Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder by Zoom
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List Price: Our Price: Calculated in a shopping cart Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Musical Instruments See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder
Digital camera Review: great recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
very simple to use.
quick, n easy.
no problem getting the recording onto the computer.
Digital camera Review: Awesome for Band Sessions!
Summary: 4 Stars
The Zoom H2 is needed for every musician. I use it at all of my band practices, out takes, and for my own solo stuff. When you listen to the recordings, you will be amazed that it came from this lil mic. Its durable... I have dropped this thing coutless times and its still going strong. I suggest getting the rubber protector that they make because the H2 is very unstable with out the stand. Let me also mention that I have been using this mic successfully with my PC. It connects and you can download all your recordings, just drag and drop. Aside from being able to record in 4 Ch. Surround Sound, you can use it as a mic input for your PC. I have used it for all of my mmorpg's, and it sounds great, and in stereo. This also means its great if you want to create your own podcast or whatever. Havent tried the H4, but it looks like it just has the XLR jack. Could be wrong. Hope this helps.Digital camera Review: Fantasic field/live music recorder.
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this as a hopeful solution to do simple foley and ADR work for small independent shorts. In a word, it's fantastic.
The first thing that I notice was the wealth of accessories that came with the unit. Simple things that increased the flexibility of the unit. The unit has a standard screw in tripod mount in the bottom of it, so that it can be attached to any tripod. In addition to THIS, it comes with a screw in microphone adapter that will turn it into a microphone. It comes with an alternative AC power adapter, and even has a tiny foot stand and a windscreen, not to mention a 512MB SD card. None of these accessories scream "must buy", but it made a BIG impression on me that a company thought enough about the customer to make their product that much more convenient.
The use of the device itself is EXTREMELY simple. One button switches the active microphones, then a press of the record button activates the meters, as well as letting sound pass through to headphones if you have them plugged in, this will make the record light FLASH. You have a Low/Medium/High gain switch, I found Low gain recorded a live show at a club very cleanly... surprisingly so. I recorded some foley for a short film at the medium gain setting, and recorded the nighttime chirping of crickets with the High setting. All were flawless. People have mentioned the 3 gain settings as a bad thing... but they are very hand and the <> buttons adjust the recording level so that you dont peak even if your source is too loud for the current setting: For Example, if you set the gain for medium, but are recording gunshots at close range, you will peak. Setting to Low may still peak... in that case you can adjust the recording level between 1-127 (default is 100) and by backing it off to 80 or so you may get your good level. One valid complaint is that it doesn't tell if you HAVE peaked... but for most recording this isn't a problem at all. If your source is EXTREMELY quiet, you can setting it to the HIGH setting and if thats not enough you can set the level up to 127. You can monitor this level the whole time with headphones as well... when you press the record button the second time, the record light goes SOLID and you are recording. A third press stops the recording and it records to whatever format you have selected and stores it in folders for you which you can simply drag and drop from the unit via USB or use the SD card in a computer for the same access.
I would find it hard to believe in most cases this unit wouldn't cover most needs. Beats the CRAP out of having to use a DAT recorder and HQ stereo shotguns. This is superior to dragging a laptop around and has simplified SO MANY things that used to be a logistics challenge. You just pick it up and go out and record in HQ stereo.
The quick start guide is very useful and instruction manual will detail you in on the complete features and usage... I run all my dialog sound through a boom stereo shotgun, but for ADR, Foley, etc... this thing is AMAZING. To me, the value of this thing is such that the H2 would be a steal at $800. The fact that it runs on 2 AA batteries for 6+ is just AWESOME, since you can take it location scouting or get a room tone and mimic any environment without setting up mics etc as simply as showing up in the environment, recording a few minutes, and then you are done. When set-up and breakdown are as simple as taking it out of your pocket and putting it back in, you aren't wasting ANY time, and that's GOLDEN.
Digital camera Review: GREAT TOOL
Summary: 4 Stars
THIS PRODUCT IS SIMPLE TO USE, IT HAS GREAT RECORDING QUALITY. IT WOULD BE A GREAT THING TO HAVE FOR THE SONG WRITER. TO POST MUSIC TO A WEBSITE OR DOWNLOAD SOME MUSIC. IT HAS SOME LIMITATIONS, SUCH AS THE FOLDER MANAGING. THE DISPLAY IS A LITTLE EYE STRAINING. BUT OVERALL, A GREAT TOOL. I RECOMMEND IT.Digital camera Review: ZOOM H2 PORTABLE MP3 RECORDER
Summary: 5 Stars
Superb recorder with very hi fidelity reproduction of recorded sound. My wife uses this for her singing lessons. She finds it slightly difficult to use but when the right buttons are pressed its a cinch. WOuld recommned it highly to anyone wanting to record conferences, music or singing lessons etc