Topic: Zoom H2 problems - "invalid file"

[Texast]

hi,

i am very new to taping, last weekend was my 3nd attempt at recording at a live music festival. the first 2 events (Shakori Hills, and Merlefest) worked fairly well, with little or no problems. however, last weekend at Smilefest my H2 was nothing but problematic. i was recording in 256k mp3 format onto a 32 gig SD card, mostly between an hour to 3 hour long tapings. everything seemed to be working fine, but when i went to play back the files on my device they were pretty much all "invalid file"s i copied them onto my hard drive upon returning home, and now all the sets from all 3 days at the festival are the same show! the last show on sunday... i recorded about 20 or so files, saving them into 3 seperate folders (one for each day) but they ALL play the same show, no matter what the length of the file was. it driving me nuts! there were some really great sets there this weekend, and im extremely upset that i have lost them all. can any of you help me? im very new to this, and really have no idea if i can salvage any of these files, or if i just need a new recorder or new card. thanks for your help!

tex

btw- the weather was rainy all weekend, but my h2 was under the sound tent. could the moisture in the air have caused this possibly?

[fmaderjr]

Sorry that I can't solve your problem for you, but for the future never record to mp3. You have a 32 GB card-why did you buy one so large if you are going to record to mp3?

At a minimum, record at 24/44.1 and if you need mp3's convert with an external converter. I hate Zoom stuff. I'm a very unhappy early adopter of an H4.

I'd bet 1000 to 1 that a good external mp3 converter would produce a much better sounding file than using the Zoom to record direct to Mp3. That's what was said about the H4 anyway, not that I ever considered recording in mp3 format.

[Texast]

thanks for the info fmaderjr. i'll have to step it up to a 24/44.1 wav at future events. i've tried a few mp3 repair programs with no luck, and have sucessfully updated my software, and reformatted my memory card. for now the unit seems to be working ok, (as far as i can tell; without actually taping an entire show) but it's still disappointing to lose a whole weekend of music. hopefully this was just a one time fluke caused by the nasty weather that we had all weekend. thanks everyone for taking the time to read this

[Scooter123]

Here's my tips:

1.  Record to wave, 24bit.  They are simple, easily repaired files if anything goes wrong.

2.  Use multiple cards.  I learned this trick the hard way on a photo vacation with a bad card.  So multiple 4 or 8 gig cards are the better way to go.  Number them. 

3.  Use a class 6 card.  Faster, better quality. 

4.  If doing multiple recording sessions with large cards (see tip number 2), then test your work.  Go back and listen to the previous recording to make sure it plays and the card is working.