Recording New zoom essentials - floating point recorders?

[mizmar]

Hi

Anyone had any experience of the new Zoom lineup?

My H2n has developed a burble on the M-S mic ... I don't know how to fix that and it may be irreparable...

The H2essencial seems to be the replacement with added floating point recording so no gain anxiety, which is nice. It appears to be only M-S which, I think, I prefer just because it seems sensible.

On the "details" side. The H2n can record M-S and line-in simultaneously to two sterio channels. Sometimes that's nice because you can play to a backing, have the backing recorded in sync and treat the mic recording separately.
Can the H2essencial do that?

Cheers.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Can the H2essencial do that?

Looks like it can do the same but with the advantage of 32 bit float

 

[mizmar]

A couple of days ago the X of X-Y gave up. Combined with various struggles with hiss, and that a local online shop was offering a discount; I felt the god of destiny, aka GAS, needed a sacrificial offering.

So, first check through
- @Pete Thomas is verified. The thing recorded line-in to a seperat (stereo) file than the front M-S so one can record with backing, metronom, iReal etc. and faff (ahem, post process) the backing separately to the instrument recording (a big win over using a phone, as well as the quality of the mics)
- as with the H2n, the line-in replaces the rear mic. It means that if you want the display & controlls facing you while playing, the mic is facing away...
- ... One the one hand, having done a quick test, it's fine - with floating point recording the sensitivity is brilliant. On the other hand it means you don't take advantage of the cardiod pattern to limit background.
- I tried the export; and it produces two stereo files with maximum normalisation of some kind. Which is nice, but I can, obviously, do that in faff (post).
- monitoring is brilliant! Much less noise than the H2n, so less tiring. I used my fancy-pants Shure SE215 IEMs which I bought instead of the H2e (that didn't work) and they are really nice because, seems to me, the response is quite flat.
- I do miss the big record stop/start peddle of the H2n; but all other controls are better.
- workflow: it was seen as a file system by Linux and the files where usable by audacity
- in a final upgrade, a while back, I bought a camera clamp - so I can clamp the H2e to the music stand.
- along with a USB power brick; my home-recording set-up is chugging along nicely... If anyone's looking for inspiration.
- I might get fussy about the USB-C DAC at some point.
- final observation; the packaging is 98% card/paper and no cables are included. So pretty good on waste reduction.

 

[Ballymenaboy]

I have both Zoom R8 and R20 and IMHO they are great for recording over backing tracks.R20 has touchscreen which makes a number of tasks very simple

 

[mizmar]

I have both Zoom R8 and R20 and IMHO they are great for recording over backing tracks.R20 has touchscreen which makes a number of tasks very simple

No doubt; but mixers, mics etc. Is a whole 'nother level, that I don't need!
ECM hasn't come a knocking 😥

 

[rhysonsax]

My much loved and well used H2n stopped working earlier this year because the mic selection switch on top stopped working. It was probably corrosion on the contacts but rather than dismantling it and trying to clean them I eventually decided to buy the new H2e.

I used it for recording concert performances of bands I play in and I made two recordings in June-July, both outdoors. The quality of the first was very good although affected quite noticeably by wind noise (the same strong wind that lifted up and threatened to blow away the gazebo we were playing under).

That experience persuaded me to buy the Zoom Accessory Pack for the H2e which includes a Wind Screen, a padded shell case and a charger plug + USB cable. That cost around £40 which seems a lot to me, especially for a digital recorder costing £150.

But when I did the second outdoor recording there was no wind noise and the recording quality was very good. Here's is one tune we did with our singer, Anna. The H2e was on a mini tripod on the ground about 10m in front of the band.

14 I Wanna Be Like You - RussFest July 2025.mp3 | Powered by Box

Rhys

 

[Pete Thomas]

... One the one hand, having done a quick test, it's fine - with floating point recording the sensitivity is brilliant.

On the other hand it means you don't take advantage of the cardiod pattern to limit background.

i'm not sure I would notice whether floating point or not, are you sure it isn't just the different mic? Floating point is useful if you are sending off to a mastering studio - but even then it's more of a technicality. Ij the early days of digital recording was done to 16bit, then reprocesses in mastering.

 

[Digger2054]

@rhysonsax had a listen to that recording and I'm really impressed with the quality.

What size was the band?

When we perform there's usually loads of video, and the audio is somewhat questionable... But then again it could be an accurate representation 🤣

 

[rhysonsax]

@rhysonsax had a listen to that recording and I'm really impressed with the quality.

