Hey guys, in this video we’re going to take a look at the Zoom H5. This is a portable
audio recorder that’s good for quick music recording and on location audio recording
for video production, with a massive improvement over the audio quality you get from a typical
camera. We’ll cover how to use this audio recorder and a lot of its features.
I picked up one of these audio recorders to be able to record better quality audio with
my camera setup, since built in camera microphones are typically not very good. With this setup,
I can record audio on this recorder and sync it to my video editing software later. Compared
to a lot of other audio recorders, the Zoom H5 was a good choice for my needs. It features
swappable microphone capsules, so I can use an X-Y capsule for music recording, and a
shotgun capsule for video production. There’s also XLR microphone inputs for recording XLR
microphones, or a feed from a mixer board. This audio recorder is a good balance between
the Zoom H4n and the Zoom H6. The Zoom H6 has more microphone inputs, but I won’t
need more than 2 for my uses. The H4n doesn’t have an interchangeable microphone capsule,
which makes it more difficult for some video situations.
At the top we have the microphone capsule. With the Zoom H5, we can attach a bunch of
different microphone capsules for a variety of different audio recording situations. If
you buy the H5, you’ll get a XYH-5 microphone capsule, which has a left and right microphone
positioned at 90 degrees to each other. The capsule has a level control so you can use
to adjust the level on it, and there’s a guard over it that’s helpful so that you
don’t accidentally change the volume level. There’s also a 3.5mm mic/line input on the
side if you want to use that instead. Compared to the Zoom H6 included capsule, this capsule
doesn’t have an adjustment for the microphone angle, but the microphones are shock mounted
and this helps reduce some of the noise if the audio recorder is bumped.
Each microphone capsule has two buttons on the side. If you push these in, it releases
the latches so the capsule can be taken off. On the left side of the recorder, we have
a line output that we can use to connect it to a camera, if that camera has a line input.
Otherwise, we’ll need to use an attenuator in between so the level is not too high. Next
to that we have a headphone output. We can listen back to our tracks either with headphones
or the built in speaker on the back of the recorder, but the quality with the headphones
is much better. The buttons next are for volume. We can independently change the volume of
the headphones and the speaker. The USB connector can be used to connect our audio recorder
to the computer. From there, we can use it as a USB microphone instead of having to use
an audio interface. Last, we have the power switch. To power on the Zoom H5, we need to
hold down the switch for a few seconds and then we’ll see the screen light up. This
works the same to power off. The switch can be slid towards the top once we start recording,
and this prevents any changes, like accidentally stopping recording from happening.
On the right side, we have a remote input to control the audio recorder. This comes
with the Zoom H5 accessory pack which is sold separately. The switch next to it allows us
to change settings in the recorder and navigate through the menus. If we want to select something,
we just click in the center of the switch. Then there’s the menu button, which allows
us to access the menus, and exit the menu when we’re finished. The last thing we have
on this side is the SD card slot. The Zoom H5 takes a standard SD card up to 32 GB.
The bottom of the audio recorder has two combined XLR and ¼” inputs, so we can record professional
external microphones with the H5. On the back, there’s a speaker to play back
our track, a mount to attach it to a camera rig, and the battery compartment. This audio
recorder runs off two AA batteries, and it can use rechargeable batteries.
On the front of the audio recorder, we first have our screen and the level knobs that control
the preamps for the XLR microphone inputs. The L R buttons are used to turn on the microphone
capsule. When they’re red, the capsule is enabled. The 1 and 2 buttons are used to turn
on the XLR microphones. Then we just have stop, play/pause and record buttons. Underneath,
there are previous and next buttons to navigate our files.
To record with the Zoom H5, we just press the buttons to activate the inputs we want,
use the dials to adjust the levels so they’re loud but not clipping, then press the record
button. When we’re done just press stop. To switch between tracks, all we have to do
is use the previous and next buttons at the bottom. This will change the track displayed
on the screen. The displayed track is what will play when we press the play button.
Let’s look through what we have on the main screen. In the top left is the SD card indicator
telling us we’re recording to an SD card. Next to that is the time indicator, which
tells us how much space we have left to record on the SD card in the current format. When
we start recording, it will show the current recording length instead. If we turn on more
microphone inputs, we’ll see that this time indicator decreases. On the far right at the
top, we have our connected capsule, which shows up as XY5. The plus B icon indicates
we’re recording with a backup track, and we’ll talk about that later. Finally, we
have a battery level. Underneath, there’s the folder we’re recording
in. The Zoom H5 can record to different folders to manage our files. Then we have the level
indicators for our capsule microphone and XLR inputs. At the bottom, there’s the audio
quality icon. Here we can see the H5 is recording in a WAV file at 44.1 kHz, and 24 bit.
