BLOWN AWAY - Zoom PodTrak P4 REVIEW and TESTING 

As a father of two daughters, that phone call test hurt a bit 😅. Great review man

Man, that phone test was brutal... almost TOO high quality! 🤣😂😅😌😐🙁😥😢😭

I can't believe no one talks about the limiter on this thing. It's INCREDIBLE! I'm producing a 3 person podcast and I push the mics pretty hot and the limiter takes care of the rest. Honestly the sound right out of the box is podcast ready. It's crazy I was really shocked by how good it sounded

Thanks for sharing a straight up no BS review on the P4 ,I like your Style !

I got one of these, delivered yesterday. Just got to play with it this morning. The gain levels are amazing. I got it to do remotes and I fell in love with the size and the power. This will go on remote with ease and it may replace my desk mixer. I should have done this months ago. Thank you for one of my most trusted reviews.

wow, i am impressed. so many features in a tiny package... Great video and thank you for the information. Cheers

The best part of this review (in addition to it being highly informative) is your daughter. I have a 10 year old and and an 18 year old with a similar personality. LOL

Just got this, loving it, audio came out great for the first two shows.

I just purchased the PodTrak P4 BEFORE I watched your review. Now I am very happy I did, I also liked your delivery and style! I subscribed! In part because your review was very helpful and partially because, as a father of 3 girls, I totally understand the 'look' after you spoke to your daughter!! LOL! Thanks again!

Your videos helped me decide between the Zoom P4 and P8...I'm going for the P4. Cheers! 🙃

Awesome content man! Very informative and through! Loved the heart warming call with your daughter 🤣❤️

I nearly died of laughter at 5:59. Great overview!

I have set up a number of news reporters with this unit. They can file audio or stream live to the studio via a laptop. The quality is fine; same as CD. The limiter does what it need to do. It is as good as, and in some ways better than a whole lot of other options.

I'm about to break into podcasting for the very first time. I spent 35 years as a musician and 25 years as a computer technician . The thing that I find unique about this is it seems to be unobtrusive in the learning curve seems to be quite narrow so I can concentrate on my subject matter as a new podcaster and not have to juggle a bunch of technical hoopla. Very good review sir

great review! I love that you can you actual use broadcast mics without having to buy volume boosters separately, and the phone conversation recording with mix minus source. 4 xlr inputs?!?! 4 headphone outputs?!?! with their own volume?!?! sound effects buttons?!?!?! wow! these are true pro features in a small, cheap box. probably still need some computer audio editing. do they include any computer software to help with this? side note: at 8:18 you sort of disclose that the company sent you this unit to try. if the company sent you this to try it would be really great to know that at somewhere near the beginning of the review (unless I missed it). FTC laws aside. viewers have to watch all the way to the end before they are clued in that there could be some additional bias. thanks!

Perfect for what I want to do. I’ve been eyeballing the Rodecaster but that is chunk and I’m sure I don’t need half of what it can do. I’ve had an H4N forever and it is still awesome. Zoom should sell a bunch of these!

I just acquired this gem. Thanks for your review.

I think I've discovered how Zoom keeps its other products from competing with itself. On PodTrack, the only recording format is 16 bits. This is great if you're going to be making podcasts straight out of the box, but it limits your later work with daw and kind of prevent using this great device for musician applications as well. This way, buying an Zoom h8 will still make a lot of sense to many people who do not plan to deal exclusively with podcasting and want to have more options for working with sound design.

I just ordered mine, so I'm going to be podcasting away and give my laptop a break. My laptop won't record my shows for some reason, so I decided to order the podtrak p4.

It's £200 in UK. That's about half the Rode and it's packed with really useful features. Zoom have a good reputation in reviews for their almost affordable field recorders too, more my area of wann desire. Loved the demo, 😂🎭

I was going to buy a Cloud Lifter just to boost the gain on my mic. The Cloud Lifter alone costs more that the Zoom PodTrak P4. Now there is no need. Even with the Rodecaster Pro at maximum gain, you still need a Cloud Lifter for the Shure SM7B. I am going to buy this Zoom product now. Thank you for your very informative video.

