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

Remember, this is not necessarily the same as movie surround—for that you need to encode the tracks to one of the common surround formats before they will play back properly. As a quick test, I ran my four-track thunderstorm recording through Immersive Media Research's Vortex Surround Encoder, which encoded it into a 5.1 DTS stream. (In order to feed the missing two channels, I created two silent dummy files, which I routed to the Center and LFE channels in Vortex Surround Encoder.)

Vortex Surround Encoder, just $50, takes any number of inputs and spatializes them to any number of outputs. It can also create DTS files, allowing you to burn your own 5.1 CDs.

The resultant DTS file is a two-channel WAV file that you can burn to CD, but it will sound like white noise if you play it back on a normal stereo. Play it through a DTS decoder, though, and it expands back to 5.1. The CD I burned played back great through my home-theater system.

[Ed. Note: With the necessary software, such as ffmpeg or Apple Compressor (part of Final Cut Pro), you can also create a 5.1 Dolby Digital AC3 file and burn it onto the soundtrack of a standard video DVD. You'll first need to convert the H2's dual stereo WAVs into six mono ones. Free plug-ins mentioned in the Surround 101 sidebar can do that, even adjusting the spread of the signals to better match a standard 5.1-speaker setup.]

If you bounce down inside the H2, you can set the balance between the mics.

I would hate to try to mix a surround production on my jury-rigged setup; nevertheless, it does prove you can make 3D recordings on the cheap. That is really something.

Oh, and to answer the $64,000 question: the H2's headphone output is stereo, so it automatically mixes all four tracks to stereo in real time so you can hear them on your 'phones. Alternatively, you can create a stereo mix file internally. There is even a nifty little four-way panner to set relative levels.

Here's Looking at H2

As with the H4—and almost every other small recorder I have looked at—not every feature on the H2 is 100% solid. I am hard to impress when it comes to dynamics effects. The H2's various AGC, compression, and limiting settings lack control, though the less drastic presets could prove useful. At extreme gain settings, the mic presets are far too noisy. The good news is that Zoom appears to have eliminated the mysterious battery noises some people heard in the H4. [Ed. Note: Samson, Zoom's US distributor, replies, "The 700Hz pulsing is caused by the DC-DC converter when the H4 is working by battery. While this is not a 'mystery' per se, our engineers have only been able to duplicate the issue using very high gain levels [while] recording essentially silence."]

All of the editing and mixing functions are far easier—and faster—when done inside your computer. However, if you are stuck outside of Timbuktu and you have to upload your podcast via satellite uplink, you will be happy to have them.

Is it the best sounding field recorder on the market? Of course not. But keep in mind that it costs a fraction of what the pro units go for. The H2 does a very respectable job of capturing stereo and even front and rear "surround." Even if you don't use the four tracks to create real surround, they offer a great way to capture live music or environmental sounds.

The internal mics are more than adequate and with care you can make very acceptable recordings. Here is a recording of the same guitar I used for all the other reviews, recorded as a 16-bit, 44.1kHz WAV file with the front pair of mics. Take a listen, and compare it to the other similar tests I have made.

• Acoustic Guitar (7.8MB WAV)

Don't forget that the H2 will record at a variety of MP3 and WAV resolutions, though I'm not sure choosing the 96kHz settings is really worth the memory hit. I am a big fan of recording MP3s for learning songs or checking band rehearsals, so I was happy to see Zoom included a lot of flexibility there.

Then there is the gee-whiz factor: Zoom's engineers just cannot seem to build a simple recorder. Need a guitar tuner? There is a surprisingly good one inside. Not to mention a metronome. I didn't look, but there's probably a Pong game in there, too. Joking aside, I think the USB audio interface is a fine addition. But mostly the H2 does one thing, and it does it quite well.

I have said it before and it bears repeating: if you want professional features, prepare to pay professional prices. If you want a dandy little recorder that won't break the bank, fits in your pocket, and does a fine job, take a look at the H2 Handy Recorder.

