Im still on the look out for something like this with an extended 'skip back' function. eg alway recording mode, so you can retrospectively 'capture' audio and save it without first initiating record. eg you would jam into the device knowing if you chanced on an interesting idea, you could still save it. This would be like the sp-404 only store audio longer than 40 seconds, to make it suitable for a muscian.
Hi, thanks for watching! The R4 isn't that device, unfortunately. But this gives me an idea for a cheap and simple DIY project that would do exactly that (and make a very good RU-vid video ;-)
@@mr_floydst I can't wait to see what you do with this idea. I was thinking of Arduino using the DFR0745 module to record, but then you would need a USB host module like the CH376S to read files off that module. Then you do some basic file splicing before sending it via I2C to a microSD writer module. Alternatively, if you had a cheap tiny digital dictaphone board, you might use that to record, with an Arduino to manage the wav files stored on its board via usb. Then you might have 3 or 4 buttons to capture/save the last 5, 10 15 or 20 minutes to microSD. Internally it would swap two master files, looping by recording over one and then the other in rotation.. All this would need those modules to behave as described. Its just a shame Roland or Korg or Berhinger haven't done this already. A postmodern reel-to-reel, like most synth heads had back in the day.
Thank goodness an actual demo, and avery kickass demo at that. Sorry, theres too many wnkers and standup comedians on youtube wasting people's time with narcissist clickbait garbage, lol this was a breath of fresh air. Thx for the vid again.
@@mr_floydst Yessir, dig the classic presentation. I knew I landed on a goldmine channel and subbed , only to find synth/retro gaming vids which is a total win for me haha I don't even know what half of those things are, which is what fascinates me. Btw, the stuff you played kinda reminded me of the keyboards on the Rolling Stones' tune Aladdin Story, very cool psychedelic tones =:D
Been wondering about this. Thanks for the great demo. Love the song at the end 🎶 Interesting feature set. Very portable scratch pad, with stereo XLR/guitar inputs, and effects/drum machine. New dual A to Ds are also attractive for low noise field recordings.
Nice overview, Floyd. Your video confirmed my suspicions about how the R4 would operate and perform. I think your R20 comparison also shows that if you are recording in a studio or controlled environment that most of these recorders are going to perform similarly. Out in the wild the R4 should do better with it's 32-bit headspace. The R4 just confuses me as part of Zoom's product line up, though. It's not really an R-series because you can't edit tracks like all the other R's. It's somewhat more like a 32-bit H handy series that exists between the H4n and the H6, but also has a healthy overlap with those new 32-bit mic/handy multitracker M-series recorders. So it's a Zoom handy recorder with physical faders. I think the two things that hold is back are A) lack of 3.5mm TRS line in input on the side and B) Zoom can't decide on what bit recording / sample rates they want to offer in their gear. If you record something on the R4, there is no option for 24-bit / 44.1kHz that allows you to bring those .WAV files to an R-series for further editing and recording. Their handy series are inconsistent depending on what model you get, and the M-series let you record at 44.1, 48, 96, or 192 (which is awesome), but only at 32-bit. At these budget prices ($199 US) nothing is ever perfect, but I would pay $229 for this with the line input and some more options for sample rates.
Thanks! You're right, I never viewed it from that angle. The compability among their products isn't there (but the number of customers that own more than one of their recorders might be lower than we think). One thing I noticed after finishing this video was that some major Windows apps can't read those 32bit mono WAV files correctly, among them Reaper and Audacity. The recordings will be much too loud and distorted (because of their 32bit range). Only the Windows Audio player seems to play along nicely. Funnily enough, stereo files are no problem, so bouncing before exporting helps.
@@mr_floydst Thanks for this comment. Are you certain the issue with reading 32 bit mono files wasn't user error or perhaps needing to adjust a certain setting in these apps? I'm looking for a multi track line-in recorder, and the R4 looks great on every front except that I need to be able to easily drag the recorded files into Reaper.
@@mr_floydst In response to your comment above: "One thing I noticed after finishing this video was that some major Windows apps can't read those 32bit mono WAV files correctly, among them Reaper and Audacity. The recordings will be much too loud and distorted (because of their 32bit range)." Reaper can read the files correctly. Once the recording is dropped into a Reaper project, all you need to do is lower the volume of the item. You can hover over the upper edge of the clip until you get the up/down arrows and drag the item volume down. Then the full waveform is visible since the recording itself is not clipped. This is different than lowering the track volume in the mixer in Reaper. Alternately, you can click on a clip, press F2 to get to the item preferences, and "normalize" the volume there. It will drop the volume of the item so it's not clipping. Mentioning in case this is helpful to anyone.
