Ok thanks a lot. Yea I usually see people who use the zoom h4n use outside mics for vocals and I never knew why. But how can I tell if my room has a lot of background noise? Its fairly small but has no parallel surfaces.
EDIT: Oh and I will be moving into dorms very soon and so do you think that would have lots of background noise or no?
Reasons to use an external mic- First, in 4-track mode, you can use an external mic *and* the onboard mics, and then use either or both in the final recording. Second, you can use better mics (if you have them). Third, you can use *different* (not necessarily better) mics. Mics are tools. If they all did the same thing, recording studios would have 100 mics, all the same. That would be like a hot babe with 100 identical dresses. Lastly, you can put the mic where you aren't, and you can push the cool buttons on the Zoom without having the onboard mics record your button-pushing, and generalized handling noise. Note that the external remote control (accessory- not included, as a rule, about $20) helps with that too. For instance, you can use the handle as a mic stand adapter, using the onboard mics as drum overheads, and put 2 dynamics on kick and snare,record all 4 tracks, and control
the H4n from across the room.
And as far as dorms go, they are *the worst*, especially those 1970's prefab boxes. Bizzillions of loud people with their tunes. But- I'll give you a couple of useful tips. First, try recording acoustic guitar in a stairwell of a dorm at about 04:00 in the morning (I don't recommend The Who at that hour - don't ask how I know that
). The natural reverb can be astounding. Next- if your school has a music dept, they will have practice rooms, which are generally better prepared acoustically than most random spaces. Take a music class or two, or just talk to the Profs. At about 02:00AM, when most of the music students are asleep, there can be quiet time. And then you get a good room and peace and quiet.
How do you know if your room is noisy? I'll tell you. Put on a set of cans (headphones), plug them into that Zoom. Set it on a tripod (another useful accessory) so you are not hearing handling noise, and crank it up a bit. What you are about to learn is that you live in a world with noise you never even dreamed of, because you're not a dog. You can't hear the high frequencies that Rover can, but you're about to have hearing as sensitive as his, or more. Mics pick up *everything*. It's what they do. When I had a recording consultant doing a shakedown cruise on my first studio, I knew I had the right guy when Aidas put on the cans and says, "Jesus, what's that noise? It sounds like a grandfather clock!- Oh...lose the watch." You're about to live in a world where you can hear a cat walking on a pile carpet. Give up the idea that you can get rid of noise by electronic razzle-dazzle after the fact. Your first mission is to find a quiet place to record that sounds good. Good luck. We'll be there for ya'.
