I know nothing about these units yet so this is just a Heads Up
and it may seem expensive ... but not compared to a timecode DAT
... do these things have timecode ???

Edirol R4

What's your budget matta?

The is a unit similar to the Edirol unit from HHB, but they come in at quite a considerably higher price tag:

this unit is eight track, so is overkill for what you need but I showed you that so you might not immediately dispel the following:

Which is minidisc based. They apparently sound fantastic though. Apparantely better than many HD based units due to every link in the chain being very good quality and also quite pricey.

Do you research on that one though.

While I've got your attention, perhaps you can help me. I have a friend who needs a laptop around $500-800 UD or $800 - $1200 AUD (aussie $) for recording two - four tracks at a time, and he needs an inetrface that runs of the computers power i.e USB or Firewire. I thought since you might already do this you may have some suggestions?

I thought immediatly of M audio, as they have some units that power off the PC, and they also are around the bidget of my mate. The interface would need to be around $400 AUD, which might be about $2-300 US.

If you can help, It would be highly appreciated 8)

Check those HHB units out, and do your research about the minidic thing. I immediately would've discounted it as a non option due to my hang ups about minidisc recording medium, but apparently that unit does deal with any shortcomings minidisc has. That's based on hear-say though...so check it out. Cheerio!

The Edirol R-4 is one choice. There are a few more. I'll put up the names I can remember.

Marantz PMD-660 or 670
Fostex FR-2
Sound devices 722

and probably a few more.
Gunnar

thanks for all the feedback guys.

I'm looking in the $600 - 1,000 range. I could go a bit over that. The thing is, I don't need a lot of features. No editing in the field is going to be done. The biggest thing to me is high quality A/D and preamps. I could even take a gracie preamp with me if that what it required... so really good A/D is of prime importance. I just want to capture sound on two channels, that's it (though a M/S decoder would be a nice bonus)

As far as laptops go. I'm a mac user and I paid about $900 for my 12" iBook with educational discount. Great system and OS X seems reliable. If he uses the laptop for anything else he has to be very very careful. On a PC you really have to worry about Spyware and other uninvited guests making your system unstable. This is because, of course, _your system can never crash_.... if it does, you lost a client.

Bus powered 2-300. I don't know much in that range. M-Audio would be a good first bet. MOTU Traveler is bus powered and sounds good... but now we're talking $850. I use an 828.... to big... to much...

There could be some PCMCIA options too... if he gets a PC laptop.

Something like the ECHO Indigo is well within his tight budget.... I've heard good things about the audio coming out of it.... EMU might also have something.

Above all... the system must be 200% stable. Anything that doesn't have to be on the system shouldn't.

Hope this helps!
Mätta

200 % stable :) I know what you are saying and a very good point !

He wont have to worry about clients, but If I wa to start mobile recording, it would be 'for' clients, so thanks for that particular advice matta.

At this stage, a Centrino or AMD64 and a firebox weems to be the best bet.

Cheers for the help & good luck with your own mobile choice.

hhb portadisc

Dont choose the HHB portadisc. Why have the minidisc-format? I have used this on number of location recordings and interviews. The sound is OK, the preamp can be a bit noisy, but usually not. One problem was that it was difficult to control th recording-volume, sometimes it would peak before it hit the 0 mark.
It is overpriced.

Good to know..

I know I mentioned the unit, but it is better to have first hand experience like yours to quantify the units quality...

Now I'm double glad I re-iterated "do your research" :)