Zoom H-4 field recorder, anyone?

soren k jensen

soren k jensen

Well-known member
Has anyone tried the Zoom (Samson) H-4 field recorder: 300 dollars, records to sd cards, has 24 bit converters, various sample and bit rates, inbuilt stereo pair plus xlr input and 48v. If the preamps are good, this is very interesting.
 
This was mentioned earlier. Here are my thoughts:

The Sony unit is a far superior machine. It's built out of titanium, and the built in mics are actually really good. It's easy to use as well. Very very high quality.


The Samson unit is well....Samson. They aren't known for making quality stuff. The mics aren't that great, and I would expect it's A/D converters to be sub-par. If it's typical of Samson, it'll be noisy.

However, there is a vast price difference between these two machines. I wouldn't use either of them for production sound, but I might use the Sony machine for some sound FX recording.

-Dave
 
bla bla , sony , samson - did you check them back to back , the samson can power the mic s directly and probably sounds the same as sony and if it gone , you can replace it with another 5 to fit the sony logo .
dont trash something before you actually check it .
by the way it get excellent reviews from the tapers , and what you know , they use neumans to check it :-)
buy one , then talk
 
Oleg 2 -

You may be right about Zoom H-4, but buying something is not necessary to be able to talk about it. If someone happens to use or test something, it's already enough to share the experience, don't you think?

Please don't say to anyone here things like "buy one then talk". "Use one (or even try one)" is enough to talk already.

I haven't used H4 so I cannot say it's good or bad, but reading reviews on the Web I wouldn't be so sure it's such a excellent recorder. There are people who don't like it. In fact, it's one of the cheapest units available and from what I read, it has weaknesses. If you approach it as cheap, portable recording device, then you may be happy, but if you expect professional results on Fostex or Marantz level, you may be disappointed. It's relative, it depends.
 
ok - use one , since i dont think in English as you know( or you probably not since you are a new in town ) , this is the expression we usially throw in my region .

sorry to disappoint you - professional is what bring me/you money - cheap - good, awful , what ever .
about if it sounds good as , who cares .the bottom line was if it sounds good as the sony device not as any other recorder.

so might be Mr Fisk need ACTUALLY HEAR ONE before he starting whith what sounds better , i will accept as it some kind of bug he still didnt fix
from his previous job :-)
Sorry Dave couldn't resist
best
 
Oleg2,

Sure, the Zoom has it's place and I trust a reviewers comments: "a great little unit that's very popular at $300, resulting in lots of backorders." Certainly the dual use USB port is thoughtful (as interface or mass storage), superior to the Marantz mass storage only approach. Only a few will balk at the 2GB maximum Secure Digital flash cartridge but for most it's a reasonable size (if not recording 24-bit/96 kHz WAV). Built-in extras like the limiter and compressor will also be popular for those without post production editing software. Using the built-in mic will get you about 3-3.5 hours on the two AA batteries (assumedly less using two condenser XLR phantom-powered mics). And the 45% phased stereo mics are excellent for the price, even if they are a bit "bright" for some. Here's some tests (by another reviewer):

Built-in MD421 U87 C414

Yet a few other factors do indeed illustrate the Samson factor. Using the internal mics, the wind sock is a must but it continually falls off. The buttons are a bit wobbley (menu buttons flop around and the memory cover is flimsy), hopefully they will hold up several years with careful use. The backlight LCD is nice but some complain it's hard to read the smaller letters. Oh, by the way, the Zoom doesn't have a strap - a poor oversight (although it does have a belt attachment and velcro pieces). And the Zoom is susceptible to picking up noise when bumped, so consider using a tripod to isolate the unit for important work.

In summary, with far better sound than it's $300 competition, the unit will sell very well. Even for those of us who like our current equipment, it's worth consideration as a very affordable backup unit with cautious use (I always find ways to justify buying more toys...)

Warm Regards, Michael
 
Last edited:
moonlitnite said:
Oleg2,

a belt attachment and velcro pieces). And the Zoom is susceptible to picking up noise when bumped, so consider using a tripod to isolate the unit for important work.

Warm Regards, Michael
Click to expand...
is that for the internal microphones or for external as well ?
from what i heard from your recordings , it sounds not bad at all -
definitely worth 300 as back up device or for these moments you really dont dont want to be hooked to the camera
Oleg Kaizerman
 
thnx

thnx

Many thanks to everyone for the input!
Based on Michael's neat guitar test I'll pick one up. For me it will go into hiding in various forms, picking up ambience and backgrounds when doing documentary. Maybe even get tethered to a couple of B&K 4006's at times. For me, it's always nice to have something small and sufficient (and cheap), rather than big and better quality. It gets used, then...
 
Oleg,

I have found that once you learn the track record of a comany's products, they kind of tend to churn out the same quality stuff, no matter what it is or what they say. I remember when I worked at Coffey Sound, and the Azden rep came in saying that they really stepped up their wireless, and they were really good now. So, we checked a few systems out. You know what? Same old Azden.

Samson does not have a good track record of quality field audio equipment. Based on that, and the price, I can make a pretty good assertation of what the product will be like. Too many people forget that you pay for what you get. When you buy a cheap recorder, you are getting cheap mics, cheap pre's , cheap A/D converters.