Sidebar: Surround 101

I vividly remember sitting in a darkened theater in L.A., waiting for the premiere of a new movie called The Empire Strikes Back. In the darkened theater, waves of heads swiveled backwards and then forward, tracking something moving above us. The moment the starship appeared on the screen the entire theater burst into applause. Like everyone who has heard great theater sound, I wanted it in my home. Getting it there is harder than you might think.

Mention "surround" to most folks and they'll probably come back with something about "5.1." However, the terms are not interchangeable: the numbers refer to a particular array of speakers; "surround" means reproducing audio so it appears to envelop the listener. If you are old enough to remember the first coming of bell-bottoms and paisley shirts, you will remember Quadraphonics, an early attempt at 3D sound reproduction.

The standard 5.1 speaker setup uses different angles than the Zoom H2's mics. Here are the four common speakers.

Truth be told, engineers have wanted to capture sound in three dimensions from the beginning. Over the years, various surround systems have come and gone, spurred mostly by the motion picture and gaming industries. All involve various numbers of speakers placed around the audience.

You might expect that each speaker would be fed by its own audio track; after all, that is how stereo works. But video is such a bandwidth hog that manufacturers had to implement special data encoding to cram the audio into the movie, disc, or game. The signals are then decoded at playback.

As I mentioned, there are other ways to get at surround. One of the most interesting, Ambisonic recording, is independent of the position of the playback speakers. Ambisonics not only reproduces audio from the front and rear of the listener, but also up and down. However, it has not been widely supported. That might change, though, as computer processing speed increases.

For a number of reasons, mixing in surround requires quite a bit more than simply routing individual tracks to the various speakers. Subtle changes in EQ or effects or panning can have ripple effects all up and down the line.

Finding a mix that will translate to the huge variations in home theater systems is not easy, either. One standard technique for music assumes that the band is arrayed left to right on a stage, just like stereo. The rear speakers are used primarily for audience ambience and other effects.

Many engineers ignore the center speaker, since anything panned midway between Right and Left will appear in a "phantom center" and because improperly calibrated center speakers in the listener's home might skew the mix. The same goes for the LFE, or ".1" channel—do you really want your kick drum to sound like Godzilla stomping through Tokyo? OK, bad example. I would kill for that kick. But you get the idea. LFE stands for low frequency effects. It's not meant to be rumbling all the time.

The good news is that surround mixing and encoding hardware and software are beginning to appear at prices we home studio owners can afford. Heck, there's even freeware! Now that there is a recorder that makes it easy to capture front and rear surround, there's not much stopping you, is there?

Two free plugins, H2-Zoo and Zoom2Five, convert the H2's dual stereo files into 5.1 files.

If you'd like to learn more about recording and mixing for surround, check out these resources:

You Are Surrounded — A terrific nine-part feature from British recording magazine Sound On Sound. You must read this.

Surround Sound — Wikipedia's considerably shorter take on the subject.

What Is 5.1? — Good basic info on surround and the major formats.

Speaker Setup Guide — Advice from Dolby Labs on proper 5.1 and 7.1 speaker placement. Be sure to check out the very cool animation.

Mixing in the Round — An easy-to-follow surround-mixing tutorial.

Stereo Microphone Technique: the coincident crossed pair — Record Producer.com offers a concise explanation of X-Y mic technique. Be sure to check out the other features, too.

The Quad Page — Everything you ever wanted to know about quadraphonic sound.

Stereo-to-Surround Conversion Guides — A list of some of the methods for converting stereo files to surround. Techie to the max.

Ambisonic Studio — Daniel Courville's suite of free processing plugins for Mac OS X, including an H2-to-5.1 transcoder inspired by this pre-review discussion.

H2-Zoo — This free Windows plugin also converts four-track H2 audio to the six tracks needed for surround encoders. Check out the author's many other surround plugins as well.

Which One's for You?

See how this recorder stacks up in our
portable recorder comparison chart.