# Who's using the Zoom H4?



## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

Anyone here using one of these. I use one to scratch down ideas plus I use it to record our band for the review and tracking of progress.

Here is a recording from our Aug 21'st rehearsal. I hung the H4 upside down from the ceiling. I'm still experimenting with placement.

Mic sims are off... my preferance and I'm recording in Stereo MP3 128 mode.

http://www.guitarfromthegreengoo.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/mistymtnhop.mp3


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

Good job on the tune. Need to place it closer to the guitars but everything else seemed to fit in quite nice.

I just rented the H4N on Friday to record a board mix of our gig Friday night.
Unfortunately, the file was corrupt so I've got nothing to comment on? I'm not sure what happened but I am thinking this thing cannot process continuous recording for 45 minutes straight? I will be experimenting with it for practice tomorrow night. 

I suggest recording in 16 bit Wav.


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## zjq426 (Aug 23, 2009)

Just my humble opinion, could you turn the volume up for your guitar amp or you could move the mic closer to the amp??
Overall, its good. Make me feel like buying one of those..


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

Hey guys thanks for the feedback. 

I'm still experimenting with mic placement. 

I hung the H4 in two different locations during rehearsals. What you heard was location two. The guitars are a little better than location one but not where I'd like them to be.

Next Friday I'll try some other stuff and hopefully I'll get it right. 

The H4 is awsome... I'm sure the H4n is that much better.

ne1roc... let me know what you think of the H4n once you get a good file. I've had no problem getting the H4 to record for well over an hour and then going back and dividing the files as I did with the example here.
I generally record in Wave but for tracking progress I find MP3 128 to be adequate plus the files are easy to send via email with no extra work needed.

Cheers
Craig


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

I am an H4n user. It is a great recorder. The mics are not the best but all the features imo makes it number one in portable recorder for guitarists. I also use the built-in effects and amp sims occasionally. I tried Edirol and Boss micro br before zoom. Both went back to the store. Btwn, I liked your singer, pretty close to the real thing...


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

Cheers and thanks I'll let Dave ( our singer ) know he will appreciate the feedback.

For what it is the Zoom H4 is money well spent. I'd like to use the H4n and see what it's about as i hear it has a few advantages and refinements to teh H4.


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

Frankly, I do not know the technical specs of zoom H4, and have never had a chance to use it. But the screen of H4n is larger, and some people do not like the controls on H4. There is a good review of H4n given here:

http://www.bradlinder.net/2009/03/zoom-h4n-review.html


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

As a H4 owner I agree with that review. The screen is small and the issues with the controls is there is a lot of button and dial jogging that has to take place to get simple tasks done. The rocker dial is also a pain in the ass as it over shoots and double clics a lot. My first H4 was a return as the rocker switch was intermittent and unreliable.

I see that the H4n has resolved a lot of these issues plus it has more "professional" recording features both from a software and hardware point of view... ie; the mics are not fixed and can be rotated.

At the end of the day though the H4 still records on a quality that is very close if not equal to the H4n. It comes down to convenience in the way of improoved features and a few new features.

Because of the type of tasks I use the H4 for I going to keep it for now and maybe get the next generation Zoom handy recorder that follows the H4n.

For what I do which is simple stereo recording and media file transferring the interface is very user friendlt... turn on, press record button once for standby, twice to record, three to stop the levels are a matter of a three position switch for each side of the stereo spectrum... the H4n is simply not worth the extra $$$ to me at this time.

That was a great review and after reading it I really don't need to try out the H4n. To be honest the SD card issue needs to be resolved before I would upgrade. Thats a huge oversite that could make recording a nightmare that the H4 simply does not have. 

As for the mic quality that could be tru and I would hope that Samson would improove the heart of the unit. Still though I'm sticking with the H4 for now.


