Damn. Thanks for the reply.
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My Sweetwater preorder shipped. The page for the R4 shows not yet in stocks, so it must be popular.
[days pass]
And now it has arrived:
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Replying here from the other threadā¦
The body, jacks, most buttons and the sliders are all hard plastic. The four small buttons under the screen and the three to the right are classic rubber or maybe silicone?. Hopefully nothing melts.
Initial thoughts:
Good ergonomic design, logical software. I miss the jog wheel from the H2n, but the nav buttons under the screen do the job.
Audio is easy to manipulate. The R4 records each take of each track in a wav file named by track and take in a project folder. You just put the MicroSD card in your computer and use your regular file and audio tools on the contents. Audacity can open the 32bit files, play back and normalize them.
It really wants to be a very tiny, minimalistic DAW and that will probably be its long term charm. Zoom will sell a ton of these things to garage bands who can use the four channels to record a whole song on takes. Doing the same thing with synths may present interesting minimalism constraints.
Next, I want to play around with dynamic range. 32 bit is appealing in a compact, limited device like this because if it is implemented well then you shouldnāt have to worry about gain. Just get a signal in, hit record, and go. Thatās what I did with the Syntrx, not even bothering to notice that the output level was set at about 25%. The normalized recording in Audacity seems fine, but I havenāt listened to them in detail or A/Bd with the original signal.
Possibly in parallel with the dynamic range explorations, I plan to build out some multitrack jams. Four tracks can be bounced down to a stereo pair which can then be reloaded into a track so you effectively have unlimited tracks/layers.
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huh never looked into this one, I recently learned that the older H6s were covered in the rubberized stuff that goes to goo, new H6 is that textured plastic you find on cameras. I could see grabbing the R4 gotta do a little research on it now.
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is the movement on the sliders feel well controlled? that is the main thing that bothers me on the H6 is that wheels spin a bit too easy makes dialing in a balanced stereo signal a pain in the butt.
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The faders are unexpectedly good.
I setup the R4 as follows:
1/8" TRS to 2x 1/4" TS (tip and ring), Ring to Input 1 on my digital mixer (828mk3), tip back into Input A on the R4.
I immediately got feedback from the R4 because it is always live monitoring, even without the MicroSD card inserted.
First thing I tried was to find the break point between slightly elevated noise and the feedback tone. I was pleasantly surprised to find a range that didnāt feel steppy (the range may in fact be quantized, but if so it isnāt painfully obvious as might be expected from a $200 digital portastudio). The faders are firm and stable, so itās possible to nudge them directly or sort of lever your fingernail against the case for finer adjustments.
The icing on the cake is that you get global reverb and delay as well as an amp sim on each input and a 3 band eq and panning.
My only disappointment so far is that there are no output jacks other than 3.5mm TRS for headphones. Iāve got TRS splitters/mults, but prefer direct cable connections wherever possible. This is a very minor complaint, 1/4" jacks would make the device bigger and heavier, and it is already bigger than the H2s. Iām happy with the compromise Zoom made here, but in a perfect world the R4 would be smaller and have 1/4" outs.
I donāt think there is much about the R4 that is exceptional. Most things seem to be somewhere between adequate and good. Combining all of this into a $200 dedicated handheld device is magical. I doubt the mic quality measures up to the H2s or my Sony M10, but this will probably replace them as my travel audio device.
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Would love to hear about anyones experience with the Zoom R4 now that it has been out for a few monthsā¦
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They just came in at Juno UK (ask for discount and paid 178 GBP) and I have one arriving tomorrow- will let you know!
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Just turned up- no frills packaging and doesnāt come with batteries, SD or USB lead etc but feels pretty rugged and smaller in real life than I had thought (thatās a good thing for me)ā¦Now to go find some batteries!
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OK, just had an evening with it but tried out most things (havenāt plugged it in to a computer yet)
I started my recording hobby with a Fostex X26 4 track tape so this is a real throw back! I play Guitar and Bass so bought this primarily as a portable āthrow it in the caseā solution for my travel guitar. In my considerations I am always considering things like build quality, functions etc āfor the moneyā Ā£180 as you cant expect too much for that! Anyway- some random thoughts/first impressionsā¦
Build is good, screen is very bright, headphone output is pretty powerful.
Its as easy to use as 4 track tape deck! You will have it mastered in an hour!
Its as limited in terms of editing as a 4 track tape deck! No loops, no auto drop ins etc. Its basic.
