Zoom R16 (Drum Cover)

Paiste18

New member
Hey all, I apologize for the long post in advance but i’m super new to this and its clear technology has really passed me by, lol. I just started drumming again and I wanted to start doing drum covers and post them on YouTube. So I contacted an old band mate and he said that the Zoom R16 would be the perfect tool to do this and he would walk me through this stuff. So I bought the Zoom, a beautiful drum kit, a decent set of mics, and I’m ready to go and i’m left kinda hanging here. I also have a brand new IMac. So my question is:

How do I take a song I want to play off the computer and put it into the zoom, so I can record the song and my drums while i’m playing to it?

I was going to purchase Logic Pro X and use the zoom as a audio interface, but this friend of mind says thats overkill for what I’m trying to do. He said the zoom will do everything I need, but I can’t find anywhere online or in the manual that explains how to move a song from my ITunes to a new project I started in the Zoom. Is the Zoom capable of this? I have a usb cord to connect the two together. But I dont know where to drag the song from ITunes to make it play on the zoom. I can figure it out in Logic Pro because there are a lot of videos using Logic, but I don’t want to spend 199 if it’s not necessary. Please help!

Then of course recording the video and syncing the two up is a whole other thing I have to learn but I want to at lease get the audio file handled first then I can worry about the video.

Augustdrums
 
You need to copy the audio file to a project on the Zoom. Create a Project, then copy the audio files to the audio folder under that project using the computer. Now, the trick is that you need to assign that file (ie, a stereo wav file) to the project. You do this by hitting Project, then File, then Import.

Check page 63-64 in the user manual. You can also pull files from USB storage on your computer. Page 74 in the Zoom R16 manual.

If you're using a stereo track, you probably want to assign it to a stereo pair, this will give you all of the mono tracks to use with your drums.

Hope this helps.
 
You need to copy the audio file to a project on the Zoom. Create a Project, then copy the audio files to the audio folder under that project using the computer. Now, the trick is that you need to assign that file (ie, a stereo wav file) to the project. You do this by hitting Project, then File, then Import.

Check page 63-64 in the user manual. You can also pull files from USB storage on your computer. Page 74 in the Zoom R16 manual.

If you're using a stereo track, you probably want to assign it to a stereo pair, this will give you all of the mono tracks to use with your drums.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the response. The only thing I don’t understand is the your last part. Stereo track / stereo pair? The audio will be in stereo right, because its out of ITunes. So what do you mean by a stereo pair? Do I need to assign the song to a certain track in the project?

Augustdrums
 
Sorry, I forgot the Zoom gives you 16 individual tracks. Lately, I've been playing with my old Yamaha AW16G which had 8 mono and 4 stereo pairs. I was doing a similar thing on that recorder (its an old thing that survived being underwater for over an hour many years ago. Hard to believe with hard drive technology. I've recovered 6 recordings so far from about 10 years ago, with from 3 to 12 tracks.. .all via CDRW! Micro SDs are SO much handier.)

For the Zoom, you probably want to split the stereo track into two mono tracks and then import each track. Maybe put them on tracks 15-16. In any case, you'll have plenty of track space left. You can split the track with Audacity, or if you don't need to maintain the stereo, just mix it to mono.

As for the video, I have done that very thing with my Zoom. I have recorded the video with my Sanyo HD1000, the audio with my Zoom R24. Mix the Zoom down in Reaper, the inport that file into Cyberlink Video Producer to replace the audio track. I manually "sync" up the audio with the video.

This was from a couple of years ago at an event in Kalamazoo.
YouTube
 
What’s your thoughts on Logic Pro. Is that overkill for what I’m looking to do? Is it a good investment?
 
I've never used Logic. Being a PC user, I have used some of the LE versions of Cubase, but I found Reaper to be more to my liking. I take it you're Mac based. There is a Mac based version of Reaper if you want to try it.

While the software may be different, the process and results should be similar.
 
This is what I don’t understand. I hook the Zoom up to the computer. I drag my audio file into the audio file folder in the new project I created on the zoom. Then I switch over to my zoom and I can’t seem to figure out how to get it to play? I tried assigning it to a track in my project but no luck at all.
 
OK, its not really intuitive.

Once you add the file to the project (make sure you have the same bit rate and length), load the project. Press Project and scroll down until you see file. You will then see a list of the files in that project. ACTIVE files will have a star next to them *MONO-001.WAV. Files that are not active will not have the * (TEST-001.WAV).

Now exit project, and press Track. Then select a track (say, 8) by hitting the play/mute/rec button. The screen will have Track 8 and below on the screen will be Take. Hit Enter and select file. You should see the files in the Audio folder for the project. Move down to select TEST-001.WAV. Hit ENTER. This will assign the TEST-001WAV file to the track number you selected, and you will now see a * next to the name. That means the file is now included in the project.

Exit out and you should be able to pull that fader up and play the track.

Let me know if you get it working.
 
So when I hit project, select file, I select track 7 and it says “not assigned” I can’t do anything past that point
 
OK, its not really intuitive.

Once you add the file to the project (make sure you have the same bit rate and length), load the project. Press Project and scroll down until you see file. You will then see a list of the files in that project. ACTIVE files will have a star next to them *MONO-001.WAV. Files that are not active will not have the * (TEST-001.WAV).

Now exit project, and press Track. Then select a track (say, 8) by hitting the play/mute/rec button. The screen will have Track 8 and below on the screen will be Take. Hit Enter and select file. You should see the files in the Audio folder for the project. Move down to select TEST-001.WAV. Hit ENTER. This will assign the TEST-001WAV file to the track number you selected, and you will now see a * next to the name. That means the file is now included in the project.

Exit out and you should be able to pull that fader up and play the track.

Let me know if you get it working.

I know the file is on the SD card I checked. I can’t find it in the Zoom. I loaded project, found file, selected a track..and it says Not Assigned?? I cant find the audio file anywhere on the Zoom to move it around.
 
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