The Zoom H4n recorder

This is part documentation post, and part simple gear lust indulgence.  In my never-ending (and, let's face it, rarely-purchasing) quest for doing-it-all-in-a-compact-box, I had never thought of using "a handheld recorder" as the basis for the system.

Thus my stumbling onto the H4n from Zoom, today, was a bit startling.

I was not prepared for what this little gizmo is supposed to be able to do.  Check this out:

• Built-in stereo mic, rather cleverly arranged.
• Can act as an external mic for a video recorder.
• Changeable SD/SDHC cards for storage.
• Variable speed playback without altering pitch (i.e., phrase trainer).
• Various standard recorder features (autoplay, filesharing, etc.).
• Two combination XLR / 1/4" inputs with preamps. (!!!)
• Modes for recording in simple stereo, two stereo tracks, or true multitrack recording.
• Can apply DSP effects when multitrack recording.  (!!!)
• Onboard audio editing (including project-based editing when multitrack recording).
• Can act as computer recording interface.

Street price seems to be in the $270 range as of this writing.  If it really does all this, that somehow seems cheap.

Will cogitate further.

An interesting take on MIDI guitar.

Hat tip to David Neale for showing me this:

I've got no idea if it makes any sense for what I'm trying to do, but I'm going to put it on the radar for a while and chew on the concept.

iPhone thoughts.

A while back, when I first found out about the Alesis iO Dock, I started thinking about the iPad as the centerpiece of a minimalist do-it-all rig, that would suit what I (think I) want to do.  I still think it's a pretty good idea, and Alesis' new AmpDock seems to be a step above the iO Dock in several very important respects.  Had I an iPad of my own, I'd probably already be down that path.

Here, about a year later, due to a couple of really interesting discoveries and my first week on the road in several years, I'm starting to think about the iPhone as well.  First, and the software centerpiece of the idea, is the FourTrack app from Sonoma Wire Works:

Now if I'm reading everything right, this is one nifty app;  it's not just an app in a vacuum but a framework for plugging in other related apps like loops, FX, etc., and hopefully (more on which in a moment) hardware.  It strikes me as well-designed and easy to use, based on the YouTube presence (just consider this one, done by a user rather than by Sonoma itself.).  Oh yeah, and it's five bucks for all the starter stuff.  (Thus far it does not appear that people have been complaining that you have to make lots of in-app purchases to do meaningful things, which can be a gotcha with iOS apps in general.)  Sonoma also offers GuitarTone (an FX/modeling app with a free core and available paid upgrade plugins, which both works standalone and as a "tool" within FourTrack), several variants of the InstantDrummer app (creates drum patterns/loops and is also a "tool" within FourTrack, at $3 per "style" specialty), and even a boutique partnership app called Taylor EQ (like GuitarTone, also a standalone app and FourTrack "tool";  this one offers EQ to emulate or cement the Taylor guitar sound).  The set of apps also has the capacity for "audio copy/paste" and offers a creative way to conveniently get at your sound files for reprocessing in a traditional software DAW.  (Being a software developer myself, some of these tricks not only promise great functional utility, but actually endear the company to my "scrapper-friendly" aesthetic.)

This seems to solve, for me at least, the problem of some sort of serious competition to GarageBand in terms of being able to do both FX and basic multitrack recording at the same time.  For this, it needs only a serious hardware interface, and although Sonoma's own GuitarJack seems solid and well-regarded, and truly able to do much of what I would want to do on an iPhone (especially on the road), last night I stumbled onto the Tascam iU2.  Check this out:

This little box, through some creative cabling and switching, offers two simultaneous inputs for either 1/4" or XLR cables, optional phantom power, internal preamps, mic/line selectors (or a guitar DI on the left channel), standard MIDI I/O, RCA and digital outs, direct monitoring--in short, a usable 2x2 hardware interface.  Here's where it gets really interesting, though:  this unit can deliver to an iOS device through an external dongle for the 30-pin dock, or can go via USB to a computer like a traditional recording interface.  When connected to the computer, it's powered by the computer's USB cable;  when connected to the iOS device, it's device-powered--and you can take the device's power brick and hook it into the iU2's USB port, in which case your device's AC brick recharges the device through the iU2.  Now that's clever, and useful. 

So:  if you have access to a computer for recording, you can use that (like the PreSonus AudioBox USB I'd figured I'd get someday, which offers basically the same input features);  if you are fully portable or on the road, use the same box to go directly into the device.  It seems to have a nice small footprint:  4.4" square and not an inch thick;  it looks to be hardly larger than the Pandora PX4 I carried around for so many years on the road, but coupled with the iPhone it's tremendously more powerful.  And at $150 or so, it looks like once again I may be able to pay less and get more.

I have not validated yet that the Sonoma apps will recognize the iU2, but I'm hopeful. If I'm on the road enough, it may be worth it to me to also get the GuitarJack and the recommended microphone just for the ultimate in compactness, but after playing a bit with Line 6's MobileIn interface, I'd always prefer a separate dock dongle to something that puts angular tension on the device's docking port.  (I'd make an exception for the iM2 stereo iOS microphone, which won't have a 1/4" guitar cable dangling off the end;  I'm also hopeful that the Sonoma apps will recognize that hardware as well...it should be great for minimalist acoustic instrument or ambient recording.

