Happy Jack Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r16/"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r16/[/url] Having had excellent results with other Zoom recording products (the H4, H2, Q3 and Q3-HD) I've been tempted by this unit for a while. I'm not competent to write a professional review of this desk, and besides ... someone else already has: [url="http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep09/articles/zoomr16.htm"]http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep09/articles/zoomr16.htm[/url] So that's the manufacturer's views, and those of a professional musician/journalist. This brief review is to link all that to the real world of amateur musicians (like me) who barely understand electronics (like me) and just want to plug'n'play (like me). The box arrived yesterday, just in time for a rehearsal of my 3-piece band ( [url="http://www.lemonrock.com/junkyarddogs"]http://www.lemonrock.com/junkyarddogs[/url] ). The crap video on that site is the reason for me buying a Q3-HD recently. The absence of any mp3 tracks to play is the reason for me buying this R16 ... it's almost cheaper than a day in the studio. The rest of the band (this is a 3-piece but we also go out as a 5-piece) are pretty bored of me and my new toys, but they are prepared to indulge me if I'm really nice to them. Our rehearsal space is an unused office in the West End. We leave the PA there, fully set up and ready to go. The sound in the room is pretty crap, and we have to be careful with volume, but it's free and bloody convenient. We'd already scanned the manual, so we had a rough idea of how we were going to set up. We plugged the electronic drums into Ch.1 + Ch.2 (not that we particularly need stereo drums), DI'd the guitar from a Digitech multi-pedal thing into Ch.3, DI'd the bass from an Eden WTX500 into Ch.4, and ran the three vocal mics into Ch.5/6/7. Then we took 1/4" outputs L/R from the R16 into a pair of stereo channels on the PA mixer so that we could use the PA as the sole sound source in the room. Doing that for the first time, and getting the levels sorted out, took about 45 minutes. Next time it will be 10, and we'll be able to do it in any rehearsal space. We made no attempt to use the EQ/Pan facility, or the extra bank of eight virtual tracks, or apply any FX, or experiment with any of the other features. Like I said, plug'n'play. Before we hit the Record button, our chief concern was that there would be too much bleed into the vocal mics, both from the instrument sound (coming through the PA) and from BV's intended for one mic being picked up by another. In practice, the only issue we had was that the monitor sound while we recorded seemed to kill the bass sound, which was barely audible whatever we did. I plugged some headphones into the Eden so I could hear myself properly, but the drummer was very irritated that he couldn't hear me properly. I imagine that we'll discover both the reason and the cure for this with experience. Having recorded our first song, in a "knock-off" sort of way because obviously it wasn't going to be any good at the first attempt, we hit the Playback and listened. Outstanding. Absolutely superb. I've been recording rehearsals and gigs with the H4 and the H2 for years now, but this was at a different level. Even with no FX on the vox, and a pretty rudimentary 'sound check', this was one of the best recordings of the band we've ever done. [[b]Later edit:[/b] Follow the 'Band' link in my sig to our site and you'll find six tracks there. The first one we recorded was [i]Steamy Windows[/i]. What you hear there is more-or-less exactly as recorded, just a tiny bit of mixing and a smatter of pixie-dust.] A fluke obviously. We hit Record again and recorded another song. Exactly the same result. The other two guys are now exchanging glances and looking much less bored than they had been a few minutes ago. Third track ... well, you can see where this is going. By the time we headed off down the pub, we had a dozen tracks recorded which are already good enough to play to pub landlords if we really needed to. With a bit of mixing and some FX, they should scrub up very nicely using the bundled Cubase LE which the R16 can front-end for you. Hopefully, some tracks will be on the Lemonrock site by the weekend. Conclusions: Money well spent. The Zoom H2 recorder currently costs about £140 and (IMHO) is worth every penny; the Zoom R16 is roughly twice the money and does far more than twice as much. It's never going to put Abbey Road out of business, but as a means of putting good-quality recordings on a website or CD for playing to potential clients it's a very clever piece of kit. I'll also be investigating whether it can be used at rehearsals to make up for missing band members. I'm pretty sure it will be possible to run the R16 through the PA with, for example, just the drum track turned up. Since our drummer is frequently late to rehearsal, that's a pretty useful feature in its own right. Edited February 21, 2011 by Happy Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Nice review HJ. We may have to test it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 (edited) I've been singing the praises of these bad boys for a while, they are clearly the business.... Imagine what you could do with 2 linked together though ;o) Edited January 20, 2011 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShergoldSnickers Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Very, very