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H2N - Ambience recordings anyone?


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I know one can easily find online recordings/samples made with the Zoom H2n but still I´d like to ask here: does anyone have any unprocessed, 24bit/48khz (or 96khz) quiet to medium busy ambience recordings done with this portable recorder?

 

I have been thinking of buying one ever since it came out and even though it is not such a big investment I would still like to be sure if it has the minimum quality to be usable in film. I do not want to carry my 788T + Stereo Mic rig around everywhere to record ambience.

 

If anyone has any 10 second or so snippets of an audio recording they feel is a good example of the H2N´s capabilities, I`d be thankful if they could post a download link or just send it privately.

 

Cheers!

David

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Hi David!

 

It's an online resource and not what you were asking for, but maybe it's of help to you:

http://www.audiotranskription.de/zoom-h2n

 

Unfortunately the site is in german. But you can easily find some recordings done with a Zoom H2n and a LS-5 by Olympus.

Look for "download" in the lower 1/3 of the page in the section "Vergleichsaufnahmen" (written in orange letters).

Best,
Tom

 

PS.: Ohh I just saw that you're from Austria. Deutsch sollte also kein Problem für dich sein. :-)

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" like to be sure if it has the minimum quality to be usable in film. "

of course it does, and it is being used in lots of movies.

 

OTOH,  it depends...

what is your minimum quality to be usable in film. ?

it can do 48/24 bits industry standard  recording...

personally, I prefer the TASCAM and Marantz options, or better still, the NAGRA options.

Oh, yes, of course:

The rule:

generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

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I just like to share a link I found - not the Zoom one you mention but intresting anyhow: 

 

http://www.crypto.com/audio/shootout/

 

Including nagra Ares, H4n, D50, D1, LS 10 and MKH 800 MS for comparison.

 

Intresting to me that the D50 that is so good at http://www.audiotranskription.de/vergleichstest2011 folds to nearly Mono at the waves. Maybe 120 degree outside would have improved the result.

 

That guy is crazy with stereo: http://www.crypto.com/audio/soundscapes/ Jecklin Disk in the woods and at the train sound nice.

 

 

I own Sony PCM-M10 and Tascam DR-40 and am not satisfied enough with them. They are ok but DR-40 has too much selfnoise and PCM-M 10 is quiet and nice on bass but a bit dull - at least when you put a mandatory Rycote on it.

 

My MKH 30 is great but I also like to improve on my handhelds to have a quick Stereo Ambience Rekorder.

After thinking quite some time I came to the conclusion that for Tv/Film a more open sound than my PCM-M10 is needed in the mix as there will be a speaker and music to fight with.

This is why I would think a brighter recorder than the Zoom H2 H4 / Sony PCM-M10 would be better. Think about Olympus LS-5.

 

Tascam DR-40 is perfect as XLR Backuprecorder but the mics/preamps are a bit too noisy for quiet ambiences.

 

I wonder when the first Zoom H6 ambience comparison pop up ;-) The first units were shipped I read at taperssection.    

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Thanks everyone.

 

Senator, I assume your preference for Tascam and Marantz is based on personal experience, did you record with the onboard mics on all of them ? Nagra is not only beyond what I wish to spend but also not suited for the purpose. I want a recorder that I can carry with me to spontaneoulsy record ambience on situations where bringing a whole 788T rig is not practical/safe (all sorts of agitated urban/nature situations, broadly speaking). Which brings me to the kind of ambience being recorded: if self-noise is acceptable, recordings of louder events will not suffer from this, but rather from things like stereo field, transient response,etc.

 

Armin, very cool links with interesting references and ideas. The DR40 is close in terms of price but it does not have the multi-capsule option to do the surround thing.

 

I guess nothing beats listening to some samples and just comparing them to your own recordings.

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I had a brief play with the H2n at musicstore cologne today. With very cheapo headphones they had for me I could not hear noise at max Level 10. But I guess you would get problems with the sensity of it for nature ambience. Even at 10 I could not get more than -15dB at an loud store with music playing and lots of people.

An LS 5 I had also startet to show little noise at Level 8 but at Level 10 I could get to 0dB. 

 

I do like the M/S and 2CH feature - gives a very nice stereo image. So I would not hesitate to use it for music recordings for example. 

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I also use an Olympus LS-5, and it's a very nice little device for quick recordings. I've used several other handhelds, and the internals on the LS-5 is in my opinion among the better ones, but I do often find the self-noise a bit high.

 

I would estimate that most handhelds have a self noise around 25-28dBA. The two quieter (except possibly nagra) are the Sony M10 at 17dBA (though it uses omni mics, so the stereo width is lacking) and the Sony D50 at 20dBA.

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Nice estimate Jesper. I have a Sony D50 here right now and can confirm that selfnoise is higher than M10 and lower than DR40. But the M10 is much darker as well so I think I keep the D50 as the mics sounds best also.  

 

D50 selfnoise is quite on the edge for useful ambience for me (I hoped for less).

I thought about a Audio Technica stereomic BP 4025 feeding my Tascam DR40 as a small XY Stereo package but never tried it. With the cables it gets too big for me to keep it always with me on doc shoots. 

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  • 9 months later...

