New at recording. Zoom h4n tips.

[BDAY1973]

I am new to home recording and i am going to buy a Zoom H4n tomorrow. I want to make live recordings of my originals at my gigs and find software to edit and master a handful of songs to put on cd's to sell or give to friends at my gigs. Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ConorC]

Hi Bday,
I have the R16, the H4n's bigger brother and if the quality of the H4n's built in mics is the same as on the R16 then I think your recordings are going to sound pretty good. Plus you can plug 2 extra mics into it giving you 4 simultaneous tracks recordable, so result!!! What's your line up when you are recording, how many instruments, mics etc? Will you be going through a PA? So If you are a 1 guy/1 guitar sort of performer you could set up the H4n in front of you (somebody with more knowledge will have to give you advice on placement) and then take a feed from the PA into the 2 additional inputs. If the PA has the facility to do this I would take a direct out, or pre-fader out from the channels on the desk you are plugged int. Note, not all mixing desks can do this. If you can get the channel direct outs then you will have a track with guitar, a track with vocals, with a little guitar bleed, and 2 tracks of room ambiance. As for editing, I would suggest Reaper, because it's very good and very cheap/free. there's a bit of a learning curve but it's very good. Reaper will allow you to clean up the sound, balance, pan EQ compress reverb etc. to get your recordings sounding awesome.

 

[BDAY1973]

Thank you conorc, i think just starting out, i'm just going to record 1 guitar / 1 vocal, and then as i learn, i'll start adding a bit of percussion, harmonies ect.... Thank you again for the advice. Very helpful. Have a good day.

 

[Chris R]

My friend says that he has got a Zoom H4 which is the older H4N version and he gets some stunning recordings a great acquisition

Chris