question about the Edirol R-4's 2Gb file size limitation
 

So I just bought the R-4. Wonderful tool in every aspect, except maybe one. In the manual, it says the R-4 cannot create files bigger than 2Gb. It then goes on to say that in the case it would be recording and going over that limit while doing so, it would create an other file and continue recording to that new file.

That's fine, except for one thing. Does the R-4 transitions transparantly between the 2 files or will I lose a few seconds of audio while it switches? I'm asking because I've also been the not so proud owner of the Marrantz PMD660, which when creating a new file live, would lose the sound altogether for about 4-5 seconds. That's a big problem when recording a live performance.

Now even if I just finished shooting a 2 hour event with the R-4 at the 48Hz / 16bits setting and each mono file didn't even come close to 1Gb, I would feel somewhat disapointed to learn that there is no way to record very long events with the R-4 without losing a few seconds when the device starts an other file when it hits the 2Gb limit.

Because so far, this thing is a winner aside from that. Night and day with the Marrantz (which is the biggest piece of junk I've ever had the "pleasure" to own. Radio Shack quality. Don't bother with it, trust me on that one).

Thanks for any input.

Can't help you with your Edirol questions. But, I wonder if you've handled the M-Audio Microtrack 96/24 CF card recorder? Especially vis-a-vis the PMD660.

No I have not. After the PMD660 fiasco, I decided to upgrade to something with 4 chanels of simultanous recording. But honestly, I cannot see how any professional would be satisfied to pay $700+ for the PMD660 and a 4Gb CF card with the kind of results you get out of it. It is noisy as hell and will distort very easily. To me, it is a piece of junk. I got careless in my buying decision because I loved the form factor of the PMD660 so much. Well what good does it make to get crap in a smaller package? Two thumbs down.

David- Try it and find out for yourself. Plug in four mics, set it at the highest rate, and record whatever. When you have hit the 2 gig limit, have a listen, and see what happens.

On a side note, this unit sounds sweet. Not as full featured as my Korg D12 was, but more portable by far, and certainly no cheapo.

That's probably what I'll end up doing Keith, but I wanted to avoid it if possible, since I'll have to record something that is easily identifiable for hours, like music, to then check the cut and see if there is any gap. I just wanted to know if anybody using the unit had already done the test themselves. Well I might try that this week-end and I'll post the results in this thread.

And yes, it does sound sweet indeed. I was actually sweating a bit when doing my first recording with it because I got conditioned by the PMD660 to fear any peak as it would always distort. This Marrantz thingy simply can't handle hot mics. But the R-4 did a wonderful job recording a live band and even the limiter seems to perform well for those rare extremes. Definitelly pleased so far.

Isn't there as choice between 2 GB and 4 GB in the R-4?

Ty Ford

Not that I know of. In the manual it clearly states the R-4 cannot record or work with files over 2GB in size. It is probably a FAT32 system. Tomorrow I'll make one basic little test to see if this impacts the continuity of the recording or not.

I believe the 2 gig limit is actually a product of the wav format itself, not the file system type per se. Although, the FAT16 file system has a 2 gig limit and the FAT32 file system has a 4 gig limit of their own (in addition to the wav limitation). But even with the NTFS file system, wav files will cap out at 2 gigs. Because the wav format is a 32-bit based system, it has a theoretical 4 gig limit (2^32), but since 1 bit is reserved for header/random access type of info, you actually end up with a 2 gig limit (2^31). So, even if you ran on NTFS, you'd still hit the 2 gig limit with a standard wav file. That's what wav64 is for. It's not a "standard", but wav64 combined with FAT32 could do 4 gig and with NTSF, it could do a lot more than that.