What setting do you use on the H4N?

P

Polarjee

Active member
I'm borrowing a H4N to capture sound for my GH1 and I got to test it out for a few minutes today but I didn't really get to become familiar with it. I won't really havnt another chance to play with it until right before a shoot so I want to learn as much as I can about it.
I usually will only be using one boom microphone but occasionally I would like to use two mics (both with XLR inputs)

So my questions are

-When recording one microphone, do you use stereo, 4ch, mtr?
-When using both XLR inputs, do you use 4ch, mtr?
-Is there any possible way to put just one of the tracks on auto gain?
-How do you adjust the gain on the two XLR inputs seperately?

Thanks in advance!!
 
-when recording with one mic I would still use 4ch as you then get the internal mics of the h4n as backup or atmo...
-The problem with 4ch is that you cannot adjust the gain of the xlr inputs seperately. This may work with mtr, I don´t know. I ended up sometimes using the 3.5 audio input underneath the h4n for one mic (which mutes the internal mics) in order to balance seperately.
 
Polarjee said:
I usually will only be using one boom microphone but occasionally I would like to use two mics (both with XLR inputs)

So my questions are

-When recording one microphone, do you use stereo, 4ch, mtr?
-When using both XLR inputs, do you use 4ch, mtr?
-Is there any possible way to put just one of the tracks on auto gain?
-How do you adjust the gain on the two XLR inputs seperately?

Thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...

- when recording with one mic, I use stereo. Simple enough to balance out when you do your audio editing later on.
- when using both XLR inputs, (but not the built in mics) stereo again
- last 2 questions: I think the manual says you can adjust each input separately if you're in mtr mode... but I've not tried it yet as I've only ever used XLR mics with the Zoom.
 
-I believe you can only record up to 2 channels when in MTR mode.
-if you want to record 2 external mics + ambient sound. use 4 channel mode, but both external mics will be adjusted to a single level (set for the loudest and then push the other up in post, not optimal but ok).
-if you want to record 2 external mics and set different levels. Use the 3.5 input and one of the xlr-plug ones. Use 4 channel mode and then you can balance each mic separately, but you lose the built in mics.
-if you use two similar mics (in terms of position/output level, say 2 identical wireless lavs) you can use both on the xlr inputs, balance both of them together (should work good enough being identical) and use another mic (say a boom mic or similar) on the 3.5 mm input (you then can balance this individually)
 
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