Roland’s new R-26 is a six-channel handheld digital recorder.
The four onboard microphones are capable of omni or X-Y patterns. According to Roland the mic preamps are from Roland’s multichannel field recorder, the R-44. XLR-1/4 inch combo jacks with 48 V phantom power allow for additional inputs.
In six-channel pattern, the four onboard mics are active along with the combo jacks so there are placement considerations.Files aren’t purely six-channel discrete but saved as three two-channel files.
The recording medium is SD/SDHC cards. WAV, BWF and MP3 are the file formats. Performance is spec’d at 24-bit/96 kHz. Output is USB 2.0. There are two input level controls, tape-style transport controls and an LCD touchscreen for navigation.
Cakewalk Sonar X1 LE DAW software ships with the R-26. Price: $599.
