While the Zoom Recorder isn't the very most amazing handheld stereo recorder you can get I've seen a few professional models selling for 2 to 3 times as much. The H2 Zoom has twice as many mics as any other devices of it's kind. Those are two reasons why they're selling a lot of them.
The Price
You can find these selling today for under 200 bucks but when it first came out it went for around 300.
Some favourite features...
1-Best all-around bang for your buck
2-The four mic capsules are a feature only on this model.
3-Nice on your wallet and also small in your hand!
Couple not-so-good features:
1-Small display screen
2-Built-in limiter is a little slow to react
One of the most useful features for me with this Zoom Recorder is that it records both MP3 and WAV formats?and in several different resolutions. So, for those important events you can select the pro audio setting of 24-bit/96kHz. For a rehearsal you can use an mp3 setting so it's nice to have the option and save some memory if you want to.
H2 Zoom is for:
1. Conference and seminars.
2.Media at electronic news gatherings
3. Blog Podcasters
4. Music concerts
5. Sessions for songwriters
6. Musicians rehearsals
7.Theatrical rehearsals
You gotta love the retro look of the front grill on the H2 recorder, kinda looks like an old forties microphone. It's got enough of the key and useful features for most people, and even some cool, but not-so-important ones... unless you're a musician like me, in which case you'll also enjoy the handy guitar tuner and metronome that are built-in.
You can download audio from it as well. Sometimes in a little machine like this it can be difficult to do some of the editing tasks you eventually need to get done... just plug it into your usb and you can access it's editing functions on your computer.
What they call the W-XY mic patterns, 4 mics and signal processing allows Front 90 cardioid, Rear 120 cardioid and 360 polar patterns.
Now that's the Zoom Recorder's unique multi microphone feature we're talking about, the 4 mics that can produce various kinds of surround sound recordings. You could for example position the H2 Recorder in the centre of a rock band and get a nice surround sound mix with the kit in the rear and bass and guitars all around.
