Topic: Zoom H4 vs audiofire 4 and laptop?

[jnorman34]

i currently use a roland VS1880 both in my studio and on location for chamber music.  i need a more portable solution.  i have an IBM T61 laptop with 4 pin firewire. 

the Zoom H4 and the audiofire 4 are about the same price.  with the zoom, i am limited to 2 tracks, and the preamps are probably marginal, but it is extremely portable and i can dump the wav files to my laptop back in the studio for post processing.  with the audiofire and laptop, i can do 4 tracks, and have much more power onsite to process if needed.  recording quality may be superior with the laptop setup, but is much less portable than the zoom option.

for those of you with experience here, i would ask the pros and cons of each, and for your personal recommendation for a good affordable portable solution.  thanks.

[Yane]

The H4's battery life is such that you'll probably still want to plug it in to power, limiting portability. I think it's been mentioned elsewhere, but the H2 can be modded to take 4 inputs:

http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=11675&sid=a8a4b5e8dfb3364cf3f9f823195ca20a

cheaper, certainly portable, but quality wise probably just adequate. Plus, you still need 4 mic pres.

Assuming you're already lugging several mics, stands, and cables, the lappy plus interface seems to me  a marginal improvement in portability over the Roland. I suppose it depends on how you feel about schlepping one large box versus several small ones with more more potential points of failure, M$ Windoze first and foremost!  Four pin firewire requires external power for the interface; yet another potential source of grief. I always have backup if recording straight to a computer; saved my a$$ on at least one occasion.

There's also much to be said for using gear you know; presumably you're comfortable with the Roland?

Seems to me you already have a workable and reasonably portable solution; a significant improvement in convenience or quality would mean shelling out big $ for a Sound Devices 744T or equivalent.

i currently use a roland VS1880 both in my studio and on location for chamber music.  i need a more portable solution.  i have an IBM T61 laptop with 4 pin firewire. 

the Zoom H4 and the audiofire 4 are about the same price.