What size was the band?

When we perform there's usually loads of video, and the audio is somewhat questionable... But then again it could be an accurate representation 🤣

Thanks.

It was full big band (5 saxes, 4 bones, 4 trumpets, piano, bass, drums, guitar) + singer. We also had a proper PA and sound engineer on this gig but doing "reinforcement" of our acoustic sound rather than mic'ing every instrument. That recording is a fair reflection of what the audience heard.

Sometimes I have used audio from my old H2n to replace the sound from a video taken on mobile phone. It takes quite a bit to synchronise the two and then YouTube can degrade both sound and video when that is uploaded to them. Like this:

View: https://youtu.be/lHmMdukfgaM?si=jt5jUsP_HZ5NeL4l


Rhys

 

[mizmar]

i'm not sure I would notice whether floating point or not, are you sure it isn't just the different mic?

I can't be 100% sure. No doubt they'll have upgraded the mics etc. But floating point has a huge dynamic range. There's no gain control, on the H2e, to play with so it'll pick up quieter sounds, given the systems' intrinsic noise floor... No doubt the challenge in designing this things analog chain.
I used the H2n in the same configuration and upping the gain, so as to pick up the instrument meant a lot of noise on the monitor. Note that I actually tested this with the flute - rather than the sax - which is much quieter.

Worth noting the gain control in the H2n applies to all inputs together, including line-in. So getting a comfortable balance to the ears and recording was difficult.
In the H2e pretty well worked out of the box because the input level to line-in is independent ... Dynamic range wins. And you've got a little mixer if necessary... But that applies to output (monitoring and Mix/export) not to the raw recording

 

[mizmar]

Dynamic range wins

Exactly how this works is really bugging me.

I did find that its not hard to find a 6 chanel, 24 bit, 192kHz ADC chip. The H2e has 3 microphones (front and rear hyper cardioid, and fig 8 sideways). So maybe you can take a high and a low gain input from each capsule, select the high if its non zero, otherwise the low and just set the exponent appropriately. If that's how it's done, there should just be two exponent values...
... I can see some Python hacking on the horizon.
But you could be trickier in combining the values... Maybe 6 exponent values if the numbers are combined byte wise?

Any other ideas from electronics buffs?

Edit:
Here's a video with a convincing lowdown on the essential series.
The higher end devices, indeed, use two ADCs with high and low gain.
But the H1e and H2e do not. Zoom claim that they just have an ADC with wider dynamic range than the microphone capsules do, but still 24 bit... So, lower resolution / compressing or something.

View: https://youtu.be/soX4F5JkQ6w


And quite an interesting overview of the 32 bit float game.

View: https://youtu.be/mxWH8V5BaYk

 

[mizmar]

So, here's something quirky? Pathological? Note worthy?

When playing back a recording the H2e seems to load the whole file into memory before starting playback. I guess, due to the philosophy of floating point, even if not exactly the reality, it has to normalise the whole file before starting?
This is for shortish files - 3 mins or so, practice room stuff. I haven't tried really long recording.
But I feel it's slower to start playback than the H2n.

Other observations
- when in playback, there's a 🗑️ option right there. Which is nice for practice room play-listen-fix-repeat usage. With the H2n I used to just let files accumulate and format the card to tidy up.
- the H2e has two rows (menu and playback control) of function buttons in the front, unlike the H2n which only had record on the front and other controls (menu, navigation etc) on the side. So the H2n was more tactile while the H2e is more visual to navigate... But the front can be, apart from the screen, completely invisible unless you have lighting behind you! I'm getting used to it, bit it's weird.

 

[mizmar]

Just to add.

I just found out that I can't seem to be able to both record on the device and use the USB I/F.
It seems to want to let you do that; but it didn't work. Maybe there's some clash of settings or it just doesn't.
That's a shame and maybe one of the higher end models allows it.

But, maybe, worth keeping in mind for some people.

 

[eb424]

My much loved and well used H2n stopped working earlier this year because the mic selection switch on top stopped working. It was probably corrosion on the contacts but rather than dismantling it and trying to clean them I eventually decided to buy the new H2e.

I used it for recording concert performances of bands I play in and I made two recordings in June-July, both outdoors. The quality of the first was very good although affected quite noticeably by wind noise (the same strong wind that lifted up and threatened to blow away the gazebo we were playing under).

That experience persuaded me to buy the Zoom Accessory Pack for the H2e which includes a Wind Screen, a padded shell case and a charger plug + USB cable. That cost around £40 which seems a lot to me, especially for a digital recorder costing £150.

