Okay, I will have to read and study all of the responses in more detail. Um...eventually. Thanks for all the information, but you guys are reminding me why I really need to stay in my own lane here. You guys are incredibly knowledgeable, but I'm starting to realize that you might as well try and teach a monkey calculus than trying to get all this information into my head.
Maybe I'm not good at communicating, but you guys are waaaaaaaay above my head. I am a performer. I play and sing. I'm not a taper. Really, I have no functional way of evaluating mic position in a venue, and no desire or intention of even trying. I just want to put an ambient recorder in whatever position is most convenient and out of the way to get a decent (by my standards, obviously not all of yours) sounding recording.
I literally am only looking for something that will sound better than all my friends with their iPhones recording one another performing, and marginally better than my Q8.
I don't have the RAM for all of this information. I am not a sound man, professional taper, or even an amateur taper. I'm not even a recording hobbyist.
I think for now, I am just going to stick with the stock Q8, and on nights that I get really ambitious, I will also stick my $200.00 Panasonic camcorder next to it, so I can discard the ZOOM video, and just use the audio from the Q8. Which is pretty much what I have been doing for several years. It works for me. I just wanted something a little better. I don't think I need the H4N because my understanding is that the Q8 being newer tech has better audio. I can also use external mics on both units.
By the way, what the hell is with the verification in trying to post in this forum? Yet another indication that I am way out of my depth here! This is not hyperbole when I say that it takes me over 20 minutes to get past all the questions, not to mention I can almost never read the captcha, AND the the questions keep changing. This is why I don't respond to my own thread. This is insane! I have been using message forums for over 2 decades, and I have literally never seen anything like this. I am sure this post will piss a lot of you off, but this I am on 25 minutes trying to submit this post. I timed it! So, yeah, thanks for all the information, but I think I'm done here. I can't even edit my own posts without hitting a huge time wall. Over and over again, I keep getting sent back to either question(s) I answered wrong, or the Captcha I can't read.