Musical Instruments

Reviews

So far i have absolutely no complaints about this product. The sound quality is beautiful and its super easy to use. Id say a great product for the price without having to spend $400.00 :)

I had this Zoom H2 for more than 3 years now and I totally agree with the quality recordings and transferring/ making a CD out of your recording but the better part I like are the capabilities to make folders and files of your recordings so you just go to a folder/file to go to your favorites or if you practice with your friends/group for several days you can just go to a particular session and replay that session which could be located in a folder or in a file in one particular folder. Zoom H2 can make your create 10 different folders and an unlimited files in each folder. The music session you have in a muscial group can also be saved in an mp3 format. I think this is the best music recorder there is at this price.

We have used Zoom H2 to record piano songs played by our daughter. The quality of the recording was very good. It is very easy to transfer our recordings to our computer. We are very satisfied with this recording device.

I bought this because my daughter's piano teacher had told us to get a voice recorder, I picked this one based on the good comments and its price, for some reason, I always think that you get what you pay for. It was proven wrong this time though, had to return it for a refund. Here are the reasons: 1. No built-in speaker, you have to listen to the recording via the earphones or by downloading it to your computer. 2. Little hard to operate, I am pretty good at using those so-call gadgets since I am the one who uses them all the time in the family, but I found this one not as intuitively designed as some other items I have used. Plus the display is a little too small. 3. Seems a little fragile, made out of plastic. After we returned it, we used our flip camcorder that I had bought a few years before, it served its purpose, plus you also got the video too.

First off, I'm not a professional, but like to play bluegrass with friends and wanted to get a recorder to hear how we sounded on recorded medium. The first Zoom H2 I received didn't work (record) straight out of the box. The unit would turn on and I could scroll the menu, but none of the recording lights worked, and no sound when I attempted to record (thinking maybe the lights were just bad. Contacted Amazon that day and had a new one on the way that day. Received within 7 days. This one so far has worked great. I haven't had the time, yet, to try all the settings to see which is best for recording in the environment we play, but the recordings so far have been clear and without distortion. There was some minor background noise, but there was also other activity going on in the area, so this could have been a factor there. I've not had enough time to evaluate the battery life, but was able to record a constant 3 hour picking without problem. From what I plan on using the H2 for, it is all I need to record non-professional gatherings. So far it's easily worth the money I paid.

Reviews

Love the Q3 zoom in all ways except two...it doesn't seem to be loud enough during playback (maybe there is a different setting to correct this?) and it erases all videos off the zoom after loading them on the computer (is there a way to save or delete the ones you wanna keep?).

Reviews

Usage #1: Recording live music. I've used the Zoom H2 for about 2 years for recording practices and performances of my classic rock & roll band. I wouldn't be without it. I use the built-in compression feature (set to DRUM or VOCAL) to prevent overmodulating. I start the Zoom H2 when we are setting up, and just let it record all evening. With a 8Gb/12hr chip, don't bother shutting it off between sets. For indoor practices, I use the Low mic sensitivity, with DRUM compression setting. For outdoor performances, between songs it's sensitive enough to pick up the ambiance: a crackling bonfire, crickets, or crowd comments (a good use of the 360-degree Surround feature. I usually set the Zoom H2 to Medium mic sensitivity, put it on a microphone stand back near the sound booth/tent, with an extension cord for AC power, a small night-light (is AC still on?) and fresh batteries in case someone trips/unplugs the power cord. I've even set the Zoom H2 in my open guitar case on the floor in a nightclub, maybe 15' from the stage, and it picked up the between-song comments of the musicians, as well as dynamite recordings of our sets. I have a whole pack Memory Card Carrying Case, Black of SDHC cards: 2Gb (3hrs recording time, in CD-quality), 4Gb (6hrs), and my favorite, 8Gb (12hrs Transcend 8 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6) so I can always pop in a new one at a moment's notice. Each card has a tiny label with my name & phone, plus a card index (SD-01, etc); I keep a small printed spreadsheet to show what performance is on what card, which is available for use, etc. Once home, I back it up the files to my laptop, then process the WAV files with Audacity (free, open-source, multiplatform utility) to do fade-in and fade-outs, pull out individual songs, normalize tracks, make demo tracks or MP3s for listening on the go. Usage #2: Spoken audio. My spouse goes on business trips and interviews groups of people. She's used it to capture the group comments for later transcription. Here's where other Zoom H2 features are nice: the Automatic Gain Control (AGC), which bumps up the volume if the input gets too low, and the Surround feature, so you can hear everyone talk, in the audio location where they were actually sitting. I've used it for large conferences to record multi-hour presentations or speeches. Handy. Usage #3: Converting vinyl to digital. This is a future task, but with the Zoom H2's Line-In jack, you can record from other devices (perhaps a turntable or stereo amp output?) to digitize and save records or other media for posterity. If you already have a turntable, why pay more for an additional single-purpose digitizing device when the Zoom can handle it already? All-in-all, a great little device! Buy it!

I was given this as a gift (at my own suggestion.) I have begun writing songs in recent years, and had nothing to record my songs or fragments thereof except some alarmingly low-fidelity cassette recorders. The Zoom H2 has a surprisingly large number of functions for such a small device. It is a little difficult to navigate at times, but it records very accurately, and can record sounds from the front, the rear, or both. One thing I wish it could do is allow multi-tracking, but for the size and price it is a bargain. Highly recommended for anyone who needs to record away from a studio.