Zoom H1 Recorder - $99

[MSmart]

Someone over at the Sony Creative Software Vegas Pro forum posted a link to this new microphone:

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2053&brandID=4

Said to be available on July 30, 2010.

[ToddBoyle]

I have spent hours looking for any actual review of the hardware but I am VERY INTERESTED!

Some people say it has the same X/Y microphone as the H2, which would be pretty good.  The H2 is below $150 so this isnt' life-altering information.

I'm waiting for the reviews.  We need to know if it really records, reliably, with good high definition audio of challenging things like a rock band.  There is also the Teac VR-10 selling for $100

Todd

[MSmart]

Availability has been delayed, Samson changed the date to August 20 a while back but I see that Amazon.com has changed it from August 20 to September 8 now.

[ToddBoyle]

How does the X/Y microphone perform when you're recording a lecture?  It seems to me, you want a cardioid pattern and NOT the natural sort of performance you might want for music.    Will the X/Y be "good enough" or will it just not be good enough?

[MSmart]

I'm not sure how to answer your question, but it's shipping now. One member on the SCS Vegas forum received theirs from Amazon (even though it's showing in Pre-Order status). Still waiting for their review...

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=724654

Added: OK, here's your answer:

Because both mics are arranged on the same axis, they are equidistant from the sound source for perfect localization and no phase shifting. The result is great stereo recordings with natural depth and accurate imaging.

As stated here:

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h1/ and with a "pretty" graph on the H4n page: http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/

[ToddBoyle]

I used the thing to record audience comments, at a bookstore, an authors' signing lecture. 

The zoom h1 had way more noise than the audio track I was pulling off the sound board.
There were only a few audience comments that were better on the Zoom than the main track.
As usually the case I had to take the audio track out of Sony Vegas and manually adjust the gain in Audacity, by as much as +20db in the quiet sections and -9db in some excessive sections.  In addition, I have been using a dumb 10K potentiometer in front of my GS500 mic. input to adjust the gain during these lectures.  It makes a huge scratching sound on the audio track :-( but the GS500 does not allow changing the audio level during the shoot, and sometimes you just HAVE to adjust the gain (speaker walks away from the podium, or, engineer cranks up my gain on my feed during tht talk, etc)   Bottom line... I think the Zoom H! will be useful for my real need (audience comments) but I need to understand whether that terrifically loud noise floor is coming from, how to reduce it, whether I need a separate mic. and preamp to drive the H1?  or what.   ps.  It absolutely devours AA batteries.  It holds one and they seem to last less than 1 hour? Nevermind.  I am hotwiring this for an external battery, at least a "C" cell.  Also. forget the 2GB chip provided, it only holds 3 hours of WAV file.  Budget another $35 for a 16GB SDMC chip.

[Tom Dickerson]

This info on the Zoom H1 sounds very disappointing. I have had pretty good luck with an Olympus DS40, as far as noise goes. I admit, I have not heard a lot about the Zoom H1 other than it being inexpensive. I guess because it's a Zoom I expected it to be half-way decent.

Thanks for the review.

[Bif]

I have one and have been waiting to use it until someone comes out with a decent windmuff for it.  When I first put a battery in it and began just trying it out inside the house it recorded conversation crystal clear, just like I was used to with the ZoomH2. 

I had ordered the WindTech furry windmuff B&H carried for it but the first time I tried using the H1 with the WindTech outdoors a steady breeze caused a low rumble in the recording.  I had queried thewindcutter.com and learned they had plans to make a product for the H1 but didn't have the dimensions yet, so I sent them the measurements off mine. 

In the meantime I got in a hurry and ordered the Redhead windmuff from Kalani Prince in Hawaii.  The demo's on their website looked promising, and that one came in but I haven't had a chance to test it yet.  The folks at thewindcutter.com emailed me that they had one made up for me to order and try and I did.  Used it Saturday to do the audio for an action format pistol match I needed some vignettes from. 

Again when I tested the level for voices at about 5 feet, the breeze caused a slight rumble, not as bad as the WindTech but more than I want (under the same conditions with the H2 and thewindcutter Stormchaser model over the foam windscreen that comes with the H2, I get no such rumble).

The problem is that the H1 does not come with a foam windscreen.  The windcutter folks make their product to go over a foam windscreen and that makes a big difference.  I passed on my thoughts to thewindcutter.com folks and got a reply a little later.  They have a foam windscreen they feel will fit over the H1 and they are making up a "Stormchaser" to fit over that, these two items will be shipped to me for testing and I'll also post my test summary here.

For simple double system sound that is quick and easy for a "one man" crew to use, the ZoomH1 will get good results if properly placed.  For outdoor use, a good effective furry windmuff is an absolute necessity, and the best aftermarket inexpensive model I've found is thewindcutter.com "Stormchaser" model.  This one is their top performer due to longer and denser "fur". 

My method is to set the recording level fairly low, allowing plenty of "headroom" and avoiding pre-amp hiss.  I get both the camera and H1 (or H2) recording, announce "scene and take" number, then announce "ACTION" (that is my initial synch point in post).  I bring the volume up in Audacity, select the segment needed (from "scene and take" to "CUT", and export to a WAV file for use on the sound effects track on the timeline of the NLE.

This is working fairly well for me.

[Guy Bruner]

Bif,
After you do your testing and craft your report, start a new thread and I'll make it an article.  Don't forget to include some pictures or a video.  If you put pictures and video in your album here, you can embed them where you want in the article.  You can do it from foreign sites as well.  Video is pretty easy but pictures from a photo site require some fiddling.

[Tom Dickerson]

Thanks, Bif for your sharing your experience with the H1.  I am working on a script for a short film  based on the "The Last 3 Minutes" short done with the Canon 5D mKII.

