I've been monitoring this forum for years now. I am not a
professional or even an amateur. I would classify myself as an
enthusiast that has been trying to record nature ambiance on a very
low budget for about 30 years now. I've tried everything from 10 inch
reel to reels, 4 tracks, every MD that "was" out, DATs and a large
mix of crumby mics. Most of my recordings are very disappointing.
I've had a Zoom H2 for a little over a week now and I am very
impressed with this thing. For $179 at Minidisco this is the best
thing I've recorded with yet. Even with the built in mics, mic gain
set to "M" and level set to stock 100, I'm able to get decent, very
low noise, outdoor recordings. To get the volume up I run the
recording through Sound Forge's normalizer. The Roycote Mini
Windjammer, like the Rode "Dead Kitten" fits it perfectly.
However, with a Rode NT4 and the Sound Designs Mixpre into the line-
in jack of the H2=85 amazing. This thing could capture a butterfly fart
at 50 yards! No extra processing needed. Albeit, the NT4 and Mixpre
aren't exactly "budget" items but if you play nice, keep taking the
garbage out, your wife, like mine, just may let you spend some of
your holiday bonus money on these essentials.
The NT4 miniplugged directly into the ext. mic jack on the H2 does
NOT work at all. It is all noise. You have to get the gain up with a
pre-amp like the Mixpre and use the line-in jack. Zoom boo-booed
somewhere when designing the ext. mic jack. Oh well.
I've found that by recording at 24/48 then saving in Sound Forge at
16/44.1 for CD use, the recording seems a bit brighter.
Zoom states 4 hour record and 4.5 hour playback time on 2 AA
alkalines, however I think they are a bit off. I've recorded a little
over 5 hours and listened for at least a half an hour in headphones
on one set.
In one of the forums someone stated they had problems with drop-outs
with the Sandisk Ultra II 2 gb SD cards. I have not had any.
Just thought I'd let y'all on a budget know that this thing is worth
looking at even if you only use the built in mics. I'm sure it
wouldn't work in a pro environment, but if you like to listen to bugs
and birdys like I do, it may be just the ticket.
Keith
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