Interested in to get it.

I bought the H4n after receiving several recommendations. When shooting low budget projects often without the luxury of a dedicated sound man, this little device gets me through of all kind of set-ups. It's super versatile, really good value and the sound quality is great - to my ears at least! A little wonder.

First the cons: The interface is like stepping back 15 years. A tiny display and a cumbersome menu system with a non-intuitive navigation system to match. A look at modern mobile phone design would suggest the way to go.

That said you do soon get used to the interface and the sound quality is amazing for such a small device. This must be because the inbuilt microphones (4 of them) are comparatively huge. To be able to record direct to mp3 without having to get an additional interface is excellent. Any connection I might want is there. It's got line out (to speaker), line in, external mic in and mini usb connection as well as external power supply.

Overall I'm pleased with it but would have preferred a better interface.

Excellent piece of kit. I've been looking for something like this for years. OK the video quality isn't Hi def but that can be a pain for file managing for those without the fastest processors and memory space. Easy to set up and it works on the Mac no problem. The audio quality is far better than a Camcorder costing twice as much and is an easy way to record gigs and practice sessions. Perfect for demos. For those with a music program such as Logic, the sound files can then be extracted and edited and processed with whatever you fancy ie Reverb, EQ etc. Would suggest getting a larger SD HC card than the one supplied (only 2GB) and also getting 2 Ni HM rechargeable batteries plus a standard fitting tripod.

Nice bit of kit, very nice sounds easy but fiddly to edit. Plastic feels a little less substantial than I would have liked for nearly £100. Surprisingly comes with a uk psu. Sounds excellent thru my epiphone valve junior combo, pretty good thru headphones, a bit harsh in usb audio, usb asio driver could do with a volume control.

Love that this unit is light, sturdy and small, yet records at 44.1, 48 and 96KhZ, and can record four channels at once.

Has been VERY handy in the field, on a documentary film shoot in a foreign country.

The built in cardioids are better than expected and I find myself using them all the time for ambient sounds and even live music (say, street performers playing accoustic instruments).

Solid, easy interface, remote works well, and sd card feels reliable. Easy to interface and archive audio to external computer.

Two downsides: 1) it takes FOREVER to boot up. I've learned to hit the on switch when I get out of the car or the train at a location, rather than when the camera operator powers up her camera. Measure the boot time in MINUTES, not seconds. That is A LONG LONG TIME in documentary.

2) headphone output quickly developed issue where it cuts in and out and i have to carefully jiggle the connection to hear my monitor headphones. this problem doesn't effect the actual audio being recorded but is super distracting.

all in all though, especially for the price, this thing is WOOPING SOME SERIOUS BUTT for us on this shoot.

Due to a design fault the AC adapter causes extra hum and noise with electric guitars connected into inputs 1 and 2.
An unfortunate problem in this otherwise top quality recorder.

Yes, it's a nice little device. Probably one of the best gadgets I've bought in recent years.

It has a few minor annoying design quirks but the one thing that really messes me up is that it won't write more than 4GB to the SD card. I configure it for PCM rather than MP3 for enhanced audio (but more memory hungry) and I've got a 16GB SD card that I use to share audio amongst all my devices, but the 4GB limitation means I'm now looking around for another recorder that doesn't have that shortcoming.

It would be a big help if the product descriptions on this web site stated which audio loggers have the addressing limitation.

I thought very carefully before laying out a little over £300 on this little beauty. The trouble with buying something new, meaning a new product to the market, is that it hasn't been truly tested. Anyway I 'bit the bullet' and ordered it.

At first I just wanted to open the box and start playing without looking at the manual (so like a man I can hear the women saying) and because I am new to multitrack recorders, I gave in and picked up the book. The instructions were (mostly) clear and easy (easy-ish) to follow and I was up and running after just a few minutes.

I've had it now for just over a week and to be honest, I am liking it more and more. I did have a few problems loading Cubase LE4, but after I realised that the mistake was entirely mine, Cubase was up and running on my laptop. Again I needed to look into the instructions, this time not the manual that came with it, but seperate instructions that are to be found on the disc containing the driver for the R16. Once I had sorted all that out, magic!

On the plus side: Small, but not too small, portable, works on 6 AA batteries that seem to last for ages, loads of effects (although I will probably never use them as the effects on LE4 are amazing), clear screen, 8 tracks recordable at once (although I would never use 8 at a time), works well with LE4 as a controller, silent operation, records onto SDHC cards which have greatly come down in price recently, on board mikes if necessary and it looks good too.

On the minus side: Can be fiddly to use/get used to, the preamps are OK, but only OK (I use an external preamp for recording voice, an ART Tube MP, which is brilliant with it). Apart from that, no other niggles really.

I am not very experienced when it comes to multitracks and I need to learn the basics, but using the Zoom R16 can be quite straight forward SO LONG AS YOU READ THE MANUALS - why do we men do that? I have read the manual that comes in the box and the disc based instructions which I printed out, both many times now, and I am itching to put all my new knowledge to good use.

When I first looked at the possibility of buying a multitrack recorder quite a few years ago, it was a cassette tape version with 4 track recording. This unit is so far removed from that first 'Portastudio' that you cannot even begin to compare the two. For a little over £300 you get:

1 A 16 track digital recorder
2 8 inputs including Hi-Z for guitar and 48v phantom power (on 2 channels)
3 A portable silent recorder using batteries and SDHC cards
4 An interface to connect microphones etc direct to computer
5 A DAW software controller complete with Cubase LE4
6 Hundreds of effects built in

There must be more, but I have only had this unit for 10 days.

Bottom line then - this is simply AMAZING, it's not perfect, it won't take the place of professional equipment, but believe me, it comes close. If you are reading this, then I assume you are interested in buying it - so go ahead, buy it and enjoy it.