If I had some nice B&K (now DPA) 4006's that cost a lot of money, and sound fantastic, I would want the highest quality audio recorder I could get, since I have the ferrari of mics. To me, it doesn't make sense to put a Yugo engine into a Ferrari.

-Dave
 
every word is gold except that it still doent answer on the question - is it worse then the sony .
except that the sony gear is usially well made ( camera wise) and live long life i dont really know if it sounds better then this cheap trick .
by the way - all companies make their stuff or boards in some place between china and china this days( maybe not sony) , so what really matter is the desighn which usially made in the western world and quality control .
for something that have 1-2 boards and 2 connectors , i might think this would be not a big issue ( and maybe i wrong).
 
put down your arms

put down your arms

Hi guys,
Can't compare apples and oranges... still, I have the B&K/DPA, and still like the cheap stuff. And the expensive. It's all a matter of putting technology to work, one way or the other. I've had great gear fail and cheap gear work. And sometimes I'm good, sometimes not. That's about it.. the most important parameter is placement and right after thatm style/intention. The rest is fodder for forum discussions ;-)
 
Soren and Oleg,

Sorry for the confusion - those Zoom H4 tests with the guitar were found at this site (not recored by me). I've edited my prior post to make this clear; the links after the first internal mic annotation were various exteral mics (you can search the net for them if you want more info)

Regards, Michael
 
I'll be posting a review in the articles section next month, but I'll give you some preliminary thoughts.

Feature set -- A+ great for a $300 digital recorder, will even act as a PC audio interface, ASIO drivers to be released soon.

Build quality -- D Cheap feel with small nasty switches, worried about failure and operation in the cold.

User Interface -- C+ Only a sadist of an industrial designer would bury the level controls in a menu, fortunately, a 3-level gain switch on the unit

Sound quality --- B? testing in progress, but low self noise, pre's ok, sounds pretty clean, built-in mics better than expected.

Verdict-- Useable for the low budget filmmaker to do double system sound, record foley, and effects as long as a backup is in place. Unsuitable for professional use--build quality will not hold up under heavy use. For $300, this could be a nice problem solver.
 
Barry_S said:
Verdict-- Useable for the low budget filmmaker to do double system sound, record foley, and effects as long as a backup is in place. Unsuitable for professional use--build quality will not hold up under heavy use. For $300, this could be a nice problem solver.
Click to expand...

Or, it could be the backup...
 
Oleg 2 said:
by the way - all companies make their stuff or boards in some place between china and china this days( maybe not sony) ,
Click to expand...

I know, and I hate that. Part of the delay of the new devas when they were supposed to come out was they were having boards made in China, and the quality control was crap. Only 10 out of 100 boards were good, so they switched to a U.S. manufacturer, and those issues went away.
 
Hey Guys,
I went with the Edirol R-09 because it has external level controls, and great line-level recording at 48k/24-bit. ALSO, this post on RAMPS turned me off as well:

HERE'S A POST I FOUND ON RAMPS WHEN I WAS RESEARCHING THE H4----

__________________________________________________ ______
From: Martin Harrington - view profile
Date: Fri, Oct 6 2006 12:15 am
Not yet rated

show options

Forget it..it's a piece of domestic cr*p.
I bought on thinking the same thing, but the firmware has been updated
because punters were complaining that the input was noisy, so what did they
do??, they added a noise gate to the circuitry, so that when it hears a bit
of (what it interprets as silence), it gates down and then clips the
beginning of the next word.
When I complained about this, they couldn't hear what I was talking about
even though I sent them files to listen to.
One more thing...probably even more important, it says that it works with
MP3 players, not so, not with most of them anyhow, and also won't work with
a USB drive, they both need external powering as the bus powering from the
iKey is not enough.
I did eventually get it working with a 1gb USB key drive, but that's all
Stay away...great idea but not for pro use.
--
Martin Harrington
www.lendanear-sound.com
- Show quoted text -


I would hate for my back-up audio to be getting clipped and clamped by some un-defeatbale noise gate. Maybe I'm crazy, but I had to go with the Edirol R-09.

OLEG-- Thanks again for the 416!!!!!!!

-Vic Rattlehead
 
Well I have both the Edirol R09 and Zoom H4. Both have their places.
I like the Edirol for it's ease of use (lots of external control functions, including level adjustment), fairly well built, pretty good pre's, and I also like the fact that it's small enough to place in someones pocket with a lav attached to the 1/8 mic input.

I like the Zooms balanced XLR 1/4 inputs, internal mic (I like the sound and sensativity if the H4 over the R09), built in limiters and compressors, true 48v phantom power, internal mic effects, and external mic gain.
I don't like the fact that's it's primarily menu driven (I am able to adjust the levels while recording, but I have to leave the level adjustment menu up).
I mainly use the H4 for patching into sound board (at receptions) via XLR or 1/4 inputs, as well as I will hookup a matched pair of Rode NT5 hypers in stereo configuration to record recitals for a stealthy rig setup. I can also send a wireless signal to my camera via the 1/8 line output.

However for real recording I where it counts I use my Edirol R4 4 track field recorder, and take a feed from the board, mic drums, guitar, and keyboards and crowd and mix down accordingly. As well as send a mixed down wireless signal to my camera via the analog line out, for camera sync and backup audio.

Different audio equiptment for different tasks.

Michael
 
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