![]() ![]() The easy-to-read display made it pretty easy to set a recording level this can be done in Standby, before you press Record. ![]() But this is less of a big deal than it sounds once you get everything set up, all you need to push is that big button with the red dot. After three weeks, I still had to look more often than I wanted to to be sure I was pressing the right button. This makes it difficult to accidentally press a button - a particularly good idea for that Delete button - but just as hard to use them deliberately. Except for the Volume rocker, the buttons are all flush with the H1’s body. For other controls, you’ll have to use your other hand - not easy if you’re older or have thick fingers. The Zoom H1 fits comfortably in the hand I could easily press the Record button with the thumb of the same hand. With its battery installed, the H1 weighs 3.1 ounces. On the bottom end of the H1 is a tiny speaker with which you can confirm that a recording has been or is being made. On the rear panel are three sliders - Lo Cut (on/off), Auto Level (On/Off), and Rec Format (WAV/MP3) - and a door that slides open to reveal the battery well. On the right side is a 3.5mm Mic/Line In jack, an Input Level rocker control, playback buttons (Forward, Play/Mark, Rewind), a Delete button marked with a trashcan icon, a three-position Power/Lock slider (On/Off/Hold), and a Mini-USB jack. On the left side is a 3.5mm Phones/Line Out jack, an output Volume rocker switch, and a covered slot for the microSD card. It’s simplicity itself: Point the H1 at what you want to record and press the red dot. ![]() Below the screen is a single button with a red dot: the Record button. There are no menu screens to set up, though the H1’s front panel does have a very readable 1” x 0.75” LCD display that indicates the recording or playback level, which recording format is being used, the battery life, the folder number, and the recording or remaining time. The H1 is different from almost all similar recorders in having direct-touch controls. Its shape is reminiscent of a candy bar: a rectangular stalk with a cage at the top that houses two microphones, arranged in an X/Y pattern to record stereo sound. SD cards, the system’s software history, and a quick-start guide to using WaveLab LE 7. now in your pocket.” Inside are the H1, an AA battery, a 2GB microSD card preloaded with WaveLab’s LE 7 audio and editing software, a quick-start guide, warranty registration information, a pamphlet advertising other Zoom products, and three fact sheets: a note of caution re. The Zoom H1’s 6.75”L x 3.75”W x 2”D box has a sharp, full-color picture instead of a transparent window, and bears the slogan “Brilliant stereo recording. As I used the H1 over a few weeks, I found out it had other outstanding abilities - and a major flaw. It does this on a single AA battery that will last five to six hours (Zoom claims ten hours, but I couldn’t achieve that). The H1’s easy-to-read screen tells me that the 8GB card I installed in it can hold 55.5 hours of material at MP3’s highest setting, 12.5 hours at CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), or 3 hours 55 minutes at 24/96 resolution in the WAV format. It records music - or anything else - on microSD cards, each of which is about the size of an adult thumbnail. If we go back to 78 records, the ballet would require even more sides.ĭuring the same time I was remembering the short sides of vinyl, I became acquainted with the miniature Zoom H1 Handy Recorder, made by Samson Technologies. The upshot is that I’m coming to remember the relatively short playing time of the average LP, and learning things like this: the original edition of one of Ernest Ansermet’s recordings of Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka, about 35 minutes long, occupied two sides of an LP. The covers for those editions I do not consider original. When these recordings were transferred to CD, they usually included extras from other albums by (perhaps) the same artist. ![]() Don’t ask me to explain it, but if I can throw one of these up on the screen of my Logitech Squeezebox Touch and occasionally glance at it while listening, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling of remembrance that seems to improve the sound. For the past six months I’ve been using Google to find original album-cover art for recordings I’ve ripped as Apple Lossless (and beyond) files. The continuing miniaturization of devices that can record and/or reproduce music blows me away. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |