Review: Zoom H2 Handheld Surround Recorder
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Naturally I auditioned the two Auto Gain Control (AGC), three compressor, and two limiter settings. My verdict? Although I suggest saving any dynamics processing for after you have uploaded your audio to your computer, the less extreme AGC and compression might be useful in some cases. Limiting was just too slow—and too drastic—for my taste. If you're concerned about clipping, choose a lower mic gain setting and appropriate levels so your peaks do not get near zero.

Remember, without a pad (external level attenuator) in front of the input, nothing will prevent clipping at extreme sound levels. I made a number of recordings of very different sources—including very loud brass and bagpipes—and I never experienced clipping at the input. However, your experience might be different. If you need to record a piano hitting the bottom of a mineshaft from six inches away, use an external mic and preamp and pad them down. (Might be a good idea to duck, too.)

This chart from Zoom's site shows how the H2's four mics might record three sections of a band.

Powering up the H2 takes anywhere from 2 to 10 seconds, depending on the size and type of card inserted. That's long enough that you might want to keep the recorder on so you don't miss a critical recording. Fortunately, battery life is a respectable four hours or more. Need more confidence? "Pre-record" stores one or two seconds of sound in a recirculating buffer, which is handy if you miss that clap of thunder.

A nicely implemented auto-record function commences recording once the sound exceeds a user-selected threshold and stops when it falls below a lower threshold. Note that this is a one-shot deal; once recording ceases, the H2 will not begin again automatically. Still, it beats recording long silences waiting for the drummer to finish adjusting his throne.

Field Tests

One night a thunderstorm blew through, so I grabbed the recorder and headed out to the porch. Listening to playback, I was very pleasantly surprised how well the H2 captured both the boom of the thunder and the gentle sounds of the falling rain:

• Thunderstorm, Front Mics (404KB MP3)

After the storm subsided, I tried to record the cricket chorus. I found that using the "Hi" gain setting and high levels brought out unacceptable preamp noise. Ramping down the level made a huge difference, but I would be wary of using the Hi gain setting. To be fair, maxing the gain on just about any preamplifier, including my vintage rack gear, yields a fair amount of noise, so I am not going to dwell on this. Overall, I am quite happy with both the mics and the preamps. You can always use an external mic, either directly or routed through an external preamp into the line input. Both inputs are well within acceptable noise levels for a recorder in this price range.

The H2 fared surprisingly well with my challenging brass and bagpipe band.

The next day I recorded a bit of my band's sound check. (See photo.) I set up the H2 about 12 feet in front of the stage and used the rear mics for a wider stereo spread. I used the Mid gain setting, and set the levels so the peaks were well below clipping. Considering that I just guessed at the levels, the resulting recording was pretty good—braying bagpipes, ecstatic drummer, loud saxophone and all:

• Bagpipe Band (1.5MB MP3)

Bluesman Michael Hawkeye Herman hosts a weekly jam when he's not on the road, so I fell by after my gig. Everyone was seated in a big circle on Michael's back porch—the perfect time to test using both front and rear mics. I recorded the following blues jam as a stereo file, with the H2 set to mix all four mics internally:

• Blues Jam (856KB MP3)

Notice that although the drums were behind the H2, in the recording both the drums and the instruments in front appear to come from the same place. In addition, singers and instrumentalists seated directly in front of the mics came through loud and clear, while those to the side sound more distant. That's to be expected when using cardioid (directional) mics.

Nevertheless, I like the option to record from both the front and rear. I was able to capture more of the jam than if I'd simply set up a standard stereo pair pointed at one end or the other.

Computer Connection

The H2 doubles as a USB mic and basic audio interface for your computer.

Like most new digital recorders, the H2 communicates with your computer via USB, showing up as an external drive. That makes uploading audio files a snap, but be aware that the speed of your memory card might slow things down. Worse, the transfer rate is USB 2.0 "Full Speed," essentially USB 1.1 with a new name and considerably slower than USB 2.0 "Hi-Speed." (12Mbps vs. 480Mbps. Holy molasses, Batman!) For sanity's sake, invest in a Hi-Speed card reader.

Like its big brother, the H4, the H2 doubles as a USB audio interface. You can use either the front or rear mics (or both, but they're mixed to stereo) and choose 44.1 or 48kHz sample rates at 16-bit resolution. Even better, it runs on bus power so you can save your batteries.  Both the external mic and line inputs function as advertised, making the H2 a handy recorder indeed!

I ran tests with every bit of software I could get my hands on and it worked flawlessly—at least on my Macs. I'm afraid I did not run any tests with PCs, but I haven't heard of any problems there. The H2 won't replace a full-featured audio interface, but I would be happy to have one in my laptop bag whenever I travel.