Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

I decided to buy myself a holiday present - a Zoom H2 “Handy Recorder.” It is indeed, handy! As little background, I’ve been looking at buying a field recorder for quite a while (about 6 months). I first went with a MicroTrack II, which I decided to promptly return. The $299.99 price tag was a bit steep for what it provided and what I needed. Instead decided to go with either the Zoom H2 or the Zoom H4.

After reading the several reviews, I was pretty confidant that I would be purchasing an H2 or but wanted to consider the H4. I had read all of the articles that are below and then some and was confidant that one of those two units would serve me best. The only question now was which unit?

Luckily the store had a demo of each unit though at the time neither had batteries or an SD card (the data storage medium). So, in reality all I could look at was the physical unit — I couldn’t test them. I looked at the two units (keep in mind, they are built by the same company) and I felt that the H4’s center navigation dial was a bit flimsily (I think the O’Reilly H4 article touches on this). I had also read (in the same O’Reilly H4 article) that the 4 track functionally of the H4 was a bit clunky. Though, I don’t/didn’t need this functionally, I’d still be paying for it. Don’t get me wrong, it’d be nice to have - but it is not needed. In the end these two things didn’t help the H4…

The final aspect of my decision (a contributing factor, if you will) was the fact that I could not return the Zoom H4. In conclusion, I’ve come across both negative and positive feedback on the H4 and for my money I couldn’t take the chance…

In the end, after reviewing the features of the H2, learning what it has to offer, inspecting the demo unit, considering the $199.99 price tag and the articles I’ve read I decided to go with the H2. From what I could remember, all of the articles were fairly positive.

To be fair to M-Audio and the MicroTrack II, it isn’t that I didn’t like the unit. The audio it recorded was fabulous. However, I didn’t feel that the unit completely suited me. It truly was not the unit I had come looking for. The salesmen suggested it. I’m not a field recorder or sound expert; and hence made a decision to the best of my ability. I suggest you read any articles you can before selecting one for your use. This is why I’m posting this article about the Zoom H2, I want to share what I know about it.

Articles

The following are some of the articles I’ve read on Field Recorders and Multi-Track Recorders:

Sweetwater.com

Buying Guide: http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/studio/recorders-players/buying-guide.php

O’Reilly

H4: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/02/01/review-zoom-h4-handy-recorder.html
H2: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/09/13/review-zoom-h2-surround-recorder.html
MicroTrack 24/96: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/11/30/m-audio-microtrack-review.html
Edirol R-09: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2006/08/31/edirol-r-09-digital-recorder-review.html

bradlinder.net (Blog)

http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/m-audio-microtrack-ii-available-for-299.html

Wikipedia

I found these articles while writing this article. I had not seen these before making my purchase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H4_Handy_Recorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_H2_Handy_Recorder

Note: These are not all of the articles I have read, I this is all I can re-find. Had I thought about it, I would have saved each article.