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

I 100% agree with you as well. If I had already H4, I would not buy an H4n for another $450 bucks. but one thing I can say there is no SD card issue at all. It works perfect (if you meant by the SD card issue the placement of the Sd card as in the review). I dont know why this guy said that it has a problem, mine and many others (read the comments below) never had a problem so far. The only major issue to me is the mics are not the best in this category. I would like to buy Sony PCM-D50 but it does not record in mp3 format  and more expensive and not guitar oriented. I think Sony's new "more affordable" portable recorder PCM-M10 is going to be a good alternative to the zoom series.

http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/07/21/sony-intros-399-portable-audio-recorder/


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

the SD issue is isolated to this review... hats good to know... he made it sound like a design oversite, to me at least.


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

My band played at the Burlington Ribfest Friday evening and a buddy recorded us using his Zoom H2, which is the older model. Here is one of the songs.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8071492


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

The H2 is not bad at all. There is a fairly huge jump from that model to the H$ and then to the H4n now Zoom has the Audio Video tool the Q3...

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2020


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## sfx70 (Sep 16, 2009)

I use an H2 and it's the best thing I got for practices - it captures the jam ideas that you can never remember. The quality is amazing and all instruments come through nicely.


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## speedster (Nov 11, 2009)

I ordered an H4 a couple years back from a local shop in Owen Sound, it was on back order for a while and in the interim they got a Yamaha Pocket Trac's in.

Gave it too me to try out and after one use I bought it as it records stuff so well with clear and clean quality. The mic's are great and they will pan to the channels if you set up right around the recorder.

Comes with CUBASE Software as well, and you can record in CD 64 bit quality for 3 hours with the on board storage and up to 30 hrs at lower quality rates 

My only complaint is my eyes aren't what they once were and the screen is somewhat small however the thing is only about 4 inch's long 2 inchs wide and a 1/2 inch deep so its pocket size.

Has a connection to set it on a camera tripod and it has onboard usb hook up without cables....

Our bluegrass band has been using it for 2 years to record rehearsals and concerts. Some of the stuff we've got live is amazingly good quality and had we been more careful with background noise it could have been used for an album...

Extremely easy to use and extremely portable....


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## speedster (Nov 11, 2009)

I ordered an H4 a couple years back from a local shop in Owen Sound, it was on back order for a while and in the interim they got a Yamaha Pocket Trac's in.

Gave it too me to try out and after one use I bought it as it records stuff so well with clear and clean quality. The mic's are great and they will pan to the channels if you set up right around the recorder.

Comes with CUBASE Software as well, and you can record in CD 64 bit quality for 3 hours with the on board storage and up to 30 hrs at lower quality rates 

My only complaint is my eyes aren't what they once were and the screen is somewhat small however the thing is only about 4 inch's long 2 inchs wide and a 1/2 inch deep so its pocket size.

Has a connection to set it on a camera tripod and it has onboard usb hook up without cables....

Our bluegrass band has been using it for 2 years to record rehearsals and concerts. Some of the stuff we've got live is amazingly good quality and had we been more careful with background noise it could have been used for an album...

Extremely easy to use and extremely portable....

Here's a link to our myspace with some tunes recorded live with the Yamaha Pocketrak sitting in the audience on a camera tripod

http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecomnorthboundbluegrassband


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## AlcolmX (Oct 12, 2009)

I have an H2 that worked great 2 or 3 times, but now it won't "boot-up". It gets stuck on the start up screen and is useless. It's kinda soured me on Zoom products.


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## Rideski (Feb 25, 2009)

I have an H2 that I really love! So easy to use ands the quality is really impressive for a couple hundred bucks.


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

i use an H2 to record most gigs and jams - i mount it to a mic stand and place it front at centre stage most gigs are just bar gigs so we usually just have vox and and kick going through the mains, so i usually have the mains placed in such a way that it picks them up

here's a recording of some improv from my weekly jam night that i do - starting at 11:45 is where it gets cool 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=408855365439&oid=97452480681

cheers!
adrian


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## Bryan (Jan 14, 2008)

I use an H4 for practice , so far . I have to agrre that the jog dial and the main button in the center drive me crazy . I do like the reproduction of my acoustic through the condenser mics , and I run my electric through the built in jack and that sounds O.K. . The screen is way too small ; My poor 50+ year old eyes cry out for a bigger screen , but I'm unwilling at the moment to pay the extra bucks for the new one . I haven't used it to load onto my computer yet to use it with the Cubase LE4 that came with it .


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