Portable digital recorder - Roland R-26/Tascam/Zoom

[William Graydon]

I am looking for a handheld recorder and not sure which is the best for recording audio on my scarlet.

Tascam DR-40
Tascam DR-100
Roland R-26 (Can't find many reviews)
Zoom H4N

I know so any people use the Zoom H4N but I have started to hear that the Roland R-26 is better and records cleaner audio. Anyone use the R-26 with the scarlet?

I like the Tascam DR-40 and it has an attractive price.

I will be using my rode ntg-2 with which ever I choose. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Kevin Wild]

We use the Zoom H4N and never have problems with it. It's a great unit, good sound, small, etc.

Kevin

[Marc Wielage]

Tascam DR-40, Tascam DR-100, Roland R-26 (Can't find many reviews), Zoom H4N...

None of these units have timecode, so the sync is going to drift with long takes, since there's no common reference with the camera. Each is "free-wheeling" in terms of the clock reference.

They will work with short takes (say, 2-3 minutes), within a frame or so. But there's a lot of "you get what you pay for" with cheap recorders, especially in terms of sound quality, durability, preamp quality, and so on. To me, it's kind of like using an ultra-cheap lens on a $10,000 camera.

[Ruff]

I own the DR-100, it's not very good. I use it only very rarely, in an emergency / last resort situation.

[Martin Weiss]

I've got a DR-40, mainly because of the good reviews it got for its pre-amps (considering the price) - much better than the Zoom.

Love the ability to record with two different levels - kind of HDR-X for audio.

This and Dual eyes makes for a very workable solution for run and gun, IMHO.

You can record up to 4 tracks - which is great for live events. Take the internal mikes for a stereo mood/audience, and then two XLR inputs for stage/speakers.

Very usable battery life - uses standard AA batteries. Runs off SD cards. Has phantom power. Good display. Relatively intuitive interface.

The price is hard to beat. Under $200 new on eBay, definitely feels more expensive than that.

[Tony Koretz]

Another possible recorder to throw into the mix is the Marantz PMD661. Pretty good units, though like the others products mentioned here they don't have time code.

[Antti Pirskanen]

I've been very satisfied with Sony PCM-D50. It has a dual path digital limiter which gives you an extra 20 dB of headroom. It works beautifully on short transients. I've been using it with a Sound Devices MixPre-D and it is a great combination.

[Marc Wielage]

I've been very satisfied with Sony PCM-D50. It has a dual path digital limiter which gives you an extra 20 dB of headroom.

Small correction. A limiter doesn't increase headroom; it just narrows the dynamic range so you don't clip. Not the same thing.

I'm not convinced any recorder mentioned on this page can handle 24 bits of dynamic range, period. Trying to get that out of a microphone preamp, even nowadays, is expensive, complicated, and not easy. And that's assuming the self-noise of the microphone warrants it (and few of them do).

And lack of timecode is still an issue with cheap recorders.

[Scott Brown]

If you want timecode in a portable recorder to guarantee sync, what is the lowest cost option?

Scott

[Antti Pirskanen]

Small correction. A limiter doesn't increase headroom; it just narrows the dynamic range so you don't clip. Not the same thing.

I'm not convinced any recorder mentioned on this page can handle 24 bits of dynamic range, period. Trying to get that out of a microphone preamp, even nowadays, is expensive, complicated, and not easy. And that's assuming the self-noise of the microphone warrants it (and few of them do).

And lack of timecode is still an issue with cheap recorders.

The limiter on PCM-D50 is not a traditional limiter. I believe there are dual a/d converters and the one in the "limiter" signal path runs at 20 db lower gain than the normal circuit. If the signal clips on the normal a/d circuit, the limiter switches over to the second bitstream and normalizes the signal in real time to peak level. The recovery time to normal signal is adjustable. It really is quite smooth and transparent. I believe Zaxcom has a similar system in their new units. They call it NeverClip. I guess it does narrow dynamic range of the signal, but it does it in a much more transparent way than the traditional limiters that often attenuate the peaks in a much more aggressive and non-linear way.

Yes, I agree, 24 bits of dynamic range is of course an overkill, but on the other hand 16 bits is not quite enough in all cases. It becomes an issue especially when you try to recover audio that has been recorded at too low levels.

Lack of timecode is indeed the biggest shortcoming of these cheap recorders. There are not that many compact sized options if you want timecode. I've been thinking of upgrading to a ZFR100 just to get timecode capability.