I'm still on the waiting list but happy with my H6 currently

I chuckled when you called your daughter. Thank you for this review!

Thanks for the review man!!! ❤❤

Preordered it for our livestreams and recordings... Greetings from Austria, you should get a commission from zoom 😉

Great review. Got mine last week. Since the pandemic, we have been doing all of our episodes remotely so I picked up a cheap Behringer interface, repurposed my Shur mic and some headphones and have been doing the show from home ever since. But the urge to go back out in person with a portable device meant buying a second device. I saw the Podtrak, and was incredibly skeptical. I mean how could this sound okay. But it does. The Podtrak will also be replacing my interface. I had looked at what the other companies are putting out and I couldn't figure out why these other devices were far more expensive than the Podtrak. Are these other brands making superior products?

Great review, love the details, and looking at getting one very soon :D

Thanks alot mate for your review.. I'm getting mine now.. 👍👍👍

Great review, what I like about the P4 is portability Thanks for the great content, I did destroy the like button and subscribed. Do a comparison between the P8 and the Rodecaster Pr.

I’m really looking forward to your P8 review.

JUST got my P4 today. Can't wait to put it to the test.

Reaching out here since you're the PRO.... When used as an interface - Does the P8 (not the P4) offer individual channels to be recognized at the DAW? Ik from your vid that the P4 is only 1\2 stereo. Thanks! Also what would you say are the downsides of the P8 when compared to the L12 (which I own) besides obviously less inputs. Thanks a lot! I love your videos.

Your well treated studio really made a huge difference.

super video, loved the daughter call..... reminded me of my kids :)

I'm literally gonna sell my L-8 and get this to save desk space and I really don't like the L-8 thanks for the great review!!

Excellent review. You know I like this thing but let me give you my three gripes. First, battery life is more aspirational than real. Solution: get a USB C cable and an wall adapter. Next, beware phantom card write errors while recording. This is a problem. And then multitrack is great BUT remember to delete what you don't need unless you want to give up a lot of SD card real estate.

Great review and a great channel! Subbed !

My podcast is mobile and the P4 is amazing! I even did a beach podcast, and it went well!

This helped a lot, great video. Thanks!!!

Great video, great information. What do you use for your podcasts? do you use this or something completely different?

Thanks for the review. I was using a Presonus AR12c for my podcast needs, but it is clunky and not battery powered. I was trying to order 2x2 channel Klark Teknik boosters plus a headphone amp for 4 headphones with cables. The KT units were on backorder, and I found a Demo P4 unit at Sweetwater for like $40 off, so I scrapped the plan and ordered it. Excitedly waiting.

Great review. I just got a second hand Procaster and was looking for a device that does mix minus easily at an affordable price. One question I have is calling someone with my smart phone. What leads should I be using to ensure that the other person hears me through my Procaster rather than the smart phone mic?

good content! you/re easy to listen to, likeable from the first look :) thank you

dude you’re so good at this

Awesome review, really appreciate it

I’m not gonna lie: in the first few seconds I thought this would be a good review. On this account I was right. Thank you. It was very insightful. I didn’t expect it to be that entertaining tho. LoL. Thanks again!

Thanks for this review It's very helpfull for me

A lot of these are failing to work on battery power, but will still work on external supply. Zoom is replacing them if they're still under warranty.

A thoughtful review. I was also impressed by this device. A few minor negatives - sound is limited to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. I find the bright red lights really irritating - they are used on all muted tracks and all loaded sound pad buttons. I would rather see a red light where it matters - audio being clipped or limited for example. But for the price, it is excellent value, and I don't know of any other device anywhere close to this price range that can simultaneously work as an audio interface AND a recorder. (Plenty of devices do both, but not at the same time.)

Oooo poor Ashley! Dad. Great style!

It's been a few months. How has your review of the P8 gone so far? Been really enjoying your reviews and definitely waiting on this one before committing to anything.