@@chancemeeting2849 Thanks for your feedback! My comment is obsolute, shortly after I released this video, everything worked just fine. The problem I'm wrote about does not exist (any more).
If you're searching for a handheld multitrack audio recorder, this certainly isn't the worst one. (Boss' and Tascams products have a very weird and annoying way of exporting WAV files)
Awesome run down! Seems these are nowhere in Canada at the moment, ordered mine a couple weeks ago, still waiting.. I will be pulling this vid up again for sure.
Great Video ! Can you select the same input twice on two different tracks ? The idea would be so that you can use one for recording, and the other one for monitoring only with the extra "insert" effects (instead of the limited echo and delay sends) ? Thanks a lot ! :)
Thanks a lot ! So all the insert effect you use are printed in the wav recorded file right? No way to get the dry file@@mr_floydst ?Thank you very much ! =)
@@mr_floydst ahaha love that! You think a dynamic microphone like a sm-58 would work as well with a Y cable to keep a dry version !? Thanks a lot, your video is the best on the subject! Bravo!! Great work !
Great demo, thanks. To be honest the only thing i didn't like was the onboard rhythms, i know this will help a lot of people, but i think just having a simple metronome would have been fine for keeping time while getting down ideas. I'm just not sure how good or inspiring the drum sounds are! But either way, this machine for it's size, and the fact that it come's with a small built in Mic, will be a life saver for singer songwriters everywhere! Thank you!
One thing you didn't show is the back of the device! I've been trying to find info about this, but can't see a picture anywhere. I'd be very interested to know if the Zoom r4 has a 1/4" 20 hole (like the Roland R-07 does, for instance).
Thank you so much for the video. Is the SD card format the same for the R20 Zoom recorder. And, can you play the tracks from one to another without having to use a computer
No, the data format for projects is not the same (the SD card format is). You can only theoretically load samples from one into the other - the R4 uses 32bit samples, while the R20 uses 24bit samples.
You don't, not on this machine. This is like a 4 track tape recorder, you can punch in at any given moment if you want to, overwriting what was on that track previously.
So it is possible to insert markers? Sad the guitar effects are mono… lackluster guitar tones are a dealbreaker for inspiration…back to garageband and ipad. Thx!
Hi! This recorder can't record "from USB". The easiest way to get tracks from your Ipad to this recorder would be to render them on the Ipad and then send them to the R4 in file transfer mode. After that, you can drop them on the R4's tracks and use them for overdubbing.
Thanks Floyd. Just bought one off the back of this most excellent review. You covered the most important thing. One question that does come to mind ( and will find out tonight when it arrives) are the rhythm tracks rendered into the audio that is recorded or they played again and time coded along.
Hi, the drums are on a seperate track that only gets recorded when you do a mixdown. So it's 4 mono audio tracks + 1 stereo mixdown track + drum track really.
Thanks for this informative video! I’m almost ready to buy one of these. I have a question: Regarding the usb-c connection capabilities to an iOS device. Simply, can I use an iPhone as an audio signal input source? For example, using Koala or Samplr or some such app as my sound source to record INTO the Zoom R4?
Hi, thanks for watching! You can't use your phone as an USB audio source for the R4. You can, however, transfer your finished recordings to the R4 and use them there. You could also use an audio cable.
@@mr_floydst Thanks for your reply! That is very helpful. I’ll try to use an audio cable converter from usb-c to 1/4 inch into the R4 inputs. Thanks again!
Thanks for the video. Can anyone answer me this.... Can you only hear the reverb during recording and playback... but not actually apply the reverb to the recorded track? It seems it only actually records a dry track unless I'm doing something wrong?
Thanks for watching! The R4 has insert and send effects. Insert effects (amp sims, flanger etc.) will be captured in the audio recording, while send effects (reverb, delay, eq) are added in realtime everytime you play back your recordings. In order to capture them on a track, you have to use the render function or "bounce" your mix.
