Review: Recording Stereo Sound With the Zoom H4

I bought a Zoom H4 for doing my sound recording last week and so far I gotta say that I’m pretty happy with it. The buttons and interface are a little weird, and not very easy to get used to, but other than that, it’s not a bad recorder. I like being able to record wav files anywhere from 24-bit 96khz to 16-bit 44.1khz, or even MP3. It’s really nice, since you record to an SD card – so, you can swap out SD cards as they fill up (and 2Gb SD cards are pretty cheap – you can find them for under $20 apiece). The Zoom H4 is also smaller and easier to work with over the larger DAT recorders, since all you really need is the Zoom H4, a set of headphones (with a long enough cord), and a boom pole (you can even skip the boom pole if you’re just recording VO). Just mount the Zoom H4 on the boom and hit record. Be sure to change the SD cards out when they fill up…

It’s small enough that people think it’s a cell phone or some kind of “iPod-like” MP3 player (which, if you think about it, I guess it is an MP3 player). Here’s a pic with the Zoom H4, a 75mm Lomo lens w/OCT18 mount, and my LG 8100 cell phone as a size reference:

Use it with a pair of those small earbud headphones, and you’ll find that it makes for great guerrilla-style sound recording. For instance, yesterday, I took the Zoom H4 with me to the Mount Airy May Fest and walked around with the family, just recording some of the different things that were going on. No one even gave me a second glance.

The stereo microphones are a great feature. They make a real difference in your recording. I found out that recording stereo is very different than a single mic in that it must be pointed directly at a person. But that stereo effect is so much better when it’s coming from a true stereo recording (versus a mono recording that’s converted to stereo in post). I have to admit, I never thought true stereo recording would be quite that different. Thinking it over, I can see where stereo recording could create a few issues in the field, so you have to be careful and know how to take care of those issues on set, but I think overall, the positives of stereo recording by far outweigh the negatives.

I haven’t tried it with my trusty Sennheiser Mic yet, but so far, I’m really enjoying what this little recorder can do.

Btw: Depending in who you purchase them from, you can find them from $250-$300. There are a few other recorders out there in this price range as well, but I haven’t had the opportunity to check them out yet. But I can say that after using the Zoom H4 over the past few days that I feel it has a lot of great features and is well worth the meager price-tag…

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