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MicMicMan
Published on 03/21/10 at 05:26
It has now been a year since I bought this and I use it quite intensively.
I had the opportunity to use a Boss BR600, which is not really the same hardware as it is more a "mobile studio," with 2 stereo microphones.
The pros:
- The 2 inputs have phantom power, while the preamps are accurate and capable of handling almost any level of input, as the gain selector has 3 positions.
- You have the ability to connect the sound card using ASIO drivers, with all the benefits that that entails: power only over USB, use of built-in effects, and instantaneous monitoring of the track that plays ...
- The complete autonomy to record whatever the situation is, regardless of the volume: on battery, mains, and you can register and get a decent result ...
- Simple file transfer
- The ability to change the SD card...
- The possibility of using a click...
The 'bof':
- The XY microphones are pretty accurate, but nothing more. Their main problem is they are very sensitive to vibrations of the chassis. If you can properly isolate the H4, one can obtain accurate recordings, even very good results on acoustic instruments like piano, guitar or violin, but it's very difficult to obtain.
- Built-in effects ... It does the job but it's not pretty. I sometimes use the effects to record an electric guitar, using an amp modeler, and it is not a better result than getting the sound naturally. The quality of the effects are difficult to compare with that of multi-effects for guitar (the G9), from the same brand though. It works well for what I use it for...
The cons:
- Only a 2 GB maximum memory card, which hard to remove by the way, it fills up quickly.
- The interface is rather inconvenient and not always very intuitive to record in stereo.
- No real audio output, apart from the line-out and headphone output, which is a mini-jack. It's impractical to have a monitor other than headphones with this, which is a shame.
- It's absolutely not a mobile studio. It is better to forget the idea of using this 4-track to create a semblance of production independently, as it can be done better with the Boss BR600. You can not really fail to track better with this, and apply effects in post production.
In the end, it's still a convenient, versatile and well designed overall. I carry around with me. But it has its limits ...
I had the opportunity to use a Boss BR600, which is not really the same hardware as it is more a "mobile studio," with 2 stereo microphones.
The pros:
- The 2 inputs have phantom power, while the preamps are accurate and capable of handling almost any level of input, as the gain selector has 3 positions.
- You have the ability to connect the sound card using ASIO drivers, with all the benefits that that entails: power only over USB, use of built-in effects, and instantaneous monitoring of the track that plays ...
- The complete autonomy to record whatever the situation is, regardless of the volume: on battery, mains, and you can register and get a decent result ...
- Simple file transfer
- The ability to change the SD card...
- The possibility of using a click...
The 'bof':
- The XY microphones are pretty accurate, but nothing more. Their main problem is they are very sensitive to vibrations of the chassis. If you can properly isolate the H4, one can obtain accurate recordings, even very good results on acoustic instruments like piano, guitar or violin, but it's very difficult to obtain.
- Built-in effects ... It does the job but it's not pretty. I sometimes use the effects to record an electric guitar, using an amp modeler, and it is not a better result than getting the sound naturally. The quality of the effects are difficult to compare with that of multi-effects for guitar (the G9), from the same brand though. It works well for what I use it for...
The cons:
- Only a 2 GB maximum memory card, which hard to remove by the way, it fills up quickly.
- The interface is rather inconvenient and not always very intuitive to record in stereo.
- No real audio output, apart from the line-out and headphone output, which is a mini-jack. It's impractical to have a monitor other than headphones with this, which is a shame.
- It's absolutely not a mobile studio. It is better to forget the idea of using this 4-track to create a semblance of production independently, as it can be done better with the Boss BR600. You can not really fail to track better with this, and apply effects in post production.
In the end, it's still a convenient, versatile and well designed overall. I carry around with me. But it has its limits ...