Zoom H2

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

I definitely don’t need another recording device around here, but my Recording Gear Acquisition Syndrome is not blunted by logic. The positive comments on various guitar forums piled up until I couldn’t resist the pressure. I had to have a Zoom H2 recorder.

I bought mine slightly used on Ebay. I saved a few bucks but even at the street price of $199 this is a pretty easy purchase to scrape up. Taking the thing out of the box, it’s pretty unimpressive – light and flimsy rather than solid and sturdy. The membrane switches gave me fits until I figure out that I should use my big fat finger instead of a delicate little touch with my fingernail.

Naturally I have to do a comparison test between this little recorder and the PC rig. Here’s a picture of the setup I used:

The mics are a pair of Schoeps CMC6 bodies with MK41 caps, in a pretty careful 90 degree X/Y. The Zoom is as close to the same location as possible, using the front mics in 90 degree configuration.

I recorded my Martin OM-18GE in drop C, doing a chorus of “Silver Threads Among the Gold.” I’m posting the recordings without trying to encourage a blind test. I posted .wav files instead of mp3s, so the downloads will be a bit long, but you can do a careful comparison.

Schoeps

Zoom H2

I think anyone can hear a difference between these two samples, and I certainly prefer the Schoeps track, but if you add up the cost of duplicating the Schoeps->John Hardy->LynxTwo chain and compare it to the cost of the Zoom, well, that Zoom doesn’t sound too bad after all.

I also tested the H2 as a PC interface. The supplied USB cable and power adapter, along with the silly looking little plastic tripod stand, had me ready for some kitchen table recording in no time. One down side to this use, I have to go into the menu and setup the USB link every time I turn the H2 on. Not a big deal, but I wouldn’t mind if the unit could remember where I left off.

I don’t have any samples of this use of the H2, because I got wrapped up in doing multi-track experiments in Audacity and Reaper, but I haven’t come up with anything I am willing to make public yet. But I can say that the H2 works as a stereo USB mic with no hassle beyond the menu tweaking.

I’ve held on to my old minidisk recorder for a number of years, but it looks like I don’t need it anymore. This new recorder is going to get a lot of use around here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Audio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


3 Responses to ' Zoom H2 '

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  1. George Vassilev said in post # 1,

    on February 28th, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Dear Fran,

    Thank you for your music – I what you are doing !

    Since I am passionate by audio recordings I would love kindly to ask you what kind of microphone holder you use on your Schoeps pair, I am looking for good and easy holder system for X/Y set up.

    Thank you very much for your advise.

    George

  2. Fran Guidry said in post # 2,

    on March 1st, 2009 at 7:56 am

    Thanks for your comment. The Schoeps are mounted using two different Shure components. The vertical bar is a Shure A27M Stereo Microphone Adapter. The shock mounts around the microphone are Shure A53M Shock Stopper Isolation Mount. These fit the Schoeps very nicely.

    Fran

  3. Homebrewed Music − First look at the Zoom H4n said in post # 3,

    on March 7th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    […] posted some comparison tests between the H2 and other recording chains here on Home Brewed Music: a comparison with my best studio recording chain and a shootout with several other field recorders. In both cases the H2 was “amazing for the […]

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About the Blog

    Howdy, my name is Fran Guidry and this is my Homebrewed Music blog.

    I play Hawaiian slack key guitar and recorded my solo acoustic CD at home. Most of the recording information I find on the internet seems focused on bands, drums, multitracking, and so on but my main focus is recording solo acoustic guitar. Lately I’ve been enjoying video recording along with audio, so that shows up in the blog as well.

    I’m also a guitar nut. I love big ones and little ones, handmades and factory guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. So I’ll be sharing the fun of exploring guitars as well, along with the challenges of amplifying acoustic guitars for live performance.

    Welcome!

Philosophy

    My recording philosophy is pragmatic, skeptical, not super critical. After all, the performance is by far the most important component of a track, and every aspect of any recording is a matter of taste.

    But I do like to know “about stuff.” Back in hifi days I learned about double blind testing. I learned that we humans can easily hear differences that don’t really exist. The more I’ve learned about our human auditory system, the more I’m skeptical of what people say they hear, especially if they claim that a particular microphone or preamp or cable has some magical property.

    I’ve only been recording since 2001, and when I started I found the usual places on the internet. I sought advice and accepted it, thought I would improve my recordings by using more expensive equipment. It didn’t work.

    Two things that did seem to lead to better recordings were experience and room treatment. Getting an appealing sound is the combination of many small details, and learning those details only comes from experience. Amd the sound of the recording space is obviously a big factor.

    I’ve only recorded seriously using digital technology, but I remember trying to record rehearsals and gigs back in analog days. I don’t have any nostalgia for analog recording and playback systems at all. I think even low end digital systems can capture marvelous recordings. So when I look at gear, I look for good specs: low noise, broad flat frequency response, wide dynamic range, low distortion. I’m not interested in colorful components, mics and preamps with a sound, I want the sound to be the sound of my guitar.

    But the last word is that I’m just learning and I hope you find something useful in my posts.