True X/Y stereo mic config.Keith99 wrote:Is there anything in the H4 that justifies its extra price over the H2?
Zoom H2: me likey!
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- KVRist
- 291 posts since 16 Apr, 2006
The H2 mics can be set to record in normal XY (front, 90 degrees or rear, 120) and apparently the mic capsules are the same internally as the H4 - so there's no difference there that I can see (except the H4 only has the one pair of capsules at 90 degrees so you don't get the choice offered by the H2). The H2 can record to two stereo files at once and you can mess with the angles afterwards using Voxengo MSED or whatever, even reprocessing them as an MS configuration if you want. Very flexible arrangement.
The H4 has XLR in with phantom I think - the H2 is plugin power on 1/8 inch. The external mic input of the H2 is pretty insensitive so it's hard to get low noise results. But plugging in an external mic (which being unbalanced would need to be near to the H2 anyway) kind of misses the point of it being a one-piece trailing-wire-free point & shoot device, IMHO. The H4 can record onto its four tracks separately like a little multitrack but the H2 can't be used in any kind of overdubbing mode - you can't record the second stereo file later in sync with the first. The two stereo pair recording works only simultaneously with the four built in mics.
The H4 has XLR in with phantom I think - the H2 is plugin power on 1/8 inch. The external mic input of the H2 is pretty insensitive so it's hard to get low noise results. But plugging in an external mic (which being unbalanced would need to be near to the H2 anyway) kind of misses the point of it being a one-piece trailing-wire-free point & shoot device, IMHO. The H4 can record onto its four tracks separately like a little multitrack but the H2 can't be used in any kind of overdubbing mode - you can't record the second stereo file later in sync with the first. The two stereo pair recording works only simultaneously with the four built in mics.
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- KVRist
- 291 posts since 16 Apr, 2006
See http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic. ... 6859#96859 for a link to an H2-originated studio music recording if you want to get an idea of what can be done with it.