[RNLD] H6

Fri Aug 5 01:59:53 UTC 2016

Mark, I asked a friend and here’s his answer. We’re both in the US.

***

Yes, the swappable mics are gimmicky.

Still I would definitely tell the ethnomusicologist and the culture
documenter to give this serious thought. The XLR connection is far and away
better than the standard 3.5 mm jack, and the possibility of 6 inputs on
such a portable device could be a real help for their field research. And
though I have not yet touched an H6, its advertised 20+ hours of battery
life is much better than the 6 hours I get with an H4n or H5, even when
averaged across the 4 batteries it requires.

And if the $399 is more than our language documenter can afford, I'd
recommend they give the H5 a good long look. It's mic pre-amps are
significantly quieter than the H4n, the dials yield no handling noise
compared to the H4n's rocker-switch, and it also boasts a richer feature
set that I won't go in to here, but I judge the package as arguably worth
the extra expense.

I might even recommend the H2n over the H4n, because of quieter mic
pre-amps and 13+ hours recording time from my Eneloop AA rechargeable
batteries. The significant down-side is the lack of any XLR ports, which
could be a deal-breaker depending on the purposes of the recordist.

But if the frugal field researcher still can't afford those, the H4n is a
solid, reliable piece of equipment. You can even find gently used ones on
e-bay for under $140.

~Brenda

*From:* Amanda Rose Hamilton [mailto:amanda.hamilton2 at uq.net.au]
*Sent:* Thursday, August 04, 2016 7:57 PM
*To:* Mark W. Post; RNLD list
*Subject:* RE: [RNLD] H6

Dear Mark et al,

Hello!  I have just returned from three months in the field in the Northern
Territory (Australia) and used a Zoom H6 as my sole recorder.  I thought it
did really well, and I am very happy with it (though I have never used the
H4N so I can’t make a direct comparison).

First, I was really satisfied with the sound quality that’s achievable from
two top-mounted mics that come with the recorder.  In general, when
recording with more than one speaker, I used the omni mic, which I thought
had excellent pickup.  In a few instances, with just two speakers, I used
the XY mic, which really is quite directional—so much so that you really do
have to have your speakers sitting at either 90 or 120 degree angles to
each other (those are the two directional settings for the XY mic, and
switching back and forth between the two is very easy, as you just twist
the mics themselves).  In other words, I found the XY pretty effective at
reducing background noise while still remaining easier to set up, and less
cumbersome, than additional lapel or head-mounted mics.

I also found the set-up quite convenient.  To switch from one input to
another, you just push the button corresponding to that input.  (I never
came anywhere close to using all the inputs at once, though, so I can see
how that feature might strike some as unnecessary.)  Adjusting the
recording levels is also very straightforward, as there is a separate dial
corresponding to each input.  The colour screen makes level checks at a
glance easy to do.  I recorded for probably an average of 2-3 hours per day
and changed the batteries maybe about once every eight or nine days, to the
best of my recollection.

One big advantage of the easy set-up and level-checking ability, as I see
it, is that it means it’s quite easy for language consultants who haven’t
used recorders before to learn how to operate the machine.   I taught a
number of people how to use it, and they all felt comfortable with it
pretty quickly.

The only disadvantage of the H6 that I could foresee would be if you were
moving around a lot while recording, or trying to carry the recorder in
some kind of bag while recording (with radio mics, obviously)—the dials
controlling the levels might get moved inadvertently.  This was never a
problem for me, though.

Anyway, from my experience I think the H6 works really well and is very
convenient to use.  I hope that helps with your student’s considerations!

All the best,

Amanda

*PhD candidate*

Linguistics  |  School of Languages and Cultures

3rd floor, Gordon Greenwood Building

University of Queensland

St. Lucia 4072   AUSTRALIA

*From:* Mark W. Post [mailto:markwpost at gmail.com <markwpost at gmail.com>]
*Sent:* Monday, August 01, 2016 4:24 PM
*To:* RNLD list <r-n-l-d at unimelb.edu.au>
*Subject:* [RNLD] H6

Dear Listmembers,

Has anyone field-tested the Zoom H6
<https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/field-recording/h6-handy-recorder>yet?
One of my students is interested in taking it out, but I personally can't
see that it adds any features that langdoc people would be interested in,
and might have a few undesirables. Specifically, although the
swapping-around of different capsules is certainly cool, and while the
internal mics for Zoom recorders are certainly *pretty* good, they're
nowhere near as good as good-quality 3rd party mics are, so this seems a
little gimmicky to me - am I wrong? Also, I'm concerned that the colour LCD
display on the H6 might eat up batteries faster than the H4n display did.
And I can't think of any reason we'd want sooooo many independent XLR
inputs, unless there's a really complicated mic setup (like a ritual
performance, in which you want both a headset on the principal speaker and
some other sort of mics on a lot of other people, and you actually have the
money for all of the mics and the time and inclination to actually do some
signal mixing afterwards). So it seems to me to be a pretty specific tool
which most people recording monologues and 2-3 person interactions can
probably do without, or at least won't offer any advantages over the
cheaper H4n. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Mark
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