Samson? Amazing?

You guys need an engineer on your staff or something.

Looks like a taser!

I looked at this last week, and the one troubling thing is nowhere on the site or in the manual was audio quality (S/N ratio, distortion, mic specs) mentioned.

Otherwise it's got lots of nice features, well, I'd prefer if it used CF cards or SD with adapter - and didn't look like I was about to taze my interviewee...

I am a professional audio engineer and I have to say that this is the first audio recording device I have seen on Gizmodo that I would seriously consider buying. The XLR inputs are terrific and I wish more portable recorders had them. I will probably get this to replace the portable DAT recorder I still use for field recordings.

Gizmodo pod casts now comming zune???? (hope that crappy joke doesn't get my account terminated.)

I just shot a link to this out to a couple of musician friends of mine.
This thing is very very cool and resembles something from Start Trek TNG that could do at least warp five.

yeah, what the above (arken) said, only minus the professional part ;)

I used to sell Zoom products. Just a warning: most of them are absolute crap, although I would appreciate hearing if anyone has had good experience with Zoom stuff. In my experience though, they've zoomed themselves right into my toilet.

P.S. Two thumbs up for Edirol.

I don't think that you would want to bring this wonderful devise with you in carry on. It looks like a mix between a tazer and the trigger for a bomb, so don't pack any liquids and/or gels with this bad boy. Just remember, all items will be systematically destroyed.

The inclusion of the properly opposed stereo condenser has really made these types of units a godsend.

Although at $299 I have a lot of concerns about the mic.

A concert bootlegger's perfect Christmas gift?

you might want to note that this design is a decent ripoff of the much more expensive, and much more SEXY sony

http://www.zzounds.com/item--SNYPCMD1

It looks kind of cool... until you start reading the specs. "Onboard studio effects compression, limiting and mic modeling ... Built in guitar amp modeling equivalent to the Zoom G2." Add the USB audio interface part and I'm pretty sure it's just another Samson toy, trying to look pro with its 24-bit/96 kHz. Zoom products belong on the floor, under my foot.

The perfect nostril trimmers for ALF?

Howdy...

We just interviewed Samson's product manager for this device at podcast expo. Here's the video:

http://www.neo-fight.tv/2006/10/episode_075_samson_technol...

Best,

Benjamin
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.neo-fight.tv [The "Techno-Debate" Video Podcast]

Finally a combination device that has all the goodies I've looked for in a portable recorder: proper XLR/plug inputs, full phantom, 96kHz/24bit recording and LOW price! Now I only hope they don't screw this sure-sell recipe with cr*ppy preamps like Marantz did with their PMD660. That thing is just unusable _and_ still costs a hefty dime.

Am I the only one who thinks it looks like a nose-hair trimmer?

God Damnit!

what is with all of these "pro audio companies" making portable recorders for with non-coincident mic placements? This is just a halfassed attempt at an XY stereo mic placement, but here's the kicker kids! what happens if you have a loud sound on the right? WELL with this placement you will get the sound hitting the left mic first (because it is closer!) and then a little later you'll get a louder sound on the right side. I can't wait to see the phase correlation on this guy. So yeah, it has some other nice features, but at least try to come up with something that is physically sound as well

@Shasta-Pete: I'm not sure what are you talking about, those mics can rotate, and they are uni-directional enough to capture the sound in which they are aiming to...
I'm I the only that thinks this a complete design knock-off? Sony already has a portable recorder which looks impressively similar...
http://www.minidisco.com/Sony-PCM-D1;jsessionid=ac112b1f1f...

(I like the Sony better)

I have a stun gun that looks similar to this...maybe I should try to talk into the stun gun with it really close to my mouth!!!

A compelling product: feature-laden, low price, etc.
Samson's product manager seems to be the only person on the planet to ever actually have one.
Anyone found a dealer who has them in stock?
I need instant gratification. I'm going for the Edirol R9...

