Another Christmas review. This time it is the Zoom H2 recorder.

Zoom H2 Recorder

As songwriters, we have learned that pocket recorders are sometimes life line savers. You’re crusiing home from the day job and a melody pops in your head and you begins singing lyrics….then you get home and the wife and kids bombarid you with all the great things that happened in their life and you visit and eat you dinner with them. Then you retire to the studio for a bit to work on the new song you came up with on the ride home. Uhh? How did that go? This is when you need a pocket recorder.

I have had the old micro tape recorders. They work, but don’t leave them in direct sunlight….you’ll never make out what is on the tape. IF the police get hold of it – you may go to jail for slaughter. LOL Now days, the technology is really making things like this nicer.

So here is how a typical song writing session goes with my little group. Or how we try to do it anyway. We all meet up and do some short talk on the ideas we’ve been pitching around. We choose an idea and see if we can make anything happen. This usually means one or two playing and signing while one is busy trying to catch everything and write it down or type it on a laptop. This works, but too many times there is the old “What was it you said before the last line?” Suddenly everyone’s mind is erased and they can hardly remember their own name.

Another way is to get in the studio, fire everything up, arm the tracks and check the levels, etc. etc. Just to loose the moment with all the technical stuff.

So, this is where I find the Zoom H2 to be one of the best.

I can turn it on, place it on a mic stand in the middle of the room. It’s four mic’s do a great job of picking up the instruments and vocals. It saves it as two stereo files (when using all four mics). I then import it into Pro Tools after the session, and add to it there. Then we can progressively develop the song until it is ready to be cut in the studio.

Here are a few features of the Zoom H2 I found worth mentioning.

· The capability to use the recorder as an external USB audio card for your computer. Once connected to your computer via USB, you can use the H2′s mics to record audio directly to your recording application. (Garage Band, Pro Tools, Audacity, etc.) Zoom does not include any computer recording software, but I don’t feel that is a problem now days. Audacity is free. Get it here.

· includes settings for low-cut filter, automatic microphone gain control, compression presets, sound-activated recording, track splitting, a two-second prerecording buffer, metronome, an instrument tuner, and A-B audio looping.

· the inclusion of four built-in microphones instead of the stereo pair found in most recorders. This allows the H2 to pull off some neat recording tricks, such as the capability to selectively record from the front or rear of the recorder, to record a stereo mix using all four mics, or to record a four-channel mix using all the mics (recorded as two separate stereo files). The four-channel recording option, which is unique to the H2, is useful for capturing surround sound recordings or making live recordings that allow for some mixing flexibility in post-production.

· fairly simple to use, and once set-up to record in the format preferred, can be rolling in only a few seconds from power-up.

· Level metering and elapsed time information are displayed on the screen.

· powered by two double-A batteries, and will record for about 5 hours on a fresh set. Expect that the H2′s battery performance will vary depending on the recording resolution you’ve selected.

· supports SDHC storage cards as large as 16GB, although it can make continuous recordings only in 2GB chunks

· it can fit in a pocket, so it’s easy to carry everywhere, ready to capture sound on a moment’s notice.

Now the con’s:

· Small screen which is difficult to read in sunlight

· Feels fragile and cheap. Plastic.

There are a few other complaints I have heard reading other reviews, such as long startup time. Maybe they need to update the firmware, mine only took approximately 5 seconds. Which is fine with me.

In spite of the Zoom H2′s low price and cheap construction quality, its list of features outstrips many of its high-priced competitors. At $180.00 street, you can’t beat this unit.

It’s a pocket-sized device with four built-in mics, designed for quick and easy recording to SD memory cards. The mics do a great job at picking up stereo ambiences and, sound from all directions at once. Zoom H2 is capable of a wide range of recording resolutions, including 48Kbps to 320Kbps MP3 and 44kHz, 48kHz, or 96kHz WAV recordings at 16 bits or 24 bits. Depending on how you have the Zoom H2 set up, a continuous 2GB recording translates to 23 hours of 192Kbps MP3, or 3 hours of 16-bit/44kHz WAV.

The H2 offers various processing on the inputs: Automatic Gain Control, Compression and Limiting. Mac and PC software for converting the H2′s four-channel recordings into 5.1 files, which can be played back on most consumer surround-sound receivers. Several people have created software for converting your H2 recordings into 5.1 surround. Here is a link to the on I use on my Mac. http://www.radio.uqam.ca/ambisonic/zoom2five.html

I would recommend this unit to any songwriter as an invaluable tool for catching the moment at a songwriting session.

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