Zoom H4n 8-Piece Recorder with Edirol Lightweight Soft-shell Carrying Case Bundle

Review by DigitalSorceress for Zoom H4n 8-Piece Recorder with Edirol Lightweight Soft-shell Carrying Case Bundle
Rating:
I just picked this unit up yesterday, so my review is based on my initial findings just playing around. Please note that this review is only of the H4n ext, and not for/of the seller.

The product itself is very well designed. It’s got a little weight to it (feels solid to me), and I could see it getting a bit tiring holding this out at arms length for extended periods. luckily it’s got a standard tripod screw mount (like you’d find on the bottom of a camera/video camera). The unit I bought also contained a small mic stand adapter… a plastic dowel with a tripod screw on the bottom.

The surprising thing was that this unit runs on two standard Double-A batteries. At first, I was expecting some kind of rechargable ni-cad pack. Honestly, I like this better anyway. In the end, I’d ALWAYS prefer to have a power source that I can pick up in any convenience store just about anywhere, as opposed to having to rely on finding somewhere to recharge.

I only did a little bit of test recording using the built-in mics. I must say though that I felt the mics performed very well. The included wind-screen was most helpful in keeping the sound clear despite a bit of a breeze.

I did quite a bit more recording using the mic/line inputs. Using two standard mono RCA to 1/4″ phono cables, I was able to hook the line level out of several different standard home audio sources (CD Player, DVD player, Cassette player, VCR, DVR) and with the tiniest bit of tweeking of the recording level, I got very good results from all of them.

NOTE: This unit records directly to WAV (or Mp3 I believe, but did not play with that) with VERY good quality, but there are NO DIGITAL INPUTS. If you’re looking to record SPDIF or other digital formats, this is not the unit for you. If you’re looking for very good analog-to-digital recording (very decent ADACs) either with built in stereo mics or using external (1/4″ phono, XLR, and stereo mini jacks available) on up to 4 channels at once, you could do a lot worse than this product.

I really loved that the unit records direct to SD card. It was VERY easy to record, dump the contents of the card to a PC, and be back up and recording again within a couple minutes.

I also liked how easy it was to insert MARKs while recording. In one test, I was recording a rather long segment that I knew I’d need to be breaking up into many separate files. I was able to put (Sound Forge compatible) marks at various key points during the recording just by tapping the (rec) button whenever I wanted to lay down a mark.

I DID notice that when I formatted the SD card, the sequential naming of files reset itself. This could be bad if you record a bunch and do the record, transfer, format thing. I quickly found the option to save file names with date-time stamps for names instead, and I think this will work out quite nicely.

The unit has the ability to do some multi-track type recording, punch in/out, and even apply a few effects (compression, etc…) I haven’t really played with these, and honestly, I probably won’t… I just plan on using mine to record either via the mics or over the inputs, then transfer the files to PC where I do most of my editing/mixing.

The owner’s manual is obviously a fairly direct Japanese to English translation, but at least it (mostly) makes sense. There are a few odd phrases here and there, but nothing you can’t work out.

All-in-all, I’ve had my H4n ext for too short a time to give a comprehensive evaluation, but for first impressions, I’d say this is a real winner, and certainly worth the money.

Review by K. williams for Zoom H4n 8-Piece Recorder with Edirol Lightweight Soft-shell Carrying Case Bundle
Rating:
This unit sounds amazing,and it does everything; Great stereo recordings, use the built-in mics and/or your own and/or plug in a combination of mics. You can even run mics and two line inputs from the board or straight from instruments.It’s a multi-track recorder with digital effects and dynamics proccessing. Use it as a card reader.

The big thing is; REALLY EA

SY TO USE. VERY INTUITIVE.

Buy the remote too, it’s well worth it. The remote even has a green l.e.d. that flashes yellow and then red as you approach clipping levels. That’s incredibly handy when you’re trying to play an instrument and run the recorder too. You can also change recording levels from the remote along with transport controls etc.. etc…

Last but not least it was a killer package deal from Amazon and Unique Squared. The headphones even sound great!

Review by F. Rush for Zoom H4n 8-Piece Recorder with Edirol Lightweight Soft-shell Carrying Case Bundle
Rating:
this is a great buy, especially since the H4n originally had a retail price of $600. The stand, and memory card are rediculously nice bonuses.