04.05.2024

The zoom h4n is a high quality. professional portable audio recorder. this video will get you up and running. with this device quickly and easily the. h4n runs off of two doublea batteries. found in the compartment on the back of. the device remove the cover to ensure. batteries are in the device and that the. switch marked stamina is set to OFF the. stamina mode increases battery life but. sacrifices recording quality and. functionality to do so the h4n records. to a standard SD card located on the. right hand side of the device. there are multiple options for recording. audio you can plug microphones or. instruments directly into the device via. the XLR quarter inch combination jacks. located on the bottom of the device or. use the builtin stereo microphones as. well as a combination of both the stereo. microphones have two settings for audio.

Capture direction the 90 degree setting. as shown by the markings on the. microphones is ideal for recording a. subject that is directly in front of the. h4n you can rotate the microphones to. the 120 degree setting to have a wider. pickup pattern this is useful if you are. recording an interview so that you can. put the h4n in between both people and. they'll both be recorded clearly. turn on the device by sliding the power. button on the left hand side. the LCD screen features several. important pieces of information. recording status icon which will display. either stopped paused or recording. timecode which displays how much time. has elapsed during a recording battery. life indicator recording format which. displays the digital audio sample rate. and bit depth file name volume meters. for left and right channels with decibel.

Levels indicated underneath phantom. power indicator which is used for. powering specific external microphones. and the remaining recording time on the. SD card this is affected by both the. memory available on the SD card as well. as the recording format it is very. important to take note of this remaining. time before recording. to turn off the h4n slide the power. button down and hold until you see the. message goodbye see you. on the front of the device there are. three input buttons labeled mic one and. two to record using the builtin. microphones select mic select one and. two to record using the external inputs. the three lights at the top of the. device indicate the recording mode being. used press the menu button on the. righthand side and use the wheel to. navigate to mode. press the wheel in to select this menu.

Stereo mode records two channels of. audio left and right and is the ideal. choice for recordings using just the. builtin microphones or just external. microphones for channel mode. simultaneously records for tracks of. audio from the stereo microphones and. from the external inputs these two. pairs of tracks are saved as two. separate stereo audio files MTR or. multitrack mode is an advanced recording. mode for recording overdubs or combining. two or more recordings some buttons on. the h4n may function differently when. used in this mode stereo mode will be. the most common record mode used. the h4n creates a new file for each. recording and saves those files in a. series of 10 folders on the SD card to. select which folder your files are saved. to click the button labeled one. underneath the word folder use the wheel.

To navigate to this specific folder you. want to save your recordings in and. press the wheel in to select that folder. if you are using the h4n for the first. time it is recommended that you first. format the SD card press the menu button. and scroll to sdcard and push the wheel. in. select format and when you are asked are. you sure click yes. to begin recording press the record. button once you will see the red ring. flashing and the pause icon flashing on. the LCD screen indicating that the. device is prepared to record but is not. yet recording you can now see your audio. levels displayed by the meters labeled L. and R speak into the mic as you are. going to and use the record level. controls on the right hand side to. adjust the audio levels so that the. audio will be peaking or at its loudest. point around negative 12 and negative 6.

Decibels which is marked below the. meters press the record button a second. time to begin recording indicated by the. solid record light passing timecode and. the pause icon now replaced with the. recording icon you may press the play. pause button to pause the recording and. press it again to resume recording. pressing the stop button will stop the. current recording and save the file. it's recommended that you wear. headphones to monitor your audio as you. record the headphone jack can be found. on the left hand side of the h4n the. volume controls on this side adjust the. volume of what you are hearing but does. not affect the actual recording volume. to review a recording hit the play pause. button after you have stopped recording. you can use the track forward and track. backward buttons to navigate to the.

Beginning of a file or to navigate. through all the files in that folder on. the sdcard notice the changes in file. name on the screen below the timecode. you may also view a list of all files. within the selected folder by pressing. the button labeled 2 underneath the word. file. to transfer your audio files first turn. off the device and remove the SD card. and insert it into your computer or card. reader. the SD card has three default folders. one for each recording mode navigate to. the folder where your files were saved. and transfer them to your desired. location if you don't have access to an. SD card reader you can transfer files. via USB. turn on the h4n and plug it into a. computer using the mini USB cable. connected via the port on the lefthand. side. press the menu button on the right hand. side scroll down and select USB and then.

Select storage the h4n should now appear. as a drive on your computer and you can. access your files when done press the. menu button to disconnect. well the h4n is relatively simple to use. it also features a wide variety of. options the zoom h4n defaults to. recording 16bit audio at forty four. point one kilohertz to change the. recording quality press the button. labeled four underneath the word wave. slash mp3 use the wheel to scroll down. to see a variety of options choosing WAV. 96 kilohertz / 24bit will yield the. highest quality audio but result in. larger file sizes you can also access. these options by pressing the menu. button and navigating to record here you. can adjust the recording format in the. same manner you can also set the eight. four end to auto record which sets the. device to begin recording when triggered.

by detecting noises of a certain volume. the pre record function will set the h4n. to prerecord audio to seconds before. the record button is pressed this is. achieved by the device always recording. and deleting information until the. record button is pressed using the pre. record function can impact battery life. under file name you can adjust whether. the files are named in the default. sequential order prefixed by the record. mode or if the files are named by the. date formatted yearmonth-day there are. more detailed features outlined in the. h4n manual