Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Just got a Zoom H4

Sorry, I haven't been participating in forum much since I got my Schimmel a couple of years ago. But, I thought some of you might be interested in this: I've been looking for a way to record my piano music at home (and also live gigs with a four-piece band). Today's digital (tape and CD) recorders are often over a thousand dollars, but the H4 is now about $300.

It's about the size of large TV remote control, and records to a memory card like a digital camera. I used the built-in mics to record a handful of tunes, then recorded a piece using a pair of AKG C3000's for comparison. Results are at http://ragtime88.com/tunes if you'd like to listen. All except "My Happiness" are with the built-in mics, and "My Happiness" was done with the AKG's. These are mp3's, but the originals are wav files.

It is DIRT SIMPLE to use the built in mics (and, really, not much harder to attach to my band's mixing board). I put the recorder on a small tripod and set it on top of the piano. One button starts/stops recording. Every take is written to a new file, copy to PC and *voila*.

This is a hoot to use. Now I have to learn to play well enough to not be embarassed by the results!

--G

ps. I love the Schimmel.

Gerry :

Hey! I enjoyed your rendition of "My Happiness" - one of my favourites of the type. My rendition tends to be on the sloppy sentimental side, compared to yours, but I like what you do with it.

By the way, isn't it "Charmaine" and not "Chairmaine" - but then maybe she's got a new job as head of a committee somewhere since I last heard!

I must look up the Zoom H4.

Thanks.

Regards,

Rag,

Nice to see you around again.

The result wasn't half bad at all. I am on my way to learn more.

Thanks for the "Heads up".

Thanks, Ragtime88! I have been (slowly) researching recording systems and was looking into the Kawai PR-1, which is plug and play like the Zoom only more expensive.

Although I was not expecting to be, I was much impressed by the sound quality you got with the built-in microphones. Did you do any manipulating of the recordings you posted, e.g., noise removal or equalization?

Also, if you don't mind a few more technical questions, what is involved in getting the recording from the Zoom unit to your PC? Do you have to buy an adaptor or cable? Is it easy to move around and delete files on it? How do you convert the wav files to mp3s?

Very, very intriguing. $300 seems very cheap to get something that sounds that good.

Ok: mmm...where to start? Here's where I bought the H4 -- music123.com No endorsement, but I buy all my band stuff at M123.

I made two different quality recordings: (1) using the microphones built into the H4, and (2)using the H4's ability to connect to any external source [in this case, my AKG 3K3000 microphones].

I didn't tamper with anything I recorded.

What you're hearing is (1)microphone [AKG on MyHappiness] else the H4's internals to (2) wav file on the H4 to (3)wav file on PC to (4) mp3 file on PC to (5) mp3 file on website to (6) mp3 file on whatever you are listening to.

I did not have to buy anything except H4. It has all the cables and a CD with software to hook up to your PC. The software converts "wav" to "mp3".

Here's the company site: H4 .

The H4 comes with all the cables that it takes to connect to your computer, and has a CD for a "Cubase" software program that will convert your recordings into any format you want (web-stuff, or CD).

Disclaimer: I'm a piano player (but a "geek" in my other life).

I'm missing what you want to know, but will watch this thread and respond. :0

--G

...and I corrected my misspelling!! Thanks, Bruce, you're a legend on this global music webspace. --G

I'm hearing (offline...) from some who would like to know technical detail about using recording equipment to make CD's and I-pod music. Just keep posting to this thread, and I will help as best I can. But . . .

. . .(again!) I'm just a piano player cum geek. I think I can help. (Is this a new thread?)

For sure, digital recording can turn *your* piano music into a Christmas present. This little H4 is perhaps a simple entre. --G

Ragtime88, I'm not usually an impulse buyer, but your thread and those recordings so intrigued me that last night I whipped out my credit card and ordered the Zoom. I think what pushed me over the edge is that I have been trying to record with audacity and my condensor mic, and it is a major pain in the butt to get everything arranged exactly perfectly so that there is no hissing or clipping. I also only have one mic, so the ability to record in stereo using the built-in mics was appealing to me.

I really liked what I had learned about the Kawai PR-1, but the $1900 price tag was intimidating, and a disadvantage of that system is that you record directly on CD. So I was kind of waiting until they came out with an upgrade that had a hard drive or flash drive system where you could save various takes and only burn to CD when you're ready. You can't beat the price on the Zoom, though, and I think it will serve me well for a year or two until that upgrade comes out.

