Digital voice Recorder Alt. to minidisc??

Back to post

Comments

fldave wrote on 4/21/2008, 11:26 AM
I remember reading about some noise issue with H4, but the H2 has newer circuitry designs and doesn't appear to have the same issues. Also, H4 has XLR, H2 does not. External into H2 is only stereo, not 4 channel. I haven't used it hooked up to my PC via USB yet.

One thing I noticed about the H2 is that if you have the mic stand adapter or tripod mount on, you can't replace the SD card without removing the adapter/tripod. Delayed my switch by a few seconds.

Otherwise I love my H2, a great buy for a 24bit/96khz stereo or 24bit/48khz 4 channel surround.
rman wrote on 4/21/2008, 12:33 PM
Question on the H2: Samson website, the specs for the H2 reads:

"On the right side of the H2, you can plug in a powered 1/8" external stereo mic. Setting levels is easy with a Mic Gain slider for Low/Medium/High gain. You can also digitize analog recordings with the 1/8" Line In."

I"m not that knowledgeable with audio and mics, but does word "powered" mean that you have to have a mic that has it's only external power? The reason I ask is because I have a couple of Lav mics that don't have any other power than what they receive from the device they plug into.

On that note, can anyone here direct me to a URL that will explain the "powered" microphones, when you need them, and where to get them for that matter? I'm not sure what to search on to learn about that, and when I have tried, it's like drinking from a fire-hose. Thanks -Rick
nolonemo wrote on 4/21/2008, 2:22 PM
H2 will supply "plug-in power," but any mic that requires 48V Phantom power will require a separate power source. BTW, check the zoom forums, the H2 does not work well with many external mics, the work-around is to use a pre-amp and the H2's line-in input.
rman wrote on 4/21/2008, 5:00 PM
>>the H2 does not work well with many external mics, the work-
>>around is to use a pre-amp and the H2's line-in input.

Ok, that bothers me even more. I don't have to have a pre-amp with an external mic. I should have mentioned that from the beginning of this thread....

do any of the other devices allow for Lav mics without requiring a pre-amp? I've never even used a pre-amp...but the ones I've seen don't exactly look "portable" as in, I haven't seen any that operate on batter power, but rather run off of A/C, which is not what I want... Looking for something compact as possible but that will not give me a noisy voice recording (as has been complained about by users of the H2) using a lav mic or other external mics.
nolonemo wrote on 4/21/2008, 6:17 PM
Some people have used lav mics on the H2 straight in with good results, as I recall (my cheap Audio Technica AT35s is not one of them). I would join and ask on the Zoom forum, I think that's where I saw the report.
fldave wrote on 4/21/2008, 6:39 PM
I like the H2 for ambiance sounds in surround recording using the built-in condenser mics.

If you merely need a recorder using external mics, then probably look at other options, the H4 has XLR inputs for the best quality.
Cliff Etzel wrote on 4/22/2008, 5:02 AM
I shot a voice recital last Sunday and it seemed the universe conspired against me in the audio department. I couldn't patch into the mixer they were using and the singer couldn't wear my wireless lav so I was reduced to setting the wireless lav and transmitter in front of one of the speakers. I tested my wireless setup in advance and all worked fine. But I hadn't planned on having to make this last minute change for audio. I ran into momentary periods of VERY loud static, then as quickly as it happened, it went away - this happened intermittently for a couple of the songs. There's no way to edit this out as it is while the performer is singing.

I have a second opportunity to record the singer again at another venue and wondered if using my laptop as a portable recorder patched into the mixing board would be the ticket to obtaining better audio (I have a dual core laptop with 4GB RAM and Sound Forge 9 using an Edirol / Roland UA-1EX USB Audio Interface with various patch options). Another option I can think of is patching my second camera into the mixing board with a patch cord plugged into the mic jack on the camera and then trying to match the audio from this camera with the video I shoot with the primary camera.

I now understand why others had stated that wireless lavs should be used only when absolutely necessary.

Any thoughts?

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt
rman wrote on 4/23/2008, 12:22 AM
Just an update so far. I decide to test out one of these Digital Voice Recorders first hand, as my past experience has only been with Sony MD's. So I went to a local store and took my battery-powered mic hand-held mic, and a set of non-powered lav mics with me. I decided to start out with just a lower-end model, and chose the Olympus DS-30. I also took my laptop so that I could transfer the created test files.

I was totally blown away with the quality of the recordings from the the included mic that comes with the DS-30, AND I was equally impressed with the quality of sound produced with the Lav & powered mic, and I mean totally blown away!!!! WOW, these things are amazing.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a trained ear like most of you, but i was impressed with after only a few easy adjustments, that I was able to eliminate most all of the noise I was at first hearing from the lav mic (that was my main goal I wanted to tackle when I decided to demo these things). The sounds quality in my opinion was near CD quality if not just as good, and I thought just that device alone would easily satisfy my needs. Again, I don't do this professionally, and since I know I'm not the only one that fits into this category, and the fact that I TOO purchase Sony Vegas to do my editing, I think Sony likes getting my money for the yearly updates to Vegas, just as much as the pros here.

So FWIW, the Olympus DS-30 was great. in my opinion. The store was closing so didn't get a chance to do more, but plan to go back Saturday and test some higher end devices. Thanks to everyone for your help and hope my review of the devices will help others that are looking for a consumer/prosumer device themselves. I might end up buying it because with the price, I can't see how I can go wrong. If it breaks, I"m only out $100 and the MD devices (I went through 3 of them, were more expensive than that and were flakely as heck.)

ttyl -Rick