Monica - pages 82-3, steps 1-4

Thanks much! I was not able to try it out last night, but I did open the box and was a bit intimidated to find an 89-page instruction manual. I'm hoping that most of those pages are for esoteric functions I'll never use and that it really will be plug-and-play. Otherwise it will be a long time before you hear any samples from me.

Load Cubase on your PC before connecting USB cable to h4. All the "drivers" are there and then the PC will recognize the h4 automatically.

There's a "simple recording guide" on a single sheet of paper outside the manual. That'll get you started.

At step 3 in the simple guide, I found the center position on the "mic gain" switch to be best for using the built-in mics to record piano.

Other things: I use the 44.1 kHz setting (button 3) to record a WAV file.

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Just picked up a pair of 2G cards. After rebate, $44 each at Best Buy.

Cheers!

OMG, I am SO PSYCHED! I got my Zoom H4, and standing on the shoulders of giants (Ragtime and Sir Lurksalot), quickly figured out how to work it. And here is the result:

"Nefeli" by Ludovico Einaudi, recorded on Zoom H4

Couple of observations:

(a) Forgive the mistakes. I was so eager to figure this out and get it uploaded that I only tried a couple of takes. And have mercy on me for posting something outside the warm fuzzy confines of the AB forum. Listen to the recording quality and not my playing and remember that I have been playing for less than 2 1/2 years.

(b) For those of you not familiar with the piece, that abrupt stop about 2/3 through is supposed to be there.

(c) I chose this piece because, first, I had it memorized, and second, because it's what I played in the last recital, so the truly compulsive of you out there can go to the "recital 3" thread stickied at the top of the AB forum and hear the difference between the Zoom and the same piece played by the same person on the same piano recorded with a Samson condensor mic instead.

(d) when I compare the two mp3 files, the Zoom file is noticeably quieter. I was recording with the gain on the lowest setting. Having now just read Ragtime's note above, I will try again ratcheting it up a notch.

(e) I also put the Zoom on "auto gain", which I read about in the manual, as I figured that any automatic gain setting would do a better job of setting the levels than I would messing around with something I don't fully understand. But nobody here mentioned using the auto gain setting so now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have used it.

(f) I didn't have to fuss with downloading any of those converter programs. On a whim I tried opening the Zoom .wav file in audacity, which it did, and then I just saved it as an mp3 file using audacity/lame, which I already knew how to do.

(g) This really is an incredibly easy system to use.[/b] Y'all know I am a computer dummy. I got this up and running in less than an hour.

I will also say that I am pleased with the sound quality. It looks like I can do normalizing etc. with the file in audacity if I want to, so I may fool around with that in the future. But I'm happy with the files as they are.

Call me a Zoomette. Or Zoomophile. Whatever. I am just so thrilled with this system.

Beautiful job Monica. And the 'A' sounds great too.

Thanks, Sir Lurksalot!

Oh, and here's another tip you guys probably already knew, but just in case... changing the file names is a real pain in the butt on the Zoom unit. But if you plug it into your computer, the computer treats it as another hard drive and you can rename the files very easily there.

Now *I* have trouble at home. My wife wants me to learn classical music! (She says you play beautifully; I want to hear peace piece). Good job, Monica. --G

Monica,

Very nice indeed, especially the dynamic shading of the various sections. I think this is the first time I have (knowingly) heard a Mason & Hamlin piano, and I am starting to understand what all the fuss is about! I got a 'shipment confirmation' email from Music123 this morning, so depending on how long my H4 takes wend its way here, I'll soon be in Zoomland too .

-Michael B.

Okay, here is our first effort - my 12-year-old son's semi-improvised arrangement of a gospel standard.

http://www.box.net/public/mt42moonr1

I've changed the above link to a much quicker one.

...he says after I waited 7 minutes to download from savefile! Yes, boxnet appears to work much better.

