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[email protected] rboy505@yahoo.com is offline
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Default Zoom H-4 recorder?

I know the flash recorder thing has been discused here and in other
production groups, but not this unit, and I think it might suit a need
but want to find out if anyone got one and hated it. I have to equip
an interview situation with a field recorder and a simple phone patch
recording set-up. Everything but the actual recorder will pretty much
fall in place easily, but the Zoom for $300 has now come up on the
radar and if she could use this for both field interviews (with
external mics) and as the recorder for the phone interviews (coming out
of a JK phone box) using line ins, it would be great. It will never
be used to record music so that lowers the bar on its pre quality, but
headsmacking bugs or a convoluted inface be a big negative, as there
isn't really going to be a chance to wait for firmware upgrades to make
it work.

Googling turns up pretty much zip. As a guitarist I've used some Zoom
stuff over the years, but was never nuts about them. The budget
dictates that the crop of $400 recorders is the max we can go for, but
if the H-4 is OK, given that it's only voice recording involved (and
then only for broadcast, not film or video) that would be $100 we could
put towards bumping up something else.

Thanks for any thoughts, good or bad, about it.

R

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Goaty Goaty is offline
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Default Zoom H-4 recorder?

I do some live music recording and interviews for radio. At present I'm
using Sony Minidisc, but we all know that they're getting the hearse
warmed up for that technology, so I have been looking for a replacement
technology.

The Zoom H4 is one I have been looking at, but (while I haven't actually
held one in my hand) the description of the interface in the documents
makes it seem amazingly cumbersome. That's not on. Fast configuration of
and entry to record mode is essential.

The M-Audio Microtrack has a much better interface, but there have been
negative comments on how it actually measures up to claimed specs. I
also don't like the use of an internal rechargable only. When at
festivals, which are often up the bush[1], there is often a lack of
recharging facilities, and having some backup AA batteries is much
prefereable.

The Edirol R series looks good. I'd need to sell my body[2] to afford an
R4, but the R1 or R09 are definite contenders.

Cheers
Goaty

1. ="located in remote areas"
2. or at least a kidney ... wouldn't be much call for the whole package!
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Mike Rivers Mike Rivers is offline
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Default Zoom H-4 recorder?


wrote:
I know the flash recorder thing has been discused here and in other
production groups, but not this unit, and I think it might suit a need
but want to find out if anyone got one and hated it.


Googling turns up pretty much zip.


If you're talking about the Zoom, nobody has had a chance to hate it
because it hasn't shipped to anyone yet.

Zoom for $300 has now come up on the
radar and if she could use this for both field interviews (with
external mics) and as the recorder for the phone interviews (coming out
of a JK phone box) using line ins, it would be great.


I don't see any reason why it shouldn't do that OK. But you really need
to evaluate the user interface live and in person. Zoom makes some
decent sounding stuff but it never has enough buttons on it so there's
always a long route to some functions. Maybe they've caught on.

One cool thing about the Zoom, though you probably wouldn't have much
need for it, is that it apparently can stream audio out its USB port
right from the input, so you can record on an external hard drive.
That's important to me (if there's no internal drive) because I want to
be able to record many hours at a stretch without having to worry about
re-using the memory cards.

There was a lot of enthusiasm about the M-Audio Micro Track when it was
initially released, but I talked with several folks at the AES show
last weekend who said that the bloom is off the rose and it really
doesn't sound all that great and it's still buggy even after a few
firmware updates. But then not everybody runs into the bugs (depends on
what you have to do) and not everyone needs great fidelity. So it might
work out OK if you need to get something fairly promptly.

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[email protected] rboy505@yahoo.com is offline
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Default Zoom H-4 recorder?


Mike Rivers wrote:

Googling turns up pretty much zip.


If you're talking about the Zoom, nobody has had a chance to hate it
because it hasn't shipped to anyone yet.



Apparently a small early shipment went out and I found some people that
had units, in particular a guy who administers a Zoom forum.

http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=6906

but these were mostly people discussing the plusses and minuses of the
4 track capabilities, which I would be ignoring anyway. So naturally
I came here to see if any r.a.p. people were early adopters.



One cool thing about the Zoom, though you probably wouldn't have much
need for it, is that it apparently can stream audio out its USB port
right from the input, so you can record on an external hard drive.
That's important to me (if there's no internal drive) because I want to
be able to record many hours at a stretch without having to worry about
re-using the memory cards.

There was a lot of enthusiasm about the M-Audio Micro Track when it was
initially released, but I talked with several folks at the AES show
last weekend who said that the bloom is off the rose and it really
doesn't sound all that great and it's still buggy even after a few
firmware updates. But then not everybody runs into the bugs (depends on
what you have to do) and not everyone needs great fidelity. So it might
work out OK if you need to get something fairly promptly.




Thanks, Mike, that's interesting stuff, both about the Zoom streaming
and the MicroTrack's updates not making it the go-to unit.

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