Edirol R09HR SD Card Audio Field Recorder
Capture Podcasts, Band Rehearsals Meeting Notes and Interviews
May 20, 2009
Solid state recorders have transformed field recording by making recorders smaller, enabling longer running times and greatly improving the resulting sound quality. Like the Olympus LS-10, the Edirol R09HR is all that is needed to capture sound in the field. It is a boon to journalists and note-takers as well as to musicians recording practice sessions on a budget.
Solid State Field Recorders Improve Quality, Eliminate Tapes
Recording at uncompressed CD quality sound or better is a vast improvement on the muffled audio of slow-speed microcassette note-takers. There is no noise from a tape transport, and using 8Gb SDHC cards gives over ten hours of recording time at that quality. The Edirol R09HR records in stereo from the inbuilt spaced microphones on the top of the unit.
Edirol R09HR Ergonomics
The recorder has a bright OLED display. When recording the display shows the record level meters, track running time, sampling rate and battery condition. The control buttons are logically placed, with a square rocker switch providing play, stop, fast forward, rewind and the record button. Other switches provide some processing gimmicks and access to the menu structure, which is only used to set the machine parameters before recording.
Thankfully recording itself is achieved using the control buttons not the menu, which is the right compromise between features, flexibility and operational readiness. The more commonly used setup features are controlled by switches on the back which is another boon for usability in the field - these switches are mic gain high/low, low cut to reduce wind noise, plug-in-power on/off and the limiter/AGC switch.
The R-09HR is ready to record from the off position in 11 seconds. If the machine is already on then recording is almost instantaneous. Record level is controlled by up-down buttons on the left hand side, and headphone volume is set by up/down buttons on the right hand side.
Bizarrely, the headphone socket is set on the top, in between the microphones - if monitoring a recording care has to be taken not to move the headphone lead too much otherwise the recording is marred by handling noise. A small speaker is provided to play back recordings, but is not very loud at all, even indoors.
Edirol R09HR Audio Field Recorder Sound Quality
The inbuilt microphones work well for typical voice and field recording applications, and they are serviceable for music. The mid and high frequencies are more coloured than from a good studio microphone, but that is to be expected at the price. External microphones can be connected to the Edirol R09HR which then disables the internal mics - these go in via the stereo unbalanced 3.5mm mic jack on the left hand side. There is no provision for balanced 48V phantom powering, but this is not to be expected at the price!
Using external electret microphones the Edirol R09HR is an improvement on its predecessor, the Edirol R09, as the microphone amplifiers are a lot less hissy (Ein = -115dBU, which is good for a device of this class), so quiet sounds can be captured without being marred by hiss, assuming the mic is up to scratch. However, this recorder is onto an ideal match for dynamic microphones, which usually have a much lower output than electret or capacitor mics.
All round, the Edirol R09HR is an excellent little field recorder, with all that is needed for portable recording fitting easily in the palm of one's hand. In a nice touch, Edirol provide a remote control so recordings are no topped and tailed by handling noise when using the internal mics.
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