Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

How the RM3 is used:
I recently came across and old and beautiful analog mixer. I thought the mixer would be useful for live recording situations, but I needed something to record on to. I did'nt want to lug a fragile PC around and was looking for something very simple to use that is rack-mounted (so it won't grow legs in the field). The RM3 works very well with my new/old mixer for recording band practices and live shows.

Things great about the RM3:
Simple 2-touch recording, first touch lets you set levels and monitor incoming signals, second touch lets you record. USB features make it easy to transfer files between RM3 and a computer.

Things not so great about the RM3:
It could use a computer keyboard input to rename files and you can't delete files directly from the RM3. Renaming would be helpful when doing multiple takes of the same song during a session or documenting what or who is being recorded. The fact that you can't erase directly from the RM3 helps ensure that you don't accidentally destroy whatever was previously recorded, but the ability to delete unwanted files would help manage local storage space.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Great for recording conference calls.

Flexibility to record line in and mic input sources.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Bought the product as an add-on for a PA mixer. After 3 successful recordings, it stopped displaying the volume marker during recordings, didn't respond to record level adjustments on the jog wheel, and recorded everything at the same highly compressed level.

It's very fussy about which USB keys it will accept, and no information is available to help to choose or format the USB key. This means the most practical solution is to buy SD cards. That's bad if you already invested in USB keys.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

I wanted something to use as a back-up during my recordings in the studio and live. I think this will be exactly what I need to fill this need. It's easy to operate with a neat slim design. Only downside I see is the 1/4" inputs on the front of the deck. Kind of a crazy setup if you're mounting it in a rack. :( I'm one that likes all my cables neatly arranged in the back. This will bother me, but I can live with it. Good value!

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Simplicity is this recorder's greatest virtue. You really don't even need the manual.
The recording itself is very clean, with a very low noise floor. However the headphone monitor jack is very noisy, so you really need to transfer the files to hear them properly. They really are noiseless, but you'd never know it to listen through the headphone jack on the recorder.
Also, the unit seems to be a little fragile.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Very simple and fast.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

This is a very useful digital recorder that can be used for advance home studio use or in professional settings. It accepts two types of common recording media and uses standard PC type file formats for recording.

It can be operated right out of the box with only a quick scan of the included instructions. The audio quality is as advertised, CD quality when a high quality signal is fed to the unit. With other inputs, such as microphones, the recording is only as good as the quality of the equipment used.

Since it uses four standard PC file formats (user selectable)the chip or USB thumb drive can be removed and pluged directly into a computer for transfer or playback. Alternatively the built-in usb port can be used to directly save or load files to or from a PC. The files can be used directly with most common music edting and processing software.

Another nice feature is the ability to select between front are read inputs on the unit by use of a front panel switch. With the unit installed in a crowded rack, this is a great time saver when changing inputs.

There two major down sides to the unit: 1)Because the tracks are only numbered, you have write down whats on them for future reference 2) It is unclear just what size memory devices are supported. It is nowhere to be found in the doumentation.

Overall, the RM3 is a great unit and a true bargin at the price B&H is offering it.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

We use this recorder in our PA system at church to record the service for shut-ins. We make CDs from the recording and distribute them by mail or personal visits. The recordings are clear, and better yet, are easy to make.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Product was/is intended for use in my custom home stereo system and for weekly voice (and occasional music) recording of our spiritual group. I currently have and use two mini-disc recorders and a Tascam DR-07 portable digital recorder. None of these are compatible with "thumb" drives and the fact that the RM3 would accept said drives swayed my decision - that and the fact that I required a rack-mounted device. My first impression was that the RM3 was a neatly designed and attractive package. Then things rapidly went downhill! First, in all fairness, I must say that what the RM3 does it does well - that is, it both records and plays-back using SD cards and thumb drives. I can find no fault with the sound quality. The documentation is a bit sparse; this includes the shipped manual as well as what is available on the IKEY Website. I noted that the firmware as shipped was not current, so per directions, I tried to download the latest software from the Website. That's when I found out that my computer won't shake hands with the RM3 via the included USB cable. Several USB ports and computers later, I finally found one that would talk to the RM3 - not acceptable! I contacted tech support and they included the software update as an attachment with their Email reply. I was able to insert the SD card in my computer and copy the update, reinstall the SD card in the RM3, and it did eventually install (although I have know idea what was updated.) Never a word why the RM3 refuses to handshake with so many computers! Now the second discovery, and the one that put that sinking feeling in my stomach, is the fact that the RM3 will not play back more than one song at a time - yes, that's right - you have to get up and hit the "stop" button, spin the little jog wheel to select the next song, and then push the play button again. Who would have thought? As a "semi-retired" electronic and product development engineer, I'm 99% sure that this could be changed by a small software update. As it is, the RM3 is virtually useless for my needs. OK - I'm not done with tech support yet, but I am wondering if I can send this thing back? This could be a very decent product but it's not quite there. I'm quite disappointed.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

We plan to use 8 of these (to build an 8 track field recorder)Each mic will go into an RM3 & loop out to our mixer for the final mix. I don't think that was it's intended use but for us it works great.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

I purchased this the end of last year to record music and sermons at my church. We have been using a CD-Recorder and that always worked but did require more expensive "Music CD-R's"

The unit does record well, but we found you can not change to a new file while recording. You can only hit stop, where it writes the file, then you hit record again. Most of the time this was fast enough to work but we had times where it would freeze on "Saving File" and had to be turned off/on to get it back. Like others have said, the settings you had for wav or MP3 and bitrate, mono/stereo lost on power down. This is stupid, you have 4 binary bits to keep that info and they can't put a little memory chip to write the settings to? Insulting.

