Re: [Harp-L] Zoom H4

[Rick In Davis <rickindavis@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just bought one.  So far, it is very impressive.

I will be using it to record my son's gig in Denver this weekend:  A 17-piece jazz band in a night club.  I will post clips when I get back to California.

-Rick  


----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 7:49:26 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Zoom H4


I've been working with my Zoom H4, and have a few more impressions.

First, it's very nice to have a device that records pretty much instantly on demand.  With my computer based recording rig, it takes at least 5-10 minutes to get the computer started, turn on the preamp, monitors, etc., set up a mic, get a level, and record.  With the Zoom, I turn it on, I hit the record button twice, and I'm in record.  If I stop and hit record again, it starts a new piece, so I don't overwrite anything.  It's very easy and quick, and the device is small and light enough to carry around just in case you need a decent recorder wherever you are.  

I've recorded several harmonica solos with the built-in mics.  The preamp for the built-in mics has three settings (low, medium, and high sensitivity).  I've tried low and medium.  The low setting produces fairly clean recordings, but the recorded level  with the harp about a foot from the device is around -12 dB.  The medium setting makes the built-in limiter necessary, because the harp easily exceeds digital zero on loud passages played from a foot away.  The noise floor is considerably higher at this setting, but other than that the recorded sound is very good.  The link below is to a short passage I recorded on a Low F Lee Oskar harp from about a foot away with the Zoom mic preamp set to medium; I ran CoolEdit 2000's noise reduction utility against this to remove the noise, but it's otherwise untouched.   It's not a bad sound, especially for a piece recorded with built-in mics at the kitchen table.  With a little compression, EQ, and reverb, it would fit very well in a
 l!
ot of tracks.  

http://hunterharp.com/Zoom_H4_snippet_low_F_harp_noise_reduced.mp3

Here's 20 seconds from the same recording, with no noise reduction, so you can hear what it sounded like before it got cleaned up:

http://hunterharp.com/Low_F_no_noise_red.mp3

Anyway, for critical recordings, I'd probably plug an external mic or two into the Zoom (and I probably wouldn't record in my kitchen, either)--but like I said, it doesn't sound bad at all, and it's very nice to have something that doesn't take more than 5 seconds to start up and put in record mode.  There are other devices that do the same thing, of course, but the Zoom is probably the least expensive one around right now.    

Thanks, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com
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