Comments

farss wrote on 2/15/2010, 3:39 PM
"But my concern was with an imported separate audio track that I had to synch to the one the camera recorded being off if the recording were long. I will probably resample so as not to chance it."

Resampling it will make absolutely zero difference.
Vegas can only assume the clock in the recoding device was running at 44,100.00 Hz and Vegas will correctly resample that to 48,000.00 Hz.

To be honest I can think of way more important issues with a device at this price point. How good are the mic preamps and how good are the A/D converters.
With good 'hot' condensor mics it'll probably be fine. Seeing as how you only get two inputs with phantom power the Rode NT3 mics would be a good choice as you can power it from an internal 9V battery. I'd consider using an NT4 XY stereo mic and two NT3s out wide to cover say a choir or stage. That leaves you a few channels free to take a feed from a desk.

Also consider using "plate" (PZM) mics to cover stage shows. From my last shoot where I got a direct feed from two Shure PZMs I'm amazed at how well these things work. They're one of the few mics that seem to defy the laws of acoustics.

Bob.
craftech wrote on 2/15/2010, 4:15 PM
How good are the mic preamps and how good are the A/D converters.

I have three Rhode NT3 mics and an AT822 Stereo Mic with a special cable I made to allow it to be plugged into two separate channels allowing independent control of the left and right. That is what covers the stage. They are plugged into my Behringer MXB1002 mixer.

So all are "hot" mics. The phantom power on two channels is probably not something I really need unless I use it with my Studio Mic (that I never use).

In terms of the test reports, it seems that the preamps are good. It's just the built-in Mics that are pretty bad (as are all in that price range including the H4n from what I understand).


This was supposedly recorded using the R16 and two stereo mics - A Shure VP88 and an Audio Technica AT822:

[Link=http://zr16.com/louisiana-philharmonic-orchestra]Link[/link].
craftech wrote on 2/16/2010, 9:12 PM
This is interesting:

Apparently there is a two hour time limit when recording a stereo wave file with the R16. The machine abruptly stops at that point. There is also a 2GB limit for any file apparently because it is FAT32. The following is from tests done by a member on the R16 Forum:

Actually...we've proved several things here (related to the original post):

Is this also the case on recorders like the Zoom H4n or the Tascam DR-100?

John
John_Cline wrote on 2/16/2010, 9:21 PM
The H4n will seamlessly roll over to a new file when it hits the 2 GB limit.
farss wrote on 2/16/2010, 10:21 PM
So will the R4 but I've had that happen once in all the years and even then I could have easily stopped and restarted recording at many points during the show.
Generally it;s not an unwise idea to stop and restart recording anyway if you can when there's a major break in the show. That forces the FAT to be updated. If you get a glitch in power or whatever and the FAT is not updated good luck getting your file(s) back. Been there, had that happen.
I think it'd be very difficult for Zoom to address this issue. The FAT32 disk format seems bound up with the design of the media. Use of a different format such as NTFS poses several issues one of which can reduce the life of the card.

Bob.
John_Cline wrote on 2/16/2010, 10:40 PM
FAT32 has a 4 GB filesize limit, it is the Windows WAVE file format which has the 2 GB limit.
farss wrote on 2/17/2010, 3:29 AM
I did attempt to check that and was pretty certain it wasn't FAT32 that was the problem as my EX1 write 4GB files to the FAT32 card. Then I found that one version of FAT32 had a file size limit of 4GB but a volume limit of 2GB???:

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
"The WAV format is limited to files that are less than 4 GiB in size, because of its use of a 32-bit unsigned integer to record the file size header (some programs limit the file size to 2–4 GiB)."

Bob
John_Cline wrote on 2/17/2010, 3:52 AM
Yes, in theory 4 GB is the limit, in practice most implementations use signed integer which results in a 2 GB file. Due to higher sample rates and bit depths, Sound Forge has the W64 format which allows for much bigger files, however support for the format is fairly limited outside of Sony products.
randy-stewart wrote on 2/27/2010, 4:43 AM
Just purchased the Zoom R16 off e-bay for $338.00 brand new in the box from NewItemsOnly (top rated seller). I'm stoked.
Randy
jwcarney wrote on 2/27/2010, 12:51 PM
A 16bit /48khz option would have been nice. Think I'll spend a few more bucks and get something with better specs. Just don't know what is available for under 1K USD.