Zoom H2

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 31 Jul 2007 9:45 am

So did anybody get one of these yet? How's it working out?

Here's the original thread:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=109025

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 31 Jul 2007 11:52 am

I have a Zoom H4 and love it. I've just used it to record rehearsals and gigs. The two onboard condenser mics are very good. Like all these small units the small screen is hard to read, and some of the small switches and labels are hard for old eyes to see. But the basic record and playback operations are easy. And downloading to my computer and makeing CDs is a breeze. I haven't used it or the Cubebase software for any mixing yet. One of the unforeseen advantages of these small digital units is that the batteries last a very long time, because there is no motor or moving parts, it's all electronic.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 31 Jul 2007 2:23 pm

Bill,I'm on the list from Sweetwater Music and they said that they would be available in August,they had to redesign the mics? whatever that means.I'm looking forward to getting it.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 1 Aug 2007 3:33 am

Stu Schulman wrote:Bill,I'm on the list from Sweetwater Music and they said that they would be available in August,they had to redesign the mics? whatever that means.I'm looking forward to getting it.

That probably means....

Fix the unit so the mics work

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 1 Aug 2007 5:25 pm

Thanks for the feedback, apparently nobody has one yet...

I'm sorta on the fence between the H2 and H4, I like some of the features of the H4, but the four mic thing on the H2 intrigues me. Looks like you can buy an H4 for just a few bucks more than an H2 off ebay. I saw a bunch in the 250-275 BIN range that included tri-pods, etc. New in box... hard to go wrong at that price.

I also read a pretty good review on that little M-Audio recorder, but I don't like those detachable mics.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 2 Aug 2007 5:06 am

4 mics for the H2 ?
really ?

I was under the impression this was two on board mics OR an external stereo pair...

The M-Audio unit uses a proprietary battery, if it dies you have to send it back.

The Zoom units , the Edirol units and such use everyday get em' at the Gas Station batteries. I have an Edirol R-1 and it can easily run 5 to 6 hours on a pair of AA's.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 2 Aug 2007 6:26 am

Tony, Maybe I misread, but I thought it had 4 on-board mics.. if not, I'm not near as interested. I'm going to look again.

Yeah, the M-Audio proprietary battery was mentioned in the review I read. That's pretty 'user hostile' if you know what I mean...

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 2 Aug 2007 6:48 am

Bill, I stand corrected,as usual

http://www.samsontech.com/products/prod ... rodID=1916

Yes indeed 4 mic capsules for 360 Degree recording..
very cool!

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 15 Aug 2007 8:24 pm

I just ordered one from www.americanmusical.com. They say it will ship on August 24.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 16 Aug 2007 7:54 pm

Wooo! I've been waiting so long I almost forgot that I ordered it.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 20 Aug 2007 5:58 am

I ended up with the H4 because it had a couple of features that I really liked, cheap analog to USB IF for one.. Very pleased with it so far.

I still like the idea of the H2 with 4 mics. I'm curious to see how they work out for you guys with one on order..

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 21 Aug 2007 7:07 am

I duplicate what D.Dog said about the H4.
Great unit, it got me several gigs right
after I started using it.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 21 Aug 2007 7:18 am

DD and DD (DD^2?),
Yep I agree, took it out to a gig the other night and just laid it on a case and turned it on. Worked great.... and the PC interface is painless. VERY useful tool.

So far, I haven't tried it with Cubase. I'm not ready for yet another DAW learning curve at this point in time.. maybe later

Jim Eller · Post by **Jim Eller** » 27 Aug 2007 1:01 pm

American Musical Supply says they shipped my H2 today. There must be a lot of them in the mail.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 27 Aug 2007 1:50 pm

My AMS account says it shipped today too, but I can't get tracking info on it yet. Where do they ship from?

Jim Eller · Post by **Jim Eller** » 27 Aug 2007 4:22 pm

bOb,

When I ordered, they told me they had two warehouses, one in New Jersey and one in the west somewhere.

Jim

Donny Dennis · Post by **Donny Dennis** » 27 Aug 2007 5:14 pm

I ordered a Zoom H2 from Sweetwater, and received it today -- a day earlier than expected. I am still trying to get familiar with it but so far I am well pleased except for the ear phones that came with it. The ear phones have a small piece of cloth that is supposed to fit over each ear phone but I had a little trouble getting it on, and I don't really care for the way they are made so I had another set of head phones that I used to listen to the playback, and that worked just fine.