I bought one. I've used it for about one year. It's now my everyday interface. Down sides first. If your want to use it as a four track musician's ovedub mixdown it is not that. Even a single overdub is clumsy and perhaps a little obscure. The machine was never designed to do this. DC mentions 10 track multitrack. Hmm. Dunno How. Do Know it will do six live using usb and line in. (NOTE this he calls the phone in. It's to me a line in 3.5 mm trs.) Will do four live tracks if that's your goal for recording the band. Stereo mix, voc and lead guitar? Yup. Or band mix vocal, gutar and bass. The obvious but unbonked for me is using a usb feed from the pc to master what I've got on a mix. So digital to the loudspeaker amps. Incredibly clean clear and wowser noise floor. Can you do better? Not for $$ Two Bones MSRP. This may not be for your if your want four track and overdub. That's the H 4 6 or 8. If you're podcasting and doing demos of voc guitar or voc and band mix it is the fastest thing I've ever used. From stone cold dead in the morning all gear off to hitting record is less than a minute. It captures my minute inspirations and is a breeze to transfer into the computer. TIP: record at -20 to - 10. Very clean up and down the dial. No need for a limiter, do that in post. No 1/4" mic inputs/ Buy the 1/4 to xlr adapters. 5 Star buy if this is your need. BTW: I transferred my 1/4 " 2 Ch R to R demos to this and they sounded great.

Awesome review! I'm creeping closer and closer to caving now. Would it make sense to get this even though I have a Zoom H5 though? Thanks very much, and I'm looking forward to more great content! Lots of love from the Philippines!

I absolutely LOVE mine, and the ZDM1 Microphone. I plugged into my Samsung phone via USB-C to USB-C, and it worked perfectly. Best $200 I've ever spent.

I bought this thing for $145 as a safety net in case my rodecaster ever quit on me. I liked it so much that I literally bought one of those temporary garages with folding sides to do a show outside with my buds lol. It’s a nifty little recorder. And let’s be honest the gear itself is a hobby for many of us. So it’s must have for folks like me.

If we plug this into the PC and use it as an audio interface...can we have 4 microphones in use? Is there also a way to get audio from the PC into the headset monitors? We are looking to use this for live streaming games with 4 people sitting on a couch. We need to be able to get the mics into the PC and the audio back.

Nice. The P8 looks amazing too! When are you getting yours?

Looking for something less in price compared to road caster. I believe this would perfect and especially for on the go

Thanks for this. I know nothing about audio but would like to start a video podcast using Rode podmic. Will I be able to sink audio to my video in final cut or premiere easily from this recorder? Also, will I need a cloud lifter of fet head with this and the rode podmic? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Great explanation Aiden!

How does this compare to the H-series recorders in terms of recording quality? I currently use an H4n, and while some of the features seem neat I'm debating whether or not to switch to the P4.

Really nice job on this video.

Very useful video. Thank you.

Thank you for the detail. How are you getting this sound out to your video? Sorry, newb here.

Thanks for the help and advice

Nice review. I've just unboxed mine (got it for xmas), and I'm coming from a H4N Pro. Wrapping my head around the Mix Minus. but I've noticed a few things: 🔸 Adding to a wish list: having 1 usb interface that to POWER the device instead of having a separate usb just to 🔌 (like you could w/ H4N Pro) 🔸 That being said, super curious the time this lasts just on just batteries power 🔸 I also how this was made super affordable: no usb cables (and you really need two), NO CASE. That's bummer considering it's portable. Any word on the max capacity that Zoom is recommending for the SD Card?? Overall, I know I"m going to like this as I have some ideas and like the opportunity to travel w/ this. Super powerful device on paper. Thx again ! ** UDPATE **: after having it on (not so much in use) for around 90 mins, the batteries (supplied by Zoom) are down to the last bar . The single usb for data/power should be a standard feature, unless I'm doing something wrong...

