[Dixielandjazz] ZOOM H4 and H2 re recording

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

I have found that the ZOOM H4 is a great recorder for live performances and today I ordered an H2.  From a comment I heard and my own experience shows that these two are battery eaters.  At the same time They pretty much obsoleted my Sony walkman for recording the band and it's been setting on my desk for six months or so.  

The Sony uses a single AA and plays for a long time.  I took a patch cord and went from the headphone out on the H4 (not line out) into the Mike input of the Sony Walkman.  The line out is pretty hot and not adjustable.  The mike input on the Sony is also not very adjustable but if I use the mike input and headphone out I can make a good copy from the H4 and you can still set the volume for good recording.  I did set the Sony's mike for minimum sensitivity on record.

There is another thing that the walkman can add to the mix and that is it has a marker feature that will separate tracks so you can fast forward or go back and listen again to a track.  All you have to do is hit a button where you want a track to be and it creates it.  This is a lot easier for casual recording than doing a full edit job in your computer.

The walkman is much handier to carry around than the H4.

It's too bad that with all the bells and whistles on a really fine piece of recording equipment they didn't put in a battery meter and a way to put markers on the recording to separate tracks.  I understand that the H2 has a battery meter.

This is really easy and I'm sure could work for other recording devices such as some of the ipod type devices and the ZOOM's.

I am impressed by this piece of equipment.  I am amazed that we can have what was only achievable in a well equipped studio, just a few years ago, in a recorder that will fit into a shirt pocket.  And to think that we really were amazed at Dick Tracy's wrist radio.  Well so much for those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Now I can indulge my obsession easier and not use so many batteries.
Larry
StL