At last my Zoom M3 has arrived. First impressions -
- It feels very light and has an air about it of something which should be treated with care. But mics should always be treated with care. As for lightness, this is a plus point in the video sphere. When doing video I might well mount it on my camera gimbal, and in that context, lightness and balance is very important.
- It is heavier than my Sennheiser stereo video mic but that only has one AA battery.
- The dead cat for the Sennheiser fits onto the Zoom, just about, and that will save me a few dollars.
- Changing the battery of the Zoom will be awkward when it is mounted on its suspension clip, but I'll probably not keep taking it on and off the clip for fear of stressing it.
- The mic can't be fitted to the clip upside down, for dangling above musicians. That means I would have to reverse left and right when editing but I guess that's no big deal.
- It's weird to have a recorder with no metering and no time display. But in the context of this device, meters and displays really are not required. There are buttons to set stereo width (it records a left right file and an MS undecoded file at the same time) and low cut, and these do have tiny but bright LED indicators. Likewise the power and record buttons are well lit.
- If the record button is held down to start recording, the system is in lock mode. To stop recording, long press the record button again.
- There's a simple but not-obvious routine to format the memory card but the case is marked to show the method.
- Only the most recent file can be played. This is perhaps the biggest issue for me (but I knew about it in advance). And I don't think there's a fast forward or back method. But I think a whole new approach is required with this device in my world of recording acoustic (classical mostly) music. Instead of turning up for a concert an hour before rehearsal time, setting up mics, cabling back to the control room while somehow avoiding tripping hazards, setting up the recorder and monitoring system and so on, with this device it would be perfectly possible to arrive five minutes early, plonk down a stand with the mic on top, press record, and come back from the nearest bar when the concert is finished.
Anyway, next step is to actually record something with it. Right now I don't have any music gigs lined up but I might just do some initial tests using my Tannoy speakers as a source in my 'studio' and comparing with other well known devices. I am hoping that Zoom have designed this with the 32 bit float recorder being matched with a reasonable preamp (dual in fact) and with mic capsules that don't let the back end down - leading to an integrated whole that performs perhaps better than could be expected from individual components to the same value. Otherwise, the point is lost. I will check for obvious signs of RF interference but given that the initial batch were withdrawn and replaced, and it's been some months off the market while the problems were sorted, I would be very surprised if they had still got that wrong.
Topic: ZOOM M2 M3 M4 MicTrak Stereo Microphones & Recorders - 32 bit one-piece devices (Read 9562 times)