the Zoom H6 is like a Swiss Army knife of audio recorders you can use its own
mics that can be swapped out or you can also use your own XLR microphones or
line input devices and you can record each track individually at the same time
you can also do on-board compression and mixing all within the Zoom H6 itself or
you can connect it to your computer and you can use it as an audio interface in
this video I'm going to unbox the Zoom H6 plus I'll do a little bit of a review
and some audio tests later on in the video I'm Zane from audiotechtv.com
and on this channel I do weekly audio tech tips tutorials and reviews to help
you conquer the tech and unleash your creativity now if you want some more
information and the latest pricing on the Zoom H6 I've included a link in the
description so you can easily click that and check it out but right now let's
open up this box and see what's inside it's actually packaged quite nice you
got your manual here and the hard case with everything in it so let's check out
what's in the hard case and the fact that it comes with a hard case is
actually a really nice touch so you have your recorder right there
this is the foam windscreen USB cable you get batteries with it and your two
microphones
this is the XY microphone this is the mid side microphone and one thing to
note is you don't get an SD card with the Zoom H6 so be sure to grab one when
you purchase the recorder it will accept cards up to 128 gigabytes and these are
the full sized SD cards not the micro ones I'll include a link to the one that
I use as it works great with it now I'll quickly go over some of the features on
the unit itself you have the four XLR / TRS inputs here so you can connect
a variety of microphones and other pieces of gear to it and each of these
four inputs has its own control knob here so you can control the gain on each
one individually and you have pad switches for each input and the pad is
minus 20 decibels when it's turned on in addition to recording these four inputs
you can also attach one of the microphones and record that at the same
time so you can record six inputs at the same time these buttons on the frontier
arm each track for recording so if you want one you would press one two and you
can press them all if you want there is an optional XLR attachment that you can
put on the top here and it adds two more XLR /
TRS inputs so you can have up to six microphones connected at the same time
or a combination of microphones and line input devices the audio recording
quality can go up to 24 bits at 96 kilohertz
it does have some onboard compressor and limiter effects plus a low-cut filter
you get this decently sized color screen on the front and it's on an angle so you
can see it easily when it's sitting on a desk or on a mount you can also use this
as an audio interface if you connect it to your computer and if you just plug it
in without installing any of the drivers it can be used as a 2 input and 2 output
audio interface but if you install the drivers for it you can use the Zoom H6
as a 6 input to output audio interface allowing you to record 6 inputs into
your DAW or digital audio workstation at the same
time if you're a podcaster this is an incredible tool for you as it can adapt
to so many different situations also it comes with a license for Steinberg
Wavelab LE which allows you to record and edit your podcast or music with ease
you also get a copy of Steinberg Cubase LE which is great for multitrack
recording so that's pretty much it for the basic features of the zoom h6 now
let's do some audio tests and just so you know I do have another video coming
out soon that has over 20 tips and tricks for using the Zoom H6 so be sure
to watch for that and depending on when you're watching this video it could
already be out I'll be sure to link to it in the description and there will
probably be a card up on the screen if it's already out all right so I first
want to do an audio test of the included XY mic and as you can see I'm talking
into it right now and I have the included foam windscreen on the mic and
the audio has not been edited at all so this is a test of the zoom X y h6
microphone that's included with the zoom h6 the audio has not been edited now
I'll do an audio test of an acoustic guitar being recorded with the zoom h6
and again the audio will not be edited
all right so now I'm doing an audio test of my voice using the mid side mic that
comes with the zoom h6 and I have the mid side stuff turned off
so it's just recording in mono right now and this is what it sounds like with raw
audio being recorded into the mid side mic I haven't edited this audio at all
you're hearing it exactly how it's recorded now I'm going to record my
guitar using the mid side mic and again it's not edited at all
alright so now I'm going to do an audio test of the preamps that are built into
the Zoom H6 and I'm using a mic that requires quite a bit of gain this is the
shure sm57 it uses a lot of gain and normally I use a Triton FEThead with it
so I can reduce the gain but right now I have it connected direct to the zoom h6
and what you're hearing is the raw audio and I have the gain level set to 7 on
the H6 right now and this is what you're hearing this is the raw audio it hasn't
been edited at all and one thing to know is if you want to plug in an electric
guitar into the zoom h6 it doesn't include a hi-Z input but you can still
get a decent level with plugging an electric guitar into it I just recommend
using a DI so you get the best possible level if you want to see my 20-plus tips
and tricks for using the zoom h6 click up here or click down here to see what
youtube thinks you should watch next if you liked this video please give it a
thumbs up also subscribe to the channel so you can see more videos from me thank
you so much for watching for simple green tech I'm Zane keep
creating and we'll talk soon