interesting. Particularly linking two together (thanks 51m0n for pointing that out).... Hmmmmmmm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Maybe you should be practising with just headphones for everyone? No PA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 I'm the only member of the band who is either content or prepared to do that ... trying to force the issue would be exactly the sort of thing that would break up the band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Fair enough. My band don't like it, so for rough demos we do just use the PA, but when i'm trying to get a "proffessional" sound I force them to wear headphones. The review was great by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 The mic pres in these things are perfectly good enough for demos. Probably better than those found in a lot of desks of yore (ie early 90's) and not much worse than those found in cheaper studios today. The fact is that I havent seen a better solution for the home recordist wanting to multitrack on a budget. On top of which they are tiny, yet have a decent interface. And you can add two together. The only thing I might want would be 24 channels.... [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r24/index.php"]Oh look![/url] Fact is I would use any two of these to track an album, pull the result into a high spec PC and mix it using Reaper, and enjoy better results than I think could be obtained for the same outlay at any time in history. Cant say fairer than that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 Sheer idle curiosity getting the better of me, Si, what would happen if I sent you the SD card from our Tuesday night session? Would you be able to mix that on your kit? Would you need the R16 unit as well? Given that you weren't involved in the set-up or the recordings, would you expect to get decent results? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 The guitarist in my band bought the R24 last week, we'll be trying it for the first time a week today. Tonight's rehearsal is for a gig tomorrow night. I'm trying to get him to bring it tonight anyway, so we can at least give it a try... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrig Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 [quote name='bartelby' post='1097423' date='Jan 21 2011, 01:04 PM']The guitarist in my band bought the R24 last week, we'll be trying it for the first time a week today. Tonight's rehearsal is for a gig tomorrow night. I'm trying to get him to bring it tonight anyway, so we can at least give it a try...[/quote] Did you try the R24? I'm eager to hear your thoughts on it, as I'm thinking of getting one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Briefly. Set up 2 condenser mics to record the whole band for a couple of tracks. It's a little confusing to use to start with, but that would change with use. The sound quality is bloody good. We were due to do a proper recording session with it next week, but the drummer has quit so we're regrouping... If you want one, get one they're good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrig Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 [quote name='bartelby' post='1131590' date='Feb 17 2011, 09:45 PM']Briefly. Set up 2 condenser mics to record the whole band for a couple of tracks. It's a little confusing to use to start with, but that would change with use. The sound quality is bloody good. We were due to do a proper recording session with it next week, but the drummer has quit so we're regrouping... If you want one, get one they're good![/quote] Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefrash Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Great review. I've been looking at one of these for a while as I'd love to record band practices when working on new tunes, and the mobile phone record function isnt cutting it! haha Plus, I've always wanted to get out and actually record a few of my mates bands playing, but my recording rig is based round the house pc. The fact that the R16 can then easily transfer the tracks across to Reaper to allow me to muck about is outstanding! I really can't find a negative to this thing! Always good to read another positive review though. Cheers fraser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 For band practices, best use the two in-built ambient mics ... they're the same units as in the H2 so sound quality is perfectly adequate to check on a rehearsal later. Setting the unit up for proper multi-track recording is probably not something you want to do at every rehearsal. It won't take long for the novelty to wear off, and it's not as if you're recording your first live album. Using the H2 approach you listen to the recording and just accept that it's raw. Using the multi-track approach you spend your time thinking about the mix you're going to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 [quote name='Happy Jack' post='1135331' date='Feb 21 2011, 12:19 PM']For band practices, best use the two in-built ambient mics ... they're the same units as in the H2 so sound quality is perfectly adequate to check on a rehearsal later.[/quote] Yeah, we tried the built-in mics first too. Considering the unit was off to one side of the room, closest to the guitar amp the sound was pretty balanced. Next time I think we'll just use that but set it up in the middle of the room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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