I must confess that at the dawn of the 21st century, I was still recording ideas on cassettes. My trusty Walkman was the go-to tool whenever I needed to capture an inspirational songwriting moment or a live performance. ADAT tape and MiniDiscs all came and went as I opted for the simplicity of cassette—even as my road-weary Walkman began to sing the pitch-wobbling song of analog death.

But since the arrival of flash memory–based digital field recorders, my ears have perked up like a hunting dog in open season. Working with MP3 and WAV formats makes storing volumes of music, interfacing with computers, and converting to CDs a breeze. And now, as competition grows among digital recorder manufacturers, prices are dropping too. Zoom, which made big-time ripples in the field-recorder market with the feature-rich H4, is now making a play to capture some of the entry-level market with the H2. And the good news for portable-recorder enthusiasts is that while the price of a Zoom has gone down, recording quality remains top-notch.

MANY GOOD THINGS IN A SMALL PACKAGE

Unlike many field recorders that attempt to approximate audio Swiss Army knives, the H2 is strictly a recording tool and a pleasure to use for its simplicity. The unit sports a wire-mesh grill that makes it look more than a little like an electric razor. But rather than concealing whirring blades, the stiff wire grill on top of the unit protects four microphones. The two front-facing mics capture a focused 90-degree spectrum, while the rear-facing mics can be selected for a broader 120-degree range. Both pairs can be selected for a front-and-back pickup pattern. And the unit can even be used as a USB mic for recording directly to your computer.

A three-position low/medium/high slider switch selects the appropriate mic gain preset and separate mini-phone, balanced, ¼-inch jacks enable use of an external mic or input from line-level signals such as mixer outputs or CD players. Other connections include a mini-phone jack for headphones, and a 9-volt DC power input. Memory is stored on a wafer-thin, Secure Digital (SD) card (512 MB included, up to 4 GB supported).

The front panel features transport functions that are activated with a fingertip friendly soft-touch membrane and a display that is well lit and extremely detailed. Navigating through the H2’s functions is quite simple—press the Menu button, and scroll up or down with the Fast Forward and Rewind buttons. Through this interface, you can access and select recording formats, level-controlling compressors, limiters, and a low-cut filter; record and playback options such as automatic sound-triggered start and stop, and looped playback; and management of files and folders.

The H2 also comes packed with a tidy collection of accessories, including a carrying case, earbuds, mic clip adapter, tripod stand, USB cable, AC adapter, and a balanced, ¼-inch-to-RCA cable. The 512-MB SD card provides enough memory to get you started—providing about 45 minutes of stereo 44.1 kHz/16-bit recording. Budget another $25 to $50 for a 2-GB or 4-GB card, and you’ll be able to capture several hours of uninterrupted recording. The unit runs on two AA alkaline batteries that never needed changing during the several weeks I used the H2.

The Zoom unit has a few very useful functions apart from its recording feature set: a tuner and a metronome. The tuner’s meter-like digital readout was smooth and responsive to my acoustic guitar. The metronome function, which must be monitored through headphones or another output source, worked acceptably well, but strangely there is no metronome preview option to hear your tempo of choice unless you’re in record or playback mode.

PUTTING THE H2 TO WORK

While recording a live gig—which was as simple as arming the unit and pressing the record button—the H2 performed heroically. Mounted on a secondary mic clip below my vocal mic and set on the two-mic setting, it captured dimension and nuance remarkably. And the detailed mix of pure acoustic sounds at close proximity and the room’s ambience gave me a rich snapshot of my performance.

In another session, I investigated some creative recording techniques by placing the H2 in a doorway leading to a long empty hallway. Using the four-mic setting, I was able to capture a performance that used the dry room ambience and the long reverberation of the hallway. Afterward, I used the H2’s clever 3-D panning function—which appears as a simple X-Y axis on the screen and is controlled by the playback buttons on the face of the unit—to place my listening position wherever I wished within the room or the hallway. The test not only underscored the sensitivity and true stereo separation achievable with the unit’s closely packed microphone array, but reinforced the H2’s very broad capabilities as a demo tool for solo or ensemble work.

In every instance, the H2 captured sounds extremely well without coloring the tone or introducing distortion. As expected from a digital recording device, there was no audible hiss. What was delightfully unexpected was the lack of digital distortion, even when the sound source apparently peaked above the 0 dB mark.

When you’re ready to transfer files to your computer (the H2 is compatible with Mac or PC), you simply connect the included USB cable to the computer, where the H2 appears as an external hard drive.

THE WRAP

Whether recording live performances, capturing moments of inspired songwriting, or critiquing practice and rehearsal sessions, the Zoom H2 functioned superbly—recording transparently, with high fidelity and negligible distortion. It may not be the solution for the demo artist who seeks to introduce multiple outboard sources or additional microphones to the equation. But the microphone complement on this unit is versatile nonetheless and capable of capturing complex group performances as well as intimate solo recordings. Portable recording doesn’t get much easier than this, nor does it get much cheaper.