opinions on the Zoom H2?

[Corey Sherman]

I've been looking at digital recorders for a while now. I'll be honest, the Zoom H2 stood out at first because it's prived very cheap. But after reading some reviews, I'm wondering what other musicians have to say about it. Some reviews said it felt very cheap and breakable. Should I get this, or should I look into something else? Any suggestions or comments would be very helpful.
Thanks.

[Todd GT5]

Cory,
I have been using the zoom H2 for almost a year now. I record every practice, and email select songs to the rest of the band. I mainly bought it because of the price, but it seems to work great. I mount it on a camera tripod and just turn it on before each song. Recently we had to go to practicing with headphones and electric drums due to neighbor/noise problems, and I now line in to the H2 right from our board. We get pretty much demo quality takes on it like that. It worked well with the built-in mikes, we just always seemed to have the music loud compared to the vocals.

I would recommend it for sure.
- Todd

[burnunit]

I love mine and strongly recommend it. Great for recording practices.

[MisterV619]

I love mine as well. Plus you have the option of buying more storage memory. I use rechargeable batteries. Only advice is to have it plugged in to usb or the power adapter when you remove the batteries, otherwise you'll have to reprogram the time and date.

[Big Joe]

Excellent sound quality. Hard to believe how good it sounds actually, once you get the levels set right with the mix in the room and get optimal placement, it sounds unbelievable.

It's very easy to record with.

It's very easy to sync up to computer to burn to disc.

It is inexpensive, especially used.

I'd say that it's no more fragile than your standard Tascam 4-track or plastic cell phone. Treat it gently enough (i.e. in it's own compartment of a gigbag or bookbag) and you'll have no issues. It certainly isn't made of eggshells but I wouldn't throw it loosely in with a bunch of loose effect pedals either.

The only issue I've ever had with it was that it would clip a little bit in small rooms but that was only when there were volume wars going on and typically only with loud snare hits because we had to place it close to the drum kit to get away from the guitars.

[J.D.B.]

That and their H4's are great values, I use the hell out of mine and it ALWAYS comes through. Their customer service is good, too!

Josh

[James Hart]

one of the best / most useful pieces of gear I've bought.

[tom e smith]

Do a search on it. There are some good threads with samples in the forum.

[jimmy.timms]

I have an H4 that I have used for live recordings and as an audio interface for Garage Band on the notebook. As said, if you take care of them they hold up well. I got to borrow two AKG D441's once and plug them into it. The quality was surprisingly good.

[wildhorse]

I've been recording for over 40 years in one fashion or another.
The Zoom H2 is the best 200 bucks I've ever spent.

Take a listen
www.myspace.com/thebuckhornboys

All songs were recorded with the H2. Pink Paisley and Workin Man Blues
just last weekend. I've found the sweet spot in the room on these last 2 recordings.

It's sturdy but just like anything don't drop it.
Buy it !

[HailCorduroy]

I bought one about 3 weeks ago and in my opinion, I've already got $200 worth of use out of it. I've recorded all our practices and emailed a copy of all our songs to the band so they can practice with it through the week. We were able to get some music up on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/Spookhand). I bought a 4 Gb card for $13 and I can record for over 3 hours in 4 track CD quality.

Like someone else said, it's not made of eggshells, but it doesn't look like it would stand up to much abuse. I spent an extra $20 at Sam Ash to buy the 3 year warranty.

[wkbryan]

I've been using mine for about a year and a half and have never been disappointed with it. I've used it as a mic for recording with Audacity, recorded live stuff, practice stuff, used the built in mic, used the line in, used the built-in compression, and the auto-start feature. It has all worked great, especially considering it only costs $200. I don't know how much abuse it would take but I'm reasonably careful with mine and have had absolutely no issues with it and would get another one if it was stolen.

[spigmu]

For the price for standalone use it's a no brainer. It does have a cheap feel but I've had mine since they came out and have not been gentle with it and it's never hiccuped or fallen apart. That said, there are two negatives worth noting: the mic inputs are poorly designed. If you use a $300 stereo mic you get a recording inferior to the built in mics. So for purposes where you either can't place the H2 itself in the sweet spot for recording or you want to upgrade the quality a notch, it's a factor. (You could get a mini mic/preamp solution and go into the line in, but that defeats the purpose of spending so little to record. You might as well get one of the $500 boxes.) Also, I don't like the interface. If you need to get to different settings quickly there's too much toggling to menus and toggling to options for 90% of the settings. The power switch and input H/M/L levels are the only hard switches on it, and the membrane soft buttons for the transport work fine but you need to double check visually that it did what you thought you made it do. Another thing is that since the mics aren't protruding (they're under the screen) the whole H2 is like a mic. So you can't really record with it in your pocket or bag and have the mic outside too effectively. That would be a job for another recorder.

But for the price I've been very happy. Great for rehearsals and non-critical stuff. The onboard mics sound very good and there's no issue with self noise.

[Corey Sherman]

Thanks for the replies everyone. What I've collected so far is that (Pros) Good quality, bank for the buck, and it IS fairly durable (I'll probably get a warranty for it). But (cons) the quality could be a bit better, and the interface take a while to get through. Am I missing anything? Would you suggest using an external mic with it all the time or at all?

[Steve]

You're gonna spend a butt load of money before you get mics that sound better than the four that are under the screen.

I think zoom put the vast majority of manufacturing cost into the mics.
The software to my ears is mediocre at best and can be done faster, better in almost anything else you can find free.

The Audacity MP3 compression is cleaner and brighter, auto gain and compression on the H2 software pumps audibly...

All I ever record is .wav and then work the file with outboard gear and I'm way happier with the result.

Zoom put the money in the right place IMHO

[EskimoBassist]

Originally Posted by Todd GT5

Cory,
I have been using the zoom H2 for almost a year now. I record every practice, and email select songs to the rest of the band. I mainly bought it because of the price, but it seems to work great. I mount it on a camera tripod and just turn it on before each song. Recently we had to go to practicing with headphones and electric drums due to neighbor/noise problems, and I now line in to the H2 right from our board. We get pretty much demo quality takes on it like that. It worked well with the built-in mikes, we just always seemed to have the music loud compared to the vocals.

I would recommend it for sure.
- Todd

I totally agree with everything you've just said! Our singer just bought one and it is totally indespensable, we too record every practice and listen back it all at the end, use it live tor eview our performances and it's also really good for just quickly recording your ambient noodling and killer parts that otherwise you would probably forget.

For the price it can't be beaten, the quality of the 3 condenser mics in it give a fantastic sound and the software it comes with isn't bad either. Zoom have just release a new firmware upgrade as wel enabling you to use even bigger SD cards, ie more memory so more recording time!

I know my band already has one to use, but I'm seriously considering buying one myself too!