@shasha-pete:

if the mics are spaced about 0,5cm apart (if I imagine the dimensions correctly in my head), you'd have total phase cancellation at 33kHz. Doesn't seem much of a problem with me. Besides, you most likely would use it with external mics if you don't like the built-in anyway. It's not like you'd manage every single situation with one pair of mics in one configuration anyway?

I'm planning on trying to this one out. I bought the Edirol R-09 and, despite rave reviews about the unit, found the sound using the built-in mic a bit muffled sounding. The stereo separation wasn't great either. However, plugging in a good stereo condenser mic to the R-09 really improved the sound. So the weak link in the R-09 was the built-in mic.

I am hoping, though not overly optimistic, that the built-in mic on the Zoom will sound better.

Yo dudes - go to

http://samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901...

At the bottom of that page is a link to download the manual for the Zoom H4. You'll see the specs (at back of manual) plus get a good idea of the user interface.

One more comment: What I was hoping for with the Zoom is that it would record 4 tracks simultaneously. This is a great way to get a live recording: stereo feed off the mxing board and a stereo mic for the overall ambience. But alas, checking the Zoom manual, it will recording only two tracks at time. Plus - it you use it in the 4 trk mode, the unit drops down to 16 bit.

Is it just me, or does it seem like that voice recorder is a FAA-, FBI-, Homeland Security-(Hah!), and pretty-much-any-other-goverment-agency-you-can-think -of-accident waiting to happen?

It looks like a taser for crying out loud.

...Then again, you *could* use it to bluff the terr'ists into thinking you have a weapon.

It has *great* functionality, has very good (not excellent) subjective sound quality, and is easy to use.
It is a little too light and the case is too smooth for comfort - and I expect the letters will wear off in a few weeks of constant use (and it will get constant use).

check out the Zoom H4 forum at http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewforum.php?f=15 for more information and discussion about this cool gadget. There's also a detailed review there.

I'm curious if anyone has compared this to the M-Audio Microtrack?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main....

The preamps in the MT are very good for a portable recorder, although the case is cheap feeling, the internal Li batt is not great, and levels must be taken while recording (not in standby). The included stereo electret

As far as I can tell the H4 is not usb powered. Is there true phantom power available? The MT has semi-phantom power. Is there a constant battery meter? How fast does it start up? Is there an auto-save function for battery shut down? I would expect any heavy users such as myself to want to use rechargeable NIMH batteries, which drop off very quickly at the end of their charge.

Thanks, Tecnocrati--
This is my first visit here, and the info will have me coming back. What the hell, I'm-a goin to buy it. If I don't like it, I'll send it back.

Just bought one at Sam Ash in Manhattan - got a $15 discount without asking, which was a bonus. First impressions: cheap, plastic construction, but probably OK for the fairly light use it's going to get. Interface is fairly complex, but OK once you spend a bit of time reading the manual. Built in mics are cheap electrets, but usable if you're not too fussy, although the stereo soundstage is decidely narrow. hand-held recording is only for those with a very steady hand and the supplied foam clown's nose windshield is useless in anything other than a very light breeze. Four outdoor use in any other circumstances you'll have to adapt a Rycote or something similar.

Headphone output is low to my Sony NR headphones and adequate to my 7506s, but not really meaty enough for serious monitoring work.

Recording quality is pretty good at 48/24 and perfectly acceptable at 96/24 although this will eat up yur data cards at a rate of knots. The supplied 128 MByte SD card will end up as a spare for my camera, I suspect.

Installed the supplied version of Cubase LE out of curiosity, but it conflicts horribly with Nuendo 3 which I have installed on the same machine and demanded the authorisation dongles for the various plug-ins that I have before it would even open. As yet, I can't make it work as an interface, but I suspect that has more to do with the aforementioned Nuendo than the Zoom H4.

It'll do nicely for what I bought it for; i.e. as a MiniDisc replacement for quick and dirty effects recordings when I don't have the time to set up the $10,000 system that I normally use.

For $299, it'll be hard to beat.

A friend of mine just sent me a recording he made with one of these and it has amazing depth and clarity. He just sat it on the table and and played/sang one of his tunes with the Neumann mic model and a bit of compression. I'm really impressed