Trigger pulled. No need to feel guilty. I canvassed loads of people, and it really does look like it will be great for my needs. The problem now is that it’s probably going to trigger a mic addiction and THAT’s an expensive hobby. Lol.
The good news is that it will be quite some time before I will be going down that route and I’m only going to be getting (more) external mics if I have the musical chops that warrant them, so if I DO buy them, it will mean I have accomplished a major musical goal, so I will have no regrets! (The first on the list is an AT4040).
Now, here’s a question for people. I see a lot of posts about people doing field recording, and this is something I have honestly never even considered. Does anyone have any examples of cool stuff they have captured? I’d love to know how you are using your recorders as it might inspire me to use the H6 in ways I hadn’t considered. Plus, I ordered the accessory pack that comes with a wind screen so I will be fully set up for it.
I always take mine on holiday (often the H2 for portability) and try to capture some ambient noise where possible - we went to Iceland a couple of years ago, and that was great because it’s easy to find isolated spaces. I found a great cave full of dripping water there, and got some nice geyser and waterfall samples. In France I found a place with a nice view and sat there recording a few minutes - nothing special going on, but stuff like this can serve as a kind of audio Polaroid, as long as you’re organised enough to label them before you forget where you were.
Birds are an obvious source - our garden’s a bit too noisy to capture them in a pristine recording, but I had a phase of grabbing a few songs or calls and trying to replicate them on the modular.
If I have to get a train somewhere I’ll take one along and grab some station ambience. At work we’ve got a stairwell that has some great echoes, so I’m going to try to capture some percussion in there when we get back, tapping the handrail etc. I’ll often put bits like this into the Morphagene and tinker around with them, but it always feels a bit too indulgent to put up on Youtube or wherever (I always end up treating a Morphagene session as a reminder or practice).
The main problem is that I’ve got SD cards full of wav files that are equivalent to my iPhotos library full of pictures waiting to be audited. It piles up if you’re not careful.
I liked the extra inputs, bigger sd card capacity, color screen, and slightly better battery life (not in real terms, but in practical terms). I also thought it looks really nice, which seems superficial, but actually liking what your gear looks like makes you want to use it IMHO. Also, aside from the discussions here I had some back-and-forth with a professional sound designer (who samples instruments) and a couple of musicians I respect and they all recommended the H6 as well.
In the end, it’s just the one that spoke to me and I was sick of doing research and ready to record stuff.
I feel like I should get another mic, to justify having the option to change them, but I’ve managed to hold out so far. I probably would go for a shotgun, as the bundled one covers most general recording needs.
The article never mention that the H5 is better than the H6. They are compared, nothing more or less.
It says : ’ Before we begin, I am going to point out that the H5 and H6 are two very similar recorders, but they are built for different purposes…’
Conclusion : ‘Which one should you get? Ultimately, both recorders are very similar, but built for different purposes. They’re both quite rugged and well built, have good sound quality, modular microphones, and multiple XLR inputs.’
So I don’t know why you say the H5 is better than the H6?
I had the OG Zoom H4 for years, that ridiculous scroll wheel. I was shocked to learn it was still the main navigation on the H6, quickly returned. I went with the H1n when I found the red version $40 off. 4 button menu with majority of what you need in front of you. Super easy to delete a recording too, no scrolling the menu. Just my experience. I’m sure others get along great with the higher ups.
I had both, but I sold them. Now I use a Zoom H1N and that does the job for me. It’s cheap, the sound recording is good and it’s under $100,-. It’s even a audio interface.
Well it is the microphone that will make massive change, not recorder.
Since I got Uši Pro from LOM audio, my field recordings got on completely different level, compared to my stock microphone from Zoom H5 or Zoom-shotgun (which is even worse)
Just curious, did you have the mono or stereo shotgun? The stereo one did a pretty good job in that video above and was their choice as the best attachment.
I have SGH6 (mono), and would use it only for video interviews where SQ does not matter that much.
Don’t get me wrong, the stock H5 module sounds good to my ears and is very convenient compared to external units with extra cables, but it can get much better, depends of what you need.
Zoom is popular because it ‘s a lot cheaper than (superficially) equally spec’ed competitors like Tascam and Sony. Often even add features that those don’t have for way lower price. I see Zoom often in the sound art and electro-acoustic circles that I frequent too.
That lower price comes at a price though (pun intended). It s not all just smarter engineering and manufacturing than the competition. I have no hands on experience with the full range so can t judge all Zoom models but I ve handled fragile plasticky Zooms that are not going to last as long as some of the competition and my H2N doesn’t have great ADC converters. Even with the low cut option disabled there s a clear cut of the sub low at around 50hz, on both mic and line inputs. Not great for electronic music, but it might not bother for acoustic field recordings. The actual frequency range is not documented anywhere.
Conclusion: you get a lot of features for the price, but there are compromises. If you don t hit those limits they re great value for money.
I m thinking of getting a new recorder for recording my live mixes, and acoustic recordings of my AV artworks. Doubting it will be Zoom again.
But for when I specifically go out for recording sounds I use a field recording setup of a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II plus the Rode NTG3 shotgun mic combined with stereo NT6 cardioids.
