Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Hi,

I recorded a full drumkit yesterday with the H4n on 4 track mode. The mics were used as overheads (120 degrees) and inputs 1&2 had an sm57 on the snare and a D112 on the kick.

The metering for the onboard microphones was accurate.

The metering for the mic inputs (XLR) showed a weak signal, which caused me to turn up the recording volume. Test recording showed that the signal was now distorting.

In the end, I had to ignore the meter readings for inputs 1&2 and do the level setting by ear. I was using compressor 3 on those inputs, and set the levels independently (1/2 not linked).

Has anyone else had problems with the level meters of inputs 1&2?

I did notice aftward that phantom power was on for the inputs. Could this have had an effect on the meters?

The recordings sounded suprising good with the H4n btw.

Hi carlier74...it's entirely possible the phantom power could have screwed the levels...I guess the only way to prove that is to re-do the recording with the correct settings...while your at it, you can re-test the level meter settings...they 'should' show the correct levels when all is set-up correctly...good luck!..sideshow bob

Thanks for the reply. I will have to go back and record again to see if the unnecessary phantom power was it. I'll post back here.

One thing related: it's great to now be able to set levels for inputs 1&2 individually. It'd be good to be able to do the same with phantom power (especially if it does turn out to be true that unnecessary phantom power screws up level readings).

We'll, I don't think the level meters are the problem — I think it's the compressor.

The compressor and limiter on the H4n are fundamentally flawed as they apparently don't operate on the analogue but on the digital side, i.e. after the A to D conversion. (It seems to me that Zoom deliberately tries to hide this fact in all their communications about the H4n, but then again this statement might be too harsh.)

What this means is that if you set the recording level too high, there will be clipping, and neither compressor nor limiter will be able to help you as the damage has already been done.

Which makes the limiter totally worthless IMO, and reduces the usefulness of the compressor a lot.

So one should be better off not using any of them, i.e. set the recording level as low as it needs to be to avoid clipping, and do the compression in postproduction.

Any thoughts?

My thought is that you have analyzed the situation correctly and described the solution correctly. Keep your levels below clipping and ignore the built-in dynamics controls.

Fran