Food for thought.  It's exciting...and getting cheaper, smaller, and better.  Technology's fun, isn't it?

__________________________
For anyone who might stumble across this post:  if you have contributory opinions I'd love to hear them.  How are Tascam preamps regarded, compared to PreSonus'?  Any serious loss of quality expected from the "converter" cables that take MIDI and XLR  to 1/4"?  And for that matter, how about the RCA line outs;  any difficulties or problems with those?  Anyone have personal experience or knowledge about the Sonoma apps?  Are the above ideas totally off the rocker?  What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?  (We never did get a good answer to that, did we?  :-)

Trick question.

Question:  What's the most amazing thing about this new vid from Antoine Dufour?

Pause, for a moment, to pick your jaw up off the floor.  (It always takes me a minute.  :-)

Answer:  it fades out.  To me, that can only mean one thing:  he wasn't satisfied with how he concluded the piece.

Somehow, that just strikes me as riotously funny.

The iPad as do-it-all musicking device?

Musicians, please check my logic here, and post comments either way.  I make no pretense at grand wisdom here, but rather am trying to learn.

Abstract

I've been putting a lot of mental energy into trying to re-approach what I want to do with "music gear", taking as holistic a view as possible and trying to find the best balance between capability, simplicity, and expense.  I have recently started using an iPad 2 as part of my "day job" work, and in looking at what is available for that device, my existing mental conversation about re-approaching gear has been rather turned on its ear.  After a few weeks of cogitation, I'm now at the point where I am trying to figure out why I wouldn't make the iPad the central figure in this quest.

So, I'm going to write it down here and ask people to help me shoot arrows at the idea.  If you find it interesting or know someone else who might, please, by all means point them here.

Mandolin video sample

Felt the need to document this somehow. During the same "session" that produced the fretless sample, I also wanted to hear how the mandolin came across in the same recording environment, and wound up recording this.

Annotations:

• No audio or video editing has been done, other than timeline cropping. Prior to what you see here there was a diagnostic sounding of open strings, harmonics, and a few chords. After this there was a very short foray into major mode territory before I got a phone call. :-)
• Video is a webcam (Logitech if memory serves), microphone is a MXL USB.008.
• Recorded with Camtasia Studio.
• There is a really annoying glitch in the recording that surfaces at about 1:05, 2:30, and 3:40. I do not know what it is for sure, but I suspect that it is my evil little Blackberry, trying to find its network. If that is true, I'm not sure why it didn't (seem to) affect the fretless recording from the same session, but if anyone reading this can confirm that's what this sounds like, I'd be happy for the certainty. If nothing else it's a reminder to turn that annoying little beast off when I'm doing something important. :-)
• The synchronization problems between audio and video tracks seem to be less of an issue here than they were for the fretless sample, but there still seems to be a latency in there. More testing, I guess, and I've got a few ideas. If anyone has suggestions, please let fly!
  
• Music: improv, with a G tonic. It appears, in reviewing this segment, that I was on the same vibe here that I was with the fretless. Minor second degree, major third, and most semitones above that at one point or other. Broody, for sure, and mostly intentional. :-) I actually like some of the things that come out, even if I do lose the big downbeat a couple of times and fat-finger here and there. (Need more time for fundamentals!) I'm not sure where a few of those ideas came from; they just showed up when needed, and the romantic in me is pretty happy that I can't fully explain that...

So now it's documented. Next step: recording with Audacity, with this USB.008 acoustic microphone into one channel and plugged in through a DI in a second channel. It'll have to be done piecemeal, but I'll get there.

Fretless video sample

Okay, do please forgive me the problems here. One must begin somewhere, and here I am.

Here's a first-take sample of the kit-built acoustic fretless guitar. There are certainly problems--the audio and video seem to get unsynchronized, there is some audio editing that should probably be done to cure boomy spots and hiss, and of course I'm still learning how to play this beastie. But learning consists of putting darts on the board, and this does give an idea of what the instrument actually sounds like in person.

(Constructive criticism from musicky and audiophile folks is welcome. My learning here is both for KPC project business and my own edification. :-)

Annotations:

• Tuning is Guitar Craft Standard (C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4).
• Bass strings are electric flatwounds; trebles normal-tension nylons.
• Music is...aw hell, who am I kidding? Total wanky improv. ("Okay, so here I am ready to play for a test. What should I play? Uh... Okay, the open G sounds good...mmm...minor seconds...mmm...augmented seconds...what was that again?")
  
• Much of the playing is between the third (nylon) and fourth (steel) strings. (That actually was on purpose, and mostly intentional.)
• No audio or video editing has been done, other than timeline cropping.
• Video is a webcam (a common Logitech if memory serves), microphone is a MXL USB.008.
• Recorded with Camtasia Studio. (I'll soon be testing audio recording with Audacity too.)

Again, constructive criticism and comments are welcome. What I learn from this overall process (of audio and video recording and editing) will wind up contributing to our "new to distance ed" video-segment project, from spoken audio to camera recording to background music. Assume I know nothing, and you'll be pretty close! :-)