I have not had any trouble with my H2 remembering settings. When I was in
the field yesterday I turned the recorder on and off several times. I did
notice, however, that the settings reset to the default values when I
formatted the SD card. My Zoom H4 works this way as well. I think that the
settings must be stored in a system file on the SD card rather than in
memory in the H2 itself.
I tried a variety of gain levels. I read somewhere that the H2 does best
with gain set to mid (as opposed to low or high) and with level at 100. I
tried this on a number of recordings. They sounded too soft in the field, b=
u
they did clean up nicely using Audition. I also tried the high setting and
got fairly good results at the level set to 72 or 80. With high gain and
level set to 100 (the max) you get a much poorer signal to noise ratio that
does not clean up readily. I think the trick is to evaluate the soundfield
you are trying to record. Choose the lowest gain setting and level that you
dare. Yesterday I was recording rather soft bird calls, except for a few
woodpecker calls and tappings. I need to experiment more. For a quiet
natural soundscape (such as we have right now in the woods of South
Carolina) probably the high setting, with level set to about 80 is best. I
am sure that when I start recording frog choruses in a few weeks I will use
the mid gain or even low gain with level set to something less than 100.
No matter how I record with the H2 the results are very disappointing unles=
s
I normalize to about 30 or 40 percent of maximum and apply a high pass
filter with a heavy hand. Audition's noise removable facility helps a lot a=
s
well.
The bottom line is that my Zoom H2 does not even come close to matching the
quality of recordings I can get with my Oade-modified Marantz PMD 660 and a
Sennheiser ME 66 / ME 62 combination. The difference is like night and day.
But the Zoom H2 costs much less than even one of the mics (when you add a K=
6
module as well).
I am primarily a birder. If I want to record with the PMD 660 I set off dow=
n
the trail with the PMD 660 hanging from my neck, an external power source i=
n
a chest pocket of my photographer's vest, and one or two mic in other
pockets or my Telinga hanging from my vest, and headphones. With the Zoom H=
2
I just put the recorder in a pocket with windscreen and handle attatched. I
do need to bring a small bag with extra batteries. The headphones are
optional, as long as I have faith that the H2 is recording properly. This i=
s
a bare minimum of stuff to carry along the trail. I won't get really good
results, but I know I can record a cool soundscape or document a rare bird
call.
Robin Carter
Columbia, SC USA
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