My compliments to your son, Sir Lurksalot, and tell him I had to suppress a jealous impulse because not only does he play better than I do, he can IMPROVISE! Very impressive!

And the recording quality was excellent. It captured well the variations in dynamics in this piece. I had the volume turned up pretty high, so I'm guessing you set the Zoom on the lowest level, too. I tried the middle setting, but it was giving me some shrill high notes, so now I'm playing around with recording on the lowest level but then normalizing through Audacity before converting to mp3. That seems to be giving me the best results so far.

p.s. My house is a mess and I am neglecting my children. I blame Zoom, and ragtime88.

Fabulous job, Monica. Very nice playing.

Whoa, Sir Lurksalot; you have a seriously talented son. That young man is going places playing like that at his age! He really has that southern gospel styling down pat.

Gotta get me one o' them Zoom thingies. Oh, wait, then ya'll would know how badly I play . . .



--Dennis

Monica

Really enjoyed your recording. I can't believe you've been playing for such a short time! I have been looking into finding something easy to record with so I'm thrilled that Ragtime shared this info. Would you please let us know where you located the unit for recording? Did you put it under the piano on a tripod? Also if you figure out any good tips for using the Audacity with it would you please post those? I have never used a program like it and could use some pointers. I'm not very good at the computer stuff but my husband is pretty good and he said he'd help me.

I've been reading the forum for awhile now and have found so much great info here.

Thanks, Nonna, and welcome to the forum!

I got the tripod accessory, and I put the unit on a bookcase to the left of the piano, but only because I didn't have any double-A batteries, so I had to keep it close to an outlet. I also tried putting it on the floor on other side of the piano next to a different outlet. It didn't seem to make much difference in the sound, which is a huge change from my old microphone where moving it just a few inches would introduce horrible distortion or clipping.

I picked some batteries up today so will experiment with placing it under the piano. The zoom manual says the best location is "where the hammers hit," but I'm assuming they mean sitting the unit on the lid on top of the hammer region. The analogous place underneath the piano is right at the pedals, and I can't imagine you'd want to be recording there.

Once you hook the Zoom up to your computer, you can open it with Audacity and do everything you can do with a regular audacity file, e.g., edit out dead space at the beginning or end, noise removal, normalization, and a whole bunch of other stuff I haven't figured out yet. I find audacity very very easy to use, so if you haven't downloaded it (it's available free on the web), I'd encourage you to do so. To do the mp3 conversion you also need to download Lame, but there's a link in the audacity web site that tells you how to do that.

that thing is really neat looking! i bought a presonus firepod and a dedicated pc about 6 months ago, seems to work really well, i am using digital pianos.... funny thing is, already, even the cheap suff is really good.... i guess thats electronics for ya. firepod ran me about 625 though. still happy with it though!

TECHNICAL NOTE #8. USING THE 4-TRACK MODE.[/b]
subtitled "Playing with yourself."

Proof of concept:
2xCold Heart (an old Hank Williams tune). This is "dual" stereo recording using only the h4's built-in mics. I recorded the piano on tracks 1-2, then the fiddle on tracks 3-4, and let the h4 mix them together into a single stereo file. Creating which I learned the following:

1. A house is not a recording studio. Phone rings, wife is on the phone in the background, clocks tick and chime, etc.
2. I picked a piano tune and tried to play it on the fiddle (this is, after all, a piano forum; I do better on the fiddle with fiddle tunes).
3. It's a bit harder to use the 4-track mode on the h4 than the stereo mode.
4. I can turn any song into ragtime.

TECHNICAL NOTE #9. FORMATTING THE CARD.[/b]
subtitled "Plug and play"

The card that comes with the h4 can be plugged into an SD slot on your computer if you have one (I do on a laptop). Your computer will read it just fine -- no different really than using the USB cord to connect h4 to computer. I think the only thing the h4 does when formatting is create a couple of directories, and copy a system file.

