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Thread: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

  1. #26
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Thanks, guys. I'll probably buy the H1n. How important is it to have a case, and can I use my regular phone charger and USB cable with it? I guess I'm wondering whether to buy the accessory kit or just the memory card.
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  2. #27
    Registered User J Mangio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Mine came with a case.
    I bought the accessory kit, and recommend it.
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  3. #28

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    Thanks, guys. I'll probably buy the H1n. How important is it to have a case, and can I use my regular phone charger and USB cable with it? I guess I'm wondering whether to buy the accessory kit or just the memory card.
    The one feature that's important is that it run on external USB power, at least IMHO. Then you can use one of those battery packs with a cable and record all day long, without needing to worry about an AC outlet or running out of batteries. I'm sure the H1n will work with an external power bank, but you might want to experiment with it and understand how it interacts with the external power, because some might switch off automatically, e.g., if not enough power is being drawn while the H1n is not recording. The AC adapter is only useful if you have power near where the recorder needs to go for best [audio] recording, and that is almost never the case.

    It is not a bad idea to have a case of some kind. Whether you have a small padded bag or can make something suitable with what you might have around is something to consider, vs. buying the accessory kit. The one I see at MF (e.g.) with a stand as well as mic clip adapter has some good features.
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  5. #29
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    I'm not familiar with the battery packs. I took a quick look on Amazon and the prices are all over the map and the amperage seems to vary, too. How do you charge these back up after using them with your recorder?

    My kids probably know all about these, but I'm always fighting luddite tendancies
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

  6. #30

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    How many hours is the Wernick jam you are going to? You may be fine with just the batteries you put into the recorder. I use rechargeable AA batteries in my Zoom H2 and get 3+ hours on a pair of batteries. There's a little battery meter on the display so you can check how the batteries are doing on breaks. You'll want to stop the recorder during breaks anyway. The recorders Keith use eat more power than the little H1 & 2. You can put some batteries in it and hit record at home and test it to see how long it will last before the jam class.

    Not sure how the H1 is, but my old H2 has a high, middle & low gain setting. I rarely use the high gain setting. I use the low setting if recording at a festival where the PA is loud. For jams and acoustic instruments the middle setting works just fine.

    Also, when you press record, check that the time meter is running before you set it down to record the jam. Speaking from experience.
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  8. #31

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    I'm not familiar with the battery packs. I took a quick look on Amazon and the prices are all over the map and the amperage seems to vary, too. How do you charge these back up after using them with your recorder?

    My kids probably know all about these, but I'm always fighting luddite tendancies
    Yes, it's an incredible assortment. First, you usually charge them up with the same kind of AC power supply that you would use on the Zoom H1n, something with 5VDC output and a micro-USB plug. The complicating issue right now is the switch over to USB-C for *everything* and many of the new power cells/packs have only USB-C input/output. That would require another set of cables, and for best use, a different external AC adapter to supply USB-C voltage for rapid charging. You don't need any of that for the H1n.

    It's quite possible one of your children have a spare pack and charger, but if you buy an accessory kit for the H1n, that would also act as a power cell charger, if it has the micro-USB charging input. Here is one (of several) I found at Amazon that has both USB-C and micro-USB inputs, for charging, and a regular USB output for supplying power.

    https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack...=1G85986U8EM0M

    You would still need a USB (A) to micro-USB cable to run from the external pack to the Zoom, but oftentimes the AC adapter has one of those, if it's not all molded together with its cable.

    If this is adding more [too-much] un-Luddite content, you can always just pack a few extra AAs and watch the battery level, replacing before they go dead
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  10. #32

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Grieser View Post
    ...
    Also, when you press record, check that the time meter is running before you set it down to record the jam. Speaking from experience.
    Oh, yes. +100. Make sure you understand what its small display looks like when you are actually recording and get in the habit of confirming the moving counter/time with the REC light (or whatever) ON after you have taken your hands away from the recorder. Practice this at home. As Don suggests, DAMHIKT!
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  12. #33

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    I bought an H6 a while back to try to play with recordings and it was actually way more complicated than just recording into my phone. If you can clear out space on your phone or spending the money on upgrading and use voice memos it will be infinitely easier than learning this technology. (Especially if you are challenged by technology) They even have little microphones you can attach that aren’t a huge jump from using basic voice memos. I have a shure Mic and that plugs into the charging port and it’s pretty nifty.

  13. #34
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    I learned that my husband has one of those power bricks. His sister gave it to him, and he stashed it away as he had no use for it. Anyway, my phone has USB-C, but my old phone had micro USB, and I found cables and 5V wall wart chargers in the misc. cable bag in our kitchen junk drawer for both. So I think I'm good there. BTW, the H1n claims to get 10 hours of use from a set of batteries, but I feel skeptical about that. So three sets of batteries, maybe, to be safe for the whole weekend, but if I can set up the auxiliary power without spending any money, its worth playing around with. It's not that I can't figure out technology, it's that I'd rather not.

    I don't want to mess around with my phone. What if it gets stepped on? I'm going to order the recorder and memory card then take a look at the other stuff we have here for charging. I have a little tripod, and a headset to listen through; maybe I can find an old camera case that fits it. I don't think I need anything else, do I?