When I watched the short I immediately thought of doing a Christian short based on that concept using my wife's Canon T2i. Since then I have also learned about another feature film titled, "Tilt" that was shot with the Canon T2i.

I was planning on purchasing the Zoom H1 to handle the audio....I think I'll put it back on my Christmas list now.

Thanks, bif

Tom

[ToddBoyle]

Thanks Bif, for the idea of recording with lower gain and boosting it in Audacity.  I am embarrassed to admit, I used the AGC for my recording and that's probably why I got a huge noise floor.   This was in the basement of a bookstore and reasonably quiet, but there is always some sort of ventilation running in these places and that's probably what I got on my recording.   (This was my first experience with an audio recorder.)

[MSmart]

Over at the Sony Vegas forum, member "amendegw" provides feedback on his H1 and even has a video comparison:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=726341

starting at 9/2/2010 9:53 am

Also read what Guy has to say two posts down.

[Tom Dickerson]

MSmart, thanks for the link. After reading the posts and watching the video I've put the H1 back on my Christmas list.

[ToddBoyle]

I am liking the Zoom H1 more as I get familiar with it.  I use it for lectures.  I find, keeping it on manual gain is good.  Also, don't aim it straight.  Just aim one of the mics at the speaker. They are cardioid. You dont need stereo, for a lecture, as much as you need the straight-ahead directionality.

Also it's kind of nice that the thing provides plug-in power for a electret condenser mics, i.e. lapel mics.

[Bif]

A little bit more info and detail on the H1.  When I have a chance to do a more comprehensive test I'll do as Guy suggests and make an article with a video out of it.

Yesterday I ran a series of 4 short test segments in my back yard, hoping to test the efficiency of a few "windmuff" configurations more than anything else. 

First off:  Recording input levels.  Using the built in mics we may be best off not running this very high, on one assignment getting video of "cowboy action shooters" at a match I had the input level set at 40% to keep the gunfire from being overly loud.  The windmuff used was thewindcutter.com "Stormchaser" model made up specifically for me to try on the H1 for fit and for function.

On yesterday's tests I set the record level input at 60% and put myself appr 4 feet from the mic, there was a light intermittent breeze at ground level and the wind itself could be heard "sighing" in the trees.

1.  No windmuff...This is going to be a generally unusable configuration outdoors except on that rare absolutely still day.  The slightest breeze across the mics makes a very distinct and disturbing noise, this is true of just about any mic outdoors.

2.  The "Stormchaser" from thewindcutter.com (trial version, slips over the "rings" around the mics)...Breezes ruffling the "fur" cause an intermittent low rumble.  I had suggested to them that some kind of a foam windscreen be found to slip a properly sized fur windmuff over as most of their models are made to fit over a mic manufacturers foam windscreen.  The "Stormchaser" for the ZoomH2 fits over the foam windscreen Zoom supplies for that model and I get very good results with that. 

Anyway, they did follow my suggestion and had just sent me a foam windscreen made by WindTech that did fit over the mic end of the ZoomH1, and a larger "Stormchaser" windmuff that fits over that WindTech foam windscreen.

3.  "Stormchaser" made large enough to fit over the WindTech foam windscreen...This is the best combination I had available to test.  It managed to silence all but the strongest windgusts encountered.  In addition that combination also seems to introduce a very slight amount of "muffling" that cuts some of the potentially oversharp condenser mic "crispness" resulting in (to my ears) a slight extra "warmth" to voice tones.  The Zoom H1 mics seem to be quite "sharp", clean, and crisp.

4.  In my haste to get a good windmuff, since thewindcutter.com did not have anything for the H1 "ready to go" when I first contacted them, I had ordered a "Redhead" from redheadwindscreens.com and pulled that on over the "rings" around the mics (no foam underneath) for a test.  I found that to be close to but not quite as effective as the "Stormchaser" over foam.

Why the "Stormchaser" model?  thewindcutter.com makes several versions of each model with about a $10 spread between the lowest priced and highest priced version.  The "Stormchaser" is their version with the longest fur and the densest fur, these two characteristics make for the best wind noise reduction you are going to get with this kind of product.

I did edit the tests and rendered a 3 1/2 minute short but since I did that at the windmuff manufacturer's request I feel I have to wait for their permission before making it public.  I should know in a day or so. 

Here's how I use the H1:

I run the record levels a bit low to somewhat low.  At 4 feet this is good enough for voice, dialog, narration, etc.  I bring it into "Audacity", a free audio editor, and if necessary increase the volume there a bit.  Select the segment I need and export that to a WAV file which I then can drag onto the sound effects/voiceover track of the NLE I'm using.  Click on it and drag into postion so waveforms match those of the camera's audio track, continue to adjust until "echo" is gone and mute the camera track. 

Monitoring:  You should monitor all audio with headphones, none of the ones I had would give me enough volume so I could tell anything about the audio with the H1 (I had encountered the same with the H2) so I tried using a simple 2X "booster" from Radio Shack.  Runs off of 2 AA cells and surprisingly enough works.  I found I could tell quite a bit about what the H1 mics were picking up.  The output circuits on these things may be designed to drive "earbuds" but I like an over the ear headphone when trying to tell what my audio is doing.

This is a real simple to use audio recorder, no complex menus to "navigate" through as in other Zoom models, but although I'll keep this one, my preference may run to the ZoomH2 with it's 90degree pattern, 120degree pattern or 360degree surround pattern.  The H2 gives you 3 input level ranges with completely variable control within each and is a bit more flexible unit.  Plus I've had good luck with it outdoors using the "Stormchaser" furry windmuff over the supplied foam windscreen.  At $146.96 (from amazon tonight) it's not quite the low priced bargain the H1 is but both are excellent values.