If you’re a songwriter and/or musician, you never know when that great melody, lyric, or riff is going to flash into your head. And when it does, it often leaves just as quickly as it came—that’s why you always need to be ready to capture your divine inspirations the moment they strike. Roland’s got you covered with the R-05 WAVE/MP3 Recorder, an affordable and ultra-portable companion that lets you capture your musical ideas anytime and anywhere.

While the R-05 is a handy audio sketchpad for archiving ideas, it’s actually much more than that. With its top-quality built-in mics and high-resolution sound quality, it’s a serious pro recording device capable of capturing music tracks that might just end up on your next CD. In addition, its go-everywhere design makes it perfect for many other recording applications, such as capturing environmental sounds, podcasts, lectures, interviews, and more.

Here, we’ll take a close look at the R-05 and show you why it’s such an indispensable tool for anyone that needs on-the-go stereo audio recording.

Pro Recording in the Palm of Your Hand

The tiny and mighty R-05 captures audio directly to convenient SD/SDHC media. Recording quality can be set to many different rates to suit your needs, with WAV recording up to 24-bit/96 kHz and MP3 recording up to 320 kbps/48 kHz. Its integrated stereo condenser mics are always ready to go, or you can alternately plug in a stereo line level device or an external microphone via top-mounted jacks. The recorder runs on two AA batteries or an optional AC adapter, and it’s so small and light that you can stick in a pocket or purse and have it with you everywhere you travel.

The R-05’s ergonomic design makes it simple to operate with just one hand. The transport controls are organized in an efficient matrix, surrounded by essential buttons for adjusting recording level and playback volume. Other front panel features include buttons for accessing system settings, files, and various playback functions, as well as a bright, hi-res display that shows metering, recording time, and a ton of additional info.

Around the sides and back of the R-05 is an assortment of connectivity options (phones, USB, AC power, etc.), as well as switches for engaging some handy recording functions, which I’ll cover in more detail coming up. There’s also a mounting receptacle for the optional OP-MSA1 adapter, which allows you to attach the R-05 to a mic stand.

Standout Features

The R-05 offers a number of great, useful features that put it firmly at the head of its class. For one, battery operation is extremely efficient, with up to 16 hours of continuous recording and up to 30 hours of continuous playback with two AA batteries. This is a significant improvement over previous designs. There’s also a power conservation mode that saves your batteries by automatically dimming the display—and eventually turning the power off—after periods of inactivity. You can set a specific inactivity time, or disable the function altogether if you like.

Another very handy function is the ability to capture WAV and MP3 recordings simultaneously—the larger WAV recording is your hi-res, CD-quality master track, while the smaller MP3 version is perfect for sharing with others on the Web. Even if you don’t use this simultaneous recording feature, the R-05 gives you the onboard ability to manually convert WAV recordings to MP3 files after the fact.

Split recording is also extremely useful; via a dedicated front-panel button, you can manually split up an in-progress recording, creating a new file with each button press. This is great for making recordings of long events more manageable later on. You can also set the R-05 to split recordings automatically, either by file size or when the audio drops below a specified level.

Setting the right input levels is essential for getting clear, distortion-free recordings. Of course, the R-05 has manual input level controls, as well as a switch for setting the mic gain to match the recording source. To make things even easier, the Rehearsal function sets the optimum input levels automatically—just press the front-panel REHEARSAL button, and the R-05 will analyze the incoming audio and set the perfect level for the source. Other essential recording features include a low cut filter (with an adjustable cutoff frequency), a limiter, and AGC. Short for “automatic gain control,” AGC dynamically adjusts the recording level as needed, turning up the level for quiet sounds and turning down the level for loud sounds; one use for AGC is to achieve consistent recordings of lectures or public speaking events.

These great features are just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons more, including automatic recording based on a preset time or signal level, onboard audio editing (trim, divide, combine, etc.), and a built-in digital reverb that adds some sweet ambience to your recordings as you listen back to them. There’s even a neat pre-recording function that adds the two seconds of audio that occurred before you hit the record button—perfect for those instances when you come across something that you want to record at a split-second’s notice, and where you might’ve hit the record button just a little late. The R-05’s got your back on that one!

Computer Connections and Accessories

To transfer your recordings into your computer, just connect the R-05 via its mini-USB jack with the included cable. USB 2.0 is supported, making file transfers super-fast. Optionally, you can just remove the R-05’s SD card and insert it into your computer via its SD slot (if it’s equipped with one) or an SD card reader.

There’s a large array of accessories available for the R-05, including the CS-15S stereo microphone (complete with desk stand), various protective cases, headphones, ear buds, and more. For more details, click here.

Applications Galore

The R-05 excels at stereo music recording, from grabbing quick ideas to capturing legit audiophile-quality music. This includes not only loud ensembles like rock bands, but also extremely demanding recording situations like capturing orchestral ensembles and acoustic instruments such as piano and acoustic guitar. But hearing is believing—click here to check out the R-05 in action, where we’ve captured some phenomenal recordings using only the recorder’s internal microphones.

The R-05 is also the perfect companion for music practice. First off, it’s great for recording music lessons. And with the A-B Repeat feature, you can loop song sections or lesson examples over and over until you’ve mastered them. The R-05 can also change the playback speed of an audio file without changing its pitch; this is particularly cool for slowing down speedy musical passages like super-fast guitar riffs, making them easier to learn.

Recording environmental sounds and sound effects is another application where the R-05 shines. It provides extremely low-noise performance, and even comes with a windscreen to shield the onboard mics for outdoor use. The R-05 is also perfect for grabbing audio in meetings, lectures, local events, seminars, workshops…the possibilities are truly endless.

Finally, the R-05 makes a great portable audio player, too—just load it up with your favorite MP3 and WAV music, plug in your ear buds, and listen anywhere!

The Must-Have Audio Companion

With its pro sound quality, small size, and great features, the R-05 is really a no-brainer for anyone that likes to record music, speech, and other sounds. And if you’ve never considered purchasing a handheld recorder before, you’ll probably surprise yourself by how much you use the R-05 once you pick one up. What’s more, the time is right to buy—recent special pricing has made the R-05 more affordable than ever. So what are you waiting for? Grab an R-05 and start recording your world now!