My Little review (initial impressions) of the Fostex FR-2 LE , I received t=
oday ($560 inc deliv @BH Photo --> UK )
Size, Construction etc:
The all plastic case is neat but understyled. The bar part of the Strap att=
achments are the only metal bit and this area looks strong enough. The fron=
t panel controls of the Mic Trim and monitor level are very small knobs. Th=
ey could be damaged if carelessly handled as they protrude 3 or 4 millimete=
rs 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, s=
ituated 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 bat=
teries or you can use some sort of battery pack not supplied. Quite straigh=
t forward in use.
Switching on:
Power up takes a few seconds . Card needs to be formated to specific bit ra=
te sample rate. (as mentioned in another review) The interface buttons are=
layed out quite straight forward and allows the very obvious menu system t=
o 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 famil=
ierise myself with the settings. On reading the manual I realised you can s=
et the phantom power , limiter , high pass filter and the source of the inp=
ut 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 p=
ressed. 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 lev=
els to just past 3 o'clock ( same scale as trim ) Seemed to be an optimum l=
evel recording for my voice close mic'ed. I walked around the house recordi=
ng 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 presu=
me 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 machi=
nes 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 powerin=
g ( 12v) . The preamps seem usable. They were not obviously noisy but my fl=
at 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 th=
e 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 tr=
im very open and the gain up relatively high. That said Im happy with the o=
verall situation. There is no noise that i could hear from phantom power et=
c. 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 =A330 withou=
t HD) Im gonna chuck an 80gb hdrive (=A333.24) this can backup CF cards at =
a decent speed. I'll use a Datawrite 4mb 160xCF card) This setup should sor=
t me out for medium lenght trips away from computers.
I think the LE is a competant recorder. Its features are limited in areas b=
ut it "does what it says on the tin".
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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