Today's video is going to be a conversation on whether
it's better to use a bunch of dedicated devices,
each completing their tasks perfectly,
or one impressively consolidated device that can accomplish
all those same tasks but with some minor limitations,
and our guinea pig for this topic is the Zoom F6.
Let's get Undone. [offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪ ♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and I'm the very model of a Modern Major General.
So, normally I'd hold the device that I'm talking about
so I can point at things, but that's not gonna work today
because I'm recording this audio on the Zoom F6 right now,
both internally on its SD card, but also via USB
to Adobe Audition so that I have a redundant recording
and so that I can compare the differences between the internal
32-bit float recording and the 24-bit that's sent to my DAW.
And I'm also gonna use the F6 as my audio interface
for editing this video and mixing the audio,
both with my headphones and with my studio monitors.
And I've already done this process a couple times
to feel confident enough to make this video,
but if for some reason I run into any issues,
I'm sure Editor Gerald from the future would chime in right
about now to tell us if there were any unforeseen problems.
So given that I'm still talking to you now,
I'm guessing everything went smoothly.
Now, normally for this process, I would use a combination
of devices. If I was recording at my desk, I would do all the
interfacing and Audition stuff with my Steinberg UR22mkII,
which, for the most part, is a pretty darn good interface
for the money. I have experienced two issues
with it, however. One, the headphone volume isn't
the greatest, and it does struggle to drive my DT 770s.
And two, I've been experiencing audio drift in my recordings.
Some of you might remember me talking about this
in previous videos, where I always had to rate
stretch my recordings by the smallest percent
to get it to line up with my in-camera scratch audio.
I tried everything to fix this: different software,
different drivers, ensuring the sample rates
and frame rates were reporting correctly
and consistent across the workflow,
and no matter what, it always drifted just a tiny bit.
It wasn't really noticeable until you recorded
over 10 to 15 minutes, but it always kind of bugged me.
Well, I never really figured out what the cause was,
but I can say it's completely gone away
since moving my workflow over to the Zoom F6,
so it must have been something to do with the Steinberg.
The Zoom F6 also has a more powerful headphone output.
It's still not amazing, but it's noticeably better than
the Steinberg, and enough for me to be satisfied.
But I don't really drive that stiff of headphones either; the
worst I'm dealing with are about 80 ohms with medium sensitivity.
Now, switching from a unit that was intended more for music
and combining guitar and vocals, I do notice a difference
in the character of the sound on the F6.
Stuff like this is always hard to describe, but I'd say
the Zoom F6 is cleaner and tighter but a bit more sterile.
You could argue that the other interfaces are warmer
and smoother and more bassy, but you could also argue that
they're sloppier and that the vocals aren't as crisp.
And since the F6 is used a lot in dialogue recording,
having those clean, pronounced vocals is a big advantage.
And for music that's mixed with precise,
almost isolated-sounding instrumentation,
the F6 actually sounds more lively and detailed.
But if you like a smooth, blended sound profile,
you might find this a tad harsh.
Now, all of these characteristics are somewhat
subtle, though, and this is just based on my ears,
but it has grown on me quite a bit for the music that
I listen to, and the dialogue recordings are very sharp.
Now, for location work, obviously,
my USB audio interface wasn't really a good solution,
so I'd use a field recorder as well.
But with the Zoom F6, it serves both purposes and is
much more robust and featured compared to the
smaller handheld recorders that I was previously using.
There's three things it's lacking, though,
when compared to something like the Steinberg UR22mkII,
and I have solutions for half of them.
So... 1.5 solutions.
First, it doesn't accept instrument-level input.
In fact, it doesn't even have a TRS input socket, just XLR.
But even if you adapted your guitar, let's say, with an
XLR cable, it's not able to deal with that signal because it has
no Hi-Z switch or capable port, so you'll need to route your
guitar first through your amplifier or direct box.
It does accept line-level inputs from instruments, though, like a
keyboard, but again, you'll need to use an XLR connector.
It also doesn't have an auxiliary in,
which is usually in the form of a 3.5-millimetre jack.
