Fostex FR2-LE

[petsematary]

I can't find anything on the board about this exciting little machine. Tell me stuff - anything! Tried it?

[hughesmr]

No digital inputs. dfegad

[petsematary]

Ok. Not a problem for me though. I wouldn't have any use for 'em, ever.

[Phil Townsend]

Got mine from Oade Brothers...I have it running in standby mode right now.
(Burning it in) So far everything works.
Easy to use!

Phil

[Phil Townsend]

Sound report this weekend

[petsematary]

I didn't know they delivered the modded ones yet?

And "burning it in"? What does that mean? Sounds real slutty.

[kevinQ]

Perhaps of more interest to me than Doug having them right now is that beginning in June he plans to sell FR2-LE mods.

Up to 24/96 on CF cards. They sweat the details on this puppy for a long, long time, trying to get a quality device at a modest price point. David Briggs offered this initial reaction that has been useful to me:

" Size, Construction etc:

The all plastic case is neat but understyled. The bar part of the Strap attachments are the only metal bit and this area looks strong enough. The front panel controls of the Mic Trim and monitor level are very small knobs. They could be damaged if carelessly handled as they protrude 3 or 4 millimeters from the case. The Rec Stby and Rec buttons are recessed, the Rec button protrudes about 0.5mm .The obvious floor is the dual knob input control, situated on the front right could reletively easily be knocked.
Compact flash door on front ok not too flimsy.
Top panel knobs are easy enough to use , they are solid plastic not rubber.Screen is easy to see and has a light function.
Other connections xlr phono etc look solid.
The battery compartment is a bit wierd. There is a caddy for using 4 AA batteries or you can use some sort of battery pack not supplied. Quite straight forward in use.

Switching on:

Power up takes a few seconds . Card needs to be formated to specific bit rate sample rate. (as mentioned in another review) The interface buttons are layed out quite straight forward and allows the very obvious menu system to be used with ease. I was able to set phantom powering and set monitor to mono without looking at the manual. It took a small amount of time to familierise myself with the settings. On reading the manual I realised you can set the phantom power , limiter , high pass filter and the source of the input with out entering the menu ( holding shift and menu)

Recording:

I the rigged the Fostex with an MKH 50 and some Sennheiser HD25 headphones. To hear through the mic's Rec Stby button on the front panel needs to be pressed. Setting the Mic trim to 4 o'clock ( the start being 7 and finish 5 , remember these are pretty small knobs so this is rough) and the input levels to just past 3 o'clock ( same scale as trim ) Seemed to be an optimum level recording for my voice close mic'ed. I walked around the house recording running taps , toilet flushes until the 3.5 mins of 24bit 96k recording ran out ( using the supplied 128mb card) I recorded till the time ran out and this closed the file and took it out of rec standby.

Connect to PC:

The fostex needs to be initialised on the USB menu to USB mode .I did this with a cable plugged in and it showed up on XP as soon I pressed the button. The card supplied is 80x and to 50sec to transfer the 125mb file. I presume the transfer is limited in this instance by the speed of the Card.

Personal thoughts .....

The LE is small and light for my use and in comparison to PDR1000 Dat machines and Sound Devices 744t. Battery life running from lithium battery packs will need to be tested. My usual setup is an NP1 powering system . I will customise a connection to work at the voltage required for external powering ( 12v) . The preamps seem usable. They were not obviously noisy but my flat isnt the quietest place. The low frequency response seemed different but only in relation to the preamps in my SQN mixer that are very sensetive in the low freq's with the MKH 50 even with a pad . I think the preamps on the LE would struggle with a low output mic with a high noise floor but this is only speculation at the moment. Not due to noise issues but I had the trim very open and the gain up relatively high. That said Im happy with the overall situation. There is no noise that i could hear from phantom power etc. The headphone monitor is a little quiet but again in relation to /my SQN mixer wich has a very loud one. All that said the headphone amp is pretty clean.
I have bought a Digimate 3 hard drive backup device ( cheap at £30 without HD) Im gonna chuck an 80gb hdrive (£33.24) this can backup CF cards at a decent speed. I'll use a Datawrite 4mb 160xCF card) This setup should sort me out for medium lenght trips away from computers.

I think the LE is a competant recorder. Its features are limited in areas but it "does what it says on the tin".


MAJOR FLAWS!

2 Serious Flaws .

1. You Cannot delete files ! you can only remove files by formating the card or removing the file on another device. Serious flaw!

2.You cannot record Mono files ! Wasting half of your space in mono.

I would presume this can be fixed in a software update. Fostex need to be informed.

dave"

Several posts following this on the Fostex forum describe the inability to delete files short of reformatting the card as a feature to protect the files until you transfer them.

