Jeffrey Daniel Frey’s Blog

10/27/07 - UPDATE - search portable podcast recorder on my blog for info on the Handy H4 (my favorite right now) and the little H2 Recorder.   Also, you have to check this out: FlashMic.

If you’re podcasting, portable podcast recording will eventually be in your future. One day you’ll want to go somewhere and capture something, and you won’t have a way to do it. There are plenty of portable audio recorders on the market, and some are aimed at podcasters (see a previous post of mine). I just got my hands on an Edirol R-09 from Roland, and compared to others I’ve played with, it’s my top pick.

First the negatives, when purely recording strait… no settings… and just recording silence (which is how I get my base to fill in silent portions of a podcast)… there is a bit of fuzz. It’s ever so slight, it’s easily taken care of in post production, and most people wouldn’t hear it at all. Also, though it’s light and compact, I think they could have made it a bit more solid. Though, if they used more metal and bulkier parts, I would be complaining that it was too big and too heavy. It feels a bit toyish and plastic, and watch out for the battery compartment and cover flimsyness. You just have to be careful with it.

Second, with the bad stuff out of the way, the good stuff. There is too much to mention here, but It’s really small (smaller than the MicroTrack) and weighs 5.4 ounces with two AA batteries in it which allow for 4 hours of recording. The built in microphones sound better than most, and you can record at 44.1 or 48kHz sample rates. It also has 1/4 inch external mic and line in jacks. You can save files as WAV or MP3, and it also comes with an internal reverb processor that’s actually very good. Quick switching from stereo or mono, gain boost, and a low-cut filter help for on the fly recording. It comes with a 64MB SD card, and though I have a 4GB card already… it only supports up to 2GB (about $40). The graphic display is really nice (reverse colored), so you can really see what’s going on. You USB connect it to your computer when you want to transfer, or if you have an SD reader, it’s helpful as well.

Click here for the manufactures website… the rest of the specs are on there.

I also found a full review of the R-09 including the specific sound capture specifics from http://www.sonicstudios.com/r-09revw.htm and linked the pdf document of the page here in case that page ever goes away.

Happy portable podcast recording!

1/20/2007 Update: See also this post on the Zoom H4.