Not being a great guitarist, I need a box of tricks to make my attempts at playing sound halfway decent. For £55 the G1X does the job brilliantly!
It has a drum machine that actually makes sounds like drums and the only way it could be better would be if you could programme your own rythms/patterns....but then what do I expect for 55 quid!
The effects are many and varied, although the acoustic sim is a bit disappointing, but never the less makes a nice clean sound. I like the tuner, but would prefer to have a frequency indicator in the display.(Again what can you expect for £55!) There really is no limit to the variations in FX you can get from this box and having spent nearly £200 on a Digitech multi fx pedal years ago that didnt have a drum machine or a tuner this pedal is astoundingly good value for money.

i have been doing audi/video service last 10 years i come across
zoom h2 recorder realy its great product for recording eng/efp /documentaries for radio & tv.
some people they claim they having difficult syncronising zoom h2 audio to video.
here steps you can do;
first before you do anything just know that digital audio signal take either one or two possiple value, one positive one negative.
you must know sampling rate
you must know quatisation level.
also you must know digital band widht.
you must know procedures syncronising audio video, the smpte/ebu timecode/drobframe/ none drop frame
you must understand ltc/vitc/midi timecode/ filmtime code.
you must understand servo control transports/ master/ slave/ chase syncronzers/control syncronisers/tachometer control/film syncronisers.

any body can say zoom h2 cannot syncronize their video camera yes
thats true because either they are ill prepared or they dont understan
procedures of audio postproduction in video .
there are two procedures for shooting audio/ video;
1. single camera technique shooting video /film.

2. single camera recording with multitrack seperate sound.

a; either you use timecode to syncronise cemera and audio
or
b; slating when using video camera , the sound and picture are recorded seperately.
this technique is called double sytem shooting.
to match both of these together for edting later, its normal to provide a syncronous mark on the sound track and on the picture.
when ever i use my hand zoom h2 i u8e clapprer -board to use as reference between sound/video.
i recomend zoom h2 for film/video production anything as long you what you doing'

great product .

This is an excellent product. It has a huge range of effects. It's solidly built. It can run on batteries and it works with headphones. It's perfect for practising.
If it has one fault, it's that too many of the 40 example patches are skewed towards extreme distortion levels. There are still several good default patches though, and it's easy to create your own whatever type of guitar sound you want.

I bought the H4n for easily recording classical music on site, recording of lessons and for personal practice purposes.

The unit delivers very clean and detailed recordings, and when placed far from the source even pics up the atmosphere of a hall nicely. I had a chance to record a violin concerto a soloist and an 80+ member orchestra with very good results.

I think the mics are excellent, but of course as they are cardiods they posses a little bit of coloring. In case of these I would describe it as a slight pinch. Absolutely not disturbing though and in some cases delivering a "classy" kind of sound. They pick up a wide dynamic range and work very well up close and from a distance.

As far as my experience goes, the amplifiers in this unit are very quiet, and still deliver an "open" sound. I use 2 QTC1 by Earthworks and the sound is incredibly realistic. The only downside is that the QTC's take 10 mAh which of course drains the batteries very fast (read within 30 minutes). This is not the fault of the H4n, the QTC's are known for needing a hight current. Others that need the 10 mAh will also need to carry around an external battery supply or the (very small) power adapter.

The headphone out is of high quality and delivers crisp sound as well. Even 200 amp headphones were fine. It is called headphone/line out, but even as line out the volume can be changed, which does not make it a dedicated line-out. I was a bit disappointed with the sound of the unit connected to my stereo set, compared to what `i heard over my headphones. But maybe this is due to my amplifier.

The H4n is less heavy than I expected, but at the same time feels sturdy. It is a high quality product. The button layout is excellent, and the jog dial works very well. The volume and mic level can be adjusted from 0-100. It is easy to switch between internal and external mikes, even while recording.

The 3.5 mm mic in jack is situated under the unit, which is a bit awkward, but I guess it will not often be used. For the rest as I said before the layout seems very logical.

The screen is very clear and gives all information. I like the fact that if clipping occurs, the red light in the mic selection buttons starts to flicker. This is very handy.

It is very easy to connect the H4n to my mac and choose it as an audio out (go to sound in the system preferences and it appears simply as USB sound device). The only downside is that it will only work at 44.1 and 48 Khz. This seemed to limit the options within Cubase to those values as well.

One of the advantages of the H4n is the ability to record from 4 microphones at the same time. There is a limitation though. It can only be done at 44.1 or 48 Khz. Setting the level of the separate mikes is very well implemented and easy to do.

Here in the UK Zoom's service is excellent, and the tech support guy was very friendly in answering the questions I had regarding my high mAh mikes.

I am considering running this recorder on a combination of rechargeable batteries and possibly an external battery pack when using it with the QTC1's.

All in all I am very happy with this recorder, and would recommend this product to colleagues without hesitation. I know it might be overkill for some out there, and there might be smaller units available. Sound wise though, I have not found fault yet with the H4n. I am very curious what other professionals are going to say about it.

It performs well and sounds good, exactly as advertised. The display is tiny, but just about readable. The flimsy memory card cover broke on first use, but not having it is no handicap. The limited battery life means you really have to buy a new pair for each session. This gets expensive. Highly recommended for function, not quite so highly for design.

I have a zoom G7iut, its brilliant, I had it programmed with Charlie Halls Echoes from the Past so I can play The Shadows music, I use it every day. Im so glad I purchased it.

This is the puppie's parts and the dalmation's dangly bits all rolled into one. The sound is fantastic, it's easy to use and because it uses an SD card it's easy to transfer files. I've recorded acoustic stuff and a full band rehearsal on it no problems. It's genuinely one of those things you buy than wonder how you coped before you had it.