Re: OT: portable audio recorders

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

Yeah - I found the same problem with recording with my H2.

It's excellent for direct line recordings, but you should plug it in
to the HEADPHONE jack of your board (not the tape out jack) with 1/4"
to 1/8" stereo cable. That way you can control the volume level
feeding into the device.

The H2's ability to turn down the input level really sucks. For
several shows, I tried to turn down the "Recording Level" on the
device. I wound up with recordings that were very quiet, but with just
as much clipping.

When not clipping, the recording quality is excellent - even better
than the mics. I don't get any of that "air noise" that I've been used
to from cassette recorders.

And the most awesome advantage over minidisc? No proprietary file
formats. You just pop out the SD card, plug it into your computer, and
there are the .wav or .mp3 files. (Depending on how you set the
device.)

I'm really hoping to get the video version for "Rigs" videos.

-- 
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt


On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:44 PM, david kirkdorffer <unstrungone@yahoo.com> 
wrote:
> I too have the H2.  Rainer is spot on with this observations.    In my
> rock-band application, this is a problem:
>
>   2) the mic sensitivity switch has three positions. The lowest 
>sensitivity
> is already too sensitive when trying to record an acoustic jazz trio.
>
>
> NOTE: with there "seems" to be an ability to attenuate the signal that 
>you
> can access, it is operating on the converted digital signal AFTER the
> mic/pre-amp where the clipping has already happened.  Drum impacts are 
>often
> the culprit for me.  And the built-in compression systems are no help
> either.  Great for spoken word and lectures however! :-)
>
> So, if your sound pressure levels are less rigorous,  the sound quality 
>of
> the recordings is really  o u t s t a n d i n g .
>
> So, if you work with high sound pressure levels, investigate how any 
>signal
> attenuation is accomplished.
>
> I hope that helps.
>
> David.
>
>
>
>
> From:
> "Rainer Straschill" <moinsound@googlemail.com>
> To:
> "" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Jeff Duke schrieb:
>> I am looking to replace my aging Sony 702 mini disk recorder (still
>> works). Anyone have a recommendation? Budget minded so I was looking at 
>the
>> Zoom H2. I would use it for field recordings and grabbing live gigs on 
>the
>> fly. After reading mixed reviews I thought to ask here for hands on
>> experience.
>>
> I have the Zoom H2. Three things that suck:
>   1) no level adjustment for the line in before the converters
>   2) the mic sensitivity switch has three positions. The lowest 
>sensitivity
> is already too sensitive when trying to record an acoustic jazz trio.
>   3) you need to set date/time info again every time you exchange 
>batteries.
>
> Apart from that, it works fine, really.
>
> So due to (2) aboove, you might have problems with the "live gig" use 
>case.
>
>         Rainer
>
> -- http://moinlabs.de
> Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/moinlabs
>
>