Now let’s go through the menus. Press the menu button on the side to view this. First
is the Projects. Press in on the scroll button to enter this menu. In the Project menu we
can see all our files we recorded. We can press the play button to hear them back, or
the delete button to remove the file. When we go to press the delete button, we can use
the scroll button to navigate and press it to select files, or select all with the play
button. Once they’re selected, use the record button to confirm the delete. To back up in
our menus, use the menu button. Now scroll down to folders. We use this to
select a folder and that can keep separate recordings in separate folders.
Let’s cover the inputs and outputs. First is Lo Cut to remove low frequencies. We can
change what input this is on, from the capsule to the microphone inputs. We have similar
options for the compressor and limiter. After we select an input to apply it to, we can
choose the setting we want applied. The next option is for phantom power. The
selection at the top allows us to choose what inputs it’s on and off for. Then the voltage
can be set to 12V, 24V, or 48V. All the microphones I use, use 48V phantom power.
The plugin power provides power to 3.5mm microphones that are attached to our XY capsule.
The In1/2 Pad is a -20 dB pad that is applied to the XLR inputs. We use this if we have
a high level signal coming in to prevent it from clipping.
Below that we can set the ½ inputs to mid side if we’re using microphones in that
configuration. We can turn it on or off, choose which microphone is which, and adjust the
levels. The MS-RAW monitor allows us to adjust how we hear those inputs. It can be set to
stereo, or RAW. In RAW mode, the mid will go to the left channel, and the side will
go to the right channel. In monitor mixer mode, we can scroll through
and select our inputs, adjust their panning and their level. That adjusts what we hear
through the headphones, but not what is recorded. Last we have line output level. This can be
used to decrease the line output level. That way we can connect it to a camera microphone
input and record directly on the camera, without causing clipping or having to use an attenuator.
Under the record menu, the first option is the record format. We can set the sample rate
and bit depth here. Next are the auto record levels so the Zoom H5 will start recording
when the signal hits a certain level. The pre-record allows us to capture 2 seconds
before we press the record button and start recording from there.
Our next option is to create a backup recording. This is a second recording that is 12 dB lower
than the regular recording. I always recommend leaving this option on. If our regular track
peaks and clips, it can cause distortion that we won’t be able to fix. With this mode
enabled, we’ll have a quieter track without the clipping that we can use to fix that.
After that we can set our project name to default or date. I’ll set it to date. The
record counter setup switches between count up from 0 and count down from the time remaining
from the space on the SD card. Under Play, we first have AB repeat. With
this, we can loop a small section of our recording. First use the scroll wheel to switch between
the start and end marker. Then use the play button to play along the clip, and press it
to set the start marker. Switch to the end marker and do the same thing. With the record
button, we’ll go into a mode where we can hear this section on repeat.
In counter setup, we can have the counter in playback count up from 0 or count down
from the file length. There are two tools included with the Zoom
H5. The first is the Tuner. The tuner uses the microphones to tune an electric or acoustic
guitar. We can select a tuning, then use the scroll buttons to set a reference pitch, which
is usually 440 Hz. There’s a metronome that can be used during
recording, playback or both. We can control the count in, tempo, sound, pattern, which
is the time signature, and volume level. Under system the first option is to set the
date and time, which is important to properly organize your files. Then we can set the backlight
to on, off, 15 seconds or 30 seconds. For the time selections, the backlight will turn
off after that amount of time if a button has not been pressed on the Zoom H5. Below
that we can set the display contrast if our screen doesn’t display properly. The battery
type can be set to alkaline or Ni-MH (nickel metal-hydride). This doesn’t really affect
performance, but it is used to give a more accurate remaining battery indicator. Below
that we just have the firmware version and factory reset options.
The next set of options deals with the SD card. Remain shows us the total and remaining
space on the SD card. Format will remove all the contents from the SD card and refresh
it for the best performance. Performance test is used to determine if the SD card is fast
enough to be able to record audio safely. We can just do a quick test for this. When
it’s finished it should show OK, not NG. If it shows NG, first try formatting the card.
Otherwise, upgrade to a card with a faster write speed.
Under USB, there are options to set the device to a card reader or audio interface when it
is connected to USB. The Zoom H5 can be detected as a microphone input on most systems and
used to record voice with a lot of recording software, just like any other audio interface
might do. Under record mode, we can switch between multi
file and stereo file. In multi file, our microphone capsule and XLR inputs are recorded to different
tracks. In stereo file, they are mixed and combined on a single track. Since stereo file
requires saving less files, we can get a maximum sample rate of 96 kHz instead of 48 kHz. We
also get the options for MP3 files this time. Since I like to maintain control of my tracks
after recording, I usually leave it set to multi file that way I can adjust them separately.
However, if I’m not using an XLR microphone, using stereo might be a better choice.
Thanks for checking out this video on the Zoom H5 portable audio recorder. If this video
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