But when I did the second outdoor recording there was no wind noise and the recording quality was very good. Here's is one tune we did with our singer, Anna. The H2e was on a mini tripod on the ground about 10m in front of the band.

14 I Wanna Be Like You - RussFest July 2025.mp3 | Powered by Box

Rhys

Was this with the h2 essential. Can you send recordings to a laptop? Sorry if you have already said..

 

[mizmar]

Was this with the h2 essential. Can you send recordings to a laptop? Sorry if you have already said..

The Zoom H2e (and, I'd guess all models and all versions) can be plugged into a PC over USB and look like a USB storage device. You can see and copy everything you've recorded. Including into Audacity.

They use a SD card, but taking that out to put in a PC is a real faff.
They can also work as an Audio interface.

 

[Tuppertn]

What I don't like about the Essentials line is that they don't have gain adjustment knobs on each channel like the older version. You have to open a menu to make the adjustment through the software and it's a bit of a nuisance. I practice through my H6 (older version) everyday--not recording, just real-time playing with tracks and I like the physical knobs.

I think that's why they eventually came out with the Studio line.

 

[mizmar]

gain adjustment knobs on each channel

The H2n only has one gain control, ganged across the mics and line-in. It made getting a nice balance quite fiddly. I've found it easier with the H2e, for whatever reason.

Indeed, as I mentioned elsewhere, my flute teacher asked me a favour; to film me playing one of his arrangements in his maqam teaching website, on saxophone (he'd had a query as to whether the material was usable on sax; answer: yes, if you can transpose on the fly and, well, half-flats?). Straight into the phone, the sax drowned out the laptop speakers, of course. PC -> line-in, H2e -> USB phone, H2e -> IEMs; one click or two on the gain control; and blam! He said it was perfect... And he has his own studio! The fall back would have been to record on the device and remix the video, but he didn't think that was necessary. Win.

Like you, I spend a lot of time with backing/rhythm/metronom; Tablet -> line-in, H2e -> IEMs. H2e is small enough to sit on or be clamped to the music stand. I get a nice balance in the ears and can record and listen back at a couple of touches of buttons. Convenient.
And, if needs be, I can upload the two stereo tracks to audacity....

 

[eb424]

Does it have to record on 2 channels? Could I for example just play the backing track and sax in the room and record onto one channel. Is it better to plug the cube (backing tracks) into line in, and record the sax through the mic on another channel. Is there an xlr input? Can you play these back together. I guess if I plug the Cube in I would have to use IEMs or headphones...

 

[mizmar]

Does it have to record on 2 channels? Could I for example just play the backing track and sax in the room and record onto one channel. Is it better to plug the cube (backing tracks) into line in, and record the sax through the mic on another channel. Is there an xlr input? Can you play these back together. I guess if I plug the Cube in I would have to use IEMs or headphones...

Of course it can record the room. They all can.
But then "blending" in Audacity is not really meaningful.

I don't know about the cube.
All my sheet music, backing, etc are in Mobilesheets on a table which I plug into the zoom... And there's a rhythm app and speed changer app. Simple.
With IEM I get a nice balance between the backing and instrument without getting into a volume arms race - good for the ears. And the recording of instrument is clean.

The higher end Zoom (and similar) devices have XLR. But, for me, the built-in mic is the whole point.

Simplicity. As described in my post above.

 

[eb424]

Of course it can record the room. They all can.
But then "blending" in Audacity is not really meaningful.

I don't know about the cube.
All my sheet music, backing, etc are in Mobilesheets on a table which I plug into the zoom... And there's a rhythm app and speed changer app. Simple.
With IEM I get a nice balance between the backing and instrument without getting into a volume arms race - good for the ears. And the recording of instrument is clean.

The higher end Zoom (and similar) devices have XLR. But, for me, the built-in mic is the whole point.

Simplicity. As described in my post above.

Sorry I know I'm a pain. I do appreciate it. Mobile sheets is great with a page turner pedal not got round to using it yet. My backing tracks are on my phone I just connect to the cube which is predominantely a PA system.

Roland CUBE Street EX Battery Powered Stereo Amplifier at Gear4music

Roland CUBE Street EX Battery Powered Stereo Amplifier at Gear4music

www.gear4music.com

Connect with 3.5 jack and play. Usually record onto whats app but different levels are a pain. I guess youre plugging your tablet into the zoomand listening with IEMs or earphones. Does that mean your sax is recorded onto another channel, then blended.