But because you can combine XLR inputs into stereo pairs,
you can use a splitter cable that goes from 3.5 mm to two
XLRs and then just link the two inputs together in the menu.
The third limitation, which is the one that
I dislike the most, is the lack of balanced outputs.
The only line out on this other than the headphone jack is a
3.5 mm unbalanced stereo output, which is good for going to
a camera, as it operates at the consumer line level of -10 DB,
but it's not great for studio monitors, which is what
I usually have connected to my USB audio interface.
And this is probably the biggest area where
it falls short from my experiment to see
if I could get the Zoom F6 to replace all of my devices.
Now, I've managed to make it work reliably,
but there is a bit more white noise than I'd usually
get from the balanced outputs on my Steinberg.
I'm using a breakout cable that goes from the 3.5 mm TRS
plug to two mono female 1/4-inch sockets, then I'm running my
balanced 1/4-inch TRS cables to my monitors from those sockets.
Now, I wasn't expecting the balanced cables to make a
difference at this stage because the line out is unbalanced,
but they do offer a cleaner and quieter result.
Perhaps it's just from better shielding, but they worked
better than just using a standard unbalanced Y cable.
Now, the line out doesn't have its own volume knob,
only the headphones do, so this next workaround is one that
I'm a little bit proud of, but I'm also impressed by
the F6 for letting me do this by having a very thorough menu.
So first, my advice is not to use this in the audio
interface mode because that will remove two functions: first,
the ability to record to the SD card as a backup,
which also means no 32-bit float recording.
And again, there'll be no way to control the volume
of the line out. By the way, for those of you they don't know
what the advantage of this recorder's 32-bit mode is,
let me explain very briefly and probably poorly.
So, the F6 has two ADCs- two converters that
are taking your mic signal and converting it to digital.
And they're tuned to different intensities,
not unlike cameras with dual ISO that let you switch
to a different amp to get a cleaner image.
Well, the 32-bit float allows the Zoom F6 to record from both
of those ADCs at the same time and mix them together
in a seamless way so that you maximize your dynamic range,
minimize noise, and because 32-bit float allows
for values higher than zero DB, you can record sounds above zero
DB that would normally clip on other recorders,
and then bring them back down to below zero DB in post,
undoing that clipping and preserving the recording
as if it never exceeded zero DB in the first place.
This is a pretty handy feature to have for unpredictable
situations where you don't have the ability to monitor
the audio as closely as you'd like, so to maintain that
feature while connected via USB, I recommend using the
"AIF with Record" feature, which lets you do both simultaneously.
The only limitation is that your sample rate
can't exceed 48 kilohertz, where you could get 96 kilohertz
when in the dedicated interface mode, but that's
no big deal for dialog recording anyway.
But the big advantage is that when you're in "AIF with Record"
mode, you can set your inputs to USB, and those can
be controlled with the fader knobs.
And just like we did with the auxiliary XLR adapter,
we can set the two inputs to the left and the right
USB channels and then link them, and then control the
volume of the incoming USB signal with the fader knobs.
And because they're linked, you only need to adjust
one knob, effectively making that
a line out volume for a USB audio interface.
And the way you stop this from be redundant with the headphone
volume knob for when you're using headphones is that you can
send pre-fader sound to your headphones by choosing
different routing options for it in the output menu.
Because when you're in "AIF with Record" mode,
there's new options for USB, so you can assign USB to go
directly to the headphones without being affected by
the fader, but then have the knob that we set up for the
fader to go to the line out, allowing you to control separate
levels coming through your monitors and your
headphones at the same time without any overlap.
Like I said, I'm proud of this configuration,
but I'm also very pleased that you can do it with the
F6 because all it would have taken is the removal of some
of the items from the menu and this wouldn't be possible.
Customization is king, and I love that all
these options are included. Now just give me some balanced
outputs like the TA3s on the F8, and I couldn't be happier.
Now, this method does tie up two of your XLR ports,
but the Zoom F6 offers a better dollar per input ratio
than the competition, so I don't mind having only four
free jacks left, ‘cause that's all I would really ever need.