Great review thanks so much for this! Just subscribed. I do videos on travel and want to record my own music for them (acoustic guitar) just got the R4 and look forward to using your demo to get it rolling🤙
I’ve owned a number of these handheld recording studios right back to the Palm Studio PS02 from more than 20 years ago to replace my Tascam Porta Studio. I’ve owned a Korg various desktop variants, Boss BR and the latest Boss BR80. I’ve got to be honest I’ve always found the learning curve quite big especially with the multi function buttons and adding drum parts I’ve never really got beyond the basics I really should spend the time.
Just got one of these Zoom R4 multitrack recorders. Excellent review in terms of demonstrating key points on the inevitable but logical "learning curve". Thanks!
Please help. How to I recover tracks that I have accidentally recorder over? I have talked with Zoom but they are no help. Here is what happened. I recorded 3 hour long sessions. I hit record and after an hour I stopped, then turned off the power. The next day I hit record, then stopped an hour later and turned off the recorder. The third day I did the same, hit record, and after an hour I hit stop and turned off the recorder. When I Put the card in my computer, the only file I can hear is the one hour long session from the 3rd day. It recorded over the other two because I never pressed "new project". BUT! When I use a data recovery program on the card, I can see that the tracks are all still there! All three! But I can't get the other tracks to play in any audio software (not even VLC, Audacity, or Audition). How to I recover those tracks? Zoom says it is possible, but their instructions make no sense (like they put them through google translate too many times). Please help if you can. Thank you.
Hi! I'm sorry to hear you're in that situation. To be honest, chances are you might not be able to recover these files if they have already been overwritten with something else (depending on how long your other recordings were, this is more or less likely). Here's what you need to do: 1) create an image of your SD card immediately. There are numerous tools for this, e.g. win32 imager. 2) the only program I know that really could recover files in such a case is "Wondershare Recoverit". It has some algorithms for the most common filetypes and tries to repair corrupted files when reading them "low level". That app isn't free, but I found it to be worth it. I think it lets you recover one file in trial mode, so give it a spin. Also, Audacity can't play back the R4's audio files regardless if they're corrupted or not. For me, the only app that works was the windows audio player ;-) You have to render them on the R4 first to be compatible.
You can record in stereo, but two mono files will be created. You have to pan them in a DAW correctly / join them in a sample editing program like Audacity.
@@mr_floydst so in a situation such as that, it’s not as simple as hard pan L/R? Also wondering if you (in theory) could bounce audio through the onboard effects. Maybe headphone out back in through the regular inputs?
@@mickd22 The R4 will know it's a stereo track, there's no need to pan anything on the device itself. Also, bouncing will capture all the effects and your mix. Please watch the video ;-)
Thanks - so far, I didn't regret my purchase. The lack of markers (as mentioned in this video) is the only thing that might be of concern to musicians.
@@deepsynth3495 somewhere in between. I'm using it for my RU-vid videos when a PC is needed, and as a mobile Reaper DAW sometimes. The tiny screen is both a blessing and a curse :)
@@mr_floydst Here is my question. At 5:20 of the video you ar testting some effects for the guitar and we are hearing that "LIVEl"? How are we hearing that live?
Yes, you can. This recorder can record up to two tracks and play back up to 4 tracks (counting the bounce track) at the same time, and also add insert and send effects while you're doing it.
Can you also use click track to synchronize equipment like a drum computer that has 'Sync IN'? I do that sometimes via the right channel of the line/headphone OUT of my portable recorder.
This trick was possible on the R8, R16 and R24 - you could just sample the sync signal and use it as a metronome sound and route it to the headphone output. Unfortunately, that's not possible here - the rythm tracks can't be panned. You could record the sync signal and use one of the audio tracks / the bounce track to achieve this, though.
Hi there - I can see how you take your recorded tracks off the r4 onto your computer. Can you take a wav file off your computer onto the r4? I work with young people where I may be recording a backing track at home and then taking it record vocals at a youth centre for example. Is it just drag and drop? Many thanks. Great video.
Hi, thanks for watching! You can drag and drop WAV files onto the R4 when it's connected to your computer in file transfer mode. After that's done, you still need to assign the file you copied to the recorder to a track, which is a matter of 2 button presses on the R4 itself.
what type of cables do you recommend for connecting a guitar fx pedal like the hx stomp xl with the Zoom R4, i would like to record the guitar in stereo :) Any advice is greatly appreciated😊 Great video and the first one I've seen that goes through all the different features. Thanks!
Hi, thanks for watching - you can hear all the effects while recording, but only reverb and delay are send effects (they're not recorded but applied "live" while recording and playing back). In order to record them, you must render or bounce your tracks.
