The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

I Recently bought a Zoom R24 to expand my arsenal. Allong this thread i plan to do a review and a comparison to AW16G that i use.

I had a day to test it out and find out how to use it. I must say it is quite different from the Yamies. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll start by uploading a couple of tracks that have been done exclusively on the R24.



Keep in mind i mixed this using headphones directly into the Zoom. It may not sound right yet as i experienced in the past that many headphones will mislead us. No external effects have been used except a slight touch of vocal harmony from My TC Helicon Voicelive Touch Just to have some variation. I did not use reverb or delay from TC Helicon but from the zoom. The drums i grabbed from the Live performance of the eagles and recorded, trimmed and looped it on the zoom. It has a couple of functions that are interessting when it comes to looping or even sequencing drums. I could not find right how to play short drum samples by hiiting the pads. Keep reading to find out how this can be done.

Oh it may be interresting to know that i used the TC helicon as a preamp for the Shure SM58 that i used for vocals. As with most devices the Preamps of the Zoom are mostly adequate but can use a little extra punch from a Mixer preamp ot the likes.

As far as i have been able to find out the Zoom itself has no option to convert recordings to MP3 format but off course Cubase does. I have yet to try that out and the conversion was done on my Boss Micro BR which i wouldn't miss for the world. If that would be lost i'd buy a new one in an instant. Let's see if the Zoom can get to that status.

For the second track i have been drumming myself on my guitar and on a Korg Wavedrum. I also looped the guitar percussion.



In the comming episodes i will be remixing this stuff and others on the Cubase LE5 that comes with the R24 so i'll be dragging wav's to my PC from the USB. In the mean time check out the specs from Zoom.

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r24/

Feel free to comment and ask away. If you want me to do a specific test do let me know. Let us try to make this an interresting thread.

To be continued ...

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In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

i've been eyeing these myself and wondering if it could ever replace my G (or at least relegate the G to a supporting role instead of the mainstay)

a steep learning curve is to be expected with any new and complex bit of gear, but apart from the techy stuff, what's your gut instinct so far? is it a worthy successor? are you getting comfortable with it reasonably easily, or do you feel you have to fight it every step of the way? (which was probably the main complaint aimed at the G - not intuitive, hard to understand, and drove away many potential users)

the extra 8 tracks plus being able to interface with my PC is what's drawn my interest to the R24, and i'm hoping that it does all that it claims it can.

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Wanted to buy: one Right Word Clock, in good condition.

Dirk,

This could be a way of broadening the base of the forum (if that turns out to be what the members want). You've already started the ball rolling with this review of the Zoom. Perhaps there are other members who might use - or at least know of somebody else that uses - a different machine. I have a friend who has a Boss machine. He's only fairly new to using it - the normal time constraints - but might, if I ask, do a 'potted review' for the Dijonstock site.

Before I ask him though, I'd like to know how everybody feels about opening the door to the users of other machines. Personally, I think it could only be of benefit to all of us.

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All progress is made by unreasonable men.

http://www.howardgardener.co.uk/

The door should be open to any DAW providing there is expertise available to answer questions when asked. I wouldn't be able to help someone asking how to arm the tracks of the Tascam 24 tracker, but they're still more than welcome to come visit the site. I'm sure we could all teach them how to drivel and post pictures of cheese.

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GSMUSIC: Hey RZ, Im not no upper class american, the gear I own is what I have special to me. My car sucks, my house sucks, my nieghborhood sucks. Does yours RZ? Does it?

rz-land

Actually, that's a good point. How do you post a picture on here? I've never yet been able to work it out!

_________________
All progress is made by unreasonable men.

http://www.howardgardener.co.uk/

That's pretty simple Howard but you have to have some room somewhere on the net to host pictures. The picture has to be accessible through a direct link, for instance




Then, in your post put that link between the [img]and[/img] tags:

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Thanks Robbie. I'll Google 'cheese' straight away and see what comes up in the search. Watch this cheese, I mean space...

_________________
All progress is made by unreasonable men.

http://www.howardgardener.co.uk/

When i saw this i thought the point following would be the fact that the door should be open providing that we could offer at least some assistance to people who want to ask a question. I'm glad this place (people) stay true to their habbits.

Good one RZ. I agree. So rest assured. If people comme along asking questions about R24 i will try to give them an answer. When it comes to daws it will depend on what daw is being used. The R24 comes with Cubase LE5 (and the usual mails to buy an update after you register) so let's try to find out what it can do for us.


Howard, if you need a place to upload pictures to : I use www.tinypic.com

Upload em first then get the path they give you for the forum use. Then do as Robbie said.

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In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

Hey Fordirk - I'm really interested in what you make of the Zoom device. I've got a bunch of questions, but I've got a few reviews of it to read before I post anything up.

