Zoom H4 recorder

[awholley]

Anyone have experience with this thing? I got a WWBW ad today that featured it for $299, and it seems like the best thing since sliced bread for mobile recording (compared to my mini-disc, anyway).

I'd appreciate comments from anyone who has used it. My application would be recording events like concerts by the sax quartet I play in.

[Randall]

aw,
My wife just bought me one for Christmas ( a little early) and from all online reviews it looks like the real deal.

I am going to be using mine for vocal and instrumental recording, so I should be able to give it a workout.

[saxfreak]

I'm also really interested in reviews or opinions on this product, especially as to whether it works well with a Mac computer.

[Randall]

freak, it does work with a Mac, according to the literature.
That is also why I wanted it, as I use Macs at home and work and wanted a quick and easy interface.

[saxfreak]

freak, it does work with a Mac, according to the literature.
That is also why I wanted it, as I use Macs at home and work and wanted a quick and easy interface.

Thanks, the Sony mini-disc is difficult with a Mac.

[rispoli]

Guys, also check this alternative I discovered 2 days ago:

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/e..._BR/index.html

Not sure about the quality of the microphone, the zoom is likely to be better.
The BOSS MICRO BR is surely smaller and cheaper (229$).

I had the Zoom PS-04 and I found to be a nightmare to learn, requires some real committment. Hope my buyer will enjoy.

[candiceartisan]

I have a Zoom MRS 802-B eight track recording studio. IMO, it's extremely difficult to work with. So far, I have only managed to record about one hour of my playing and about twenty minutes of Saintsday and myself playing a few tunes together. The manual is 170 pages and confusing as well. Help by website or phone isn't satisfactory. Don't know if this compares to what you are considering, if not just ignore what I said.
Candy

[Randall]

Can, I too have heard that using a lot of Zoom products can be rather tedious at best...however the H4 seems to be a bit on the easier side for recording and uploading to a computer.

I imagine if you want to use it as a mixer/recorder, then it will get considerable more complex. There are only so many buttons on such a small unit and you have to dedicate one button for many functions.

[mcudahy]

Two other products in this "market space" that are worth checking out are the Edirol R-09 and the M-Audio MicroTrack. I think they go for around $400, while the Zoom H4 is around $300. The only one I've used a lot is the Edirol R-09, and I love it. It's fantastic, so easy to make great digital recordings. And I've been getting pretty tired lately of converting analog (cassette tape) recordings to digital.

Having said that, I have to say, too, that the price (or even the lower price of the Zoom H4) is going to seem ridiculous to all of us in a very short time. (Remember the first batch of "electronic calculators": "Wow, you can add really big numbers, and it's only $300!") I mean, really, these little guys are fairly simple devices by today's standards in the electronics biz. Before you know it, they'll cost $200, and then $150. But that doesn't mean you should wait to buy one if you can afford it and you like to record music. With these electronic toys, whenever you jump in, you're getting in while prices are dropping. Just don't kid yourself that it's an "investment"! Anyway, this new generation of digital recorders are truly a welcome arrival on the scene for musicians.

The biggest problem is you're going to end up with dozens of files and you'll have to edit them, organize them, and decide what to do with them. You probably won't have time to listen to most of them! But once in a while you'll get a nice recording you're really proud of, that you'll want to share. And recordings can obviously be useful for practicing, too.

One other thing: if you're in a band, and you're going to use it mainly for the band's music, you could share the cost. (That's what we did.) This is assuming you all get along. (And if you do, you probably won't after fighting over the Zoom or Edirol for a few weeks!)

[Bill Mecca]

One thing I have heard about the H4, if you have the phantom power on, and nothing connected you get high pitched whine in the recording, so make sure if you are using the onboard mics that phantom is turned off.

[Morry]

I ordered one of these from Samash.com today. I'll give it a try at our Friday night gig, and see how it performs.

What recording quality settings do you guys use, if you have one?

[hornstar]

I ordered the H4 a few days ago, it arrived today. It seems straightforward and well-engineered; I'll try it out this weekend and report back. Since it saves things to wave file, it should be compatible with PC, Mac, and DAW programs! I like that it will function as a USB microphone, and as a USB drive too. I plan on walking around recording random sounds as samples, haha. I always wondered what I'd be doing in retirement.
38 years ago when I first got into music, multitracks were only in megastudios. I bought two 2-track reel-to-reel recorders from Blue Book and jury-rigged a filtering device to bounce tracks back and forth with low noise. Even if the manuals may blow, the technology is great, and I don't miss the good ol' days.

[EZ]

I had the Zoom PS-04 and I found to be a nightmare to learn, requires some real committment. Hope my buyer will enjoy.

He is! Small recorders like this are useful as a "sketchpad". Sort of a mini Band in a mini box.

Zoom PS-04 + Akai EWI 4000S = long lunch breaks in the truck!

[Morry]

I used the H4 last night to record our gig at a local club. I'm very impressed with the sound quality. Once you convert the WAV file to an MP3 for general consumption, the quality degrades a good bit, but that's the fault of the audio formats, not the recorder.

The sound level in this small club was VERY high last night, and with the gain set for low sensitivity, it did great.

Here are a couple of mp3 from the recording. Download may be slow because I used a higher bit rate on the mp3 conversion to preserve as much quality as possible:

http://www.horndogsband.com/mp3/onas.../Nightclub.mp3

[Randall]

Sounds great Morry...That machine works fantastically!

You are a lucky horndog indeed....wish I had a TOP tribute band to play in too!

[rabbit]

+1 what Randall said.

You do sound great! Machine o.k. too.

[saxmanglen]

Morry,

Was that recorded with the onboard mics? Tell us how and where you set up the recording unit to get the recording you did. BTW it sounds good!

[Morry]

I used the built in stereo condenser mics. I didn't have time to do anything else. Fedex delivered it 10 minutes before I left for the gig, and I didn't have time to do anything but go buy batteries and a 2 gb SD card. Luckily the basic functions are faily intuitive. It looks like it also does a bunch of stuff that I don't care about.

I just gave it to the sound guy and showed him how to put it in record mode and told him to start it when we got introduced for each set. He set it on the cocktail table next to him. There is an adapter that lets you screw it onto a camera tripod, but I didn't have time for any of that.

I ended up with three 350-400 mb wav files. I pulled each set into Audacity and split them up, saving songs to separate mp3 files. I know I could have recorded them directly as mp3s, but I wanted to capture the best sound quality and then down-convert later.

It is a little club, and the sound guy and console were about 15 feet in from of us, and it was LOUD.

Overall, I'm fairly impressed with the unit. Sure it's pricey, but seems to work as advertised.

[Morry]

Sounds great Morry...That machine works fantastically!

You are a lucky horndog indeed....wish I had a TOP tribute band to play in too!

You have to be the glutton for punishment and start one for yourself. It can be done, but it can drive you crazy sometimes.

We've finally located a keyboard guy we really like. He plays with the Temps Review when they travel, so we'll have to work to be able to book him, but he was the real deal.

[hornstar]

I used it as a portable recorder at rehearsal, and it works great. I hadn't bought a larger capacity SD card yet, so I recorded to MP3 to use less space, and I was very impressed by the sound. The on-board mics are much better than I expected.