Zoom H4n advice sought....

J

johnnyspack

Active member
Hiya Peeps,

Am on the road and have been lucky enough to score a gig filming an intimate blues concert. Am travelling with my 550d and Sennhiesser Mke 300 mic, but figured that won't be enough to do the job right (especially with agc) so have also picked up a zoom h4n.

Having never used one and am shooting tomorrow was hoping to get some heads up on a couple of things....

1) I was thinking of putting it on a tripod, plugging in a 416 (or similar), setting it to 4 track and then placing it close to the action running both the 416 and inboard stereo mics. For synch I'd match it up to the guide track the 550d records. Does that sound reasonable?

2) are there any auto level style controls that can be trusted so I don't have to check on it constantly, or will that essentially put me back in canon AGC country again!

3) if I'm recording WAV at 16/48 how long will I get out of a 4g card?

Any other tips or pitfalls to avoid would be greatly appreciated!

Thx

J.Spack
 
1) A shotgun indoors is generally not going to give a great result. If you can do a pair of cardioids somewhere to give you an audience perspective, that would be much better.

2) No. For the best results, someone needs to be actively monitoring the sound. Any sort of AGC is virtually guaranteed to give you poor to unusable results. A good field mixer will have limiters that can be used to avoid unexpected clipping. Inexpensive mixers and recorders will have limiters too, but they generally sound awful.

3) almost 7 hours. ( handy calculator )
 
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FYI

I use the Zoom H4n all the time for my video work. A 4GB SD card in 4 track mode only gives 2 hours of audio on WAV and 24bit 48kHz. 4 track mode actually makes two stereo files each time, labeled I (xlr side) and M (internal mics or mic via mini plug on back). Also realize that using any phantom power (if needed) will reduce battery life to about 1 hour on average. I use Eneloop AA's and get about 1.5 hrs with phantom power per battery set.
 
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