The Zoom Hn4 has a ton of features for the price, but is still limited for matrix recording situations. I did figure things out and have a few workarounds.
Here are some of my general observations:
The on board mics are a bit bassy for my taste. I Little post EQ fixes that. the sound quality of the onboad mics are adequate. I would only use them if I did not have time to set up my akg\'s.
I found it awkward to put the recorder on a mic stand, you can\'t monitor and change the recording level or check battery levels from 8 ft high and if you had to make changes, the handling of the unit is going to pick up by the mics. External mics are a must. The wired remote is not much help.
I ran the akg into the XLR input jack. I recommend this b/c, it has phantom power, and it\'s a balanced(noise canceling) line allowing long cable runs if you are running through a stage snake. I would only use the 1/8 mic input if the mics are close and you don;t need phantom power.
The TSR (1/8 input jacks) are not balanced and are instrument level. a +4db board signal will clip. an attenuator is needed if your going this route.
An interesting feature on the zoom is the onboard mic bypass input on the back of the zoom. it\'s a 1/8 stereo jack. It accepts mic level inputs only. I used this input to record the soundboard and had to use a mixer to control the +4db line level to attenuate it an acceptable mic input level. this is not the best solution b/c some sound quantity is lossed. I need to get variable line attenuator.($180) this is the best solution for onstage matrix recordings with the zoom.
Battery / power
the zoom takes 2 AA batteries. I purchased Sony rechargeable batteries. I was able to record 3.5 hours in 4 track mode and phantom power. This is cutting it close, b/c when the batteries get older or are not fully charged it will be cutting it close.
so,
I built a custom power pack using a 12v battery jumper box. I used cigarette DCto DC converter( 12v to 5v adapter) and solder a tip that fit the AC/DC power plug input on the zoom. I was able to record 8 hours and probably more.
The 16 gig SD card can record 8.5 hours of 4 channels @ 44.1khz 24bit. good enough for me!
mp3??
yes , tonight
I think you run into sync issues if you try to combine different sources, but you never know...
Fitzy and I were talking about matrixing with the H4N, the challenge is to get the (onboard) mics up close to the stage while still pulling the feed off the board. Need to "ride the snake" for that one, or get some long cables. Ideally, you should be able to bypass the onboard mics for a second pair of XLR connections, but that would be an expensive experiment.
Sending a balanced board feed through the stage snake could work. The problem is the XLR input on the zoom only accept mic level. the board feed will clip the zoom. It will need attenuators. and might need XLR turnarounds or 1/8 couplers or an used return in the snake. most sound guys won\'t deal with this.
some boards only have an unbalanced RCA outputs. Running a small mixer at the board and running the mixers balanced outputs into the snake to the stage is a solution. but a pain in the ass.
