Tascam DR-07 vs. Zoom H4n for Ambient Sounds ??

[George D.]

I have been considering two different portable digital recording devices and I'd like to know if any of you have used either of these or both and what your opinions are.

90% of the recordings we do are the "ambient" sounds of nature in the wild and outdoors, so there is little need for sync recordings. Any sync recordings would be done "directly" into the camera with an external mike anyway, not with a portable recorder.

The recordings we make will be used in conjunction with footage from our Red-One for a television production we are currently working on.

I know, I know, there are MUCH better recorders out there, some probably in the thousand dollar range, but these are the only ones we can afford right now, so please do not bother to tell me that I'm wasting my time, etc, etc, etc. I just want to hear from those that know about these portable digital recorders and have used them and what kind of results they got.

The two we are looking at are:

- Tascam DR-07

- Zoom H4n


Thanks for your time.

.

 

[Bill Sepaniak]

I looked at both of those recorders, and I think honestly you will get great results from either one. However, the Zoom H4n had a lot more "bells-n-whistles" than we needed (do you really need 4 tracks ... if so get the Zoom) and it was a little bigger. For us, at the end of the day it came down to the Tascam DR-07 vs. the Zoom H1. We needed a recorder for basically the same thing: street / ambient sounds. We went with the Zoom H1. (It was a little cheaper.) Absolutely simple to use, small, light weight and decent sound (up to 24 bit /96kHz). We just returned from a three week gig in Northern Italy and the little Zoom worked just fine. We used it for ambient sound-w-a 32 gig micro SDHC card and recorded a scratch track into our Scarlet from the headphone output. Worked perfectly. Rycote makes a shock mount for these little portable recorders that mounts on a cold shoe, and I would highly recommend that as well, together with a mini-wind muff.



___________________________________
Scarlet X # 1859 “Bettie Page”
“… preparing to ‘whip’ the competition …”

Zeiss Lenses:

CY 21/2.8
ZF 28/2.0
CY 35-70/3.4
CY 50/1.4
ZF100/2.0

Nikon Lenses:
G 14-24/2.8
G 24-70/2.8
D 80-200/2.8

Tokina Lenses:

11-16/2.8

 

[Christopher Mills]

I like them both, but for different purposes.
I use the Tascam in a bag with a line in as a transcription recorder. (easy to get into record, has decent monitoring option that way..and smaller/lighter)
If you will make sure you mount the Zoom to a shockmount or tripod with a windscreen, it's a decent planted recorder... like ambient noises, music performance, etc.. and in a pinch, backup for part of a dialog scene you couldn't boom or run wireless..

both will give you handling noise if you operate them as a journalist style audio note pad..

if you can find a used fostex fr2 (1st version).. they have better preamps and a much simpler interface than either of these.. but its not as compact, and not as power efficient..
in the under $350 range, I think you're on the right track.

 

[George D.]

I looked at both of those recorders, and I think honestly you will get great results from either one. However, the Zoom H4n had a lot more "bells-n-whistles" than we needed (do you really need 4 tracks ... if so get the Zoom) and it was a little bigger. For us, at the end of the day it came down to the Tascam DR-07 vs. the Zoom H1. We needed a recorder for basically the same thing: street / ambient sounds. We went with the Zoom H1. (It was a little cheaper.) Absolutely simple to use, small, light weight and decent sound (up to 24 bit /96kHz). We just returned from a three week gig in Northern Italy and the little Zoom worked just fine. We used it for ambient sound-w-a 32 gig micro SDHC card and recorded a scratch track into our Scarlet from the headphone output. Worked perfectly. Rycote makes a shock mount for these little portable recorders that mounts on a cold shoe, and I would highly recommend that as well, together with a mini-wind muff.



___________________________________
Scarlet X # 1859 “Bettie Page”
“… preparing to ‘whip’ the competition …”

Zeiss Lenses:

CY 21/2.8
ZF 28/2.0
CY 35-70/3.4
CY 50/1.4
ZF100/2.0

Nikon Lenses:
G 14-24/2.8
G 24-70/2.8
D 80-200/2.8

Tokina Lenses:

11-16/2.8

Thank you Bill.

One of the main reasons I was considering the Tascam over the Zoom is because you can splay the mikes outward, and I think that would work possibly better for wilderness sounds where maybe you have water rushing to your left and a bird squawking to your right. What do you think?

I hope things are well down there in Long Beach. We used to live in S. Calif, but just couldn't take it any longer.

Thanks.

.

.

 

[Bill Sepaniak]

... One of the main reasons I was considering the Tascam over the Zoom is because you can splay the mikes outward, and I think that would work possibly better for wilderness sounds where maybe you have water rushing to your left and a bird squawking to your right. What do you think?

If that sort of separation is important to you, then, yes, I would think the Tascam DR-07 might be a better choice. The Tascam is like $25.00 or $30.00 more than the Zoom. However, we found that the Zoom had pretty decent sensitivity (for what it is). However, no matter what you choose, you really do need a shock mount and a wind muff, since the recorder will pick-up the slightest handling and wind noises. See:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/714075-REG/WindTech_MM_52_MM_52_Mic_Muff_for_Zoom.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...1119_041119_Portable_Recorder_Suspension.html

___________________________________
Scarlet X # 1859 “Bettie Page”
“… preparing to ‘whip’ the competition …”

Zeiss Lenses:

CY 21/2.8
ZF 28/2.0
CY 35-70/3.4
CY 50/1.4
ZF100/2.0

Nikon Lenses:
G 14-24/2.8
G 24-70/2.8
D 80-200/2.8

Tokina Lenses:

11-16/2.8