Roland R-88 got a *massive* price drop! (fierce F8 competition?)

[David Peterson]

For those looking at an alternative to the Zoom F8, I noticed that B&H has a "New Arrival", refurbished Rolland R-88 units selling at nearly half their launch price (I guess Zoom is providing some serious pricing pressure! They might even be new units, and only "refurbished" in name only?!):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...2855/KBID/3801

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

I have an R-88 and love it. I wonder if adding a second one for more tracks when required would work for portable music production. Would timecode sync provide acceptable sample-accurate audio across multiple units? There is no word clock on these machines.

[Rick Reineke]

Without a word clock, the two machines would drift after x minutes. The percussive transits would be noticeable the most, even if only a few milliseconds off. It woruld probably

[Rick Reineke]

Without a word clock, the two machines would drift after x minutes. The percussive transits would be noticeable the most, even if only a few milliseconds off the and there could be phase issues as well.. It would probably be ok for a 3 min. song or two per file.

[Jay Massengill]

I've never used one, just looked at the photos of them.

Even though they don't have separate Word Clock Input, are they able to sync to their Digital Input while recording from the 8 analog inputs? Or is it a case of only one or the other?

If they can sync to the digital input while recording from the analog inputs, could you send the Digital Out from one unit to sync the second unit?

Or use a common digital signal to sync both units at their XLR digital inputs?

[Jay Massengill]

Today I noticed there is a limited time special (15 hours to go right now) on the "regular" version of this recorder for $795, while the "refurbished" version is still $1195.

Is there something that needs to be refurbished right out of the box? Or is this just an oddity of special sale prices and they have too many of the regular units on hand?

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

The R-88 is now listed as “discontinued” at B&H, so they were clearing out stock. Was such a nice machine. Perhaps Roland has something new coming along.

Syncing to the digital input is something that could be tested. However, it would mean losing two analog inputs on the slave machine, so two 8 channel machines would become a 14 channel system. There is no option in the menus that allows syncing to the AES input without using it as audio in.

[David Peterson]

For the next four days, the Roland R-88 is on sale again, for US$795 @ B&H (not "refurbished", brand new):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...2855/KBID/3801

[Richard Crowley]

"Discontinued" again.....

[David Peterson]

Guessing the were too "popular" and sold out quickly? Or they just had very very limited stock. (probably the later)

I wouldn't be too bothered if you missed out, the Zoom F4 is the best deal for most people:

Which Sound Recorder to buy? A guide to various indie priced sound recorders in 2017 – David Peterson

It is only a small niche of people who the R88 would be perfect for (such as needing digital I/O, or 8x full size XLR outputs).