Disappointed, disillusioned !

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ryan79

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Ok so perhaps I should try an explain setup first. I own 2 x MxL 603 condenser mics which I power from a zoom h4n with xlr leads which provide phantom power (obviously).

I'm recording an acoustic guitar and The results are very poor. A lot of distortion and noise from mics. I was reading that maybe zoom is a poor choice to power such mics?

And when I see people on youtube getting better results from an old zoom H2 or a USB mic (blue yeti,snowball). I just wanna throw the bleeders on ebay and start again.
 
ryan79 said:
Ok so perhaps I should try an explain setup first. I own 2 x MxL 603 condenser mics which I power from a zoom h4n with xlr leads which provide phantom power (obviously).

I'm recording an acoustic guitar and The results are very poor. A lot of distortion and noise from mics. I was reading that maybe zoom is a poor choice to power such mics?

And when I see people on youtube getting better results from an old zoom H2 or a USB mic (blue yeti,snowball). I just wanna throw the bleeders on ebay and start again.
Click to expand...

The Zoom H4N generally gets a good rep'? It can put out 24 as well as 48V phantom voltage, are you sure you are giving the mics 48volts? Then, I cannot find a current draw spec for those mics. It is possible (tho' unlikely) that being a portable device the Zoom cannot supply enough current?

How does it sound on its own microphones?

Dave.
 
Hmm didn't know it could supply 24 as well. Sounds muffled with internal mics. I was told external mics should be far superior
 
Hi. Managed to get between the accepted -12 to -6 and just boost vol later on. There's no clipping. I actually used to have a Tascam us 122 and it seemed to be far superior. Hmm
 
ryan79 said:
Hmm didn't know it could supply 24 as well. Sounds muffled with internal mics. I was told external mics should be far superior
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External mics should indeed be rather better but not, I wouldn't have thought, startlingly so? I have no experience of the Zoom so I can't help there.

The fact that you did not know of the 24 volt spook juice could well be the deciding factor. Check it.

Dave.
 
I'll inbox a YouTube link if ya don't mind ? Don't wanna post fr hundreds to see lol. I've done some dodgy vocal on the track
 
Ah nothing ventured nothing gained I will post it. Not like anybody knows me on here anyway lol.

I'm not a singer more a guitarist but fancied doing something different with this. So did a finger style arrangement. Mics are described above. One is point at 12th. One at bridge. About 8 inch away. Guitar sound is thin and weak, vocal sound acceptable quality. Both mic volumes on zoom turned down to 35 out of 100 to avoid clipping and boosted later to +8 ish

Positively 4th Street - YouTube
 
So is that what you were refereeing to ..and what it appears- you, the two mics in the room? It's actually rather nice. As is th room tone'. (Maybe that's what's throwing you.. too 'wet?

The reason I 'subscribed is professional curiosity- and, I like being helpful. (Alright, semi-pro. I get paid some.. :D

The H2' style recorders, your setup ought to be very capable. Not seeing distortion and noise' there. More a question of balance (voice vs guitar) and perhaps a hurdle of getting the mics closer (for the guitar's sake- the 'less thin' thing).

If I were to try one thing on that nix it would be a bit of leveling to catch just a bit off the voice peaks, (but that would also 'duck the guitar some
IDK though, it's not all that 'thin'. Maybe try a few dB cut an octave or so ..1kish?
 
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Thanks mixsit. And yes it is a big room. Perhaps the mics could be a little closer also. It's 2 mxl 603 mics plugged into a zoom h4n. 2 years ago I borrowed a Tascam and plugged the same mics into it. The result was far superior. They are on my YouTube account. ' Song with no name'. And ' Darkness and light'. Both were far superior I thought in sound quality.
 
The other two are warmer, -drier- and perhaps less high mid and top overall.
The bright reflections could be part of the 'shout'y quality. Try pulling it down some - high mid, and maybe a bit of low pass eq.
 
That is weird. I have an H4n and the external mics, while not being the best, generally give me fairly clear quality. I've bootlegged several gigs with it with pretty good results. I've also plugged SM57's into and they sound like....SM57's.

Either its a faulty unit or something is going wrong in the actual recording process prior to the a/d conversion.
 
Seafroggy thanks . Never tried zoom with dynamic mics perhaps it works better? But it seems to struggle a little with condensers. And alot of noise.

Mixsit - Thanks. I`m bit of a novice with recording and never used EQ yet. So you`re suggesting a bit more EQ could be beneficial ? Cubase was a pain and couldnt get headphones to work on it either! I`ll try and run it through Reaper with this low pass which you suggest.
 
ryan79 said:
Seafroggy thanks . Never tried zoom with dynamic mics perhaps it works better? But it seems to struggle a little with condensers. And alot of noise.

Mixsit - Thanks. I`m bit of a novice with recording and never used EQ yet. So you`re suggesting a bit more EQ could be beneficial ? Cubase was a pain and couldnt get headphones to work on it either! I`ll try and run it through Reaper with this low pass which you suggest.
Click to expand...

Re Cubase: What are you using as an AI? Or is the H4n an AI of sorts?

Dave.
 
I've used the H4N quite a bit and, from the built in mics to the final output it's capable of very good professional results. I know of several Broadway grade sound designers who use that rig for recording sound effects out and about.

Similarly, the MXL mics wouldn't be that much better than the Zoom ones but should be fine.

Since the Tascam seemed much better (and, if anything, the Zoom should be the better of the two) I'd say there's a fault with your unit--maybe hardware or maybe buried deep in one of the set up menus. Two things I'd be checking are (as previously mentioned) that the phantom is set to the full 48V setting and also that you haven't actually got the recording format set to one of the low bit rate MP3 setting the Zoom can do
 
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