Zoom H6 lacks input-side limiter (!?)

T

TheaterDad

Member
I've used the Zoom H2 for years and just got the H6. H6 appears to have the same limiters and compressors but what a surprise I got when I recorded a black box stage event the other day. The H6 limiter is now post-A/D. If you enable the limiter you can easily overload the input and get distorted results that are volume limited. What possible good is that? The H2 has the limiter on the front end and I've depended on that for shooting theater events. Crank up the gain on the recorder (to pick up weak voices far from the mic), enable the limiter and then record. This has worked very, very well. For the H6 in a similar situation, turn the channel gain down to 6, record, then in post add back 25dB or more before compressing. This is not what I wanted to do and I'm nervous there's nothing protecting the recording.

Does anyone make a recorder like the H6 but with a front-end limiter?
 
Most all budget recorder's limiters are digital.. after the analog input stage.. H2 included. Some inherently just have more analog headroom. Even in line level, it goes through the mic preamp as well, via internal attenuation. No way to escape it w/o spending more $ for pro gear.
 
Thanks. I haven't given headroom a moment's thought-- the H2 has simply worked for my purposes. H2's headroom using the Limiter1 setting is at least 12dB and might be 14dB. The H6 Limter1, based on some tests with a signal generator, seems to be about 8dB.
 
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