Topic: Zoom F8 Review - Q&A

[stevetoney]

Zoom F8 review located here:

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=175264.0

I decided to lock the actual review to keep it 'clean', but felt a companion Q & A thread might be appropriate.  If this seems redundant with the general discussion thread on that has existed on the F8 since it was announced, I'll delete this thread.

Before doing this review, I queried people about what they wanted me to address in my review.  I've tried to address all of those requests in the write-up. 

If there are any additional questions or comments on the F8 related to my review, please feel free to post them here and I'll try to address them.

[vwmule]

Raising the bar -- greatly -- for a TS review here.

[phil_er_up]

Very nice job on the review. Will have to take time to read the whole thing...hmmm...do I need more gear!

[Len Moskowitz (Core Sound)]

>  Using this screen, the level knobs can be set to a precise point, if desired.  For example, if the user wanted to set the input gain on all of the channels at precisely the same level, this screen would be used to do so.

Thanks for the thorough review.

Have you had a chance to see how well the channels actually track? If you set them all to +10, will a recorded calibration tone have a recorded level of within roughly a tenth of a dB variation across the channels?

[acidjack]

Phenomenal review -- thank you so much.

One simple/dumb question: In the menu area where you choose how it writes to the SD cards, am I right that you can set it to record a series of stereo files like the R-44? (i.e., the files written to the SD are track 1/2, track 3/4, track 5/6, track 7/8)? I gather that's what the menu meant. I personally can't stand getting individual channels as mono files.

[stevetoney]

>  Using this screen, the level knobs can be set to a precise point, if desired.  For example, if the user wanted to set the input gain on all of the channels at precisely the same level, this screen would be used to do so.

Thanks for the thorough review.

Have you had a chance to see how well the channels actually track? If you set them all to +10, will a recorded calibration tone have a recorded level of within roughly a tenth of a dB variation across the channels?

I haven't checked this, but I'd be happy to give it a try.  Can you give me an idea how to go about doing this?  Would I just set all of the levels the same and then record the slate tone and then load all of the tracks onto my DAW and compare them?

[thunderbolt]

Better-than-magazine-grade review Tonedeaf.  It may be the most comprehensive review I've ever read on a recorder.  (And I appreciate an engineer's approach to the topic.)

Thanks for all the effort!

[stevetoney]

Phenomenal review -- thank you so much.

One simple/dumb question: In the menu area where you choose how it writes to the SD cards, am I right that you can set it to record a series of stereo files like the R-44? (i.e., the files written to the SD are track 1/2, track 3/4, track 5/6, track 7/8)? I gather that's what the menu meant. I personally can't stand getting individual channels as mono files.

Not a dumb question at all.  In the mono/stereo mode, all of the tracks will be saved as single mono files unless you've linked stereo pairs by depressing the track key/channel select buttons for pairs of tracks 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 or 7/8.  I'm not sure, but I think if you record 4 tracks, but only link one pair of tracks, the files will be saved as a single stereo pair and a pair of mono tracks.  The pairs will be saved as stereo tracks if the stereo link mode menu selection is set to stereo link.  They'll be saved as mid-side tracks if the stereo link mode menu selection is set to mid-side.

When selecting poly, the unit will create a single file with however many tracks you have active, up to a total of ten.  So the larger the number of tracks, the shorter the duration of the file that will be recorded until it gets to the 2gb file size limit.  For the type of recording I do, I don't think I'll have a use for the poly setting.

[stevetoney]

Better-than-magazine-grade review Tonedeaf.  It may be the most comprehensive review I've ever read on a recorder.  (And I appreciate an engineer's approach to the topic.)

Thanks for all the effort!

Thanks Corbin.  The detail is analogous to alot of the reviews I read over at Head-Fi, so I tried to make this review similar to many I've read over there.  Those guys are really anal over on that site, so I've kinda strayed away because they're a little over the top for me, but they do alot of great reviews. 

[Len Moskowitz (Core Sound)]

I haven't checked this, but I'd be happy to give it a try.  Can you give me an idea how to go about doing this?  Would I just set all of the levels the same and then record the slate tone and then load all of the tracks onto my DAW and compare them?

That's pretty much it, but I don't know how the slate tone is routed internally. It would be better to use an external signal routed in through the mic pre-amps.

If you have a stable tone generator or a DAW that can generate and play a simple sine wave at a fixed level, set all the mic input levels to the same value. Record and then look at them in the DAW to see how they vary in level. Ideally there should be less 0.1 dB variation across the channels.