Anyway, I can't wait to get my Zoom. (I even shelled out the extra $ for 2-day shipping.) Thank you *very much* for starting this thread and your patience in dealing with all my questions. My husband, on the other hand, is not too happy with you.

LOL - me too! Actually, I did a little more research first, but not much!

That's funny, Sir Lurksalot! And at least now I don't feel quite so foolish.

I was intrigued by the reviews I read of the product on various sites. The negative ones appeared to be from audiophile geeks who had very high expectations. The raves were from people like me who want an easy and inexpensive way to make decent recordings. And there were a couple I read that specifically mentioned getting great quality with piano recordings.

What the heck...it's just $300. Even if it turns out to be a bust, I've made worse financial decisions in my life.

I've been looking at that too. Can I plug a digital piano directly into it?

Amazing. A truly simple, low-cost product for folks who are looking for a one-stop, plug-n-play solution. And it comes loaded with internal FX, 2 mics, 2 mic pre-amps, the ability to record wav or mp3 directly to erasable SD media, a USB interface, in addition to bundled editing software.

Geesh. I hope Kawai is listening...

As long as users can deal with the inherent sound quality limitations - this one looks like a real winner. Now there's no excuse for anyone on Piano World not to post their recordings!

What a great tip! Thanks Ragtime88. Too bad my birthday was a couple of days ago

I'm happy to help. Here's my "complicated" recording setup:

It comes with a tripod adapter. If I had a grand piano, I'd put the tripod on the floor underneath and point the microphones straight up. It's probably better not to have direct physical contact between the tripod and the piano, but it seems to have worked ok.

You don't actually *need* the software that comes with the h4. Just plug the h4 into a USB port and it will look (to your computer) like an external disk drive. If you record as .WAV or .MP3 (your choice), you can just copy the files.

And, yes, you can plug a digital piano right into the h4 and record. You'll need mini headphones (like an ipod) to hear what you're playing. Or, maybe you can just do it by touch!!

Cheers. --G

[This topic is being interrupted for a very special announcement]



EJSauter... Happy Belated Birthday wishes!

[we now return you to the original topic of this very informative thread]

Gerry,

Thanks for posting the info about the H4. I enquired locally about these devices, but the Swiss distributor for Samson does not currently import the Zoom range, and didn't seem to know who did either. I found it advertised on a German online dealer, at a whopping US$425 (not including shipping!) but not available until end November. A couple of UK distributors are quoting ~$400 and no stock until after Christmas :rolleyes: . So I telephoned Music123 in the good ole US of A (ostensibly to ask if the PSU was dual voltage[1]) and ordered one at ~$340 including shipping to Chocolateland.... Hurrah!

-Michael B.
[1] As you know, we have a stronger flavour of elastic trickery on this side of the pond[2]. The PSU isn't switchable, as it happens, but (having perused a downloaded manual) any decent quality unit capable of providing 9v/300mA should do the trick, and there is always the battery option of course.
[2] 220-240 great big manly Yurrupean volts... instead of your weak and feeble trans-Atlantic 110 .

Despite their disclaimers to the contrary, I can't see anything magic about the 9v/300ma wall cube that you get with the H4. I only got a couple hours out of my first set of AA batteries (but they weren't anything special).

For those of you waiting delivery, you can download the operating manual from the company's website (link above).

And, for converting WAV to MP3 files, I'd skip the Cubase program. Go to http://www.riverpast.com and download their free "Wave@MP3" software. Much easier to use! I've been playing with Cubase: it's a decent sound editor and mixer, but a challenge to learn. I can help anybody here step through how to cut dead space out of the beginning and end (and middle for that matter!) of your recordings; just post.

Cheers. --G

If you could give us some step by step instructions, that would be great. I was wondering about exactly that earlier... when you said that the best place to put the unit with a grand is underneath it, I was envisioning turning it on, crawling under my piano, positioning it, crawling out, and getting ready on the bench. That's a lot of dead space.

Not if you sound good when you crawl.

I'll work up an instruction list when I get home tonight.

There is a shareware programme (available in various places on That Internet[1]) called "CD Wave Editor," with which (assuming you have recorded to .wav rather than mp3) it is very easy to top and tail (or indeed split) wav files. You can than save them as mp3, flac, ogg, ape, etc. It also deals with cue files. For anything more involved I find that Cool Edit Pro 2 usually does the job.

-Michael B.
[1] E.g. http://www.mymusictools.com/splitter_joiner_24/cd_wave_editor_2656.htm