Zoom H4n Handy Portable Digital Recorder

Product Details

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - An excellent recorder for field use
I have had this recorder for about six months and have used it in a number of environments -- recording crowd noises on Washington DC streets, recording background noise in a number of live situations, and as a primary, 4 track recorder to record live stage presentations. It is well built, nicely compact, and has a wealth of feature to make it a real professional tool, including built-in limiting and phantom power for external mikes. A real bargain for the price! Since I don't deal in MP3's I haven't used this feature, but it's ability to capture 48K wav files makes it a perfect match for my Video work.

(5 stars) - Amazing Value
There are three types of users that absolutely need to consider the Zoom H4n:

1) The guitar or bass player who wants to capture an idea for a song, along with a vocal track - For this user, the H4n provides a built-in tuner, a built-in metronome, and a simple recording interface that can have you up and running in no time. I'm not this user, but several of my friends are, and when they sat down and looked at it, they wanted to buy mine from me.

2) The person people go to for "Can you record my band at ______ on Tuesday night?" - For someone who wants to capture location audio, especially a mix of ambient sound and a feed from a system, the H4n is very close to ideal. As an example, here's a link to a recent worship service that I recorded: [...]

For this session, I used the built-in stereo mics to capture un-mic'd sounds from the stage (drums, tambourine, misc noises from the props that the preacher was handling on stage) as well as the sound of the auditorium. I placed the H4n on a tripod at the foot of the stage, aimed roughly at stage center. If you listen closely, you can definitely get a feel for them playing in a "space."

For sound that was coming through the house system, I brought in a pre-mixed feed from the sound board, and fed it into Input #1 at the base of the H4n, and recorded everything as 4-channel audio. Afterward, I just mixed Input #1 into both channels, brought the level of the stereo built-in mics down just a tad, exported an MP3, and had a perfectly listenable mix that required almost no setup time on my part, and was mixed and exported in less than 10 minutes. Can it get any easier?

3) Someone recording audio for video/film - The new crop of video-recording DSLRs (the Nikon D90, the Canon 5D MkII and 7D, and the Panasonic GH1) all record audio, but you'll be better off recording audio separately, for a variety of reasons. (The fact of the matter is that most indie video should go this route, regardless of the camera being used, but that's a whole 'nother issue.) The H4n provides phantom power, has combo inputs (1/4" or XLR), and can even do some rudimentary signal processing, if you're so inclined. (I don't do this, and defer such things to post, but I can understand why some might work differently.) The H4n can record in BWF WAV format, which means if you carefully sync up the clock in the camera with the H4n, and then drop the resulting audio & video into your editor and have them properly sync'd.

There are several DSLR configurations that work well with the H4n, but a great setup is mounting the H4n to the camera's hot shoe (get one of the many shock mounts that will handle the H4n), using the built-in mics to get ambient sound (which will be in stereo, if you want it, and will always have the correct left/right perspective to the camera) and then feed audio from a boom mic or a lav (or both) into Inputs #1/2. You have an 1/8" stereo output that you can then feed into the mic input on these cameras (usually a mono input, so get a stereo/mono adapter), and then your camera audio, while not great, will be something you can use to sync against (Pluraleyes is a great option there).

Another setup for video is to put the H4n on a tripod that is roughly in the center of the "180 degree rule" space, capturing ambient sound that way, and again feeding Input #1/2 from a boom mic and maybe a lav. You'll probably not want to use the ambient sound, or may not want to use much of it, but it will give your editor a feel for how he/she may want to pan dialog if it's a stereo recording. (Knowing how far left or right someone's voice naturally sounded in the room, relative to a given point, can help you mix things in a way that will sound more natural. Technically, phase issues come into play as well, but you can fake things pretty effectively this way.)

*****

I currently have a 16GB SD card in the H4n, which gives me about 6 hours of 4-channel recording at 44.1Khz/16-bit. For video, you'll want to go to 48Khz, and you can go to 24-bit for a bit more dynamic range, but I'm skeptical about the ability of this unit to really give you more than 16-bits worth of range from the built-in mics. (You *might* be able to get that from some external mics with really low self-noise, but I haven't seen any test data to support such a configuration.) Because of the ridiculous amount of recording you can do, I generally start the H4n at the first take of a scene, and then capture all the takes in one clip. When we're done with all the takes for that scene, I stop the H4n, set up for the next scene, and then roll it as we begin the first take there.

I suppose I could find some things to complain about, but at this price, it seems kind of silly. The remote control is a probably good idea if you plan on mounting the H4n on a camera or on an elevated boom, but I've not missed it.

(5 stars) - Family Audio Snapshots - Easy Quality Audio Documentation of Your Everyday Life
If you have a digital camera for family pix, try this too - family sound snapshots. This device is not just for professional sound people.

I came home from a distant company work/video project and found the Amazon.com package of the Zoom H4n I ordered while I was away. I ignored the manual as I found the recorder's controls immediately very intuitive (and I am really an audio/video amateur). I bought it as a pocket device to shove into conversations I wanted to easily capture for addition to associated video clips.

I took it home and played with it at dinner, mostly leaving it standing upright on the table center (wife and three kids and me at the table). When I later played back what I had casually recorded at the table in 20 minutes(into my headphones - as the unit's speaker is terrible) I found a visually clear stereophonic visual/ audio image of my family comparable to a photograph but BETTER with more pertinent information as it recorded what we had to say. It struck me that we put so much attention into the visual snapshot but an audio snapshot has its own value and in some ways can be better. So why not carry an audio recorder to take audio snapshots in the way we may carry small digital cameras? For this I think the pocket sized and quality H4n is ideal. I found it very easy to use and to slip into a sweater or jacket side pocket, or even my pant's back pocket. I think I'll carry it often. It looks tough enough.

As for quality, the sound is good, good enough for many discriminating ears I would think. As a reference, I use as a Sound Design 744T recorder and two omnidirectional earthworks microphones cabled to it recording at much higher sampling rates that the H4n is capable of. The recorded sound imaging and detail of the H4n was comparably excellent. But the convenience of H4n's two microphones in an integral recorder unit is very appealing and very convenient. Its a very high quality pocket audio recorder that I think should be in the pockets of many amateurs.

I'll leave the professional quality comparisons to others to review.

(5 stars) - Amazing sound quality, flexible but geeky interface
I can't believe how much better the quality of my audio captures have been since investing in this device. Of course that was the result I was hoping for, but my expectations have been exceeded. Having everything in one small, battery-operable device is incredibly convenient as well, and with today's prices and capacities for flash storage, you never have to worry about running out of room.

Simple, everyday recording tasks are very easy to figure out and perform. You can do so much more with this device that complex tasks do require studying the manual and adapting to the interface, but it is nice to have that much flexibility when it is necessary.

(5 stars) - Great audio recorder for on-the-field video production
Feature-full, inexpensive and reliable. That's what I think about the H4n after some weeks of use.

I use the unit mainly to record audio for video productions. For example, getting direct input from an audio console in a concert. It certanly needs a few tweaks, test audio levels, etc. (don't expect just to plug it and let it set up itself, you have tor work on that) but in the end, it has always given me great results.

I use a Panasonic Pro AG-HMC150 3CCD AVCHD 24fps Camcorder video camera, and have had no sync problems at all. Just drop the video track, then the audio track, adjust them and that's all. No timing errors.

Also, it comes with a multi-watt adapter, so you could use it on 110, 240, etc. No problem if going to Europe or Brazil (the prior H4 model didn't have this feature).

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