-ear earphones, but also contain condenser microphones used for recording, monitoring and playback. ($110 street)
Once you've completed the recording, just plug the SD card into your computer and drag in the files of the recordings. You can play, edit and e-mail the files. Before moving, you can trim, divide and combine the recordings right on the R-05.
There's also a rehearsal mode that you can toggle on and set a length of time. The R-05 will automatically set the best recording level based on what it hears over that time period, and then can split the songs for you automatically during recording.
So, if you are looking for a top portable recorder that can record crisply and accurately wherever you go, consider the R-05. As you carry it with you, you'll find you'll pull it out to record a variety of sounds, much like you do with a pocket camera. (roland.com.)
Baker is the author of "From Concept to Consumer," holds 30 patents and is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Phil can be heard on KOGO AM the first Sunday of each month. Send comments to phil.baker@sddt.com. Phil's blog is blog.philipgbaker.com.
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