So this is Taylor from uniquesquared.com and today we're talking digital portable recorders
once again. This time we've have Zoom's H2n. Now this is a brand new recorder from Zoom.
It's the next generation from the previous recorder the H2. So we're going to get into
it, I'm going to show you the construction, some of the features that are involved with
it, and then let you listen to some sample recordings. Let's check it out. So one of
the first things we want to talk about is the construction. I have right here the H2,
which is Zoom's first recorder in this line, and right of the bat you can tell the difference
in the mic capsule size, which is really nice because you know you're going to get a good
recording with this larger mic capsule over here on the H2n. One of the other things you'll
notice is the LCD screen. Now it's a little smaller on here, and much bigger on here,
which is really nice so you are not having that eyesore problem trying to hunt down your
menu functions. I really like what Zoom did with that. One of the things I will mention
though is this is a prototype, so when it ships it may look a little different than
what you see now. But I can assure you that all the functions are going to remain the
same of what I'm about to go through. So you have your menu selection, your play/pause
as well as your track selection, and your power and hold feature for saving battery
life. You also have this analog mic gain adjustment which is really nice, so a lot of times that
stuff is selectable through the menu and you have to monitor that through the LCD screen.
But now if you're hearing the clipping or you're seeing it visually on the screen, you
can easily adjust that on the side without any problems, I really like that. Looking
at the other side, you've got your mic line in over here as well as your volume adjustment
for your headphone monitoring and your USB out, now this converts audio through USB 2.0
so it's one of the fastest converters of audio on this recorder. Now you also have this remote
in which is kind of nice because you can hook up a remote which comes with an accessory
pack that Zoom provides. It's got things like a tripod stand, and a DC power and USB connection,
and a lot of other things that really compliment this recorder well. One of the other things
that I really like is the speaker on here, it's got an onboard speaker for monitoring
so you're not always having to fumble with headphones. If you want to hear your recording
instantly you can do that by listening to it through the speaker. Ok so let's talk about
the microphones that we have on here. It's got the XY mics that you find on the H2. But
this is the very first recorder that has mid side recording. Now mid side recording is
very cool because you can record your source directly as well as monitoring though the
sides. Now that's very nice and this is the first recorder that does that, I can't stress
that enough this is a new innovation in portable digital recorders. But not only that, you
also have two channel and four channel recording. Now this helps for developing a surround sound
recording. You can switch it to two channel, it's the mics on the back, you switch into
four channel and it uses all five mics on this recorder. Yes I said it, five mics on
this recorder, how cool is that? So one of the most important features on this recorder
aside from the microphones is the brain, which is all the features that are selectable within
the LCD screen. Now this recorder records in 24bit 96k, you can also record in wav or
mp3 format. And one of the other functions in here which is really nice is the input
function which allows you to change different things, like you can put a low cut filter,
you can also put compressors and limiters on there. And there's three different compressor
modes, three different limiter modes. Really nice to have that versatile option for your
onboard recordings. It's also got system setting functions and a USB function for transferring
all your audio. Just sort of basic standard stuff on any portable recorder. But the real
standout feature on here is the data recovery system. So if you're out in the field recording
and your batteries suddenly die, don't worry because all your recordings will be saved.
It saves from the last thing you recorded basically until the batteries die, so it works
in the same way that a lot of certain softwares work where you have a recovery system for
all your files. I really really like that about the H2n, especially as a field recorder.
Some other features to mention are that it comes with a two gigabyte card. It can record
with a 32 gigabyte card which is really nice. It also runs for twenty hours on two double
A batteries, that is phenomenal, really really like that. It also comes with Steinberg wavelab
LE software, and if you're one of those guys that's just getting started with recording
it's really nice because you have a software to start playing around with to trim your
recordings or beef them up with some equalization or whatever other functions you want to add
on top of that. So now that I've gone over the construction and the features, as well
as the microphones and the LCD screen. I'm going to let you guys listen to a few sample
recordings to let you guys see how this thing sounds.
So now that you've gotten to hear what it sounds like, I'm going to give you my take
on the H2n. So I really do like this recorder. It's great. I'm a musician and a filmmaker
so I like the versatile options that you have. You can take it in the studio and record or
as a filmmaker you can take it to record dialogue as well as sort of like room tones and ambient
soundscapes to be able to put them into your soundtrack. One of the things that I found
limiting was that you did not have a ¼ inch XLR input on the H2n. But after playing with
the onboard mics you don't really need it. These microphones sound really great and I
think putting an XLR and TRS input on here would have actually limited what this thing
is because it's supposed to be a small portable recorder. Putting those inputs on here might
have made it a lot larger and bulkier. So I think Zoom really did a great job actually
not putting them on here and I look forward to using this thing a lot in the future. But
to find out more information check us out here at UniqueSquared.com. You can also check
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