Acquired a Zoom H4n because I got too excited reading about sonic explorers like Richard Devine taking their mobile recorders into the wild and coming back with plenty of raw treasure to refine into sound design badassery. However, while Devine uses an M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96, I decided to go with the H4n for several reasons:
- The H4n uses SDHC cards which I've sort of standardized on with other devices like my digital camera.
- I prefer standard AA batteries instead of a proprietary one. (Although the MicroTrack does recharge its when plugged in. This could bite me in the long run, we'll see.)
- H4n doubles as a USB audio interface, which is advertised as being unique to this line.
- Support was really nice for the one question I asked them; that counts for a lot.
- H4n seems easier to use. (And improves on the earlier H4's design.)
More may emerge in time. #3 is already fulfilling itself, since the H4n has built-in effects, including a limiter. You know how fond I am of making those convenient! So, I can limit my voice and run it through to my Mac Pro, where a screencast app like Screenflow lacks a limiter but it now doesn't matter as much due to this outboard processing. Here's a raw recording I just made, and disregard me saying "Z4n", it's "H4n": (I have no idea where that came from and it's utterly confusing.)
I was speaking a little close to the mics (yes, two, stereo) and was moving it slightly, so there are rumbles and pops which I didn't intend. But that's OK, because the live, spontaneous feel hopefully gives you a good idea of what to expect.
Also important to distinguish the H4n from smaller recorders which are fine for recording your voice for dictation purposes, but are not meant to be high-fidelity.
I'll report more as my experiences continue.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
As an interface with the Mac, are you just using the Core Audio driver?
Hi Torley,
I have recently decided to buy one H4N, and I must confess that this decision was somewhat driven by some of your reviews here.
The thing is AMAZING, I liked it very much to capture live acoustic stuff.
However, I ran into an issue that made me very unhappy. The USB audio interface ended up as being useless to me, because when I use it to capture audio directly into my DAW for example (I use sonar 8 on a PC laptop), the amount of background (digital) noise is just too much.
If I plug a guitar to it, and run it thru amplitube, for example, on a preset with high gain and distortion, the thing gets totally messed up. Even if I don't plug any instrument to it, just plug it to the USB, which should not generate any noise, the background digital hiss is there, very loud and audible (when running thru guitar effects).
In fact, this is not a privilege only of the H4N. I've had the background digital hiss with everything USB I've tried, and I've tried lots of stuff, some things with better result than others.
Have you had any experience with this ever? have you suffered this kind of interference on the USB ports?
I have tried it on different computer and the result is the same.
I really don't know what to do anymore, I'm kinda lost, as I thought that the fact that the audio would be converted to digital on the H4N, and sent digitally to the computer, would make it perfectly clean.
I've have tried powering it from the USB, from the AC adapter and from batteries, no audible difference.
I've tried different USB cables, no cake for me.
Any thoughts you could share would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
The Borg.
A comment for The Borg – I use the H4N for voice over, and guitar recording, as a sound card and as an audio interface, into Logic Studio 9, on an iMac with 4 GB RAM. I can tell you that I have never had any background hiss from the H4N. Perhaps your particular unit is flawed. Another point that may make a difference to your recording is this: According to the manual, when used an an A/I the H4N converts the signal automatically to 16 bit. I found that tidbit buried far in the info online. If your software settings are set to 24 bit, it may be causing you problems. I will also be purchasing an Apogee Duet or Ensemble to use for 24 bit, direct-in recording. Hope this helps.
La Reina-
Can you provide a little more information? I am also having problems getting my H4n to work as a USB audio interface with my Mac.
When I plug headphones into the H4n and listen, it sounds perfectly clear. But when I plug it into the USB port of my computer it always adds a lot of static to the sound. Whether I use the internal mics or external ones, whether I turn the recording levels up or down, it always has a lot of static.
I am trying to use it as basically a high-quality microphone for my computer, for online conferencing and music audio.
Hi Doug, well there is a lot to consider. This must be very frustrating for you. You could start by making sure that your AC is clean to your computer and to your H4N if you are plugging it in for power. I use a Monster power strip with stage 2 filtering. A $20 high end power cord from an AV store might help. If it is not that, or your USB cable, the only other thing I can think of, as I mentioned before is that your settings are not compatible — Recording settings H4N>software settings>Audio settings on your MAC should all be set to the same sample and bit rates. Remember the H4N can only handle 16 bit when used as an AI. I also remember vaguely being told at some point that you should monitor through your A/I when recording, so that's what I always do. I was doing that when I used mine directly, with no problems. Is there any reason you need to monitor through your computer? If I get time, I'll have to try using mine as an AI and monitoring through my onboard headphones. I don't think I've ever bothered to try it. I hope some of these ideas help. LR Oh, one other thing for the post before you — you should not be recording with your gain set any higher than about -12db. Of course you'll get hiss!
Thanks for your response. I switched from USB interface to just running a 1/8" cable from the line out to the MacBook's line in. This allowed me to control the output volume, whereas I think the USB interface has no volume control.
Hi, I'm considering an H4n for voice overs for online training. When used as a USB interface can you also record on the H4n at the same time? I'm going to record presentations in small rooms, so need to get the presenter and questions. The presenters will be using laptops, which will probably introduce noise. I want them to record the audio with the presentation on their computer, then go back replace it with the recording from the H4n. Thanks.