For the longest time I thought the space between a consumer grade audio recorder like the Zoom H4n and the professional grade line of Sound Devices recorders was a barren, depressing wasteland. Well, I'm happy to report that I was wrong (and that will probably be par for the course on this blog). Enter the Edirol R-44 thanks to a director who wanted something for me to use that was more serviceable than a Zoom H4n. That reminds me, this post will be through the lens of someone who has only owned (although not only used) an H4n.
Of note on the front: KNOBS. The H4n has buttons which are pretty much useless for mixing. They make noise, they're difficult to use, ect. The R-44 has knobs, the best thing since faders.
Outputs. Yet another thing I didn't have with the H4n. Now, I'll admit, with the shoots I've done I've never run an output. I set up a comtec feed from the output of a 788t to make sure I could but that's about it. It's still nice to have the option if I need to do it. Also of note: SD card slot which is the only means of recording and a mini USB port for connecting to your computer.
4 Inputs. This is one of the main reasons the director who introduced me to this recorder bought it. He wanted the means to record boom and at least 3 lavs. Another upgrade from the H4n is locking connectors because I've had my cables fall out of that recorder. Not a problem with the R-44.
Unlike a Sound Devices recorder, and possibly a weakness of the R-44 is that its controls are spread out along the front AND top of the device. I'd also gotten used to using a scrub wheel for all navigation on the SD recorders so to have it only used SOMETIMES seemed strange on the R-44. Most of the navigation is done with arrow buttons in the middle of the top panel. There is an exit and enter button as well, but sometimes the right arrow is used to confirm selections and sometimes the enter button is. These somewhat strange design choices aren't too bad and I learned to use them in all of about 3 minutes.
The bottom isn't terribly exciting. The thing runs on 4 batteries, which I went an entire day of shooting on and only used a quarter of the battery power so it seems legit. At one time I was looking at the Tascam DR-100 which could have AA batteries AND a rechargeable lithium-ion battery in it so I've been secretly wanting this in all recorders but eventually I'll just suck it up and get a distro box and some NP1s.
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