I am torn... I have an old H2 which I put in the middle of the table and run a line out to an iPad 7th generation headphone jack (with a splitter) I have up to 3 guests and use the Switcher Studio iOS video system to live stream to RU-vid... the software already has a guest room built in with the guest audio coming out of the headphone jack (hence the splitter) My question is: H5, P4 or P8 I need to be totally mobile and no AC power... as the P4 and P8 don’t have line out how would I get the mix into the iPad?

I like mine! I do wonder if I got a defective unit as when I slowly turn up the gain while monitoring I hear a weird pop going from 5 to 6. Then again from 8 to 9. Is this normal for a unit with steeples gain?

So this or the P8? Decisions, decisions. This is so fairly priced, I may have to get both!

I think this is great... not all podcasters are technical. It's flexible and easy.

Great video! Can i run it to my macbook and record the stereo version as a back up? Thanks!

How would you compare the sound quality of it vs say the Zoom H6 or H8? Nice review!

Does it record a stereo mix to the internal card? and is there a headphone jack to hear all inputs at the same time?

Lol 😆 Ashley…kids gotta love them.

thank you for the review, but i have a question between the zoom p4 and tascam 2x2hr what do you think, i do music dj set recording and am about to start doing podcasting.

Do you have any idea how this might work with an iRig2 to play music on ClubHouse for example?

Nice review indeed. How are the pre-amps and sound?

Huge question. I record my podcast via whereby and one. Can I mix minus left ight or easier?

Kool video. Thank you.

Hello Sir, i have questions? how to connect zoom p4 to DSLR camera?

Great video. Liked. Subscribed.

All that gain. Nice!

Can you record phone calls like the p4 on zoom h5 that you have? if so, can you make a video about that? Thankyou!

That phone call though!

How can I control the audio level that goes to the phone (Ch3). If they hear me softly, how do I rise the level? Excuse me, I do not speak english. Thanks from Colombia.

Amazing review!

HI, is WAV the only format it can record...any options for mp3?

Hi!!! Great video, this recorder can be used with OBS studio?

I destroyed and gently tapped. Great video. Thanks for helping me make a decision. PS...I have a 13 yo son...same conversation...lol!!!

The phone call you made...I think that was my daughter...sounded the same... :O

Would it give me any advantages to record my Zoom calls using this device as opposed to just using computer audio?

I literally just saw this in best buy...I will return tomorrow and purchase it, you really sold me on this!!!!

Hi there - pretty specific use case but I figured I'd ask! I'm looking to use this as a live mixer for sports commentary. It's compact, can run off battery and has at least 3 XLR inputs which is a rare find indeed! My issue is that I will sometimes need to connect it directly to the camera via XLR so the audio can be sent back live to a studio with a liveview. Could I order a USB C to male XLR cable, or would I be better off using one of the headphone jacks?

How are you eliminating the background noise like the noise floor? I have the same one and there is a ton of hissing in the audio track and I’m my headphones

thanks for a great review, but is this good for music recording?

Great Review! I just got two Shure Sm7b's and I am on the hunt for a nice audio recorder /interface that can work with sm7b's without the need for a cloudlifter. Do you think Podtrak P4 is good enough to be used without cloudlifters for youtube podcast and voice overs for youtube videos or should I invest more and get something like the Zoom f6? I am not an audio pro but I do want to get the best quality out of the Sm7bs as I have already spent a lot on them and my camera and I also want my podcasts to sound extremely professional, so I do not want the audio interface to be the weak point. I am totally against using cloudlifters as I feel they are too expensive and I do not want to keep buying them for every mic that I add to my setup. I am planning on hosting more than 2-3 people on my podcast soon so I want it to be future proof. Any inputs will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Very nice. Count me among those who want this very very bad. A small question, if possible: can this be used as PC interface while recording to the SD card? The LiveTrak series can't do this. The H series (H4/H5/H6) also can be either SD-card recorder or PC interfaces, not both at the same time

Any car aux bluetooth adapter wireless audio receiver w/ built-in mic should work with this and will cost substantially less.

Could this product make for a viable solution as a field recorder for film projects?

What mic did you film this with? It sounds great