The screen is tiny and hard to read, I have seen cassette decks from 15 years ago with better displays for all the settings/Meters.

The Level meters are slow to update, when trying to dial in the level, you move up and overshoot as 10 seconds later the level is now clipping.. turn it down and have to wait another 10 seconds for it to show the new levels.

Inputs for Balanced on the front is stupid, Mic on the front ok, but Balanced connections should be on the rear or both.

We just found this unit didn't do what we needed it to do. We record our praise team as tracks 1-4 on the CD-recorder and sermon as track 5, closing as track 6. This unit would not allow us to Track forward creating a seperate file. Seems silly not to make that possible as the manual says it will do this exact thing if you record over the FAT32 2 GB limit, it will split the track, give me a button that will split when I want to.

The other thing that was nice on the CD-Recorder is I can hit pause, it will advance to the next track and be paused waiting for you.

All in all we have went back to CD-Recording for now, maybe look at a higher end unit like this.

For the money it may work for some but left me desiring more.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

This is a great rack mount recorder/player. Very easy to hook up and use. Sound quality is as good as the original reel to reel recording I compared it to. My only regret is that I didn't order it sooner. This unit works exactly as advertised. If you are in the market for a rack mounted recorder/player, this is the one - you can't beat the price!

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

We installed this in a portable rack for live gigs. We are currently using the rca line in and out connections. It would have been nice to have had balanced inputs on the back, or at least have the dual 1/4" inputs on the back. I made two 1/4" to rca cables for input from our compressor/limiter (last processor in our setup) and am using just an rca cable for the output to the mixer's cd input for playback. The quality of the recordings are great so far. We have not used a usb flash drive yet, but have had no problems using memory cards. For our purposes this was a great buy.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

Used to record Church services

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

The playback over our Sound System showed no discernible difference. You do not need to sync this to your computer, because you can just pull the SD card and plug it into most newer computers. We didn't detect any humming noise, but this will record feedback if it is in the room (most recorders will).

We didn't need frills, but when iKey comes out with an affordable MP3/CD recorder, they have a customer.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

used to replace or assist transferring CD collection to personal greatest hits.

hardly professional except for build quality.

no edit capabilities. no way to name or rename files without exchange to computer.

should have been made with a remote and sold as a consumer model with the above suggestions included.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

I'm a professional sound reinforcement and recording engineer and have my own business in Las Vegas. I always record live performances on multitrack digital recorders and have been using CD recorders as a backup (it's just stereo but is better than nothing if the multitrack decides to have problems in the middle of a concert) but CD recorders have their own set of limitations. They only record 80 minutes. They only record at 16bits and 44.1MHz. It's slow to get ready to record and takes a minute to finalize the disc at the end... time I don't have when recording music festivals live to CD. And if you get a bad disc the recording is useless. The IKey digital recorder solved all those issues. I can record for literally hundreds of hours at much higher resolutions, it's always ready to record at a push of one button, and I can record an entire festival on one USB flash drive.
Not sure why others did not like the manual. They must have improved the manual because it contained everything I needed to get up and running in about 10 minutes. You must keep a little log to remember what is recorded where because the unit simply generates a new numbered file each time you record something but my handheld MP3/Wave recorders I use do the same thing. Besides, you don't want to stop before each recording to code in some short name with up/down buttons and a data wheel.
I don't know of any other MP3 rackmount recorder at this price point that is worth owning. If you spend a little more money you can get a more versatile unit made by Rolls but the quality of the recording will not be any better.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

I use the product to rip my LPs and tapes to digital form. So far, so good. The iKey RM Rackmount Digital Recorder is a godsend to me because the last method I had of ripping my old music gave out on me. The instructions are very simple, and because I am an amateur, this is a benefit to me. It turns my analog music into high rate audio files which I can then edit down and put on my various MP3 players. It has a very small footprint as well and is sturdily built. I like that I can put my record player on top of it and my Onkyo tape recorder/player below it without damaging it.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

None of the adjustments made is kept into memory. Everytime you turn on you have to adjust record format and recording level. Card has to be formated outside the unit. Not possible to erase and organize tracks also, unless you use you computer.

Comments about Ikey Audio RM3 Rackmount Digital Audio Recorder:

The produce is being used to record sermons by the preacher. We are now able to put them on our website for those who are not able to be here can listen to the sermons. This is a really great advancement for us. We do need to get a larger card to use.