(Slightly off topic) Surprised ZOOM H4n user…

[Johnny Rosenberg]

This is not a question really, I just wanted to share this with
whoever who might be interested.

The ZOOM H4n is a handy 4-channel audio recorder with two built in
microphones and two combined balanced XLR/TRS inputs with phantom
power, 48 or 24 V. It's a great piece of device, actually, at least
for its price. There are smaller devices out there and there are
better ones as well, but this was the combination that made me
actually buy it…

Anyway, I use it when recording acoustic instruments and things like
that, then I move the audio files (in WAV format) to my main recording
device via my laptop. So it obviously has a USB connector, and when
connected to a PC it behaves like a USB stick. That's one of its two
modes. The other one is the audio interface mode, which requires a
driver of some kind.

A quick look at http://www.zoom.co.jp/downloads/h4n/software/ makes it
pretty clear that operating systems other than Windows are not
supported, so I never even tried this mode. Until yesterday…

So I plugged it in, only for curiosity, to see if there will be any
interesting error messages or something…

H4n asked me, as usual, the following:
STORAGE →
AUDIO I/F →

There's a ”clickable” scrolling wheel on the right side of the unit,
so clicking a line that ends with a → brings up more options for that
selection.

For the first time ever, I went for the AUDIO I/F thing.
Next selection:
FREQUENCY (44.1 or 48.0 kHz)
CONNECT →

44.1 kHz was pre-selected so CONNECT was my choice.
”Please wait”

After a little more than a second, I guess, it has connected. The
display shows a header (”USB AUDIO I/F”) and a L/R level meter with a
-48 – ±0 dB scale.

I open Audacity to try it out.
To the right of the microphone symbol in the tool bar in Audacity,
there is an input selection thing and when I click it I see a few new
entries there, that I never saw before, such as ”H4: USB Audio (hw:
1,0): Line:0”. There are seven of them, named in a similar way
(another one is ”H4: USB Audio (hw: 1,0): Aux:0” and so on).

So, time to record some rubbish! Hit the record button and start
speaking or making any kind of noise. The audio curves are drawn and
things look well. Time to stop, go back and listen.

The first thing I notice is that the audio is played back through my
H4n, which has a poor built-in speaker that is activated if there are
no head phones connected. I also notice that the sound is distorted.
Okay, I think, so maybe this device is not supported after all. But
there was sound, at least.

But after a short debugging session I find that the H4n internal
effect processor is turned on featuring a guitar amplifier simulator
effect. I turn it off and the distortion disappears!

So I have had this unit for several years now without realising that I
can use it as an audio interface, even though I don't have Windows!
And what's better, I didn't have to install anything! I was very
surprised, I must say. I'm impressed!

Is this unit supported by the kernel or did I probably install
something else some time (for a different purpose) that supports the
unit?

Another thing that is nice with this unit is how to perform updates of
its firmware. I also have a 2-channel unit, Olympus LS-10, which is
great, but that unit need Windows or MacOS X for updates (and it
doesn't work through Wine, or didn't work when I tried last time). The
ZOOM however, doesn't need anything but a file that can be downloaded
from the page I referred to earlier in this post. Just download it,
connect your H4n to a USB port on your PC, select STORAGE on the H4n.
Now put the file in the root directory of the SD card in your H4n
(/media/H4N_SD), disconnect it and shut it down. You can, of course,
also just put the SD card in your PC, but I think USB is more
convenient in this case.

Start up the H4n again, holding two buttons of the H4n down (I don't
remember which ones, but it's in the manual) during the startup
process, and the H4n will update itself. Make sure the batteries are
good or, even better, use the included AC adapter, because you don't
want the batteries to die during an update…

Well, that's just about it. I am now an even happier H4n user than I
was before, thanks to this unintended (i suppose) Linux support. It's
perhaps the other way around; H4n is supported by Linux rather than
Linux is supported by H4n…

So I am very happy with this piece of device, except for one minor
thing: It supports 24-bit audio, but NOT in multi track mode, which is
the only mode I need and use… There is a device out there that
supports this; the Tascam DR-40 seems to support 24-bit recording in
any mode, but it's not available in any local store where I live
(Sweden), where I've seen so far, so I don't have one yet… Recording
in 16-bit is okay though, since most things I record with this unit is
background stuff in the final production anyway, ending up at maybe
-30 – -20 dB or something, but still, 8 more bits wouldn't hurt…



Johnny Rosenberg