Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times before. I did a search but couldn't find anything in old topics.

My zoom arrived today (yay!) and I am trying to record and it seems to be doing everything OK until I attempt to playback.

Now I admit to being a technophobe but are you supposed to be able to playback on the unit itself or do you have to connect it to something? The screen seems to be counting through an STE.... file but no sound and I can't see a speaker anywhere where the sound would come out.... HELP!!!

The Zoom has no external speakers. If you have a set of headphones with a jack that fits the Zoom, you're home free and can listen to your files. Any 1/8" computer or CD player phones will work. Without headphones you'll have to transfer the files to your computer to hear through its speakers.

Good luck, I know you'll enjoy your Zoomie.

PS - I forgot to mention that your Zoom has a headphone port.

Fabulous. Thanks for that. Can I ask another question? I can't find anything on the manual about deleting files. Is there anyway to delete unwanted files on the ZOOM itself or do I have to load the card into my PC to do it?

You can delete by using the "Jog" button on the Zoom and delete files one at a time. My preference is to use the USB cable (without even turning on the Zoom power button) wait for the window to give you the option to "Connect to PC", jog to that option, push in the jog button, a new (temporary) drive is created on the computer, highlight the .ste files you wish to delete and let the computer delete them. This is much faster than the one-after-the-next using the Zoom. BTW, with the power button off, the Zoom gets its power from the computer through the USB cable.

Either of these methods keeps you from having to remove the SD memory card. I failed to mention that the Zoom itself is a stand alone SD card reader.

Hope this helps,

G'day

Ah! That helps alot. Presumably, I can also play the files from the laptop, if I have it connected to the PC, without having to remove the SD card. Thanks for your quick replies. I shall go and do some more playing with it.

I love the way the Zoom works in terms of audio quality, but whoever designed that user interface needs to take some classes at Apple. NOTHING is intuitive on that thing.

However for the sound quality you get for that price, a clunky UI is nothing to complain about.

You can say that again! Even listening to it with headphones was not intuitive, as I initially stuck my headphones logically enough in the jack that says "phone" and got no sound. Turns out I had to put it in the jack that says "line". Go figure.

Shimmer, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to delete and rename files on the Zoom unit itself. Use the USB cable and do it all via your computer, where it's a snap.

Thanks. I was starting to think it was just me that didn't find this a piece of cake. I sat down and read the manual last night. I have 4 more questions (if you don't mind:

1 - Does anyone use auto gain or do you just leave the level at 100?
2 - Do you use L or M to record acoustic piano
3 - Do you use the software that came with it (Cubase) or Audacity? I couldn't get Cubase to work. It kept giving me errors during the setup.
4 - Do you simply open the file in audacity/cubase and normalise or do you need to do anything else to the file? I tried it last night just normalising but it didn't sound anywhere near as good as the recordings people have posted (perhaps it's just my playing )

Hey shimmer,

I'm going to post a link to boxnet.com which is a free storage site used by many here in the forums. I recommend it to you.

http://www.box.net/public/zlb7uhh70a

I recorded this piece by Chopin with the following settings on the Zoom:

On the right side of the Zoom "Input 1" is set on "L" and "Input 2" is set on "L" I have the Zoom approximately 3 feet from my piano and tried "Auto Gain" but it distorted the sound, so, I have the "Mic" set to "L" as well. I don't know where you are getting the number "100" or why it is used.

Now, with the gain set to "L" and the Zoom close to the distance I use, recordings are stored in .wav format...which makes huge files. Cubase, IMO, is a piece of garbage. Download and install "Audacity", follow the instructions for getting the .dll file it needs (it will tell you how.)

After Audacity is up and running, open a Zoom .ste .wav file and in the edit menu select "all" which will highlight the entire file. Next, go to the effects menu in Audacity and click "normalize". In the file menu select "export entire project as .mp3" and choose a directory for saving the file. Name the file in the pop-up box (you don't need to fill out all the info in this box.) Check to see that the file was exported as an .mp3 in the directory you specified. If it's there you can now go back to Audacity and delete the file since you have it in both .wav and .mp3 formats. Pay no attention to Audacity's request to save the project elsewhere. It's not as complicated as understanding my instructions. Audacity wants to save the .wav file in many small segments that you don't need if you have your initial .wav and your new .mp3 saved where you can play them independently from Audacity.

You should notice your sound quality nearly equal to the Chopin example enclosed.

Good luck!

Thank you Liztener. You've come to my rescue yet again. Wow! That was beautiful. Now I see why there are so many threads dedicated to Chopin. I also now see what my problem is .... I can't play like you!!!

OK. I was recording them on M and as mp3 (I think 100 is the default for mp3 but you can go in and change it within that complicated menu.
I'm off to try the way you suggest and will post it if I can get it to work

Thanks again!

Shimmer, I'd suggest using the autogain function. You have to go through a bit of a rigmarole to get it turned on, but once it's on it's always on. Then, after the first time you press the red dot, it starts to flash, and at that point play the loudest part of your piece. Then you press the red dot again to record for real. The zoom uses your loud sample to automatically set the mic gain (ideally) to get a good sound level.

The settings for Input 1 and 2 are applicable only if you're plugging in external mics; otherwise, it's just the mic setting that counts, and I keep mine on "Low" (medium was giving me distortion). If medium is working for you, that's good...but if you're getting distortion, try "low" and auto-gain, and normalize if necessary.

Good luck!

Shimmer,

I'm glad to hear that you are up and recording with your Zoom. Now, it's a matter of tweaking it to get the best performance. Both recordings you made sound great to me, especially considering your experience.

I purchased a larger (2GB) SD card for my Zoom. This permits recordings that exceed the approximately 12 minute maximum with the 128MG card included with your purchase.

Your clipping sound is caused by over modulation. I had this problem as well using the auto gain function. Try auto gain on low mic setting and if it continues to distort, turn off the auto gain. Normalizing in Audacity will bring your volume up to acceptable levels.

.wav format is the closest you can get to CD quality, so, get the LAME .dll file and put it in the same folder as your Audacity program. This should permit exporting .wav to .mp3. If done correctly, it will work...as attested to by many others who have done it.

Congratulations on getting it to work and on your beautiful play.

Keep up the good work.

shimmer,

Addition to last post:

To save .wav as .mp3 using Audacity go to "Export Selection As Mp3"