Insert FX are excellent- mick preamps, guitar and bass amps and even advanced FX like polyphonic pitch shifters (good for adding bass with a guitar) Send FX great, a real bonus.
Built in Mike is good, you can get a good range or recordings with mike preamps
Output only from headphone socket- but I suspect if I want anything Iāll be taking the wave of the SD Card.
Recorded quality is excellent as you would expect, bouncing is easy.
Menu system is a bit of a PITA, move around then press enter to change valueā¦ you get used to it but not sure why you always need to press enter. I have been making pre-set projects with fx all set up per track so less need to mess with menusā¦)
Drum tracks sound great, just a bonus at this price point.
I plan to put some backing tracks on the SD card and use it that way as well for practice.
Its a lot of fun, easy to use, great value. Highly recommended for guitarists (my use case) but obviously you could record anything!
Improvements? by a firmware update they can add a lot I guess, itās not really built for audio editing, but a simple āloop trackā or āduplicate recordingā function would be really good for people like me who just want to drop 4 chords then jamā¦
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Thanks for that review.
Iām waiting on the H4essential features (metronome, tuner, drop-in, punch-in, etc) to decide which Zoom is best suited for my needs. Basically, looking for the 4 track Studio tape workflow of the op1 Field. Nothing fancy. Metronome, tuner, tape transport, etc.
So Iām guessing the R4 qualifies. I have yet to try one out. But it does look great and practical.
I usually record instruments (guitar, samplers, etc) by sections (chorus, verse, intro, etc), leaving about one dead measure in between ideas (either in one pass or with multiple passes on the same tracks so the ideas are still kinda organized when transferred later on).
Iāll wait April to see what the Essentials offer.
Let us know how it keeps proving useful. Your review is more than precious now that the Essential series is about to be released !
Yes, Zoom H4essential looks a similar format but as far as I can tell doesnāt have tuner/drums/insert/send fx etc so the R4 seems better for me as a guitarist.
I read this so often in forums, and Iām on the same boat.
I donāt think R4 Multitrack is anywhere close to that though, neither H4Essential.
I would need something that allows (very basic) edit operations in a pratical UI. Basically timeline copying, trimming, cutting and moving of audio clips.
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Sounds like you want the Zoom R12 Zoom R-12 Multitrack Recorder | guitarguitar
Touch screen DAW like editing Ā£230 but too big for what I wanted.
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That touchscreen is so small I get anxiety watching that giant finger footage
ā¦besides that, it seems quite ideal
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Its the trade off if you want small and for it not just to be a DAW in another format (like an iPAD with a 2/2 Audio IO which is what I was using)ā¦I accepted if I want to edit it will need to be in a iPAD and/or DAW! Iām going to try the USB3 to USB 3 R4 to iPAD Pro later, see if I can transfer individual WAV files back and forwardsā¦
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I agree with @phading
Gimme something in between the R12 and the R20 and weāre good.
The R12/R20 are, imho, close to the iPad workflow.
But there is something to be done about the R12 faders and its screen.
As far as editing goes, I only need to be able to visualize my recordings and being able to record multiple takes one after the other on the same track.
The editing I do is on my DAWs. Cutting is ok, but not mandatory. Undo is a must have.
The R4 was looking cool, the R12 had me wondering for a bit. And it seem like the H4e is not gonna be what Iām waiting for.
So for now, itās back to the iPad, Logic Pro, the bulky af EVO4 and dongles and cables.
Not gonna complain about all these options.
Just wishing out loud!
If I was going to use a small multitracker type device I would really want a nice jogwheel for editing, Iāve got no interest in using touchscreens for anything other than simple page scrolling.
Does anyone remember the name of that standalone multitracker device that was shown at one of the trade shows last year? I canāt seem to find it just now.
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Pretty close to what I was doing- Ipad, Logic and Apogee JAMX for Guitar - its very powerful and I can use TONEX etcā¦but the reality was I just wasnāt using it! R4 is much smaller and simpler and I am less concerned about it getting broken or nickedā¦time will tell how much I use it, but it lives in my Steinberger travel guitar case and if nothing else its a tuner, mike, Amp Sim and backing tracks for jamming!
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Thingstone Track 8
Elektronauts topic
Official Website
Iām really into this one.
It has a small demo manual available on the website. It looks like it could be very nice, but also quirky and very expensive.
For many (offtopic) reasons Iām not getting an ipad.
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