On with the review.

I have been using the zoom during last weekend and on monday. I'm glad to say that dispite the fact that this is a new machine i have rarely played guitar as much as during these last days. Sounds promising doesn't it ?

Well let's start to compare some of the features.

We have 8 inputs on the AW16G, two XLR with phantom power, 6 Jacks.
We have 8 inputs on the ZOOM, 8 combined XLR/Jack sockets . Inputs 3/4 and 7/8 can provide phantom power so you can feed 4 condensors at once. On battery power (yes it can run on six penlites for 4,5 hours) you can swith either pair of and reduce power to 24 volt.

We have 8 gain knobs on the AW16G.
We have 8 gain knobs on the Zoom R24

We have one combined HI-Z input on both machines.

The G has dynamics and EQ on each of the inputs.
The Zoom has a built in insert effect that can be set to 8xCompressor and EQ with parameters for each input but if you use this you use the only insert effect that is available. You can only use one insert and if that happens to be the 8xCompEQ you can not use other inserts at the same time.

The G has two built in effect processors with which you choose what you want to use.
The Zoom has dedicated send return type reverb and chorus with a set of each to choose from. + The forementioned insert.

In the G you use the view to see each tracks level. You can also see an enlarged precise view of the level if you like.
In the Zoom you het dedicated level meters for each track (led type) but you can only see -48, -12,-6 and 0 dB. The last one being a red led (0dB). This means you cannot read exact levels yet this is compensated by a Peak led on each channel.

The G has a Select button on each input with wich you select input to assign them.
The Zoom has no button on each input. Wait a minute. No button on the input ? Then how do choose which one i want to assign ?
Well the saved on buttons by following a different phylosophy. The input are fixed to the tracks that are directly beneath them. Instead of choosing before you start to record which input goes to which track you record first and then choose a track on which you want the resulting wav file to play back. It's different but boils down to the fact that you can free your input after each take. You can also have takes (wav files) that are recorded but not assigned to a track if you set a track to 'New Take'. This is diffrent also but it means that virtual tracks are limited only by available memory which leads me to my next point.

In the G You have a 20 GB harddisk (unless you have put in a 40 GB like i did)
In the Zoom you record on SD-cards of up to 32 GB. (1 GB provided). I think performance may depend on the speed of the card.

Earlier i mentioned that i had problems with a delay and the impossibilty to play short samples directly on the pads. I gonna try that out again with the provided card to see if that makes a difference.

So that's it for tonight. Please leave a message if you read this so i know how many people are interessted.

To be continued.

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

Hi cda !

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

As it turns out that was not it for tonight. (shame on me)

I had to look into this drum sample play. I first thought that it could be the SD card but it now turns out that it had to do with settings. On the main screen below there is a TRSEQ parameter to which you can move with the cursor. Standard it is set to 1 Bar which means the drums pads are quantized to play in synch with a rhytm or tempo but only at the start of each bar. Hence the delay when i pressed the pads.

Setting this to high means your quantization for the pads is set to 1/48 of a quarter note.

Now the pads react immediately and i can load all these drum samples below the pads (3 banks of they are sensitive to how hard you hit. This means you get something like an MPC sampler. I will be able to use much better drum samples than the one the machine came with so now i can use it as tweakable drum computer / Loop sequencer. This opens a lot of possibilities.

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

Let's make a theoretical calculation on the required speed.

48 kHz x 24 bit per sample x 24 tracks on playback = 48.000 samples per second x 3 bytes per sample x 24 = 3.3 MB/s.

That means that class 4 would suffice although the margin is small. Based on this theoretical approach I'd recommend a class 6 SD card.

Does the manual say anything about the required class?

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Yes, I read your last post about the Zoom. Interesting. And one of my questions answered already!

Thanks Dirk, I promise not to spread cheese all over your shiny new technical page.

_________________
All progress is made by unreasonable men.

http://www.howardgardener.co.uk/

What would be wrong with that?

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Correct Robbie, only the Zoom R24 can record in 96KHz which if i'm not wrong doubles the result. That means class 10 and above if you want to use all tracks. I have to check if it can do that.

The manual isn't clear on what card class to use but says the support site shows this. Ill' check and get back here.

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

As long as we can see the tech details through the holes in the cheese we are just fine.

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

One thing i really start to like about the R24 is that it is so light compact and portable. I can sit back in my directors chair with that thing on my lap and mix, eq and set effects to my hearts content. More later today...

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble

I have not seen a class mentioned in the manual yet as it comes to sd cards but i did find the list with confirmed cards.

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r24/R24_compatible_cards_E.pdf

_________________
In a minute it might be gone. Life is a bear in a bubble.

http://www.soundclick.com/bearinabubble