zoom h2 review

[whomper]

zoom h2 is a great little toy

neat gadget
easy to use
but
oddball mike set up - has 4 mikes
euro version seems to have mid-side which would be better
the usa version is 90 front angle and 120 back angle
pick either pair or all 4 for an odd quad sound

gain is way too low to be useful except up close to a loud source
you should be roughly 6" to 3 feet from a normal source
could back off from an extra loud band
but need to be close for voices

field recording - birds? - anything - forget it
in a building up close yes, in the back of the room no, not even going to do a great job of a big conference table group.
useful for a voice record yes, but not music unless you can get in close.


lots of features - but they dont tell you any details
whole bunch of limiters agc compressors etc to pick from
but only vague descriptions and no parameters to adjust.

has a low cut but they dont tell you where or how much

has a bunch of gimmicky features - tuner, metronome, etc.
maybe useful to somebody but not to most of us. easier to use our stand alone tuner, metronome, etc.
can use as a usb mike - but why would you want to ?
that limits the bit depth and sampling rate
better to drag and drop the file from the sd card with higher quality

lots of wav and mp3 options - 192/24 for stereo
half for their fakey quad , and with smaller options down to compressed low res mp3.

can convert wav to mp3
can expand levels (not reversible) if too low

comes with a bunch of accessories
1G sd card standard
wind screen
hand holder / stand adapter
mini tripod desk stand
carry bag
earbud for playback
some cables including usb to pc

i needed a few more adapters to be fully capable for any situation (eg y splitters, mini to TRS , balun , etc)
a/c power is standard and comes with it - and is recommended
can run on AA cells for field use
up to 4 hours record/pb total on new batteries

good for capturing jam sessions to play back
not going to use this to produce anything serious

manual has some mistakes that seem insignificant
eg says mike gain goes to 127 but it stops at 100

noise spec nothing to write home about
so be sure to get in close to the source keep the s/n decent

menu system is not too bad to use
but reformatting a card undoes all the settings
else it is a pain to go through and erase old files scattered in 10 folders that are available

cant continue recording (add on) with a file that you stopped
can pause and continue before stopping a given file though

dont even think about changing file names - too big a pain
just write down the file info with the code number the h2 uses

manual is big and good on telling how to do things
but lacks detail wrt the factoids of what is done with the various optiosn

can connect to a pc as a card reader
easier to jsut remove the card and drag/drop files

max file size 2G
4G cards usable (two or more files)

display is easy to read

has line in , line out, ext mike in, usb,

overall worth the $160 street price for convenience when on location, but if you need a serious recorder/interface this probably isnt it. the thing is light small and easy to take for remote use.

[Tango]

Exellent post, thanx whomper

im new here and know less than nothing about home recording. best i do alota lurking.

great site. thanx to everyone in advance.

[whomper]

Originally Posted by Tango

Exellent post, thanx whomper

im new here and know less than nothing about home recording. best i do alota lurking.

great site. thanx to everyone in advance.

slightly enhanced version now on B&H
everything works great except for what this thing should do
eg field recording, meetings, back of room capture
if you want good results you need to be up front with a loud source. if i could do that i would use a real mike and a real recorder.

mike pattern nfg for birding. not that great for anything.
should have used the midside like in europe for indoor use.
and provided a shotgun for outside.

still for the price, a neat toy.

and if you want to record yourself and then upload that can be easier than going directly into the pc.

[Tango]

Here is a cheap alternative I just found for a microphone.

Low Cost Microphone

The H2 definitely offers value for money for those who can make the most of it's features.