Thanks for the video, Mr. Steinberg. I find it helpful as I am a total novice with home recording. I do have a few questions. however. So, I'm a guitar and bass player wanting to record some original material. I don't know which pre-recorded drum tracks I would like for my pieces yet. I thought I would maybe play along to the click track to keep me in time but I want to remove that click track eventually. If I play along to the click track but not necessarily record it. Does it record it automatically and if so, does it create a separate track (that I can delete or perhaps just not use later) or will it be behind my guitar on the same track as the guitar? Also, if I want one pre-recorded drum beat for the verse and another for the chorus, do I record those on separate tracks and fade them in/out while bouncing the tracks? Sorry for the long posts and questions. Just trying to figure this thing out. Thanks in advance.
Hi, the drums are not on one of the four audio tracks - they're played back by an extra "drum synthesizer/sampler" on the metronome track. So you can have 4 audio tracks + drums or metronome. Because of this, adding variety to the drums in the different parts of a song is possible, but a bit awkwark - you'd have to record the drums to the audio tracks using the mixdown function. On the positive side, you can always change the drum pattern if you feel another one would be better.
@@mr_floydst Thank you. Can I record the guitars, bass, vocals, keys (4 tracks) to the metronome track, then bounce those down to one track and then record 1-4 tracks of the various drum synths/samples to the song (varying the levels as I bounce those tracks to the previously bounced tracks? Again, all new to me. I greatly appreciate your expertise, advice and guidance before I get too far in the weeds.
You can always "bounce" all 4 audio tracks _and_ the drum track into an audio file. You can also choose to switch off the drum track before bouncing, allowing you to add other drums in the next take.
The dated drum samples you displayed pretty much kill the whole idea of this all-in-1 idea tool. Although just for ideas it is not very inspiring. They should raise the price some to accommodate better samples than what you show in this demo. But I assume they probably don't have better ones or you picked the one that is not of the best.
The 2 decade old PS02 PalmTop Studio and still has a superior drum section and guitar emulation. The R4 was not meant to replace that device. I wish they would bring it back.
@@joellebrodeur1015Yes,you can get one cheap! So go get you some! We purchased our R4 for what is has,not what it doesn't. We knew before-hand what we were buying. As far as more drum track options,that's what the inputs are for. We use a Roland Jd-Xi synth with our R4 and it's exactly what we want--a non-DAW option for demos. Cheers!
Thank you, Floyd. I bought an R4 a week ago and have made good use of it without needing to read the manual. It took a few moments to figure out that the amp sims / fx were on the inputs and not able to be applied to a recorded guitar track - at least that I could figure out (without reading the manual). That's of little concern to me since I'm an acoustic guitar player - at most I might apply a little chorus or delay to an AG. I do need to delve into the manual to see whether there's an ability to trim the beginning and ending of a song for those times when recording without a click track - and record handling noise before actually starting to play. It's easy enough to import to Reaper or Audacity to trim up the master - and I would do some post processing there anyway. The R4 joins an H2 and H2n. Thinking about an H6pro or P4 unit for round table readings of scripts. In hindsight, I should have bought stock in Zoom. ;^)
You need special USB drivers for this device? Well, no, then thank you very much Zoom. I do not buy future garbage anymore. Maybe companies should start to realize how to not produce more technological trash. Thanks for the review though.
ASIO Drivers :-) This registers as a standard USB audio device, so there's no need for drivers. Musicians who like low latency when recording need to use ASIO drivers, and Zoom provides them. You can also use ASIO4All if you choose to.
@@mr_floydst Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately, there are also enough devices (we don't want to mention anyone by name here, don't we K.rg) that require manufacturer-specific drivers, which often leads to problems in the future.
🤔There are significant concerns regarding the design of the ZOOM R4 device, particularly regarding its faders. Are these faders dust and waterproof⁉ If the device is intended for outdoor use, the grooves of the faders are likely to accumulate sand, dust, raindrops, and other debris. Over time, this accumulation may lead to operational issues, as the dirt builds up within the grooves. This design does not inspire confidence in its durability. Do you agree? 🫥
I wouldn't take this recorder into a dusty situation / to the beach / into heavy rain. Neither would I do with any of my instruments, to be honest. Used indoors, protected from sandstorms and rain and sea mist, I think this is going to work just fine and neither longer nor shorter than other mobile recorders.
