New Zoom H4n Pro

No doubt this new Zoom will spawn a score of new threads on the minutia of which cheap recorder is best.

Regards,
Grant
 
Take a line-level* stereo feed from your mixing console and capture room ambience with the X/Y microphones to put your listeners front row center.
* +4dBu line-level is not supported.
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Fail. This has been a weakness with Zoom's handheld recorders since the beginning, and hardly qualifies their claim of "superior in every way."
 
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To be fair, if this thing is roughly competitive feature and quality-wise with something like a DR-60D, then the small size form factor is a massive win. That, and the $200 or so price tag would be an instant "buy" for me, honestly. I await user reports :)
 
It appears to be more of a competitor for the DR-40, w/ two internal mics and two mic/line* inputs.
* yes.. +4dBu line-level is NOT supported.

The 20 mW HP amp is anemic as well, same with the DR40.
 
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Rick R said:
It appears to be more of a competitor for the DR-40, w/ two internal mics and two mic/line* inputs.
* yes.. +4dBu line-level is NOT supported.
The 20 mW HP amp is anemic as well, same with the DR40.
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Is it that worst?
I just picked a DR-40 for like 99$ (140$CND) shipped, which I think was a decent deal, considering it sells for like 250$CND + tx here.
 
The DR-40 is nice for a lot of things. Handy, very durable and sounds decent. Tascam for some reason seems to under power headhone jacks more often than not.
It's also handheld so it's a lousy form factor for production or over the shoulder work. It works great as an SFX picker upper especially because it can be brought along when you probably wouldn't pack a full rig and as a backup.
 
Noiz2 said:
Handy, very durable and sounds decent. [..] It works great as an SFX picker upper especially because it can be brought along when you probably wouldn't pack a full rig and as a backup.
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Yes, I recorded (as a test) a dance show. The client wanted "LIVE" sound from the auditorium, not "mixed" with the feed from the console. Kind of weird, but when you don't know nothing about it.
All in all, I decided to use a wired mic in center stage in one channel (into my XF100) and the other from the console. Then, I started two Tascam DR-05 clamped on the stage directly with a magic arm, Left and Right.
Once every channel is mixed, it sounds quite well. The Tascam captured the whispering and crowd applause marvelously well. The built-in mics are really good!

So, I picked up the DR-40 (been lurking it for a while) and I thought it would be good to use with my shotgun mic (NTG2) for booming when recording dialog sound on short films. Good move or not?
 
Noiz2 said:
The DR-40 is nice for a lot of things...

It works great as an SFX picker upper especially because it can be brought along when you probably wouldn't pack a full rig and as a backup.
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Absolutely. Also great as a plant/stunt recorder for situations where one would not risk the safety of more expensive gear. For example: SFX recording on a roller coaster:

coaster_recording.jpg
 
Noiz2 said:
I did a day in Santa Cruse, CA recording the Giant Dipper a real old school wood frame roller coaster. That was fun. I couldn't mount anything because they were open to the public. It's interesting trying to record while riding...
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This is "Lightning Rod", the new one at Dollywood. It's the first launched wooden coaster, and the fastest with a top speed of 73mph. It's in technical rehearsal now, so allowing limited numbers of guests but still not officially open. When we were there a couple of weeks ago it was still completely closed to the public.

We shot at another coaster a few days earlier, and came in that morning before the park opened. They kept the ride roped off to the public until we were done.

David W. Jones said:
I saw it in a vision... The audio guy's gear comes loose and the ride kills us all.

Get the nut case out of here!
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Notice the zip ties around everything. The park had safety managers on site overseeing our work. Nothing went on the coaster that wasn't inspected first. They were incredibly helpful, too, in facilitating what we were doing.

We had cameras mounted as well, and ran the train twice without people to make sure all the gear stayed put (which also gave us time to tweak camera angles and record levels). Then we ran a third test with any crew who wanted to ride. After that, we brought in the talent.

Side note: this is one of the absolute best coasters I've ever ridden.
 
Why will someone buy this over the Zoom H5? on paper looks like the F5 is better on every way FOR $ 50 MORE
 
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Recently got rid of my h4n as it was pretty beat up and wouldn't power off batteries for more than 30 minutes. I figured I'd give this new one a shot as I love the form factor. I'll let you guys know how I like it.
 
I didn't get why they bothered, as they have their other recorders, which I assumed would replace the H4n.
But then again, You can still buy the original H4n alongside the others, so I guess its still selling well enough for them to make a newer one with updated internals.
 
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