I just picked up a Nagra Ares M (yes the old one with only 1GB internal flash memory, USB 1.0 transfer speeds) - but it sounds great to my ear (red and blue band mics). I have shouted and shouted and shouted at it very closely and I have neither managed to overload the mic capsules nor clip a recording (with the AGC engaged). From what I gather it has 24bit input but steps down to 16bit.

 

It's a pity there is still so little info on the new ATS/Nagra devices - basic stuff such as mic polar patterns. Makes me mourn again, a little.

 

I have a H2n on order, I'm quite curious about it and don't have a dealer nearby.

 

I recently returned a Yellowtec iXm with hypercardioid head because I believe (hope!) it was faulty. Sounded like a nasty electronic computer interference noise all over the recording noise-floor, horrible! Waiting to get a replacement. The default iXm config is not so good with plosives at close range which is also a pity (but can be overcome easily with a little forethought of course).

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generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

Yes and in my opinion the H2n  is not so bad and can record some nice atmos if you know how to record sounds !

Its weak points : no low, no high frequencies, unsable in quiet situations, only coincident mics. Its strong points: light, very discret.

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The H2n is certainly popular on freesound.org http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=h2n

 

What I consider a nice demo of the Nagra SD (not sure what mic, I would suspect green band) at 

- but you'll have to skip to around the 05:35 mark to hear it because until then it's onboard cam audio. Compare and contrast! (no contest!)
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So my H2n arrived today. I've had a play, and been able to subjectively compare it to my Nagra Ares M red band.

 

In short, if the H2n wasn't so plastic-y (a bit's already fallen off) and low-build quality "feel" (subjective I know) then I would like it a lot more. As it is, it sounds good although not very transparent in the conditions I've tested it in so far (all interior) - sounds a little muddy.

 

I don't think the H2n is very rugged. But it is very inexpensive and sounds great for the price. Its mics have lower self-noise than the Ares M red band mic, but strangely I still prefer the Ares clarity and transparency. Maybe I need to do some blind testing.

 

The H2n is incredibly versatile, on paper. I just get the feeling that out of the studio, out in the field, I'd get let down. For example, it booted up once and didn't register the SD card. A bit of plastic has already fallen off. I've only owned it for a few hours and it's not been outside yet.

 

Is it really worth paying 10 (yes ten) times more in the UK for the Nagra SD? (~£100 for the H2n, ~£1000 for the Nagra SD with a clip-on mic)

 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2162876395001?bckey=AQ~~,AAABgvZvL1E~,1bFySu7FCi8rp86jMsciqS_9ptKEpKqU&bctid=2435426904001

 

What price rugged reliability? I'm pretty sold on the Nagra SD having watched/heard the above BH demo. (and the fact the Ares M is still fully functional after almost a decade). Perhaps I just have a good credit rating.

 

I also found some more technical info on the clip-on green mic, in one of the old Nagra brochures, er, now I've lost it. I guess the clip on mics are adequate. IIRC rear rejection was ~12dB and frequency response flat enough (not as flat as the blue band omni which looked almost ruler flat).

 

Why on earth would I want a recorder with unbalanced minijack connectors anyway? Binaural discretion. It's fascinating (to me). XLR is so ... 20th century! ;-)

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I've been using an H2n for a while now: I bought one from someone who'd been given it as a gift and had no use for it, so I picked it up pretty cheaply. My thoughts so far:

 

Handling noise - just as bad as all the other plastic body recorders and, if anything, the noise transmitted through the headphone cable is worse.

 

Recording quality: using on-board mics, better than my H2 & H1, but not top-notch. Disappointing LF (I'll link to some nature recordings when I have a moment). M/S set-up is handy and works well in raw mode. Surround is odd, but useable, although you're restricted to 48k. I didn't find the HF to be too bad at 96k- again, I'll link to some birdsong files later.

 

Battery life - seems to run forever on a acouple of AA cells. Not needed to replace the 'test' batteries that came with it despite many hours of recording.

 

Build quality - nothing's broken or fallen off mine yet and I'm pretty heavy-handed. The unit lives in a mesh bag with a Rycote and gets dumped in whichever bag I'm using that day. My H2 lasted about a week before I dropped it and the screen protector broke. This seems to be a bit more solid.

 

Quick conclusion: fine for quick grabs, don't touch it or even look funny at it while recording, use a Rycote,  a few other refinements would be nice, like an S/PDIF input, but for $100 or so, what can you expect.

 

The H5 is due out this month (Like the H6, but with fewer inputs) but for the better quality work, I'll stick to my SD7xx recorders.

 

Must go now as London cab-drivers are planning a demonstration in Trafalgar Square and I think it might get noisy!

 

Regards,

 

John

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  • 6 years later...
On 5 June 2014 at 11:10 AM, miker71 said:

Not to derail too far from original H2n topic, but I found Nagra's technical data on two of their clip on mics in http://www.nagraaudio.com/doc_en/NagraNews_26.pdf (blue band omni / green band stereo cardioid)

 

post-283-0-64907000-1401963072_thumb.png

 

 

 

 

Hi miker71, I wonder if you still have this file in higher resolution knocking about to post up? The link has of course gone the way of all things world wide web...!

 

Or anyone else got these spec sheets they can post up to see?

 

Cheers, Jez

 

 

EDIT

 

I'm an idiot! I just had to click on the small image and it comes up hi-res! Doh!

Thanks for posting this all those years ago!

 

J

Edited by The Immoral Mr Teas
Realised my stupidity
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