Donny

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 27 Aug 2007 9:45 pm

Finally got the tracking info. It's coming from New Jersey. $:\$

Gary Anwyl · Post by **Gary Anwyl** » 28 Aug 2007 10:50 am

FYI, here are two early reviews of the H2. They are pretty favorable.

NatureRecordist group review

O'Reilly Digital Media review

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 28 Aug 2007 4:35 pm

I went to FedEx and picked mine up today,On the way to a rehearsal I stopped by Office Depot and bought a 4 gig SD chip on sale with reader $49.99,Installed the chip while still in the parking lot....Got to rehearsal put the H2 on the little tri-pod stand hooked up the AC adapter checked the quick recording page and hit record and that was it works great,I'm going to get a cooler case tonight.The hardest thing was getting around on the menu ,no tougher than a digital camera,Great unit.I'll dump files thru USB tomorrow.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 28 Aug 2007 8:24 pm

Does it come with any memory chip at all?

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 28 Aug 2007 10:57 pm

b0b,it comes with a 512 chip,I figured that I would get the most amount of memory.It doesn't come with batteries.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 29 Aug 2007 2:38 am

Just a heads up on memory card sizes.

All MP3 and Wave files are the same size per minute regardless of recorder.

A 512 card in the low MP3 mode ( 64 ) can give you approx 10 hours and a 500 MB file size.

a 1 gig card ..well..do the math...

5 hours is an approx 250 meg file.

If you plan on recording in 16 bit or 24 bit wave for LIVE shows just be aware that the file size will be HUGE and you may have trouble opening it and editing on your PC.

Also just a heads up, many stores like Wallmart and such blow out these SD cards all the time. A week or so back I picked up a 2 GIG card for $14.

Recording shows such as St Louis, and live Band gigs, my experince has been to record in the 128 MP3 mode or maybe 1 step higher or even 1 lower, on a 1 gig card. 30 minute sets can create a pretty big file and 1 hour gig sets even larger. Sound quality has never been an issue.

Battery life is approx 5 hours with two AA's for both of the recorders I have.

All of the these little recorders are great units,the H2 appears to be really quite the deal.

Also keep in mind there are some little MP3 players that have restricted MP3 formats. The little $40 unit I have only plays 3 different MP3 file formats.
128 is one of them so I basically record everything in 128 and do a direct transfer from the MP3 recorder to the little $40 player.

tp

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 29 Aug 2007 6:52 am

Okay, here's another question. If you're recording on stage, you probably don't want a 45-minute track. How easy is it to start a new track between songs? With fingerpicks on?

UPS says mine will be delivered next Tuesday. Ground shipping from the east coast is pretty slow...

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 29 Aug 2007 9:34 am

b0b, I don't know about the H2, but the H4 has a single button on top to engage/disengage the record feature. This is after you've already set up the file type, input level etc.

But.... On the H4, the 'record' button has an odd feel, not a discernible click when pressed, and there is a bit of a lag before the record mode actually engages or disengages, I assume a software lag.

So I continually kept 'overshooting' the intended mode. Not being sure if I pressed the key hard enough, I would hit it again, and software saw 2 key events, not one, so I end up back in whatever mode I started in. And in the process you get a tiny little audio file.

I eventually got used to it but I decided to just let it go the entire set, and stop between sets. This ended up being roughly 60MB files I think, at 128kbps MP3. I had no problem pulling those big files into Audacity and chopping them up, takes about 15 or 20 minutess to rough cut the entire 60MB. You just select an entire song with the cursor, and then export the selection to a new file. The 'down time' between songs is obvious in the wav view on Audacity, so it's a piece of cake to find song start/endings.

The H2 may be totally different regarding the key feel/function, but I'd suggest just letting it run and then post-processing, unless your front guy also thinks he's a comedian and does stand up between songs..

Sidebar: One of the weird things about recording an entire night of music on stage is some of the stuff you never notice at the time... like the lead singer saying "Well allllright!" at the end of EVERY song..