I'm with Dave in hoping they support recording in mono at some point.

[J_Andersun]

i just got one of these, i dig it, sounds good. My main beef is that the Pre's don't really have much gain. later in mixing i have to goose everything to make it work right. Is there a mic that anyone has used that really complements the FR2-LE

[Atomick]

I've had good luck with everything from SM58's, SM57's, and various Rødes (NTG-2, NT1a, and NT4). The Røde NT4 seems kind of low-output, though; the input trims are cranked to max and the master gain is at around 3 o'clock to get reasonable levels. No real hiss, though, despite that. But this still could be just the low-gain pre's others have mentioned.

I think the FR-2LE is a mightily impressive value. I've had fabulous results for a device that I got for around $500; it's light as heck, and using RC batteries is a very smart idea. After 6 months of use, though, I've become increasingly aware of what the tradeoffs are for such a low price. This is totally not a dig on the unit, but just what I've discovered after really getting this thing into the field.

1. Controls on different surfaces for in-field, in-bag operation is a total drag. Sure, the recording and levels settings are all on the top, but accessing anything else requires either two hands or kneeling to support it.

2. The upper LEDs are absolutely invisible in direct sunlight. I gaffertaped a signal mirror to my Portabrace AR-FR2LE bag just to see the meters when standing and booming in the sunlight. S

3. The limitation of formatting an entire CF card as either mono or stereo is a total pain and really limits flexibility, especially if you are trying to keep your files organized for handoff for post or any sort of editing.

4. The headphone amp is really cruddy, but at least one can learn to ignore it once one realizes it's not impacting the recording, but that reduces monitoring accuracy and confidence that WYHIWYG.

5. No real in-field deletion has been less of an issue for me, but if you're in the field for a long while and trying to really maximize available CF space, it can be a real pain.

You get what you pay for, in the end. But still, all things considered, HUGE bang for the buck. For me, the in-field-in-bag ergonomics are starting to make the Sound Devices 702 awfully tempting...

[chris319]

You definitely can record in mono but you must upgrade to the current firmware version.

It has a bad output section IMO. The line out and headphone out are full of hiss and a 0 dBFS signal clips when the headphone volume control is set past one o'clock.

The built-in mic preamps are low-slew rate JRC 2122 opamps.

If you use a better mic preamp and don't rely on the output section, they're OK.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I have two of the units. They are very good units for the price. The microphone preamps sound good and they are usable. I wish there was a digital input and output. The SD cards it uses are very affordable and available almost anywhere. I like the time and date stamp option. I have used the unit as a stand alone with a pair of Rode NT2A microphones to record everything from a full orchestra to a small chamber ensemble. I think for the money you are getting a very good deal. The RC batteries are expensive ($79.00 each) and if you use the flashlight cell carrier option the battery cover does not fit properly. I got one of the units on close out from GC for less than $400. With USB-2 I can download an hour's program on to my computer in less than 2 minutes. We use to take very heavy DAT or CD recorders to the gigs we record and this is much easier on the back. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this unit a 7.

[David.H]

I have been using the machine now for some time and have updated the firmware twice. The machine will now record in mono. I'm on version V1.20.

I bought the Tamiya battery for it and it gives me long hours of use, I found rechargeables useless for long time use. Last year I used it to record a lecture on location in Sussex about the pre war Sound Mirrors. I did it in mono and used an old Sennheiser MD211 Omni mike, worked a treat and we were out in the middle of a gravel pit which required a long walk to get to, the Fostex behaved well, with no battery low indications after several hours use. I also take this unit as a back up on classical recordings and on the first outing decided to use it at 88.2, 24 bit with a large CF card. Worked a treat doing an evenings concert. I have also found that if a battery is installed and the unit is running of mains power and the supply stops, the unit uses the battery seamlessly. However the battery connector is a pain. I use the protective pouch on the move when doing interviews and find it a pain as well, not well thought out but at least it stays dry.

[gelo_papas]

Originally Posted by David.H

I have been using the machine now for some time and have updated the firmware twice. The machine will now record in mono. I'm on version V1.20.

Can you record mono in BWF mode or is it just in mp3 mode?

[David.H]

Originally Posted by gelo_papas

Can you record mono in BWF mode or is it just in mp3 mode?

Originally you could not record mono in MP3 mode.

But yes, with the latest software update you can record mono/ stereo in BWF and MP3

I use mine for a lot of short interviews for our Talking Newspaper nearly always in MP3 mode, we are shortly to go digital. Sometimes mono and stereo depends on the day.