Roland R-05

Love the product and the trustworthy advice from my Sweetwater rep, Jeff Barnett.

Greatest Recorder Of 2011

This is a great recorder. The sound is quiet and clear. I am a self recording acoustic guitar player and singer and when I recorded my first song on the R-05 I couldnt believe it wasn't recorded in a studio! I love this recorder, it's very easy to use, easy to transfer files from both the machine and any external source. Very portable and microphones are very high quality. Definitely worth the price and highly recommend to anyone looking to buy a good portable recorder.

Excellent Portable Digital Recorder!

I just got this recorder on Thursday, March 1, 2011, and I love it! The sound quality is excellent! You can even record audio in wave and mp3 format at the same time. Also, You can edit and convert your recordings from wave to mp3 format without using a computer. For $249.00, you cannot find a better portable digital recorder!

Excellent Portable Digital Recorder!

I just got this recorder on Thursday, March 1, 2011, and I love it! The sound quality is excellent! You can even record audio in wave and mp3 format at the same time. Also, You can edit and convert your recordings from wave to mp3 format. For $249.00, you cannot find a better portable digital recorder!

Roland R-05

I loved working with Sweetwater and am so happy my brother found them. I liked his recorder so much that I bought one.
The device is easy to use & has several features for saving, editing, copying, etc., and the sound quality is fascinating.

Brilliant little recorder

The on-board mics are great (thinking here particularly for the money) and pro. mics can be used via an RCA mini-jack. I used a Sony radio mic setup on my last job, and the sound quality was excellent.

The controls are simple, and perfectly adequate.

I added the silicon rubber case (reduces handling noise considerably) and one 8GB SDHC card. All works as advertised.

Can't take XLR inputs—but is the fraction of the size and weight of the Zoom H4n I also own.

Easily One Of The Best!

While I haven't tried ALL of the recorders priced under $300, I have tried enough of them to know that the Roland R-05 is one of the best, if not THE best.

It's the perfect size and weight (I like a little bit of heft to a device like this; too light and it just feels cheap). The controls are neatly and conveniently laid out, so that most functions can be accessed in the dark because you don't have to go searching through menus, and the display shows a lot of useful information. Battery life is awesome; probably the best in this class, and with the limiter and low-cut features this thing can make some great recordings. The rehearse feature, which lets you play something for a short time while it automatically adjusts to the best recording level is both very nice and unique.

I gave it 4.5 stars for overall awesomeness, but I do have a few very minor complaints: Playback sounds very clear, but just a tiny bit bassy, if you're fiddling with settings, there's no way (that I could find) to quickly get back to the Home screen without backing out of menu levels, and it would be nice to have the unit remember what folder you were in the last time you used it; it currently defaults to the Root folder each time you turn it on.

Still, these are so minor that together they still don't matter enough to keep it from deserving 4.5 stars from me. I am glad I bought it and I have enjoyed it and use it daily since the day I received it. Strongly recommended.

Great Recorder/Player

Sound of my Acoustic guitar from onboard mics and inside the guitar condenser mic is first class. There is no overdubbing though, requires an external mixer. If you make a mistake deleting is easy. Did a great job of the birds in the morning. Can make wav and mp3 file at the same time. Comes with 2 gig SD card but get a 16 gig one if you want to do wav files.

Great gear to have

The R-05 does the job. Easy to use and sounds great on playback. It gets the job done. Exactly what I ask for on the phone, they delivered. Ask for Nick

oh yeah!

Its very handy! Works great for quick tracking new acoustic riffs. Captures many things very well.

live band recording is excellent

recording was excellent, however my display went black so I am returning it and will probably get another since I am a loyal Roland customer