Now, I don't want to get too abstract and start
describing the nuances in the preamps when recording by mic.
All I can say is that you're hearing me right now
through those preamps, and I think some of the previous
comments that I made about it being tight
and sterile-- not as warm, but precise-- still play.
Zoom uses excellent preamps, and I'm very satisfied.
The inputs are locking and feel very good.
The unit has a metal exterior build,
and it feels like solid construction.
It's got three power options: AA batteries,
Sony L-Series batteries, and USB power.
And it runs off of USB power while using it as an interface,
so you don't need to supply a dedicated 5-volt
separate of your data connection like some devices.
Just a single cable will do. The main thing I think
people will complain about with the build is the form factor
and the cramped feeling. Now, I don't really mind, personally.
I'm not using this in a sound bag, and even though
I have giant hands, I haven't actually found
the buttons or dials difficult, but I can totally appreciate
and understand the complaints I've heard from people who
do find them to be a bit crowded or small,
or those who wonder why it was built more cube-style
instead of your typical flatter rectangle.
It doesn't bother me, but it's something to consider.
The Zoom F6 also offers timecode, which is great,
but there's something quirky about it that I want
to talk about because this might be something that
can be addressed with firmware, but if not,
I have a workaround for the timecode problem
when using this device with the Blackmagic Pocket 4K.
So, the Zoom F6 has full timecode capabilities,
both sending and receiving, and a dedicated port to do that.
And it works well, it keeps good time,
and I love that it's included. However, it sends its timecode
out of the right channel on a typical 3.5 mm TRS cable,
and it receives it back on the left channel.
Now, the Pocket 4K only receives timecode, but it does so also on
the left channel. So if you connect it to the F6, it won't
recognize the timecode regardless of whether you use
a TRS cable or a TS cable because both are listening
on the same channel, and neither is sending.
Now, I was able to make this work by adding an adapter to the
one end of my TRS cable, which converts from stereo to mono.
This basically consolidates the signal coming from the F6,
including the timecode on the right channel,
and combines it into a single channel, which is seen
as left when using the mono adapter on the Pocket 4K.
And that works to effectively sync the Pocket to the F6,
but remember to put the adapter on the Blackmagic side,
because it doesn't work if you put it on the Zoom side
because of the same channel misalignment.
Right now, I'm actually using the timecode from the F6
coming out stereo, if you will, out of the F6, and then mono
into the Blackmagic, and it's working fine.
And I mention firmware because I think this could be a nice menu
option to add to the F6, the ability to switch which is
the "send" and which is the "receive" channel.
That way, when you're pairing it with a camera like
the Blackmagic, you could just choose "left" instead
of "right" to send the timecode, and then you'd receive it on
the opposite one. So hopefully, that's something that could be
added to the menu in the future because it'd be handy
to be able to customize your timecode in and out depending
on which camera it's connected with. One thing I wasn't
expecting was the lack of stuff in the box.
It's really only the unit itself and the camera bracket.
There's no cables whatsoever. Now, this isn't so much
of a complaint, but more of a surprise that made the unboxing
experience kind of underwhelming. It did come with
AA batteries, though, which isn't something you see
too often these days. Overall, I really, really like the Zoom F6.
I can definitely recommend it, and this model here is one
that I purchased myself, and I'm keeping.
I love the versatility, the sound quality,
and the customization, but I don't love the lack
of balanced outputs or the reliance on adapters
to make it do everything I want it to do.
But that brings us back to my opening question: do you think
it's better to have one device, that with an adapter here
and a fun menu tweak there, you can make it do
everything you need, or would you rather run multiple
dedicated devices without the need for tweaking, but requiring
more gear and the drawbacks that come with that? And do you have
an example of this in your life? Even if it's not about
audio or cameras, but where you've consolidated all your
devices into one monstrosity that does it all. I'd love to
hear about your experiences in the comments below
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
entertaining, or at least helpful. And if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs-up, and consider
subscribing if you haven't already. But if you did not find
this video entertaining or helpful, well, then it may be
time for you to get a firmware update.
Alright... I'm done.