    I was a little nervous about getting something that's been out for a few years and might be at the end of its manufacturing cycle (ie. "old technology"), but if they are still in general use, and it's just cable issues, I can deal with that. I kind of wish it had bluetooth so I could turn it on and off remotely (I have that for the camera in my phone) and connect it to my bluetooth speaker, but as long as I can download the audio to my laptop to play around with it later, I think it will be good.

    I'll letcha all know how it works out.
    Last edited by Sue Rieter; Sep-01-2022 at 5:15pm.
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

  14. #35

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    If it's anything like my old Zoom H2, it will last you a long time. Mine must be over 12 years old. It looks like cheap plastic junk, but I've dropped it more times than I can count and it keeps on working. I velcroed it to a large tent pole this past weekend and recorded some bands at a festival. It sounds way better than it should. So I wouldn't worry about its lifecycle. It will be extremely useful to you for many years.
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  16. #36
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by keith.rogers View Post
    The one feature that's important is that it run on external USB power, at least IMHO. Then you can use one of those battery packs with a cable and record all day long, without needing to worry about an AC outlet or running out of batteries. I'm sure the H1n will work with an external power bank, but you might want to experiment with it and understand how it interacts with the external power, because some might switch off automatically, e.g., if not enough power is being drawn while the H1n is not recording. The AC adapter is only useful if you have power near where the recorder needs to go for best [audio] recording, and that is almost never the case ...
    I got my H1n and have played around with it just a little. Haven't recorded my mandolin on it yet, just voice. It seems pretty easy to use in automatic mode, and there are alot of features and settings to play around with later.

    You can easily switch between several file formats, WAV or MPG. The unit tells you how much recording time you get with each. I settled on the lowest resolution of WAV, 44.1K 16bit, which provides a little over 50 hours of recording time on my 32GB memory card. That was the default, and without spending alot of time on it, it seems it is the best quality file that will provide sufficient recording time.

    I've got a 5V charger block with a micro USB cable that will both charge the power brick and connect the power brick to the recorder. To answer Keith's question, I reached out to Zoom NA and they responded within 15 minutes (totally awesome). I thought I'd share their response:

    The unit will look to receive power from the USB port first and then revert to batteries is the source connected to the USB port is no longer available..

    If the power bank dies, it should switch to the AAA batteries without interruption.
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

  17. #37
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    In another thread Don Grieser asked me how I made out with my H1n, so here's my report.

    This is my setup that I came up with, and so far it is all good, except connecting and disconnecting the recorder to the tripod is a pain in the bouzouki. I'd like to add some kind of a quick connect to make the setup process faster. I haven't found the right connection yet; the top of this tripod is just a knurled disk with a threaded stud that goes into the camera or recorder. Any suggestions are welcome.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I've got a high impact plastic box that was hanging around the house, and I'm going to make a foam insert for it for everything.

    The controls, to me, are not that intuitive; however, after using the basic functions a few times, it's not that bad. I kept the quickstart flyer nearby, and I've downloaded the full manual (I'm a manual reading type of person, drives my DH crazy - he's a jump in and figure it out type).

    I only had a couple chances to play around with the unit before I went to camp, so I went with the Automatic recording settings. This seemed fine in my living room, but in the sessions I recorded, the volume was too low. An instructor speaking to a small group on a porch was workable (she was less than 10 feet away), but in a larger group setting with the recorder about 4 or 5 feet from me toward the center of the circle and maybe 15 or 20 feet from the instructor, I could hear instruments but the instructors voice was too low.

    Perhaps I need to adjust the record volume manually, but this is another thing to fiddle with while setting up, so I'm a bit disappointed with the Auto setting. I'm hoping I will learn certain standard settings that generally work for different environments. The ability to save such settings would also be good, but I'm pretty sure you can't save settings like that.

    I downloaded the files onto my computer and the volume was still low, so I know it was the recording and not just the playback speaker on the unit.

    The playback on the unit has a speed setting, and also the ability to mark segments of a file for repeating, so that would be good for learning a tune in the field. I can use it with both the earbuds from my phone (easy to carry in the field) and my Grado headphones (back at base).

    The unit comes with download instructions for audio software called Cubase LE and Wavelab Cast. I don't know anything about these programs. A number of years ago I had a USB turntable and I was starting to record some of my vinyl records onto my old computer. I was using Audacity at that time, so unless I learn something different, when I get to messing around with recorded audio files, I will probably download that one again.
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

  18. #38
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    I got Cubase with a different Zoom recorder. It's very nice for editing and mixing multitrack recordings, but I found getting it set up to use my external speakers difficult (I hope I don't have to do that again, as I've forgotten what I did).

    There are ways to up the volume on your recordings using Cubase, but it might be more trouble than it's worth.

    D.H.

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  20. #39

    Default Re: Looking for Recording Equipment Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Josh Levine View Post
    I bought an H6 a while back to try to play with recordings and it was actually way more complicated than just recording into my phone. If you can clear out space on your phone or spending the money on upgrading and use voice memos it will be infinitely easier than learning this technology. (Especially if you are challenged by technology) They even have little microphones you can attach that aren’t a huge jump from using basic voice memos. I have a shure Mic and that plugs into the charging port and it’s pretty nifty.
    An H6 is overkill. It's intended for pro a/v field work with multiple audio sources and for that an H5 works fine.

    I have a couple H4s, the older ones, that come in very handy. Easy to use, great sound and inexpensive. They don't have all the features the newer models have, but they are fine recorders that sell cheap because they are old models.
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