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Zoom H4N


Musicman20
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I've used the previous model, the H4 for years; it's a great all round piece fo kit and the H4N fixes all the complaints I had with it like the fact that it was a nasty tacky plastic enclosure. I've recorded gigs and rehearsals with it and used it as a practise amp, audio interface and also as a card reader for uploading photos when nothing else was available.

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I considered the zoom range for a while as i mainly wanted to record rehearsals and catch those one off moments of genius, but the prices were putting me off, so a bit of homework threw up this [url="http://tascam.com/product/gt-r1/"]http://tascam.com/product/gt-r1/[/url] it's not the one if you want to record through the desk etc, but the condensor mikes are excellent at the live stuff and a nice simple 1 press and go recording facility (once you've chosen your settings). For me it has the added bonus of being able to practice alone with headphones with MP3s loaded on or to the many drum patterns plus a host of other features like being able to fine tune a tracks speed if it's not quite in concert pitch etc, plus plus plus loads of other useful stuff. I got a 16gb SD for about £10 or so ? loads of space, not to mention it comes with a 2gb to start with. I was a little hesitant at first but since getting it i am well pleased and use it a hell of a lot. If considering this, the only thing i would say would be to buy the, or another DC Mains power adaptor as the battery life is "ok" when in use but runs down a tad quickly, i can imaging maybe getting caught out one day after heavy use.

Worth a look

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I use the H4n. Bought it for recording practices and gigs, which it does fantastically well at all volumes. It's easy to set recording levels and gives a wonderful stereo spread. The menu's are a bit fiddly to navigate with the rotating switch thing, but to be honest most people using it will just record and then download immediately onto a computer platform anyway. With a big enough memory card your can record for several hours in good quality.

But the thing that I use it mostly for (and most unexpectedly) is as an audio interface. It sit's nicely under the screen of my Mac and accepts instrument, mic, or mixing desk just fine into Logic with great results. How often do you really need more than 2 inputs for home recording anyway?

I love it, and find it's a really great all rounder. Really want the Zoom Q3 now though as the demo's look cracking for gigs.

Andy

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I used to use the H4N but ended up selling it. It's just a bit too clever, and with all the fiddling about you can do with it, it turned out to be altogether too easy to find settings that meant it didn't actually record ...

Bear in mind that I'm well into the stage where reading glasses are an absolute requirement, and reading tiny LCD screens in dark environments while people push past me carrying drums and pints of beer is a totally unwelcome addition at a gig.

I bought the Zoom H2 and found that, once you have the main settings sorted (sitting in comfort at home with the manual) all you need to do at a gig is press just one button three times (once to go to stand-by, once to start recording, and once to stop recording). Now that's my sort of technology.

By stepping down to the H2, you lose the ability to do 4-track recordings on the fly, but this was always a facility I was not going to use.

I liked the Zoom H2 so much that I also bought the Zoom Q3HD, with the same uber-friendly, idiot-proof operation.

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I use an H4n a lot.

I've used it as:-[list]
[*]a notepad for quickly jotting bass ideas down:[i] it starts faster than a full recording rig so the 'juices' can keep flowing rather than having to get right into studio engineer head and losing the musical creativity[/i]
[*]as a notepad for rehearsals: [i]its exceptional in this role, coping with massive volumes and[/i] because it records to aan sd card the transfer times are as long as it takes to plug in a £3 USB to sd card adapter and mounting the volume on your machine.
[*]as a guerilla recording tool: [i]have used it to track drums in a rehearsal space with a couple of dynamic mics for kick and snare pluged in and the onboard condensors as an O/H pair, the results where exceptional IMO[/i]
[*]to capture classical performances: [i]it does a reasonable job at this, obviously its not a 'proper' high end rig, but it does a pretty good job of standing in for one, and the limitations are not as bad as not getting a recording at all, plus it costs less than a tenth of a high end rig[/i]
[/list]
I've not really used it as an audio interface though, it may be quite good at that too though.

As a standalone tracking device with a very easy means to get material back on your PC its very very good though, and for the money its superb.

Edited by 51m0n
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I've had an H4 for a few years now and find it extremely useful and good quality.

An added advantage is the XLR ins which allows the use of serious studio condenser mics rather than the built-in ones - it even supplies Phantom power but best used on a mains adapter if you are using the Phantom option.

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