[stevetoney]

I haven't checked this, but I'd be happy to give it a try.  Can you give me an idea how to go about doing this?  Would I just set all of the levels the same and then record the slate tone and then load all of the tracks onto my DAW and compare them?

That's pretty much it, but I don't know how the slate tone is routed internally. It would be better to use an external signal routed in through the mic pre-amps.

If you have a stable tone generator or a DAW that can generate and play a simple sine wave at a fixed level, set all the mic input levels to the same value. Record and then look at them in the DAW to see how they vary in level. Ideally they should be less 0.1 dB variation across the channels.

I set up the test as you suggested.  I have Adobe Audition so I set up a 1000hHz tone to play through my Geek Out USB audio interface from the USB connector on my laptop.  From the 1/8 output jack on the USB interface, I connected a 1/8 inch mini jack > XLR cable.  I then connected the XLR end of the cable into Channel 1 of the Zoom F8 and played the tone.  First I adjusted the Channel 1 level knob to give me a reading of +30db mic in/+10db line in.  I then adjusted the volume on the computer so that the level in Audition was peaking around -5db in Audition.  Finally, I adjusted all of the rest level knobs on the other seven channels so that they were also set at 30db mic in/10 db line in. 

After recording the tone on each of the eight channels, I loaded the files into Audition and did a peak analysis on each file.  Here are the results:

Ch1    -4.80db
Ch2    -4.84db
Ch 3   -4.84db
Ch 4   -4.80db
CH 5   -4.84db
Ch 6   -4.83db
Ch 7   -4.79db
Ch 8   -4.77db

[Len Moskowitz (Core Sound)]

...After recording the tone on each of the eight channels, I loaded the files into Audition and did a peak analysis on each file.  Here are the results:

Thanks for running the test.

That's fine tracking. Zoom done good!

[glennjr]

After recording the tone on each of the eight channels, I loaded the files into Audition and did a peak analysis on each file.  Here are the results:

Ch1    -4.80db
Ch2    -4.84db
Ch 3   -4.84db
Ch 4   -4.80db
CH 5   -4.84db
Ch 6   -4.83db
Ch 7   -4.79db
Ch 8   -4.77db

Thanks for doing this tonedeaf. I think the F8 has officially nudged out the DR680mkii for me. Tascam's unhelpful customer support and their local (Taiwan) distributor games they've been playing Had me looking elsewhere. Can't believe I've ended up at Zoom's doorstep. Thanks again tonedeaf!

[Len Moskowitz (Core Sound)]

You might want to add these results to section 2.0 of your review.

[stevetoney]

You might want to add these results to section 2.0 of your review.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm gonna do that but was trying to figure out why my pictures stopped displaying.  Got that taken care of last night.

[Perry]

You should be paid handsomely for that review, thanks for all the hard work!

[Sonus Captor]

Hi Tonedeaf,

excellent in-depth review! Many thanks for all the effort!

Cheers,

Sonus Captor

[phil_er_up]

How long did it take you to become familiar with all those menu screens and get them set up right?
Man are there a lot of screens...whoa!

Thanks again for this great review.

[stevetoney]

How long did it take you to become familiar with all those menu screens and get them set up right?
Man are there a lot of screens...whoa!

Thanks again for this great review.

You're welcome. 

The multi-channel recorders have more functions to get familiar with, for sure.  There are over 100 separate sub-menu's on a SD744.  I'm sure the menu's on the 633 and 688 are even more involved that the 744. 

Anyway, I approached the the initial setup of the F8 just like any other recorder with a well constructed menu.  You don't really learn the menu per se at the start as much as use the menu structure to guide you through what you need to do.  The 'portal' for all of the functions is the main menu headings and the sub-functions are pretty logical extensions of the main menu headings.  It's not all that confusing really, but when you're working through the sub-menu's if there's a function you're not familiar with, reference the manual (or my review) to help explain. 

So, I start with the first item in the main menu and page through the sub-menu's and quickly make a determination if there's a setting that needed to make on the machine.  Once I've paged through all of those screens, I moved to the second item in the main menu, and did the same thing...and so on until I've paged through all of the main menu items and all of the sub-menu's.  Yeah, first time through you're not going to clearly understand all of the sub-menu functions, but it's not that big a deal.   

Bottom line is that it took me less than an hour to set the machine up the first time.  Then over the next couple weeks I'd grab the machine and page through the menu's to learn better what everything does and where it's located.  I didn't do this out of a need to learn as much as just having fun playing with my new toy...all the pretty lights and such.  LOL.

[twconcerts]

Wonderful review, thanks.
I am a happy owner of F8 too. I wonder if you have any information about what kind of component is used in the pre circuit?