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Bye the way, congratulations to all. Your grades are in the mail. Tomorrow is band day (4-8 after the Packers play), and I'm off to Phoenix on Monday, but will check back here as I can.

And, Sir Lurk', you have *great* talent in the family. I've been known to swing a couple of gospel numbers myself -- my mother (the church pianist) got me started when I was 9, more than 10(!?) years ago!

Cheers! --G

Very impressive, ragtime! I'm not familiar with the original Hank Williams version, but it sounds great with a ragtime flair.

I'm assuming the Zoom can let you listen to the first two tracks while you're recording on the second two tracks? Otherwise how do you synchronize it all?

More like the size of your hand, fingers included. Ragtime's description of it as a rather largish television remote was apt. It's thicker than the average remote, though.

The display is about the size of a packet of sugar - too small for my aging eyes.

Monica, what a delight. Looks like I have to get one of these too. Thanks.

Yes, you listen to tracks 1 and 2 while you record 3 and 4. Actually, the h4 lets you do single track, multi-track playback. Very versatile.

I just landed in Phoenix and got over to hotel room and online. Last night I recorded 50 tunes on one 2G chip as our band played at Heather's. Go to my home site ragtime88.com and you can find a link to the Black Diamond Band. I brought the chip along with me and hope to find time to plug it into laptop and see what I got. I'll post something here. The connection was a simple stereo output link from the band's mixer board to the h4. We'll see!

Cheers! --G

I have been on the forum for just over a year. I have been looking for an easy way to record the piano. After reading everyone's positive experience, I went and bought one as well.

I have tried it several times, and it is great. It is easy to use, and does a great job. I am still playing around where the best place to position it is relative to the grand piano.

I also took Monica's advice and downloaded Audacity. I downloaded version 1.3.2 (Beta). It is very easy to use, and did all that I wanted.

I only have one problem. The volume level of the recordings is quite low. I have to crank the volume on my computer speakers to the max to get a decent volume. I tried using "Output Volume" toolbar to raise the volume, but this still couldn't make it loud enough. I also tried use Cubase LE, same result. Am I doing something wrong?

I record the files at 44.1 kHz, 16 bit into a WAV file. I am using the ‘Mic Gain’ at Medium setting (Loud doesn’t sound as good).

Thanks

Mike

Hi Mike, try importing your WAV file into audacity, and then "edit-select all" and then "effect -- normalize". That should boost the volume. I'm recording on the low setting and then normalizing; the low setting by itself was resulting in an overall volume too low, but the medium setting on the Zoom gets me occasional distortion when I'm playing loud chords.

...if you already tried that, then I'm stumped.

If this could do 4-track recording (the built-in and the externals) I'd be looking for one right now. As it's only two-track, I see little reason not to use my iBook, external soundcard and external mics...

Timoth

Here's an alternative, the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html

What is the main differences between the H-4 & the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96?

I tried this and it worked ! Thank you. It sounds fantastic. I am such a newbie when it comes to this stuff.

I wonder if you have experimented with where you position the H4 relative to the piano. I did a search, and found

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/pages/Piano.htm

I mainly used the 'D' position (on a stool by the bend of the piano), but I have tried 'A' (on top of the lid). I think I like 'D' the best so far.

Thanks for the help

Thanks for that reference, Mike. I haven't experimented with placement a lot so far, mostly because I'm so lazy I've just been propping it on a chair next to the bench so I can lean over and hit the red dot (over and over again in my futile attempt to get a decent take for the AB forum recital... :rolleyes: ).

Now that I got my recital submission in, though, I'd like to take the time and experiment with getting the best possible result. I'll give your D position a try.

Hi, everybody; I'm back.

Real life gets in the way of fun sometimes; when I *retire* I can do this full time!! I thought I'd relocate my part of the thread to here: H4 Thread continued in the non-classical forum. We're all RECORDING now. I'm very proud of you all. Check out how the H4 did on my Black Diamond Band stuff.

Cheers! --G