Re:Zoom q3...I like it...honest

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

William Walker wrote:
> Andy sez:

er.........like I said

> 
>> the Q3 has it's microphones at 120 degrees.

this bit here.....

>> Thus  while it works perfectly in Bill's
>> setup to pick up his stereo monitors 



when you're micing up a pair of speakers there's *no*
sound source in the center anyway, it's all "phantom image".
Therefore good result.




>> he plays, it's actually useless as a stereo recorder in most situations.
>> (there simply is no such thing as a stereo recording
>> setup with that config, just produces "hole in the  middle" recordings.)
> 
> OK MR rabbit ears I'm not hearing what you are hearing;-)  

twitch

..and on a visit to the zoom site, there's now no info 
about the 120degree angle.

Of course I'm certain there used to be...
...but...um.

Anyway, this is what Zoom say:-
> Dear Andy Butler,
> 
> Thank you for your inquiry.
> 
> Although the built-in mics of the Q3 have a 120 degree stereo mic 
>configuration,
> I will forward your suggestion to the Q3 development team for future 
>reference.
> 
> The Q3 uses the same microphone capsules as the H4n.
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> ZOOM Corporation.

seems maybe they did take notice...
...and simply removed the information that made their
product less attractive.


> sounded great and this was, again, standing in a position where I 
> favored one side of what I assume was a monoral PA rig. I've Placed it a 
> few feet in front of my acoustic guitar and it sounds excellent as well, 
> the mics are pretty amazing for what they are. Sometimes specs don't 
> tell the whole story.

yep, same with a pa, the recorder isn't being called upon to
reproduce a stereo image.

Those cheap electret capsules very often produce good results.

I've even had really good results recording saz and singing
with a very cheap mic with capsules at 180 degrees . 
I treasure those recordings...and they indeed sound pretty good
...but while that "omni stereo" config is often found 
in mics it's never going to give a good stereo picture.

I've seen some of your NAMM YouTube footage, and the H3
certainly works brilliantly in that context too.
Luckily the wide mic angle helps to capture your
comments which are made *behind* the camera.




> 
>>
>> A real shame that Zoom crippled the product like that,

The Zoom H2 also has a (second) set of mics at 120degrees.
I've been able to test those in comparison with
the 90degree config, and my conclusion was that they
produce an inferior stereo image.

I don't buy the idea that the audio setup matches the
video field of view...it would have to be ultra wide angle
fish eye spectacular.

Perhaps "crippled" is an overstatement, but for
anyone wanting to get results as good as the H2,
or H4(?) this is a deal breaker...and it didn't
need to be. 


>> seems they realized the mistake and equipped the new H1
>> with the correct 90 degree angle.
> 
> 
> Ok , I'm going to don my turban and look in to my crystal ball and 
> predict they will release an updated version with improvements to the 
> original, with hopefully the following upgrades. A line in to take a 
> direct signal and or a pair of mic pres like the H4

Dunnow about the H4 mic-pres, but those
on the H2 are universally reviled.
The line in on the H2 is also noticeably disappointing,
I'd guess it's  simply attenuated and fed to the mic pres. 


> and a line out that 
> does not pass signal from the mics unless you want it to, making it 

The H2 has that in it's menus,
there's a monitor on/off setting.

Surely the H3 has that?



> Also an editor librarian that made it easy to 
> extract the audio from the video if you like how something turned out 
> but the video image was boring or embarrassing and you wanted to toss 
> it. 

yep, or they could put an "extract audio" command in there somewhere,
along the lines of the "encode to mp3" feature the h2 has for audio.

>lastly it would be cool if there was some zoom capability  but now 
> I'm wishing for too much. The Q3 is in no way a perfect product but it 
> is really easy to use and download, and it sounds great. As far as 
> crippling the product, its sold really well for them so some folks are 
> happy. I really dig mine though if I was solely interested in audio 
> quality I would have picked the H4.
> Bill

The H2 is also by no means a perfect product...I'm very happy
it...but I'd only recommend it for a limited number of applications.

The ability to unobtrusively record an acoustic instrument (when
used on a little camera stand) is most satisfactory.
(and portability is 100%)

I'd love to be able to recommend the H1...it *should* be an excellent
product...it *should* give similar results to the H2, be easier to use,
and solve the record level issues, but I don't trust Zoom not to produce 
an inferior product
and rely on sales-speak  to sell it.
(try asking them *why* the latest Zoom capsules on the newer products
 are "better"....they won't answer).


andy