Zoom H4essential

“Just press record,” they say. Can it really be that easy?

For the best part of 20 years, Zoom Corporation have been making themselves a force to be reckoned with in the field of portable audio recorders, and I have a couple of their devices: the H3‑VR Ambisonic recorder and the F8n eight‑track field recorder. Both are well implemented pieces of kit, and I believe the H3‑VR remains unique. So it was with some interest that I accepted an invitation to review the Zoom H4e (‘e’ for essential) recorder. Superficially, it isn’t dissimilar to the Tascam Portacapture X6 I reviewed in SOS June 2023, so I wondered how they might differ. It turned out that they represent two very different design philosophies and I’ll go into more detail about that below — but first let’s consider the Zoom on its own merits.

Hard Times

The H4e is one of three recent arrivals in Zoom’s H‑for‑Handy range of recorders, all of which share the same design philosophy. The H1e is a basic handheld stereo recorder, with two built‑in mics in an X‑Y arrangement. The H4e adds two XLR/TRS combo sockets for external mic/line sources, and the ability to record four tracks simultaneously. Finally, the H6e adds another two XLR/TRS combo sockets, and can record six tracks at once.

Zoom haven’t followed competitors in going down the touchscreen route, but there aren’t deep menus to dive either. Everything is accessed using either the thumbwheel and enter button on the side, or the dedicated buttons beneath the screen.All three appear to use the same built‑in mics, so I’d expect them to sound pretty similar when recording through these in stereo. The big headline for all these recorders is the 32‑bit floating‑point recording format — in fact, they can record only in this format, and that’s a significant pointer to the intent of these machines, as I’ll explain in more detail below. The H6e is very similar in spec and use to the H4e apart from those two extra XLR/TRS inputs and the larger physical size necessary to accommodate them, so my conclusions will likely apply to both models. The H1e looks to be quite a different beast, though, with different controls and UI, so I won’t consider it further in this review.

The H4e is quite light in weight for its size, not least because it requires just two AA batteries, and while the case is plastic it still feels pretty sturdy so it’s quite practical as a handheld recorder. The shape is no surprise either, with mics at one end, a colour screen on top and controls scattered around as required. This layout works, so why change it? The built‑in mics function as an X‑Y stereo pair by default but they can be configured for mono capture. The screen is quite small compared with some other recent recorders but it does suffice. Below the screen, you have a set of transport controls and a couple of odd bods such as Mixer and Mic.

Along the left‑hand side is a line in socket that can also provide plug‑in power for a suitable mic. Said mic will take precedence over the built‑in mics if you use it. A line out socket doubles up as a headphone output that gives plenty of volume and quite a good sound for monitoring. Next to that there’s a volume control for the headphones and also for the in‑built speaker that’s found on the back. As usual with portable recorders like this, to describe the sound quality of that speaker as ‘poor’ would be unusually kind, but of course that’s not it’s purpose — it’s really there for basic checking like, “Did I actually make a recording at all?” A plus point is that it’s quite loud. Next to the volume control is the microSD card slot (the H4e accepts microSDHC and microSDXC cards with capacities up to 1TB).

At the lower end are the two XLR/TRS combo sockets that can provide 48V phantom power if required, and can thus support the full range of professional mics. These don’t replace the in‑built mics, which are always available, but can record to additional tracks, giving us the full four that are advertised.

On the right‑hand side is an on/off/hold slider switch, and a slot for the optional BTA‑1 Bluetooth adaptor. There’s a USB‑C port that can be used to supply power and/or to support file transfer. You’ll have to provide your own PSU for external power, but most households will have such things coming out their ears, and for location work you can have the option of using an external USB power brick. Finally, there’s a twiddly wheel and an Enter button. Both are key to the user interface, of which more anon.

On the bottom panel, a quarter‑inch threaded insert enables mounting on a camera tripod but, if you’d prefer a mic stand, 1/4‑ to 3/8‑inch adaptors are widely available.

Getting Started With The...