Zoom H4n Pro

Mr. Mercedes

The Japanese company Zoom has earned a reputation as a kind of Mercedes in the world of portable recorders, and almost each of its models can be devoted to a separate article listing all the cool features. Zoom H4n Pro is no exception, it is a professional recorder with a pair of excellent high sensitivity "true XY" microphones that eliminate recording phasing and can be set at an angle of 90/120 degrees depending on the scene. There are 2 additional inputs with phantom power for connecting external microphones.

Built-in 4-channel mixer with effects

The recorder can play and mix 4 channels of audio internally, but more importantly, it can also record audio on four independent channels simultaneously. At the same time, the level of signals can be controlled using the internal mixer and various effects can be added to them. The recorded audio is saved to the memory card as WAV or MP3 files. All records can be sorted, moved, copied and deleted directly from the menu of the recorder. Although, it is still easier to do it on a computer screen. Further more. Zoom H4n Pro supports the function of automatically turning recording on and off by an incoming signal, has a built-in autoleveler / compressor on board for pulling out very quiet and very loud sections of the recording, wind protection (Low-pass filter + compressor), can work both from the mains and and from finger batteries.

Sound card mode

Oh yes, when connected to a computer, it can be used as a sound card to digitize external signals as 24 bit/96 kHz. In general, given the top quality of the recorded audio, crazy sensitivity (there is a joke on the net that it hears footsteps at a distance of a hundred metres) and functionality, the H4n Pro can be safely recommended for use in various fields, music production, film production, journalism, etc. The H4n performs well with reporter mics and on-camera gun mics. The only downside is that there are too many settings and options and it will take you a week or two to get into everything.