See the video review of the Roland CD-2e

Most music fans marvel at masterpieces of studio engineering. But great tunes can come from very humble beginnings. John Lomax recorded Leadbelly with an acetate recorder stuffed into the trunk of his Ford. Keith Richards’s clanging call to arms that opens the Rolling Stones’ revolutionary stomp, “Street Fighting Man,” is the sound of the guitarist thrashing at his Gibson Hummingbird into a primitive Philips cassette recorder.

Indeed, the best songs are often about catching a flashing moment. And when that moment hits, you may not be in proximity to a recording studio or care to figure out complicated recording equipment. The Roland CD-2e, a digital recorder and CD burner all in one, is all about capturing those bits of inspiration and committing them to disc as quickly and easily as possible.

ELEGANT DESIGN

As suits its simple feature set and functions, the CD-2e’s design is streamlined and classic—forgoing the futuristic curves of many digital recorders for clean, simple lines. It’s compact, too, about the size of a hardback novel, which makes it a recording tool you’ll leave at the ready on your desk or coffee table.

The control interface is as easy-to-operate and familiar as a CD player. The three largest dials control levels for the microphone, the line in (if you’re recording from another audio device), and for the headphones and speaker volume. The controls on the lower-right quadrant of the interface enable the user to fast-forward and rewind on playback, repeat a passage, or select CD or SD card as your playback audio source. Elsewhere, you’ll find buttons that activate a built-in reverb and metronome, buttons for navigating the LCD menu, and a USB port for output to a computer.

The uncluttered design applies to the side of the unit, where two RCA connectors for stereo input, two ¼-inch inputs for a stereo microphone set (or single mono mic), an SD card slot, and headphone jack are accessible and easy to see. Other features include a surprisingly powerful set of speakers for monitoring playback and a ⅛-inch line-out jack for output to a stereo system.

PRACTICAL AND INTUITIVE TO USE

If you’re the kind of songwriter who prefers to get your ideas down fast, the CD-2e is a dream to work with. Setting up a new track is as easy as inserting the included 512 MB SD card (which can record about 45 minutes of music) and pressing the Record and Pause/Play buttons simultaneously. The CD-2e automatically creates a new track on the SD card, at which point you’re ready to set the mic level (be sure to err on the low side to avoid ugly digital clipping) and press Play to get your recording rolling. Pressing Stop will automatically save the track to the SD card. Once the recording is saved, burning a CD is a simple process of verifying which songs you want to commit to disc, then writing and finalizing the disc—all managed via the Menu button.

For my first recording, I elected to use as basic a setup as possible—recording song sketches with a bandmate using just the CD-2e’s onboard stereo microphones. We gave little thought to placement of the unit, setting it on a coffee table about three feet from where my friend fingerpicked an old Harmony flattop and approximately eight feet from a 15-watt amplifier through which I played some electric accompaniment. Despite our random setup, the recordings were incredibly clear and well balanced, suggesting that the CD-2e would be a great tool for recording a coffeehouse gig or just about any other small performance where you can’t count on ideal mic position.

Seeking to push the limits of the CD-2e a little, I took the unit along to a band practice, where I plugged two vintage Realistic PZM mics into the stereo mic inputs and recorded a few jams with bass, drums, electric piano, and guitar. Even in this high-volume environment the CD-2e performed splendidly, capturing with real clarity all the room ambience and detail that the PZM mics pick up so adeptly.

The bass-heavy playback overwhelmed the otherwise very capable onboard speakers a little, but by running a line from the output jack to my stereo, I could better hear just how well the CD-2e had performed.

The CD-2e isn’t without limitations. With no RAM-heavy computer onboard, the CD-burning process can be slow—taking up to several minutes—particularly if you’re burning more than one tune to a disc. And investment in a bigger SD card is inevitable if you want to record a particularly long performance or archive a library of sketches.

THE WRAP

While the CD-2e isn’t inexpensive at $529 on the street, it’s a truly high-quality recording device that’s capable of producing a CD-quality live recording—even if it’s primarily a tool for demos and sketches. It may not be as versatile as some handheld digital recorders, but it’s arguably simpler to use, can burn a CD, and is capable of headphone-free playback. And when used with batteries, it’s very nearly as portable. Given just how much this good-looking little unit can do, it’s likely to prove worth the expense for players who want to record when inspiration strikes.